Brad Cancian

Ok brains trust - I have a question regarding the wheels. I have a Kora set of resin 5-spoke wheels for the early Hurricane (the kit wheel is a 4-spoke wheel). I looked at the Kora wheels and, rough as they are, noted that they looked quite a bit smaller than the kit wheels. I have also obtained a Resikit early Mk 1 wheels, which are much nicer quality, but they also seem small. Here's what I mean: Are the kit wheels oversized, or are the aftermarket wheels undersized...? I noticed the same thing in 1/48 when I built the 1/48 Airfix kit and had some aftermarket wheels; i.e. the kit wheels were quite a bit larger than the aftermarket wheels (I ended up using the kit wheels in the end). Is someone able to enlighten me? Cheers! BC

This is wonderful news for those of us that build WW1 aircraft in the smaller scales. I, for one, am excited by this release. Though the Roden kit is nice enough, the moulds are quite dated and, having built the Roden kit some years back, it kit takes a bit of effort to get together. An Eduard quality release here for this mainstream fighter is a magnificent prospect, and will complement their other 1/72 WW1 catalogue aircraft nicely (Fokker D.VII, Albatros D.Va, Nieuport 17... and the SPAD XIII if it gets re-released). I'd speculate that their 1/72 Fokker D.VII has sold just well enough to encourage Eduard to do this one (I do know that there are some key folks in the Eduard team who still have a passion for WW1 subjects). I can already see that they have avoided some of the mistakes from their 1/48 scale release (admittedly the moulds for that release is now 25 years or so old). Some other useful touches (comprehensive interior, aileron control horn cut outs, etc) would also be welcomed. I see no over-done rib tapes either on the renders (though something akin to what they did with their D.VII rib tapes would look the part, I think). Hopefully we may get some aftermarket manufacturers doing some releases to complement this kit (decals, etc... though this didn't really happen with their D.VII release, so, fingers crossed). Likewise i'll end up buying a few, I reckon. If a man could dream, I would think that if sales do well enough, this hopefully could spur on other newer releases in this scale, perhaps utilising the data / info that Eduard already has for their 1/48 aircraft. Heaven knows 1/72 WW1 modellers could do with a good quality SE5a, Camel, Pfalz D.III, Nieuport 11, SSW D.III or Roland C.II in small scale....! Cheers, BC

Thanks Troy, great pictures and info as always! I think perhaps the resin gun bay insert has mucked about with the dihedral on that starboard wing,, as I think the port wing is ok. I think I'll try some bending in hot water to tweak it slightly. Thanks also for the info on the bulb position; I couldn't quite see it from the picture - bummer! Oh well, too late now, heh! Cheers again! BC

Thanks gents for the great info! Chris, your method for the wing tip lights is fantastic, they look great! I've never tried to fashion my own wing tip lights, so I thought i'd give your method a try. Here's my ham-fisted attempt: I agree though that these do look so much better than trying to paint the solid grey plastic, and they are at least more accurate. I also glued in and polished up the landing lights; these needed a little work as they did not fit too well. I painted the inside of the clear part with a blob of silver; though not perfect, it gives the appropriate impression, I think. Might need to look at that starboard wing dihedral though... hmm. Cheers again! BC

I now have something resembling a Hurricane (engine, front cowl and prop are dry fitted - thankfully it looks like it will all fit, I'll just need to use some slow setting superglue to ensure proper alignment). I still need to do some more clean up to deal with the bottom wing dimensional oddity, but thankfully nothing too serious. Also, can someone confirm how the wingtip lights were executed? Were they coloured covers, or simply coloured bulbs under clear covers? Wondering how I might tackle these... Cheers, BC

Thanks all! Thanks Troy for the excellent info as always. The cowling piece is from the CMK set; I don't especially feel like hollowing it out and scratchbuilding the front part of the engine, given that I'll be using the two-bladed propeller attached to the model. I think i'll make do as is Great info though, much appreciated! Progress update - fuselage halves are together and wings are mounted. I fitted the upper wing to the fuselage halves before mating the lower wing piece; the fit of the upper wing panel / piece to the fuselage is very nice. The lower wing piece was then added - the fit here is not so great; it looks like the wings are actually slightly different spans and chord... sigh. Nothing some filling and sanding can't fix (though it is still a tad annoying for a modern kit). The slots for the landing lights are also misaligned between top and bottom wing pieces. Anyone else experience this with this kit, or is it just my ham-fistedness? Cheers again! BC

Hi everyone - happy new year to you all! I've been tied up with family the last couple of weeks, but none the less I managed to finally get some paint onto the interior, engine, and gun bay: This thing is tiny for my old eyes... I think i'm at the point of getting some of the major construction elements done next... finally! Cheers! BC

Thanks Fin, The ribs were trimmed from 10 thou strip, angled and glued vertically to get the flap ribs. Does anyone know what colours the flap wells were painted? Thanks! BC

Hi all! Some more minor progress this afternoon. I have scratch built a seat from 10 thou plastic card, as well as a bulkhead, which will cover the seam between the kit part and the fuselage halves. The kit seat is next to the new seat for comparison. I used parts from the Eduard SS501 sheet for the pan detail and adjustment handle. As you can see I have left the bulkhead as a flat plate. I scratch built a new control column also, as the kit one (right) is a bit chunky. My scratch built effort is not entirely accurate, but it will do the trick. I also went back to the flap wells; I decided to remove the roof of the longer bays as I was not happy with the trailing edge join; this way I can simply thin the kit's upper wing and be done. I also discovered to my dismay that the CMK flaps are about 2-3mm too long (as you can see from the resin flap piece i've sat next to the left bay for comparison)... this is odd as the bay inserts fit reasonably well... did CMK not even measure the kit? Sigh. There was no way to trim out the extra length due to the resin parts rib spacing, so, I scratch built a new set of flaps from 10 thou card and thin strip (in white). I might as well have not bought the set, to be perfectly honest... I think we're just about ready to start putting some paint on this thing somewhere...! That being said, I expect a slow down over Christmas due to work and family commitments... oh well. Cheers, BC

Thanks all for the inputs and discussions - it definitely looks to my eye like some kind of circular hole in the bulkhead and not a placard, but I think perhaps I'll play it safe and leave this a flat panel. I'll need to add some thin plastic card there anywhere to hide the join between the kit fuselage halves and bulkhead anyways. I also think I am going to have to scratch build a pilot's seat; the kit's one is a bit too narrow and too chunky in this scale. The rest of the cockpit actually looks quite nice in the box without too many additions (the cockpit opening is fairly small anyways). Cheers again, BC

Thanks gents! Another question - what does the seat back / head rest area look like without the armour plate? I see what looks like some kind of circular hole in the headrest area on the Belgian aircraft...? Sorry for all the silly questions Cheers, BC

Hi all - another question for the experts - I'm turning my attention to the cockpit now; is it fair to say that the Belgian machines had the seat back armour fitted? It certainly looks like at least the head armour was fitted? Cheers, BC

Hi all - just a minor update, the gun bay has been detailed. I foolishly followed the CMK instructions and installed the ammo boxes with their length running fore to aft, which I thought about afterwards and worked out after the fact was wrong; they needed to be rotated 90 degrees to run lengthwise (which makes sense). I destroyed much of the edges of the bay trying to remove them. I then needed to rebuild the edges of the bays, which I tried to do by cutting pieces off the spare bay. It's far from perfect, but it will do. In the bay itself, I added ammo chutes from strip plastic, wiring from fuse wire, and breech details and fastener attachment points from the ends of etched rigging turnbuckles. In the end, a tad bittersweet and entirely preventable if I hadn't just blindly followed the instructions... sigh! Cheers, BC

Thank you gentlemen, I really appreciate all of this amazing information! I am planning on doing a Belgian bird, and had previously found the link to the belgian wings website. Luckily, I have the decals and 5 spoke wheels. Still not sure exactly which machine I will do yet, but I do want to do one that had a little service use. Question - should I scribe a spanwise panel line for the edge of the metal leading edge, or not? I believe this section was indeed fabric covered so I am perhaps thinking of leaving it. Thoughts? Cheers again! BC

A friend kindly pointed out that I had the wing correction wrong; I smoothed the inboard panel at the wing root, when I really needed to fill the panel aft of the gun bays, i.e. it should be like this (middle drawing of the fabric wing): So, this afternoon I re-added the fabric look on the wing root panel (using sandpaper wrapped around a small file), and filled and smoothed the section aft of the gun bays. I then added the panel lines which provided the demarcation between the metal and fabric sections. Hard to see in these photos, but hopefully this should do the trick...! Cheers BC

Hi all - many thanks! I appreciate the kind words and encouragement (And many thanks for the offer Steve, but I have managed to secure a sprue for the single bladed prop - I really appreciate your offer though!). Small work in the past day or so. I have added some wiring to the engine bay; I have not gone overboard, firstly because I just want it to look 'busy enough', and secondly, my eyes and hands aren't that good! I think this will suffice for detail I started some basic work on the wings today also. I know the Airfix kit didn't get the inboard section of the wing quite right; the 'fabric' section on the aft part of the inner wing were metal, so I taped this area off, in preparation for some filling and sanding. I also decided to add the CMK flaps (from their resin flight control set for this kit). I know that Hurricanes generally did not sit on the ground with the flaps extended, but I couldn't help myself... The set fits quite nicely, though I will have to take care when gluing the upper wing trailing edge, as there is a chordwise gap there (to be fair, this was there also with the basic kit), so sanding of the underside of the top wing piece will be needed. I also want to use the CMK fabric wing gun bay for this kit, so, some more hacking to the wing to open the gun bay. I have only done the starboard side at this stage. Again, the fit here is reasonably good, and the piece sits against the wing with the appropriate 'inset' to replicate the edges of the bay where the wing panels would fix into (though again, I do need to do some more minor fixing here to straighten a few bits and pieces up). Question for the crowd - should I open up the other gun bay also, or just the one, to leave a little more visual interest? Thanks for looking! Brad

Hi everyone, Here's my next project; the little 1/72 Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk.1, with the early fabric wing. I've been collecting a few bits and bobs over the last year or so, with the idea of having a couple of engine and gun panels off, to add a little more interest. The Airfix kit is a nice little kit - not quite up to Arma standards, but still the best game in town for an early fabric winged aircraft. I will state up front that I am very much NOT an expert on these aircraft... so be gentle! I have a plan to perhaps finish this one as a Belgian or Battle of France aircraft (noting I'll need to get a two-bladed prop from somewhere, if I want to do the former). A very small start this afternoon - I started prepping the engine bay for the CMK resin engine set. It's always daunting hacking into the nose of a perfectly good kit...! I did think about extending the removal of the cowlings to the panel in front of the cockpit (to scratch build and show the fuel tank), but the CMK firewall is not quite the correct shape to do this, so I settled with only having the front most three cowling panels off, as per the set. The CMK set looks very nice at face value, with some crisp details on the Merlin engine and the firewall. It did take a bit of hacking and sanding to get the parts off their casting blocks (those engine cowls are wafer thin...!). The biggest problem with this set is that the engine bearers are too short and too shallow, which means they don't follow the line of the chin panel. I scratchbuilt new bearers from strip styrene: I also had to shim the bottom of the engine cowl piece so that the nose was long enough to accommodate the engine but still allow the exhausts to clear the fuselage panels aft of the engine bay. A quick test fit: And a quick test fit in the model: Now, the modified bearers are far from perfect, and not quite 100% accurate, but I think this should work reasonably well to give the appropriate impression. I will need to take care as I do a little more clean up of the plastic opening, and as I add details. I'll also need to take care to make sure everything is square on the finished model. As I said, not too much of a start... but it's a start none the less! Cheers BC

Thanks all, Biggles - good question regarding hours; it took around 2 and a half months, probably close to 30-40 hours, at a guess? Super surprising and super proud moment (and pardon my shameless post) - as a conclusion, this one took out first place in the group build! I am very thrilled! Thanks again to all for your kind words as I worked though this one! Cheers, BC

Thank you all! Here's a little more fun Cheers again! BC

Thank you everyone - I am humbled by your kind words! Cheers again! Brad

Hello everyone, Here is my latest completion, the Eduard 1/48 Albatros D.III, built for the current Eduard WW1 group build over on Facebook. This kit traces its lineage back to the late 1990s, and still remains an excellent base model for further improvements. I made a few modifications, including correcting / re-scribing the nose panels, adding details to the kit engine and interior, adding a scratch built fuel tank, replacing the kit gun barrels and muzzles with MASTER metal items, adding nails to the fuselage, adding the aileron control arms to the upper wing, and replacing the undersized kit wheels, amongst other minor additions from various Eduard etched sets for the base kit. Rigging was done with elastic and utilising “Bob’s Buckles” metal turnbuckles. I painted the model in the markings of Ltn Gustav Nernst, Jasta 30, April 1917. All markings were sprayed using home made masks, and the serial number was also a home made decal. Paints were all SMS Acrylic Lacquers (my new favourite paint), with the fuselage plywood effect and propeller done with oil paints. Weathering was kept relatively light, given the somewhat short service life of these aircraft. And some progress shots: For my build log, please see here – https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13996.0 Feedback, comments, and suggestions for improvements are always welcome and encouraged! Many thanks for looking! Brad

Thanks again all! SebTartar - the Pavla set was ok, it was indeed a bit 'blobby' as you say. It did take some careful dry brushing in places, but it's still better than the kit cockpit none the less. Here's a pic of the Pavla bits unpainted, to give you an idea: Cheers again! BC

Many thanks Houston and bertielissie - much appreciated!

Thanks all, much appreciated! Hey Rob - indeed, I used a wash of burn umber rather than straight black. It helps to tone down some of the contrast, I think. Cheers! BC

Many thanks Darwinism, Tim and Colin! Cheers, BC