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Old Airfix Hurricane 1/72 32 Squadron


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In with a second build, this time Airfix's old 1/72 Hurricane

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I'll be building it as P3522 GZ*V of 32 Squadron, which was photographed at Hawkinge on the 29th July piloted by P\O Rupert Smythe. Always liked the large squadron codes on 32 squadron Hurricanes.

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Smythe was shot down and wounded on 24th August. He did not return to operational flying and was released from the RAF in 1946. The plane was lost on the 10th Jan 1941 when it crashed at Caldbergh Moor in the Yorkshire Dales, killing the pilot.

The decals will come from a Hasegawa Hurricane that became a paint testbed. I'll also be using the exhaust stacks from this kit and possibly the undercarriage too if it fits without too much effort.

Progress so far: Airfix exhausts removed and slots cut for the Hasegawa replacements

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Some basic cockpit detailing

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And a bit more to the cockpit: control column, rudder bar and footboards. Seat harness from Eduard.

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Kind of basic but enough to busy up the sparse Airfix original.

Cheers

Pete

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Good start Pete and looking forward to this... lovely old kit :)

Watch the wing joint where it joins the fuselage at the front - I messed mine up and had to fill it and it's hard to get a nice transition after that (hard enough at the best of times!). :)

I was also interested in the reference shot's line along the leading edge. I sanded mine off assuming it was flash - rats. :doh:

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A bit more progress. Fuselage closed up and cockpit in place, Generally ok but there is a gap between the fuselage and the back of the cockpit which will need filling

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I've roughly boxed in the undercarriage bay, just to hide the worst of the gaping gap that Airfix leave you with

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And now with the wings in place

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A definite improvement, still a bit bland, but I'll probably leave it at that.

A a coat of Halfords finest primer

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Generally no major fit issues, the usual seam tidying, a bit of a gap along the port wing join but nothing to bad, and a bit of fettling to be done along the rear of the wing/fuselage join.

However, having put it together, the narrow, tapered nose really sticks out to my mind.

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Maybe it looks worse than it is, and when I add the exhausts it will look a bit more boxy. Hope over expectation I fear. Anyway, she's all masked and flllered, so a bit of gentle sanding to tidy things up tomorrow.

Cheers

Pete

Edited by Potato Pete
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  • 3 weeks later...

And finally some paint on.

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Hmmmmm.

I used Lifecolor's RAF Dark Earth, RAF Dark Green and Sky from the Lifelike series. It's the first time I've used them and they went on very nicely and technically I'm pleased with the result. Only a tiny bit of touching up to be done

However colour wise I'm really not too sure. The dark earth is, to my mind, distinctly creamy and the dark green way too red. In artificial light, you could almost mistake the finish for a faded dark earth (represented by the dark green) and mid stone (represented by the dark earth). Maybe in natural light they'll look better.

I have other Lifecolor Dark Earth (UA 092/FS 30118) and Dark Greens (UA 091/FS 34079 and UA 006/FS 34127). The Dark Earth is probably a bit too red, so I'd probably stick with what I've used, but the either of the Greens look a better match to RAF dark green to my eye. Anybody have any thoughts on this? Either way, I probably don't have the courage to remask the reapply the green and will put it down to experience.

Cheers

Pete

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