242 Squadron Hurricane Mk.IIc - Malta January 1942

[maltadefender]

I just ran out of time to complete this one within the Hurricane GB, so here's my take on the famous 242 Squadron Hurricane Mk.IIc that was based on Malta from late 1941 to early 1942.

Usually this aircraft is modelled in Desert colours but I think that's a red herring. One or two early Hurricane Mk.I arrivals were in DE/MS and the aircraft flown out from Egypt by 229 Squadron in March 1942 were in full Desert trim. Apart from that, almost every Hurricane on the Island was in Temperate Land Scheme, including BE402. Here is the original aircraft after its famous nose-over moment in November 1941:

And here's mine:

The kit is the Hobbycraft 1/48 Mk.II, which is a mildly reworked Airfix (old tool) Mk.I. The reworking is so mild that the tail wheel provided is the same simple Mk.I affair, but CanadaMoe, who sold me the kit, added in a Hasegawa Mk.II tail wheel assembly that fits like a glove.

Paint is all Tamiya acrylics applied with a brush, as I was feeling nostalgic when I started.

From my youth I always remembered Tamiya paints being the best in the business but actually these were like trying to paint using the sort of white glue favoured by primary schools the length of the country. That doesn't excuse the handiwork, however.

The spent case and link chutes were drawn on with a marker pen. The weathering is rather heavy but then it looks pretty grim under the wings of the real aircraft. My weathering was looking quite nice until I tried to add the light 100-octane smudges. They're a bit rough.

The decals are Rafdecals. The code letters are slightly over-scale. Also they tended to shatter on contact with water, requiring a pair of very thick Airfix upper wing roundels, an Airfix central red dot on the starboard lower wing (slightly different size/shade) and some hand-painted repairs to the starboard 'S'.

Anyway, after all that she's done: my fourth and (for now at least) final 1/48 Malta-based Hurricane. Here she is on my home-made patch of Takali scrub alongside the Airfix PR Mk.I conversion that I built for the 2012 Malta GB.

Many, many thanks to CanadaMoe for all the help in getting the bits together some four years ago. Hope it was worth waiting for!

[Tomoshenko]

Good stuff mate. Glad we got to see the finished job. Fine work with the brush too.

[maltadefender]

Thanks, Tomoshenko. Inspired me to do a few more Malta aircraft for the Spit GB.