Airfix Hawker Hurricane 1/48

[Colin W]

Hi Chaps

This is my second GB for the year as I am well advanced with a Hawker Hunter FR10 in the Britmodeller 10th anniversary GB. I usually have 2 models on the go so I can tinker with one while I'm waiting for something to dry on the other. I picked this kit up last month in Singapore having read the review on Hyperscale last year. I have to say I am very impressed with the and the level of detail is not far short of the 1/24th scale Hurricane I made 20 years ago. That includes the engine which is about the only difference. So in good tradition despite having 20 years worth of kits in the stash I opened this and will build it next. Don't tell the wife!

 

Well before I start here are the box and sprue shots.

 

 

I have had a little look at the components and although the level of detail is excellent there are a few issues with alignment and distortion

 

 

I do believe the angles should be 90 degrees and the lines straight. I might need to review the assembly sequence.

 

Colin

 

 

[Col.]

Welcome to the GB Colin. I've not seen the new version of this kit being made yet so disappointed to see the distortion in the wingspar part when the initial release didn't seem to suffer from it. Hopefully you'll not have to deal with any other issues.

[Threadbear]

Those spars will glue straight with a bit of persusion, however they do not inspire confidence for the rest of the build! 

[Colin W]

Hi Chaps.

I've been chipping away at this all week and I have to say its a fantastic kit. Really enjoying taking my time on this.

I decided the instructions were wrong so started with the problematic spar. This fits neatly into a groove in the lower wing which lines it up. With the spar fitted and clamped well down I ran liquid glue along the join and hey presto a perfect assembly. I did the rear spar, gun bays and undercarriage bay in the same manner. Then I built up the cockpit from the bottom. Its all the same colour so should be an easy paint job at the end.

 

Here the spars are fitted and the lower cockpit is assembled on top of the wheel well.

 

 

Some more detail parts added to the cockpit. This all fits neatly into place. I learned the lesson building a Coyote last year. Its worth taking time to get the new Airfix stuff to fit or the next parts don't.

 

 

 

 

Gun bay walls and final details and she's ready for paint.

 

Colin

 

 

[Col.]

That certainly makes for a detailled assembly. Well done taming the spar as that seems to be the foundation of everything.

[MarkSH]

Looks like a nice kit, is the Airfix tropical Hurricane a new mould like this one? I've been thinking of doing one for a while now.

[Colin W]

The 

3 hours ago, MarkSH said:

Looks like a nice kit, is the Airfix tropical Hurricane a new mould like this one? I've been thinking of doing one for a while now.

The parts for the new tropical Hurricane are included in this boxing. You get 2 each of props, spinners, lower rear fuselage,  air intakes and wheels. There's only 2 decal options so with some am decals you can build pretty much any Mk1.

Colin 

[stevej60]

Good start Colin,it is a cracking kit just beware the framing can get in the way when the fuselage drops into place a little "jiggle" does the trick.

I'llbe popping in on the build.

[Colin W]

Well with the interior and structure complete its time for painting. Airfix list the complete interior as 56 Aluminium. Presumable this is because they no longer have grey green paint in the their range? Anyway I have never seen a Hurricane real or picture with anything other than grey Green so that's what it is to be.

I use Mr Colour who make 7 different Japanese interior greens but no RAF British version.

I made a few trial mixes before deciding on 2x127 Mitsubishi Interior green and 1x128 Grey Green.

 

 

 

Interestingly the grey green is tonally identical to the Airfix grey. You can only just see where I painted. The pilots floor boards were picked our with wood brown and a few items highlighted in leather and black.  The next step is to add the guns. These are conveniently moulded together on the sprue so I cut off the top attachments and painted them on the sprue. Guns are black with a touch of silver and the ejector chutes are done in the green. 

 

 

More assembly this week.

 

Colin

 

[Grandboof]

Looking good nice kit

Martin H

[Col.]

Good work getting the paint matched Mark. Been thinking lately after working on an early PR Spitfire and painting it with an ancient tin of Hu 97 that it is strange Humbrol no longer have certain colours in their range to match all those Hurricanes and Spitfires and Blenheims and umpteen other RAF early war kits. Would certainly make life a bit easier when modelling them.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Col.

[Colin W]

Yes it's a shame there are so many gaps in the current Humbrol range. I would have expected 27 interior grey green to be available bearing in mind the number of recent releases needing it. 

 

[franky boy]

Nice work Colin

 

Ive built two of these now. The first time I followed the instructions and had all sorts of fit problems. The second time I did as you’ve done and threw away the instructions and went about it my own way and everything was fine. 

 

This is kit does build up into a very nice model. 

 

This is may been mentioned above so apologies if it has but isn’t Tamiya XF71 a dead ringer for humbrol 78 interior green?

 

 Thanks 

 

James

[Colin W]

Hi James 

Thanks for the info on the Tamiya paint but out here we can buy Mr Colour only. 

Colin 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice work so far Colin. Yet another kit I’ve got stashed that keeps whispering to “build me” when I open the cupboard door. I’m watching with both eyes here!! 

 

Cheers.. Dave

[Colin W]

Your stash fits in a cupboard?  !

[Troy Smith]

On 18/02/2018 at 13:13, Colin W said:

Airfix list the complete interior as 56 Aluminium. Presumable this is because they no longer have grey green paint in the their range? Anyway I have never seen a Hurricane real or picture with anything other than grey Green so that's what it is to be.

 

No,  all early Hurricanes are all aluminium paint internally,  AFAIK up to 1942,  the only grey-green bits being the upper cockpit side walls and rear bulkhead,  all the rest  is alumium paint

 

 

note the links go other sets of pictures.... of original paint on two wrecks salvaged from Russia.

 

but, Hurricane in Finalnd, unrestored, and stored since 1943

 

HTH

[Colin W]

Well its on the internet so it must be true.

I checked the post above last night as I was about the join the wings and fuselage so I have decided to bow to Troys clearly greater knowledge of the subject. I present the repainted interior silver Aluminium.

 

 

Quite an easy change based on the process of construction. I had to repaint the details but that's easy enough. I'm not sure now whether the gun bays are correct or should they be Hawker Yellow? Anyway they are too late to change so will stay green. In the vice drying now so might be able to look like a Hurricane by Monday.

 

Colin

 

 

 

[Colin W]

With the new Aluminium interior I assembled the wing to fuselage. I am not sure if I introduced a bow into the lower wing but it took quite a bit of force to get the wing lined up without needing filler. I added the lower nose part C1 as a guide to getting the front wing joint correct. I glued the front on and then left it over night to dry before putting her in the vice to close down the rear of the wing. I added a small brace from Sprue to push out the fuselage and close up the wing joint. Here she is in the vice. Normal?

 

With the wing done I added the lower rear fuselage.

 

 

Hopefully no gaps. Certainly no filler needed yet.

 

Question, with the interior now silver, what colour should the undercarriage and bay be?

 

 

 

Colin

[Col.]

Yikes! Looks a bit medieval but so long as it gets the job done that's what matters. Surely there are no gaps or steps in the joints now  

[Colin W]

The force was with me..whether it wanted to be or not. 

 

Colin

[Troy Smith]

On 24/2/2018 at 13:57, Colin W said:

I'm not sure now whether the gun bays are correct or should they be Hawker Yellow?

 

I did respond to the post you made on my profile.  

Quote

ALL internals apart from the cockpit side walls and rear bulkhead were painted aluminium,  this includes UC well, gun bays, engine bays.

 

gun bays visible here

 

And I posted this above

On 23/2/2018 at 12:37, Troy Smith said:

No,  all early Hurricanes are all aluminium paint internally,  AFAIK up to 1942,  the only grey-green bits being the upper cockpit side walls and rear bulkhead,  all the rest  is alumium paint

 

 

On 24/2/2018 at 13:57, Colin W said:

Well its on the internet so it must be true.

 

Even given the nature of cobblers available on the net,  it would be some pretty weird conspiracy to arrange 3 sets of photos of 3 separate planes too all show aluminium paint....

 

to ramp up the conspiracy theory to a proper level, here's someone has been using ebay Germany to put up a series of images purporting to be wrecked Hurricanes

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/61201-gloster-hurricane-cockpit-colour/&do=findComment&comment=1957172

 

Sorry,. I'm being sarcy..   

 

there are more shots of the Finnish Hurricane in the linked thread.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52968-hurricane-mk1-cockpit-colour/&do=findComment&comment=742480

showing the inside of the gun bays and panels...

 

Hawker Restorations use aluminium...

http://hawkerrestorations.co.uk/our-restorations/

 

as an aside, when i was last at RAF Hendon they had some of the exhibits partly dissembled, and you could clearly see the Hurricane had a rough coat of interior green bushed inside the cockpit,  but the rest of the internals visible was all aluminium....

 

This information has only really become common knowledge over the past few years, and the all grey-green is correct later on, seems to be post 1942, as that colur pic of the Hurricane on the production lines shows.

 

regarding getting everything to fit,  useful post here from  @Dances With Wolves  about dealing with fit issues.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235027581-airfix-148-hurricane/&do=findComment&comment=2902041

 

in a thread with someone who had a lot of problems.

 

Hopefully of use to others even if a bit late for you.

 

[Colin W]

So it's true! 

Well the interior is now silver and last night I repainted the undercarriage and bay silver. Too late for the guns though. 

Thanks for the info on Steve's build. Based on the rest of the kit I thought I had made a mistake but it seems I was just learning the process myself. I'm more of a 'crush it in the vice' kind of modeller than a delicate filer but same result. 

I had a couple of sink marks on the tail roots which needed filler and were attended to last night. 

Colin 

 

[Hewy]

It looks a nicley detailed kit, i only have an italeri 1/48 hurricane in the stash, it looks like this kit trumps that by some distance, good job so far

Glynn 

[Colin W]

Hi All,

Not much progress this week as I've been working to finish my Hunter in the Britmodeller 10th Anniversary build. That's done now so back to the Hurricane.

Based on the comments by Troy I have repainted the under carriage bay in Aluminium. The picture shows the joint on the lower nose after a few minutes with a file and a bit of Mr Surfacer painted on.

 

Tail now on and the radiator added underneath.

Landing lights and nav lights added and sanded smooth. I polished these up with some cloths and then painted with Future before masking off. Small covers fitted to the gun bays and the large holes filled with tissue ready for painting.

Underside ready for paint.

 

Colin