Manipled Mutineer Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 (edited) I have been working on this one on and off for a couple of months, using a part-built Revell Hurricane IIc which I bought and tidied-up, and decals from the venerable old Esci Hurricane/Kittyhawk sheet. Given a choice of three or four conflicting profiles and no photograph I could find, I decided to please myself and stick with the kit-supplied spinner, painted in the undersurface colour (for which I chose Azure Blue), use Middle stone for the base colour of the nose and wing leading edges, and then use Dark Green to supply the pseudo-Italian style squiggles and rings (hence "sand and spinach" from the colour or "Spaghetti" from the shape.) I replaced the broken-off aerial mast with one cut from sprue but other than that and the decals it is built straight out of the box. I'm fairly happy with it. Underside: Topside: Head-on: "In December 1941 the squadron moved to Egypt for defensive duties, before in June 1942 beginning to fly offensive sweeps over the Western Desert in support of the 8th Army. The most dramatic incident in this period came during the German retreat after El Alamein. On 13 November Nos.213 and 238 Squadrons were moved to a desert base 180 miles to the east of Agedabia, and well behind enemy lines. Over the next two days they destroyed or damaged nearly 300 enemy vehicles, before withdrawing on 16 November before the Germans could react." (Rickard, J (pending), No. 213 Squadron (RAF): Second World War, http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/213_wwII.html) Edited January 24, 2015 by Manipled Mutineer 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 M.M. EXCEPTIONAL looking build.. AWESOME looking aircraft and nice background history to your model. ITS SUPERB.. GOOD Job. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonL Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 That's an unusual looking Hurricane. Nice job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Not seen a Hurricane (or any other aircraft for that matter) in that scheme before, so it's good to see something different. Well done. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buster213 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Very nice build Sir..... I Have a 1/48 213 Squadron MkIIc Hurricane waiting in the "to build" pile will try and emulate your example. ( except the nose squiggles lol) Ive seen this camouflage many many times but never seen a Squadron Photo showing it. Doesn't mean it didn't exist.......... the lads of the Squadron were a little "outside the rule book" on many occasions including painting their Hornet emblem inside the roundal. www.213squadron.net 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manipled Mutineer Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 Houston, SimonL, PlaStix, many thanks for your kind comments - Buster213, thanks to you also, and kudos on your fine site, I was admiring the hornet roundels on it only this morning! Regards, Anthony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Cracking build and a very unusual but excellent scheme. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Very nice like that a lot Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Many,Many years ago I read (I think in RAF Flying Review) an article about the photo of this aircraft. From what I remember it said that actually the Hurricane had standard camo all over. The "Sand and Spaghetti" was in fact the shadow from a camo net which was just out of view. I have no opinion on the matter just reporting what I read. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manipled Mutineer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Many,Many years ago I read (I think in RAF Flying Review) an article about the photo of this aircraft. From what I remember it said that actually the Hurricane had standard camo all over. The "Sand and Spaghetti" was in fact the shadow from a camo net which was just out of view. I have no opinion on the matter just reporting what I read. Thanks Rik, I have read the same, although I think that argument is itself disputed. Unfortunately I don't think that the photo is particularly accessible to settle it one way or another. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buster213 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Hey, I try not to get too hung up on some details, the camo net shadow sounds a plausible answer. and thank you for you kind words Anthony on h wesite....Many years ago I had a chat with the nice guys at Corgi. They produced a 213 Squadron Hurricane night fighter in black livery. ( they still come up on Ebay) Unfortunately the Squadron never was painted as a night fighter. B Flight was indeed sent off to do Night Fighter training but a few days into the course they were recalled back to the Squadron because of a crisis so never had a black overall paint.. The guys at Corgi explained they had seen a black and white photograph showing a 213 Hurricane test firing its cannons. ( the pic is still out there) and it looks black. It does, but then its a very old photograph and it could have been a problem with developing / printing...... They were very nice and as far as I remember they did some more research, wrote to Mr Leeson, author of A Hornet Strikes, the 213 Squadron history, and wrote a nice letter saying they had changed their production.... Even the big guys can get it wrong. All that said it doesn't detract from a great model and paint job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) The scheme may have been due to a camouflage net in that particular case - though they seem to have been rare in the desert - but the scheme was common on Hurricanes in the Middle East from early 1941, particularly on later Mk.Is. There does not seem to be any record as to why, although lowering visibility in a head-on view appears obvious. It was long considered to have been for low-level work, because the (then) few photos showing it seemed to be from fighter-recce units. However it is now known to have been more widely spread: it is seen on some fighters in Greece and even on carrier-borne Fulmars. Descriptions of it vary, but it was supposed to be Aluminium with darker squiggles. Contemporary descriptions do vary and a pale blue appears to be a likelier base in practice. At least on some. It is not the undersurface colour because in some views it can be seen to be lighter than that. The base colour is much lighter than the lightest upper surface colour Mid Stone (or Dark earth in some cases). The name "spaghetti" has been used postwar as an indication that it was meant to represent Italian camouflage, but it doesn't particularly well, and there's no historic use of the term. Sand and Spinach, by the way, was a nickname applied to the much more common Dark Earth and Dark Green colour scheme. For an earlier discussion, see http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234931280-documentation-on-desert-hurricane-spaghetti-middle-east-blue/?hl=spaghetti Edited January 25, 2015 by Graham Boak 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Aerobatic Team Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 And now for something different. I love the paint job. It looks smashing;-) Thanks for sharing. Cheers Ørjan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis Alfonso Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Hi Friend: A real nice little gem, and the nice paint pattern scheme with or without net is wonderful, very different and nice looking. Thank you very much for sharing!!! Cheers, Luis Alfonso Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 I`m in the camp that believes that the mottled nose camouflage was not actually painted onto the real aircraft and that the old side view artwork that you have used has helped to create a myth which still rears its head today,......including the box art of the recently released FLY 1/32nd Hurricane kit. As Graham says,....a similar scheme was used earlier in the war along the side of the nose and leading edges of the wings,...but only on Mk.I`s. Sorry! Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny jaguar and the jets Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 Thanks everyone for detailed historical reference, but to me, this unusual scheme looks really good on this model! Well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manipled Mutineer Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 Thank you all for your comments. I'm sufficiently fond of the pattern that I think I'm going to create a new category of build and call it not so much a "What If" as a"Should Have Been"! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain goat Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Very nice indeed, the scheme suits the Hurricane well - and as pointed out previously: very interesting background. So nice to be educated via the medium of modelling. Thank you for sharing! Jay 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarmyBrumie Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 A really nice model, but ive seen a photo (aeroplane mthy or 70's airfix mag or later) which shows work on a hurricane under scrim cover which gave dark shadows like whats on the model that was being worked on, but on the otherside of the coin both hurricanes(1 or 2 sqn's) and fumars( least 2sqn's) had their leading edges painted in light colour (gray?) over which sand and spinach was put on to deceive when on approaching, of which when you look at some pictures there two colours being used (warpaint fumar shows some great pictures) hope this helps/ or confuse more! G. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Always loved that scheme.. ant wait for the new Airfix kit to come out so I can have a bash Always loved that scheme.. ant wait for the new Airfix kit to come out so I can have a bashd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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