Mitch K Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Well, I bought this on spec, sight unseen, to build a Malta-based aircraft. I asked some questions and received some very informative, insightful replies. Basically, this kit has some significant issues, some easy to fix, others largely insurmountable. I'm going to build it improving what I feel I can and trying to ignore the rest! The kit seems to be within a milimetre or so in terms of lengths, widths, chords etc, which is close enough for me. The real, stand out problem isthe fabric structure on the fuselage. This is how the kit looks. The effect is highly exaggerated, and gives an effect more like a corrugated iron shed than a stretched fabric airframe. The other thing is how the ribs run behind the fuselage "hump". On the real thing, the ribs run almost parallel, as they go toward the tail, and certainly don't meet at about 45 degrees as they do here. This suggests a complete lack of understanding not merely of the Hurricane, but of aircraft construction in general. All of this is very unfortunate, because the panel lines really are quite lovely - much nicer than the Airfix Mk1, in my opinion. Note the black pen mark on the cockpit - it comes up again below! The kit is engineered in a quite complex fashion: I suspect this is to allow multiple versions to be built from a basic mould by adding different wing and rear fuselage parts. What effect it has on the build remains to be seen. Remember that pen mark? It shows where the front edge of the "doghouse" should go. Luckily, it's easy to fix the interior so the bulkhead sits at that point, and I'll fill the gap so the line under the canopy looks better. The interior detail is quite nice, although the seat shape is odd and the moulded straps aren't in theright place. I added the upper straps of the Sutton harness, and I'll make the strap slot by paint/trompe l'oeil. Closed up, I don't think it'll look too awful. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Nice one to have a go at Mitch,despite the faults listed it has some better engraving than the airfix kit in places and it,s suprising how much the ribbed effect softens under a few coats of paint. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234960007-hurricane-on-the-offensive/?hl=%2Brevell+%2Bhurricane#entry1617270 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted June 25, 2015 Author Share Posted June 25, 2015 Steve, that's what I'm hoping for! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Having build a few of them myself, agree aside from the missing bit inside the canopy distinctive of a hurri it's surprising just how the rest of the flaws disappear once finished well, much better than the Airfix one with its tiny prop 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfqweofekwpeweiop4 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Nice one to have a go at Mitch,despite the faults listed it has some better engraving than the airfix kit in places and it,s suprising how much the ribbed effect softens under a few coats of paint. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234960007-hurricane-on-the-offensive/?hl=%2Brevell+%2Bhurricane#entry1617270 See, it builds into a convincing Hurricane replica despite the faults, this is why I think it's the best Hurricane Mk II you can get, much better than the Airfix kit and with the Mk IIb kit as well, it allows for a lot of variety, hence why I made the Mk IIA from the Mk IIb. thanks Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 The engineering of the kit strikes! Possibly the wing is down to me, but the rear fuselage section is too short and there's no way that is going to fit without a hole to fill. Here's the improved doghouse - it now sticks sufficiently far under the canopy without a gap behind it. I'll fix the fuselage seams, then put the wings on, which is a bit trepidatious... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I built the Sea Hurricane variant recently and I thought it was OK. Glad to see you are getting the doghouse right - I tried to but didn't push it far enough forward. The fabric effect on the rear fuselage is quite subtle and disappears under the paint and squadron codes. For me, the biggest pain in the kit was the awful propeller. The rear underside consumed a fair bit of filler on mine too. I also used a vac canopy so I wasn't affected by the two-part canopy being a bit short. Looking forward to more... Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 Adrian, I too forsee issues with the prop. I keep holding it up against the plans, then put it back in the box. Later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I built one of these a few months ago, in Desert camouflage, and the kit turned out nicely. I had some problems fitting the underside part of the back fuselage and also got a step on the port wing root. Probably, these were due to my lack of experience. Anyway, I managed to solve these problems and was quite happy with the end result (you can take a look at it here). I've been toying with the idea of building a Sea Hurricane, which is the same kit with just one or two different parts. Cheers Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 I built one of these a few months ago, in Desert camouflage, and the kit turned out nicely. I had some problems fitting the underside part of the back fuselage and also got a step on the port wing root. Probably, these were due to my lack of experience. Anyway, I managed to solve these problems and was quite happy with the end result (you can take a look at it here). I've been toying with the idea of building a Sea Hurricane, which is the same kit with just one or two different parts. Cheers Jaime Jaime, I wouldn't blame it all on inexperience! The engineering of the kit seems to lend itself to issues of this sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 Getting the wing and fuselage seams to my satisfaction took a lot of time and effort, but I finally gotthem how I like them. It did take until I'd put the first coat of Middle Stone on to notice some flaws, unfortunately. I managed to not get a photo of this stage, but here she is ready for the Dark Earth. My Xtradecal 72-161 arrived so I should be making progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Main paintwork completed with a bit of Dark Earth and some Klear. And decals on! From Xtradecal set 72161, markings of 242 Squadron, based on Malta. These went on a treat, without incident and as far as I can see so far, no bubbles or silvering. I'll check and amend tomorrow as necessary. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I've been bitten by Revell Hurricanes in the past (twice), shame really as they can push out some cracking kits. Why oh why did I pick up their re-pop of the MPM Wellington the other day. I've never won a battle against an MPM. Once more unto the bench dear friends... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Lovely stuff mitch... A great help as I am making a 1/48 version in the same markings! Nice work so far Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 I've been bitten by Revell Hurricanes in the past (twice), shame really as they can push out some cracking kits. Why oh why did I pick up their re-pop of the MPM Wellington the other day. I've never won a battle against an MPM. Once more unto the bench dear friends... I have come to the conclusion that the only way with many Revell kits is a "grinder" approach: slow, methodical and with as much brutality as you find necessary 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I have come to the conclusion that the only way with many Revell kits is a "grinder" approach: slow, methodical and with as much brutality as you find necessary I took to grinding the wing trailing edges down earlier and it seems I may have won round one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Looks Very nice indeed. All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winenut Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 How good is this little Hurri?! Top stuff! Cheers Bruce 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I seem to have a mini stash just of these Revell Mk2s (bs and cs) as there's so many things you can do with them in terms of air forces, markings etc. I have 2 on the go at the moment (two pre school kids means almost no time to actually sit at the bench). Those underside pieces though are very unforgiving. Get them even slilghtly wrong and filling/sanding is very very tricky. I got one about right, but messed up the second by leaving it in clamps which I hadn't noticed were too tight and squeezed the parts in too far. I'm hoping some extreme weathering might camouflage it. I hadn't noticed the canopy issue, though hopefully fixing the canopy in a part open position might hide the worst? Can anyone help out with Humbrol or Xtracolor references for the Sea Hurricane or the Hurricane in SEAC colours? So far I have deduced SEAC as dark earth (humbrol 29/Xtracolor 002), ocean gray (H106/X006) but am stuck on the second topside colour. For the Sea Hurricane I only have one of the upper colours as green Humbrol 91, which doesn' seem to match to Xtracolor. Thanks in advance if anyone can help. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Wombat, I know exactly what you mean about the underside! I'd rather do half a dozen doghouses that one set of them. I'm not sure how well the canopy will sit in the open position. I hadn't the nerve to try gronking it down. I can't help you with the SEAC colours, but I'm pretty sure I recall this being discussed somewhere in the WW2 area - might even be in one of the huge Hurricane threads. I've added the guns and painted the prop and spinner: sky at the back, red forward. I've got some more stencils to add, then it's undercarriage time. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Hi Mitch, the Hurri looks great. Regarding the open canopy, I can tell you that in my case it didn't seat properly on the spine, and I had to do some serious filing to make it seat open. In the end I think it looked quite good (pictures here).vMasking was also a pain, because the delimitation of the glazing is just slightly engraved in the transparent piece. I agree with you and wombat regarding the underside pieces. The tolerances for a nice fit and no further sanding are really unforgiving and it seems the designers of the kit had the objective of producing as many underside parts as possible... Despite all this, I'm still toying with the idea of building a sea hurricane by Revell, with Eduard's PE for detailing it. Cheers Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Jaime, I admire your courage in doing that open canopy! Let's put it this way, if you do the Sea Hurricane and it comes out half as well as your IIc, I'd be mighty pleased with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Wombat SEAC colours as follows raf dark green, raf dark earth and raf medium sea grey, all available under the xtra colour range in those names, as for those in humbrol, you want hum163,29 and 165 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Mitch, thanks for your appreciation with encouraging words like that, I might really do it in fact I was thinking of doing a few Hurris in the Hurricane GB in the beginning of next year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) Mitch this Hurricane's turning out a stunner,lovely paintwork.I picked up the latest tool Airfix Mk2 at a show for a fiver in an Airfix club box with two desert scheme's and under wing cannon armament last month tempted to get the damn thing out after seeing this,great job. Edited July 20, 2015 by stevej60 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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