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Romanian Hurricane Mk.I - Airfix 1/72


Fin

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I`m posting this not with the expectations that my model will impress anyone, but with the hope that the subject might inspire others. It was started as part of a GB here, but having to take a long break from modding I have only managed to complete it this month. I apologize for that! I did take pictures with the work in progress and kept some notes but posting in that GB section is no longer possible so I`ll skip right to the completed model. It represents Hurricane no.15 in Romanian service. This is one of three ex-Yugoslav machines captured by the Germans and sold to Romania. The other 12 Hurricanes in Romanian service were British built and of the late Mk.I type, with metal wings. Very soon after finishing the model I bought a new book on the Romanian Hurricanes (pity some of the information included in it reached me too late for this model) and since I took a picture of that for a review I thought it fun to pose the model on top of it for a few shots. You can find my review of the book here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235031176-hawker-hurricane-voli-of-the-illustrated-history-of-romanian-aviation/&do=getNewComment

 

By the way, all Hurricanes served with the famous 53rd Squadron which gave the country its first three aces. Incidentally, the 53rd Squadron has been recently reformed and is now equipped with the first batch of F-16 to enter Romanian service (text in Romanian with a history of the squadron in WW2 and relevant photos to be found at page 28):

http://www.roaf.ro/ro/cer_senin/arhiva_pdf/2016/CERSENIN_4(147)-2016.pdf

 

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I chose to largely follow the instructions from the old AZ model kit and the profile from Romanian Fighter Colours for the camouflage pattern instead of properly studying the available black and white pictures. When I finally did the latter I wished I had made some of the shapes and colour dispositions differently, but that`s that now.

The kit used is Airfix`s A01010, but I`ve replaced the wheels with the 5 spoke resin ones from CMK. I`ve also replaced the mast with a 0.9mm brass tube because this particular kit did not contain the baton aerial that my subject required. Inside (not that visible) I`ve used Eduard`s Superfabric RAF early seatbelts (awesome product!). The crosses and emblems are from Radu Brinzan`s RB-072008 decal sheet (great quality decals!), but I`ve had to mask the tail numbers myself since there was no decal available for these when I started the project. In the meantime though, Radu has released a decal sheet for this very subject:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235028180-new-romanian-hurricane-decals-rb-productions-in-telford/

I`ve had problems masking the canopy (among other things) as the paint mostly lifted with the aftermarket mask and after masking it again with tape and achieving the same result I simply painted it by hand, hence the result. The model is - obviously, I suppose - entirely brush painted and for the camouflage I`ve used Italeri acrylic paints which I choose according to the FS codes listed here:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234951133-yugoslav-hurricanes-recommended-schemes/?p=1524398

4709AP Flat Dark Tan
4726AP Flat Dark Green
4797AP Flat Pz. Schokobraun RAL 8017
4778AP Hellblau RLM 65

The interior is Vallejo`s 70.974 Green Sky.

 

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Edited by Fin
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That is a real beauty, Fin. As I know next to nothing on WW2 Romanian paint schemes, I'd still say your paint work is excellent. For being hand-painted, your canopy came out quite nicely.

 

I plan to attempt the same kit in the new year, but as one of the 20 ragwings delivered to Canada in 1939.

 

 

Chris

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An excellent and inspiring model and a good reminder that the Hurricane saw service with many air forces.

 

A minor observation: AFAIK, the wing lantern protective covers were clear glass on the Hurricane, with just the actual light bulbs being green and red.

 

A really interesting model and ditto background story!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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Thank you all very much for you kind comments!

 

14 hours ago, dogsbody said:

That is a real beauty, Fin. As I know next to nothing on WW2 Romanian paint schemes, I'd still say your paint work is excellent. For being hand-painted, your canopy came out quite nicely.

 

I plan to attempt the same kit in the new year, but as one of the 20 ragwings delivered to Canada in 1939.

 

 

Chris

Thank you! Everything yellow has to do with the Axis identification markings (and the Mickey Mouse emblem, tricolor and number are Romanian), but the camouflage is meant to be the original Yugoslav one. How close mine comes to reality is hard to say. I tried my best to make it "correct", but the subject is a pretty complicated one, as can be seen from the long discussion on the forums here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234951133-yugoslav-hurricanes-recommended-schemes/&tab=comments#comment-1478080

Looking forward to your Canadian Hurricane!

 

12 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

An excellent and inspiring model and a good reminder that the Hurricane saw service with many air forces.

 

A minor observation: AFAIK, the wing lantern protective covers were clear glass on the Hurricane, with just the actual light bulbs being green and red.

 

A really interesting model and ditto background story!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Thank you! I would have loved to have them that way, but I did not feel confident enough to cut them out and replace them with clear pieces of sprue. I worried I was more likely to destroy the wing tips. :D I know it`s one of the things that look bad on the model.

7 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Nice job Fin, in spite of your reservations she looks like a beauty to me B)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

Thank you very much, Stew! Your Zmaj Hurricane was one of my sources of inspiration.

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19 minutes ago, JWM said:

Very unusual and colorful livery! Nice work. Do I see properly? - are there two shades of yellow involved. Or it is just light?

Regards

J-W

 

Thank you! "Very unusual and colorful livery" coming from you is quite something! I`m always keen to see your threads here knowing that there will always be some rare and quite often surprising subject. :)

 

Well spotted! There are actually two yellow paints used for the band on the fuselage (Revell 36115 and Vallejo 70.915; the Vallejo btw was a nightmare to brush). The reason for this is that the plane was painted with a relatively narrow band upon delivery to Romania. Later, this had to be widened to conform to the Axis identification rules. The result was that while the old strip got to be plain yellow, the newer half was thinner and thus slightly transparent giving the impression of a darker shade. It`s an effect also visible on some of the British made Romanian Hurricanes. Achieving this subtle transparency with the brush was not easy so I just used two different yellow shades. Apart from this I have to admit that the yellow Radu uses for his decals has a more reddish tint than Revell`s yellow directly out of the tin. His instructions for the new IAR-80 decal suggest Lifecolor UA042 for the yellow so I think that would be a good place to start in trying to match the paint with his decals.

 

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Fin, thank you very much for your kind opinion and for explanation. You've mention: 

24 minutes ago, Fin said:

the plane was painted with a relatively narrow band upon delivery to Romania

Could you recall me when was it? (when Hurricanes came to Romania?) Because I thought that narrow yellow band was introduced during April (1941) War - Invasion of Yugoslavia. Was it in use in Balkan countries before? BTW - when we are talking about yellow bands there is a well known photo of Romanian Potez XXV

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania potez XXV romania

For me there is perhaps a yellow band on this photo. What do you you think?

I hope that it is very likely that this scheme will be in new Potez by Azur/Special Hobby...

Regards

J-W

 

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Quote

You've mention: 

To clarify: there I was specifically referring to this Yugoslav Hurricane because there is a picture with it on the Zemun factory airfield and it already has the Romanian colours on the rudder, the yellow cowling AND the fuselage narrow band so, clearly, that`s how it got to Romania. There was no cross on its fuselage at this stage btw.

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Could you recall me when was it? (when Hurricanes came to Romania?) Because I thought that narrow yellow band was introduced during April (1941) War - Invasion of Yugoslavia. Was it in use in Balkan countries before?

There are two versions and two periods when yellow bands were painted on the fuselage of the Romanian fighters. The first is during the neutrality period. It consists of narrow bands on the fuselage and - the general wisdom says - the aircraft that had them also had the narrow bands on the wings (both upperside and underside). They were about 25cm wide on both fuselage and wings (see Radu Brînzan`s instructions for his Bf 109E and IAR 80 decals). Exactly when this pre war practice started I do not know, but it was before the German invasion of Yugoslavia in which, btw, Romania did not take part. There is a He-112 sporting this fuselage band in 1940 (according to the text from the book) that comes to mind. Some of the IAR-80 from the first batch also had it. Radu has a decal sheet with one for August 1940. Exactly what these bands represent is debatable, with some saying (there are discussions on Romanian forums) that they serve to distinguish aircraft of the 3 squadrons that made up a group (the implication being that for some the bands were yellow and for others red or blue). That`s one theory at least. During this period the national markings were the traditional Romanian roundels (not crosses).

 

Now, after Romania joined the Axis, there were some requirements to adhere to its identification markings. This lead to the roundels being replaced by the Michael cross, the engine cowling being painted yellow, similarly the underside of the wing tips were painted yellow and the band on the fuselage was widened (resulting on some of them in the two shades of yellow mentioned in my previous post). Theoretically, the bands on the wings would have been overpainted, but there are photos of Hurricanes sporting these together with the crosses. The Axis markings started to be implemented from may 1941 as I recall.


 

Quote

 

BTW - when we are talking about yellow bands there is a well known photo of Romanian Potez XXV

 

For me there is perhaps a yellow band on this photo. What do you you think?

 

That particular picture is on the cover of a supplement of the Romanian magazine Modelist (from the same guys that published the Hurricane book that I`ve showed above):
http://www.revista-modelist.ro/Suplimente-Revista.php
I personally do not see the yellow band (it`s very possible that it`s there, of course), but the booklet has a colour profile for this aircraft and indeed it shows it with the yellow band on the fuselage. You can probably see this in the short pdf presentation from their site:
http://www.revista-modelist.ro/documents/PrezentareIARPotez25.pdf
That said, the IAR-Potez 25 started to be replaced with the IAR 37 from 1938, but it remained in service as a trainer and liaison aircraft and the last one was retired in 1945. The picture you posted is of a DC version from the Aviation NCO School in Medias and it sports the Michael cross so it`s obviously from the Axis period.

 

Btw, the IAR-POTEZ 25 book has its text in both Romanian and English so if it`s a subject of interest you would be able to read it. I got mine years ago at a show, but I see it`s still available on their site.

Edited by Fin
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  • 2 weeks later...

What a great job!  I've been wanting to build a Hurricane along the lines of yours, now I am just that much more motivated.  I think I'll be picking up that book you have also.

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Thank you kindly! :) If you intend to make one of the Romanian Hurricanes I recommend you get Radu`s newest decal sheet because unlike the one I used (which only had the crosses and the emblem) it comes with the numbers too and the crosses have the red circle integrated. Both of these make the job easier.

http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_67&products_id=715

 

 

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