themodelpastor

Work continues slowly with the Hurricane. I’ve removed the masks and there was a reasonable amount of seepage, I’ve made a few touch ups to the paintwork on the topside to neaten things up. I think in future I’m going to try and thin the paint a bit more than I had previously used it. Will fix up the underside this evening. Interesting thread about paint. Happy to keep with the Humbrol enamels for the moment, my local model shop carries a full range of them (and I want to support a local business). The other lines they run are Tamiya, a pretty extensive Ammo by MiG range, and some Citadel for the Warhammer bods. Not wanting to overcomplicate things at this stage, I've gone down the Humbrol route, to get my hand back in and not need to worry about trying to brush paint with airbrush optimised stuff. I've been using Humbrol Enamel thinners. I'm working on my patience! And yes, I agree, experience is telling me that a bit of mixing and testing is required. Fortunately we have a good number of Calpol syringes around the house (that's what happens when you have three kids aged under 10 and a global pandemic...)

This looks really great. Following with interest.

I thought I’d give you a little update about what I’ve been up to with the Hurricane over the past week. TL:DR - there's been a lot of painting and masking I set to work with some primer and put a few coats of Vallejo’s grey surface primer on there: Then I moved on to the bottom of the plane. I'm going with the older black and white identification paint scheme that comes on the box of the model. That meant masking up and painting under the starboard wing in white, and then re-masking and moving on to paint the port underside black. I tried to be careful to make sure that I maked the fusilage and topside of the relevant wings to prevent paint leaking over. Here's the end result: That white paint was a bit of a challenge. I think it required 4 coats of paint in order for it to build up sufficiently. I haven't got another photo to hand but I came back and I touched up the paint on the underside, neatened up the lines, and painted over the little bits of black leakage into the white. I thought that I would be a bit clever and use the closed wheel bay doors as a semi mask, but um, well, that darn white paint managed to find a way of dripping inside and creating an almighty mess. I removed a load of it with a cocktail stick and have since repainted with aluminium. But yeah... wasn't the finest part of the job. Anyway: MORE MASKING REQUIRED! I masked up the entirety of the underside and then absolutely slathered (well, two coats) the topside with Humbrol 29 Dark Earth. Which, left me with this rather attractive chocolate Hurricane: Blu-tacking the Hurricane to an old cardboard roll of parcel tape was a massive help. It meant I was able to pick the plane up and move it around a lot more to make sure that I was getting good coverage. Once I was happy with those it was then time to tackle the camouflage. I wanted to go with a RAF Type A camouflage scheme. I initially tried rolling really thin rolls of blu-tack to see if I could replicate the pattern but I feel as if 1:72 is perhaps too small for that technique to work well, you just can't quite get the curves. I tried printing out on A4 paper a scheme I'd found online. I tried painting freehand with maskol... and then I found the Hannants website and purchased for a couple of quid a mask that I just stuck on. I cheated. I know. I've since applied a couple of coats of humbrol 30 dark green (and yes, I know it's not quite the RAF green, it's a bit too blue etc. But at this stage in my modelling... I don't mind! I'm new!) and I'm now waiting (anxiously?) to peel back the mask and see what state things are in. What have I learned? I wouldn't bother with primer again. Too weird and gloopy. Some of it peeled from the nose quickly. It thickened things too much. And I just don't think the enamels needed it. Thinning enamels is hard. The humbrol is just too thick from the tin. Extracting it using a pipette and then trying to drop in a few drops of thinner to get a good consistency is quite tricky. I think I'd like to try and paint with slightly thinner paint still. White. Urgh. I think there's a few ridges and a bit more seepage under the top mask. Trying to be careful to keep things consistent is difficult. Oh -- and I messed up a bit of the filler at one of the wing joins. That all said, it's a learning process. Will it be perfect? No. Am I still enjoying it? Absolutely!

It is definitely this. A word of warning to newbies: make sure that the wheel well walls are exactly in the correct position. Bit of a baptism of fire at that point - but lesson most definitely learned for the future.

I had a bit of time to play around with it in the day today whilst I was waiting for my car to be serviced. I took the plunge and sanded the fuselage-nose joint to make a better fit and then cemented it together. This worked really well, I got a nice fit, and only had a small area that needed a bit of filler attention. I then had a go at attacking the rest of the join seams with some model filler, and then (on my way to pickup said car) popped into Model Junction, my local model shop, and got some slightly better sponge sandpapers. I've since smoothed out all the filled bits, and gone around and smoothed up all the little seams. Obviously, you want pictures: The million dollar question now, is should I apply any primer to the plane having now done a bit of a job with some filler or should I just head straight for masking up and then attacking with the humbrol enamels. Thoughts?

That sounds rather like what I think I'm minded to do.

Bit of a Sunday evening update. Pull up a chair! ☕ TL:DR I've completed the cockpit and am now wondering whether it's a good idea to sand down the fuselage to make it join the wings neatly. I've finished painting the internals of the cockpit (with thanks to @dogsbody for the heads-up about the correct colours), I also used a little bit of humbrol's dark brown enamel wash to make things a little bit more dirty on the inside. Yes, I know most of the detail will disappear into the model never to be seen again. But i'll know and that produces a certain feeling of satisfaction. I then joined the fuselage halves together, and jumped ahead to attach the tailwheel keel (D7) before attaching the wings (kudos to @Steve Coombs for this tip). Here's a photo: Now the bit where I need some advice. The fuselage doesn't quite sit flush with the wings. Most of it is fine, except the nose juts out ever so slightly and creates an unsightly gap. It doesn't look like it can be forced down with pressure either. My hunch is that I should get out the sanding stick, and get to work on sanding the milimetre or so of excess plastic on the nose connection that's stopping it from fitting. Is this wise?

Well, that explains a lot. The Red Brick did seem an odd choice. I've actually already painted it in 70, so I'll stick with that. But ha!

I just thought I'd give a brief Saturday morning update (the kids are quiet! 🤫). I masked up the fuselage walls (tape + a little maskol), painted the top with humbrol enamel 78 cockpit green and then picked out a few of the details with humbrol 11 silver. I used a flat brush for the bigger block of paint and then a pointed one for the detail. I didn't thin the paint and used direct from the tin, so I got a few brush marks but figuring it's on the internals I didn't think it mattered too much. I'll go back this evening, mask again, and then paint humbrol enamel 56 aluminium on the lower half. Oh and I remembered to drill my 0.7mm hole! PXL_20220108_090748710 by themodelpastor, on Flickr I've completed the bottom cockpit assembly and glued it all into place, and then painted humbrol 56. I've gone a little bit further along the underside than in the instructions, as when I dry fit the parts together I realised you could see the normal plastic bottom. I've also PVA glued in the landing light part (F6). PXL_20220108_090733588.PORTRAIT by themodelpastor, on Flickr And then finally, I've done a bit of work on the cockpit seat and control panel. Alas the middle control panel leg didn't survive an encounter with, well, barely any force. I attempted to cement it back together but that failed, and tbh I don't really think it matters too much. Used a couple of coats of humbrol clear gloss underneath the decal, then decalfix on top, decal, and then a final coat of decalfix in an attempt to avoid any silvering. I've painted up the cockpit chair and attached it to its back plate being careful to leave backplate edges clear of paint for bonding to the fuselarge. I painted the legs etc in aluminium as well. (Note: the kids were very much not quiet by the time I finished writing this!)

@dogsbody I'm using Humbrol enamels with a drop of thinners - something like a 7 parts paint to 1 part enamel thinner ratio.

Thanks @Troy Smith - FWIW I'm using Humbrol Enamels currently rather than the Acrylics. Nostalgia-innit. 🤪 That and my local model shop stocks a full selection of the enamels, and then a bunch of somewhat more confusing acrylic lines (Tamiya / Ammo by MiG / and some AK Interactive). I don't really have a handle on what from that selection is good for handbrushing.

Oh yes, I did know this. That black and white colour scheme gives it away (oh and the date on the box) that's the problem with recognition schemes they let everyone know who you are! 🤪 I've PVA glued the part in for now and was probably going to apply a drop of Maskol on it when it came to painting the exterior. I haven't got any Kristal Kleer but I might pick some up (having Googled it) when I'm next passing the model shop in town. It sounds like it has a variety of good uses. This is an excellent pointer. I'd like to go for a very early Hurricane and I did think that the dark-grey lower halves was a little odd this afternoon. Will definitely go for more aluminium. That's delicious! Great work @PlaStix - definitely a standard to aspire to!

Brilliant. I knew it must serve some purpose, but I just couldn't see what. Thanks for that!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. It’s hugely appreciated. And I’m especially glad that tracking a newbie build of a widely available kit might be of help to others. Watch and learn from my mistakes! @Steve Coombs thanks so much for your specific pointers, I’d definitely spotted that the C1 part later on in the build might be a bit of a nightmare and was already planning on painting it once I manage to convince it to stick in position. Good shout about attaching the tailwheel keel (D7) to the fuselage before the wings. I’ll give that a go. It looks like it’ll reduce the amount of fussing that’s required. @Aetheris Avidi ah yes, I was looking last night at starting to paint some of the cockpit walls. Having fiddled a bit with some of the interior (more on that later). One question I do have though: on step 6, it asks you to drill a 0.7mm hole in the wall of B1. Which, I’m very happy to do, but I’m a bit mystified as to why this is required. What purpose does that little hole serve? PXL_20220106_204742774 by themodelpastor, on Flickr

I've been lurking for a while, but wanted to take the plunge with my first Airfix kit as an adult. I'm a bit of a Second World War geek, and when I was younger I made a lot of model plans (usually Harriers and Tornadoes). Over Christmas I had the opportunity to start building an Airfix Spitfire Mk Vc starter kit with my six year-old son. It was a whole load of (nostalgic) fun, and I thought I'd push the boat out a bit further and try something for myself. (Side note: I remember making model planes in the 90s involving A LOT more fumes. I miss the pure poly-cement, and enamel paint high.) I plumped for the Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk.I in 1:72 (A01010A). I wanted something Battle of Britain related, and especially something that we could visit at Duxford and go home to make something similar. So, here it is in all it's washed up glory: PXL_20220103_105426843 by themodelpastor, on Flickr After a few days of on and off work, I'm now at the stage where the wheel bay is complete and painted in Humbrol 56. I've cemented the wings together and then I've sanded off the overlap where the wings pieces didn't quite match up and most of the seams. I'll hopefully move on to assemble the next bits of the cockpit this evening when the kids are in bed. PXL_20220105_084236298 by themodelpastor, on Flickr A few observations/questions from this: Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is a revelation. Seriously. 💯 Where is that horrible thick, sludgy poly-cement of my youth? Even extra thin cement will still eat plastic. I had a small section where it had pooled under some masking tape and eaten away at the details. I'll endeavour to keep it a bit cleaner/use more pegs. This kit has an unbelievably fiddly start. 🤪 Having to attach the gas canister to two small pins at the side of the wheel bay was a bit of a rude awakening. I managed to slowly assemble the rest of the wheel bay, but one of the walls has finished ever so slightly out of position. This has meant a bit of extra chopping of one of the wheel bay struts to make it fit. Lesson learned about making sure everything goes together nicely. When do you paint your interior? I decided to take a risk and carefully paint (and then extricate with a cocktail stick from some of the holes) the wheel bay. I figured it might be a bit tricky to stick a brush in there afterwards. Oh and lastly. You all love your airbrushes! Whilst they look fabulous -- I'd love to see more brush painted work. Hand brushing means I work late at night without disturbing any sleeping family members, and in a three bedroom house, the setup doesn't take up quite as much room. Anyway -- that's enough from me for now. Really looking forward to cracking on with this, please do say hello, offer words of wisdom and I'll keep you updated.