Troy Smith

Is this 213 sq? Codes were changed at out break of war. Not time to check right now.

there are several thread in the FAQ on how to post pics https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/15-faqs/ In short, they have to be hosted online somewhere, they cannot be uploaded direct from your computer/phone/camera to here. if you have not already found it, this may help HTH

A spare Eduard one can be made to fit, and solves the problem. when Alex said he made it, as in out of tape and wire,.. these are also alternate bits in Eduard kits Very impressive work, which just confirm to me that unless you really like this sort of thing the Eduard kit is the way to go. cheers T

it is, but it has a really stupid, and a lot of work to fix mistake. The side panels. see here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986216-148-airfix-new-tool-hurricane-mki-p3039-from-no229-squadron-completed-on-31-10-at-1150-pm/page/2/ If it's not your pet subject, it's not a big deal. More annoying personally is I since found out Airfix do read here, and take onboard comments, the fixed the Hurricane canopy from the 72nd fabric wing to the 48th, but the other glitches in the 72nd got scaled up. I now wish I had gone over the 72nd really carefully and found and commented on the problems..... like I did with the canopy... the Airfix XII is not fat, but too deep. It has a load of other issues as well. I know you disagree on this, the Special Hobby XII is way better apart from a small length error, which is fixable ordering from outside the EU (and who knows after Brexit) anything over £15 is liable for VAT (tax), at 20%, and they will charge you £8 on top to collect this. So, if you put together a big order, it can be cheaper, and small orders don't always get charged, but it's a gamble. I also really do no need any more kits. I have multiple kits of the entire LaGG/La family as it is..... They don't make money for Eduard. Airfix problem is they are part of a bigger group, that's in debt, and so it seems that there are always corners being cut and mistakes being made. (a long time problem for Airfix) And I'm not a fan of their actual plastic, it's too soft, and this seems to be reflected in the tooling finesse, is the way it will hold detail.

Yes, that's the original 1957 Mk.IV kit. Still got the 164 Sq codes as well. they got the canopy about right on that! Funny, Airfix have done 8 Hurricane kits over the years in 3 scales, (9 if you count the reboxing if the Heller IIc in a BBMF set) and never got the basic shapes completely right....

@Otakar, thanks for the clarifications and details, understanding the faults is really useful. I now 'see' them better, and see the logic of using the Zvezda fuselage. Other who want a 1/48th La-7 may not be so bothered, not like there is a mass of options. I do understand how frustrating poorly kitted pet subects are.... I'm still waiting for a really accurate 1/48th Hurricane... As I said above, this means the leftover wing could possibly be used for the too slim ICM LaGG-3 wing. I'm not about to move everything to get to the VVS fighters box.... 2021 maybe cheers T

yes, but it's fragile, note there are different types of Vallejo. Model Color is for brushing, Model Air for airbrushing, though i find you need to thin Vallejo Model Color a bit to brush, I get 1 ml syringe, suck up 0.95 ml water, then suck up 0.05 ml flow improver, I used de-ionised or distilled water, You don't want to, shake the bottle really well, consistency varies so sometimes, sometime you need to add water... I then use a pallette, and a few drops of paint, (you can even add just a drop) and add drop by drop the water/flow improver mix, easy too add tiny amounts, looking for it to be like semi skim milk. Paint with a flat brush. Vallejo is pretty delicate, last time I used a brushed on coat of tamiya as a undercoat, which has a bit more bite. tamiya also responds well to the water/flow improver mix in a pallete. Thinned like this and brushed on thin, they dry really fast, you can pretty much get to one end of a small model and do the 2nd coat. Just been reading about mixing in Klear with Vallejo, which I will try as it's mostly matt, and may toughen it up and save a gloss coat, may affect it's opacity. Note Vallejo is a latex acrylic, Tamiya is not, they don't intermix. Tamiya is a 'hot' acrylic, in as much as it can be thine with cellulose thinners, in the US lacquer thinners, add that to Vallejo and it turns to jelly. AK interactive do a set of ww1 german https://ak-interactive.com/product/wwi-german-aircraft-colors/ which AFAIK are the same as Vallejo in paint type I don't know how good the colours are, some of the AK sets are laughably bad (WW2 USN/USMC for example) HTH

I can't see why the W&N Gloss would not work, in the build link I applied neat oils over the W&N matt Galeria, and then streaked it with lighter fuel, with no problem. I have not tried the gloss, so cannot guarantee this. Always worth trying out on scrap first. My gloss coat was Klear, no longer available, but it was sold as a floor finish, but is basically a self levelling acrylic varnish, that is really tough, being meant for floors. the nearest it seems is Lakeland Quick Shine, which is a big bottle, 800 ml https://www.lakeland.co.uk/20286/Quick-Shine-Floor-Finish see Note, If you have both the W&N gloss and matt, you can intermix to make satin or semi gloss as well. the Galeria I found was not dead flat though, fine for most planes though, as they are not dead flat matt unless really weathered. W&N and Klear are probably intermixable but not tried so cannot guarantee, though the W&N went over Klear with no issues. As with anything new, test on scrap first. cheers T

and today, when searching about, I found this https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5a3134b40672a700015a5d31/5e6b8c7dfb5051435a73f104_LCA4samplepdf.pdf which has a full photo of Black 6, and some other information. possibly of interest to @Pauls9cb as a local -ish to him crash.

Depends what is available to you. Yes, use a gloss acrylic, if you use an enamel the solvents will can attack the oil based varnish. For an oil wash, white spirit is oily gunk, for a really thin wash, try zippo type lighter fuel. Sounds like you are trying a new technique, so experiment on something first. I use artists oils, black is too dark, a mix of burnt umber and black works well, though you can make a wash out of enamels, and you can thin those with lighter fuel as well. It also makes it dry really fast. Winsor and Newton Galeria has worked well, its acrylic. A flat brush helps, as can a little water if a bit thick. Yes Have a look at these, acrylic gloss, oil wash with lighter fuel, W&N Galeria, final weathering on matt coat https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052380-hurricane-airfix-72nd-fabric-wing-mki-oob/ With washes and weathering, go easy, and refer to photos of the real thing, NOT other models! HTH

and a Zvezda La-5FN Czechoslovak La-7 Model pics above by @Jon Bryon the problem is the spine, and rear of cockpit from above https://jonbryon.com/la7-html/ for a less hyperbole view http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/256851-la-57-canopies/& the poster KSL in the link IIRC is Sergey Koschev, who runs Vector resin, and is a careful and through researcher, as I mentioned above. I'd trust the work of Sergey Kosachev. I suspect this is somewhat like the Hasegawa Spitfire IX fuselage, it's wrong, it's very hard to fix, but without reference to a correctly shaped kit it does not scream wrong. If my VVS fighters box was not at the back and bottom of the 'jenga stack' of boxes full of kits I'd have a better look. HTH

from Hase decals used to be 'famous' for their Ivory 'whites' as well.

Thanks for the confirmation. I saw recently confirmation on another kit Rob Taurus seemes to just copy the it canopy.... fine if it's actually correct. I did try sanding down an Airfix canopy. It cracked. The Rob Taurus might be cutdownble, as they are vacforms. The other right sod, is as the windscreen is too high, it's the wrong shape at the sides. I'd have suggested getting a different vac canopy, one for a Hase kit for example, as the ones with the curved lower edge are really early, VY-G for example has the straight bottomed type as fitted to every Hurricane after the early few. cheers T

seal the edge of the tape with the colour you have masked or clear varnish, any leak will be original colour or clear.

see here https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/color-table.html