silver Hurricane mk IIc [1/72 Revell]

[lunarhighway]

Since i've buidling airfix's new tool hurricane mk I was a surprising fun experience, I figured i wanted to do another hurricane, and this time i opted for a post war one

http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Hawker%20Hurricane%20IIB-C/Hawker%20Hurricane%20LF345.html

ZA-P seemed like a lovely candidate as i can do it both with Belgian or RAF roundles and it's overall silver... i picked up a spray can of tamiya silver last time at the hobby store, so i had to do a silver moldel (gave it a test run on revells 1/144 thunderbolt, and it looks quite nice)

I'm aware AZ does a hurricane but i could pick up the revell cheap so lets have a go....

the box

the bits

interior is ok, although not as good as the airfix one, but i think once it's done it will be every bit as invisible so i resisted adding to much and decided to just paint it up and focus on the exterior

i haven't found an ideal interior green (best one so far was a tiny humbrol cup from a starter set) so i did a mix of tamiya and vallejo and when done thinned the same paint with some black mixed in and added some floor polish to make a wash

fit was surprisingly good, but i think mostely due to my glue skills i was left with a tiny trench along some of the seems so i used some tamiya putty thinned with acetone to sort that out

i did need to sand the side of the fuselage as revell messed up the transition of the ribs on the fuselage to the spine, but fortunately they're a bit overstated and not always that visible on real hurricanes, so i sanded away the offending area... quick and dirty fix.

the kit breaks down kind of funy with a bottom center and outer upper and lower pannels, probably to facilitate differnet variants. however fit was excellent and being very carefull it all came together with no seams

with that done only a few external details where needed before i could paint. the front for the radiator intake looked ok, but down the back it looked a bit basic lacking the rear radiator structure (revell if you do the front why not the back)

so i cut out the door and made a new one from soda can metal

more as an experiment knowing noone would see them if things went wrong i tried the trumpetter rivetter on the inside

new radiator made with "mesh" from a present ribbon

radiator in place with braces and actucator from thin metal wire

another booboo by revell...

the wheel centers are way to big

off they come

will be replacing them with photoetch centers

the kit prop... looks wrong... not an expert on hurricane props but the pitch of this one seemed off... also it's got rounded tips, where the one i'm doing has angled rotoll ones

so out with the sander and a bit of bending

also got rid of those raised yellow tip indicators...easy enough to remove those, and i remember liking them back in the day, so i won't blame revell for putting them there, but still... bit old school...

i don't have pictures of it (you'll see it later) but i also cut off and reshaped the veryical stabilizers and posed them in dopped position...i really wish kit makers would start putting separate controle surfaces in kits...i think it adds so much more life to a model

And that's where we ran out of weekend for this weekend build... quite pleased so far... i think i can put the canopy in place next and shoot some paint at it

All in all it's a nice kit, with some of the best fit i've had in a long time.. no wing root filler etc to worry about, and some lovely surface detail. on the downside, although not as blatant as their spitfire kit from the 90's revell seem to skip on the homework, and there's somme sloppy mistakes like the fuselage ribs or the wheels, and while the fuselage rins are nice, the fabric on the controle surfaces is just represented as raised lines.

since the build is looking rather clean so far, i'm looking forward to see the effect of the silver paint on it...

more to come

Edited June 20, 2016 by lunarhighway

[SJLR_1]

I only recently completed this kit; you're paying a lot more attention to detail then I would

Watching with interest!

[FalkeEins]

in-deeed.. been looking to add a silver Hurricane to the shelf, what are you doing for decals?

[Winenut]

Wow I built an SEAC Mk II using a revell kit but you're taking it to another level

Looks great so far can't wait to see more

Cheers

Bruce

[lunarhighway]

in-deeed.. been looking to add a silver Hurricane to the shelf, what are you doing for decals?

Since i usually have a particular plane in mind before i start a build decals can be a problem. I recently experimented with (hand) painted roundles with mixed results.

if i went for the british version it wouldn't be to hard to find the right roundles in my spare box, but Belgian roundels are a different matter, they're out there, but much like the raf roundles their size and shape varied depending on the period and the plane, so finding an exact one as decals would be hard.

Since i'm planning on getting my airbrush going again soon, i might try masking and painting them on.

[lunarhighway]

Hi all, small update, not much spectacular really

I painted up the edges of the cockpit, and stuck on the canopy, using a mix of kristal kleer and pva glue (i think its mostely the same stuff, but while the kleer is more sticky it's also a bit thick and rubbery while the pva makes it more runny...not that either wouldn't have done the job on their own, but...well it's what i did so there you have it), to be honest the fit was excellent, but the front section looks a bit dodgy..quite sure it's another case or revell making stuff up..to late to fix it... I don't get Revell kit's form the era... beautifull detail, close to tamiya standards, great fit, and an absolute disregard for accuracy and detail...oh well...it will look like a Hurrican

after that i masked it with vallejo liquid mask. i'll do the frames later so it's just to mask the canopy for spraying.. i hoped to get some primer on today, but it'll be for tomorrow

[lunarhighway]

I put to model in primer last night

The prop blades where hand painted yellow over the white primer, doing it this wat you avoid having to paint the tiny tips over black

I tried some humbrol acrylic yellow first from a small starter set, but for some reason it was very flakey, not sure what wat the matter, but i quickly wiped is off and tried again with vallejo... much better.

Next i tried some preshading, wich was actually hand painted with thinned black paint

And than a coat of Tamiya spray can silver

The thickness of the coat was difficult to controle, and much to the credit of tamiya spray paint they tend to self level very well when they go on a little thick, but it all came out looking nice and smooth... i don't think i should have bothered with the shading, but at least it didn't hurt either.

I can see some of it in the picture, but in the flesh it's all but gone. i think it's more the texture of the paint that can be seen in the flash of the camera rather than the actual color

The prop was painted with vallejo black and the spinner with a mix of vallejo and revell

And that's where we are now....

edit:

i'm glad i descided to add some detail to the radiator, not bad for present ribbon and soda can

have a nice day everyone

Edited June 22, 2016 by lunarhighway

[lunarhighway]

On with the show....

Wheels, fixed them using marabu's spitfire wheel set... ironically it's the second time it's been called into action on a hurricane , as Airfix's mk I (honestly i think overall the better kit) has the wrong wheels... (they would have been the right one for this build so, anyone thinking about building more hurri's might plan ahead and swap them)

next where the exhausts, wich where painted black, drybrused vallejo steel and than 20 year old citaled copper... a also made some exhaust stains on the fusalage as they also appear on the original picture of the plane... i'll keep this one fairly clean but i will apply some more subtle weathering overall

i gave the wheel wells a wash to bring out the detail, but i needs more oil and stains and added break lines to the gear doors

detail is nice but up close the airfix bays look much better, still not a bad effort by revell. I will need to touch up the wheels as some of the copper still shows, but than pictures show every flaw 10 times more than it can be seen in real life.

I painted the wheels in a dark gray (black with a minimal ammount of white mixed in), and touched up the sides with black, again the pictures don't do it justice, but it gives the tires a more worn and realistic look imho, asopposed to full black

[AdrianMF]

Some very nice mods and enhancements going on here! It's looking very nice in silver.

Regards,

Adrian

[lunarhighway]

And with a thunderstorm in the background, i did some more details...

hand painted the canopy, first silver for the interior color and than red for the exterior, (both colors where painted on the outside but this way the silver can be seen trough the "glass" i have no clear confirmation it really was red, although colour profiles say it was, and, let's face it, it's something different than grey and green..

the interior and exterior grab handles where made with fine metal wire and glued on with kristal klear.

the shape of the canopty is off,(to pointy when vieved head on, the sides of the bullet proof windshield shouldn't angle in line they do... but i guess i can live with it, However it should also overlap the rear spine wich it doesn't.

Isort of cheated by sticking a strip of metal tape cut to shape to the interior of the canopy. it sort of looks ok i guess... this was supposed to be a quick build so i just dove in without to much research.

Walkways where painted on the wings by hand using vallejo flat black.

The clear parts for the landing lights were shapless blobs so i didn't borther with them.

i initially tried shaving half the diamater of a section of clear sprue away and drilling a hole for the lens in the back (wich looked good untill it snapped cutting it to shape), as this is how Airfix approached it on their kit (quite nice as you can paint the inside of the "lamp" silver and than the rest of the back black, and it really looks like a 3d lamp behind a cover.

but i went to try something different...

i made lenses from clear sprue stretched to about 1mm diameter, and than cut of a section. next the end was brought near the flame of a candle, and the heat will cause the front to bulge up, creating a mushroom shape, with a perfect clear and smooth lens sitting on the stem of stretched sprue...depending on the diameter you can make those as big or small as you need.

quite a fun trick wich can be used for rivets, lenses, round rearview mirrors, and of course, scale mushrooms.. you can go real small depending on the diameter of the original sprue.

do make a few while you're at the carpet monster lives of stuff like this unfortunately

this aircraft had it's canons removed, but the fairings remained so i cut of the barrels and put the fairings in place... should have done that before painting.

next the light covers where made by filling the openig with kristal klear... we'll see how that goes...

i should have put the model asside after than, but i didn't and so destroyed one of the lights, with i will have to redo... fortunately kleer will come off without damaging the surface... to make matters worse i made a red fingerprint on the wing... i might have to respray that area... but i took it as my exit que.. will fix it next time

[SJLR_1]

Looking good1

[lunarhighway]

Small update

My initial attempt for the landing lights can be summed up as...desaster

it started by me handling the model before the klear was dry and smudging it all over the place.. i cleaned ad redid it, only to find it hadn't dired level when it set... so off it came again (and this is the advantage of using klear as it comes off without much trouble)

so i tried a different approach, and tried to curve some thin transparent plastic, secure it with klear again no luck as despite clamping it to shape it would come off again.

And than it hit me. What i needed was somehing very thin and self adhesive

enter cello tape... i stuck it over the light and cut it along the surrounding pannel lines. next i overpainted it with vallejo model air alluminium

I regret not getting Marabu's little photoetched fret as it would have looked perfect, but than i can see myself doing a few more hurricanes.

I'll also keep this one in mind for when i do my 1/48 Harvard as this has rounded edges to the light, wich would be easy to replicate this way...

Edited June 26, 2016 by lunarhighway

[Blitz23]

Thanks a great build. I like the improvements you've added as well.

[quangster]

Old school modelling at its best. I like it.

[lunarhighway]

While i'm still looking for suitable decals (perhaps i'll have a go at painting the markings when my airbrush arrives) i did some weathering and detailing. all the pannel lines where given a wash of 10/1 floor polish/vallejo black, wich works just as an enamel wash, except it dries very quick and can't be removed afterwards, so it's a bit like superglue it has to be right the first time.

I also tried something wich perhaps can be called "faux rivetting" as i drew on the small rivet lines with a pencil, the idea being you can't really see individual rivets in this scale but the pannels are not completely flush and rivet lines might show up as shadows... since the pencil will rub off it's easy to tone down the effect, but i quite like it so far

Greeting it's pre war buddy.

you may notice the little grab handle inside the canopy. as it cathches the light... it was done in silver (as if there isn't enough of tha already) to make it stand out, and since it's inside it's quite well protected (unlike the one of the left side wich i had to redo as it had disapeared) as simple as it is it's perhaps one of my favourite details.

i added some mig pigment mud to the wheels, a little heavy but not impossible i suppose, and also added some aditional stretched sprue braces to the undercariage Revell had missed.

i also cut out the navigation lights and glued a bit of stretched sprue for a bulb in there and painted it (i'll probably go over the sides with silver or black) and than add some kristal klear glass

[lunarhighway]

Since my new airbrush arrived yesterday i figured i'd give it a field test.

So far it performs great, but i'm still comming to terms with thinning acrylics, easpecially since most of them are model color rather than air. so far i'm using water and floor polish for thinner wich works, but i need to run the compressor at over 2 bar.

So i cut some roundles out of masking tape and sprayed a few coats of white and yellow... fingers crosed

[lunarhighway]

A stumble before the finish..

The roundles came out worse than hoped, although perhaps not worse than expected.

I suppose this is the risk of diving back into airbrushing on a build that's almost finished... some of it can still be fixed

• the first coat of yellow seems to have been to runny at some stage and got under the masking
• paint doesn't seem to stick well to the metalic coat wich was to be expected
• handcut round masks where less round than hoped and plaking paints at the sides made tings worse
• there was a hole in the masks so paint found it's way

on the bright side, the last two coats where model color thinned with distilled water and they gave me quite a nice even coat

if i do go the route of painted roundles on future builds i think i might actually paint them before the main colors, but that's little help now.

oh the horror.. but we'll try to save the patient