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This kits been sitting in my stash for a few years. This seems like a good time to add a 1/72 IID hurricane and when I think of aircraft and Desert Camouflage the first thing I think of is a tank buster Hurricane. Not sure which aircraft I will make yet; however it will be a 6 squadron one, that’s for sure!

Joining with this kit. Bought at IPMS Gloucester show earlier this year, to fill a 40mm gap in my Hurricane collection. This project to be built and painted alongside an Italian theatre Spitfire, so you might see some joint photos.

Back in the dim and distant past of 2013, I did the first build of my long-running "Aircraft my Father fixed" project which you can read "all" about here This first build was supposed to be of a Hurricane IIc in 1:32 scale, using an old Revell kit. This was enhanced to be a more accurate IIc and then had some panels cut out to show the internals behind the cockpit and with a figure to represent my Dad, which in the end looked like this: You can read all about the build here: Even though this was awarded a Commended at Scale Model world in 2013, to be brutally honest I was never entirely happy with it. The problems with the wings and the general poor quality of the kit, plus the mistakes I made with the paint job (eg it should have been grey and green not brown and green and I forgot to add the white stripes used on SEAC Hurricanes). So in the years since then along comes Fly and release a series of 1:32 Hurricane kits! Woo hoo! Last year I built the Fly Hurricane IIc as a diorama depicting a story my father told me. You can see this build here So that leaves a gap in my plan, namely a Hurricane IID which 5 Sqn were equipped with for a short time around the time my father joined the squadron from 81 Sqn in late 1943,. My thinking is to build a replacement for the original IIc diorama, replacing the IIc with the IId and improve the pose of my father on the wing at the same time. To start with, here is the box of the Fly kit Funnily enough this kit comes with the options of 5 Sqn markings Here are the inevitable spur shots There is a small selection of resin parts for the exhaust stacks, wheels and undercarriage bays. Here you see the main pieces and some photoetch and decals. I'm thinking of re-using some pieces from the original model the accumulator trolly, which I thought came out quite well in the original -I think this could easily be reused; the toolbox is a non-RAF toolbox and was built to look like the one I remember my Dad having when I was a kit which was a blue enamelled thing, so that will definitely be reused - cleaned up a little from the dust; The figure's pose is almost right but the head is a little off - it needs to be a little more upright that it is currently. I think I can also reuse the stowage pieces and the trestles. As for the base, I think this will need to made afresh... I've got a collection of figure kits that can be used to add another figure or something to the scene As before, I'll be rebuilding the internal structures in the fuselage behind the cockpit and for that I've still got my research from 5 years ago to work with Which should be built out from the rear of the cockpit framework like this from the earlier build: So this will be my big build over the Christmas period, watch this space

Coming in a bit late on this GB, having only just completed my Made in Britain GB entry. However, better late than never eh? My entry will be another in my long-running series of building the aircraft my father worked on when he was in the RAF during WWII. 3 Years ago (bloody hell is it that long ago?) I built the 1:32 Revell Hurricane IIc (see build thread here) as one that operated in Burma while my father was attached to 5 Sqn from Dec '43 until they were replaced by Thunderbolts in Sept 44. So how come (I hear you ask) did 5 Sqn also have IIDs - after all the logistics, operation tactics and target options are somewhat different between IIC and IID. Very good question and its puzzled me for a while. I've got several references that say 5 Sqn operated both, but one of the most authoritative sources is Christopher Shores "Air War for Burma" which claims 5 Sqn only operated IICs. Then I found a reference in Michael Pearson's "The Burma Air Campaign: 1941-1945" which says "No 5 Sqn, which had been equipped with Hurricane Mk IID 'tank busters' but re-equipped due to a lack of suitable targets in the India/Burma theatre." So that makes sense - they started off with IIDs and then swapped over to IICs at some later date. In that case this will be a build from the early stages of my Dad's deployment with 5 Sqn. On to the kit, its the Hasegawa kit of the Hurricane IID. I picked it up some time ago, no idea where from now, its been in the stash for quite a while! Here is the box: and the obligatory sprue shot. You can see the Eduard Zoom etch set in there as well. I'll replace the decals with SEAC markings. I've got a possible set of serial numbers for IIDs, these may not be 100% accurate, but the best I can do at present.