Jump to content

Do Airfix make an accurate metal winged Hurri in recent years else who does ?


Merlin

Recommended Posts

Hi,

I cannot seem to find mention on the internet of Airfix kitting a decent Mk1 Hurricane metal wing in 1/72. Fabric yes but metal ? If not which is the best metal wing 1/72 hurri out there at the mo ?

 

Interested in correct scale panel lines (not Airfix trenches) and shape/details.

 

Initially I was asking of Airfix as maybe they have bypassed their trenches for the Hurricane, can but hope, also the fabric wing one gets good reviews.

 

Cheers

 

Merlin

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having just finished building the Arma Hobby kit (pictures to follow when I get the chance), I can say that it is the kit to get for a metal-winged Mk.I Hurricane. It has all the parts included in the box for the three different propeller/spinner combinations as well as the tropical filter. It's also a relatively easy build, though you have to take more care with test fitting than, say, a Tamiya kit. It definitely looks the part when completed, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

The second choice, and a distant second at that, would be the 1978-ish Airfix metal-winged Mk.I. At the time it was hailed for it's accuracy, but there is no cockpit or wheel well detail to speak of and, personally, I think the nose is a bit pinched. I t will take a lot of work to get one of these up to the standard of the Arma Hobby kit.

 

Third choice would be Hasegawa but, unless somebody gives you one, why bother.

 

A far distant fourth would be the 1960s Revell Mk.I - dismal.

 

There is one option I forgot: at least one company does a set of resin metal wings to convert the Airfix fabric winged kit. This would, I think, give a comparable result to the Arma Hobby kit, though at substantially more expense,

Edited by VMA131Marine
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I heartily recommend the Arma Hurricane. It's very nicely detailed, looks more like a Hurricane than anything else in this scale, is reasonably priced and for the most part, goes together nicely. 

 

I did encounter a few fit issues, but nothing major and I'm more than happy to let you know how I overcame these if you wish.

 

I just need forty or fifty more now!

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too can recommend the Arma hobby kit. Plenty of options in the box. There are a few builds here to look for.

 

The 'Expert' boxing is good if you can get it - nice p.e. and some canopy masks.

 

One pic of mine.

YR5TOebl.jpg

Edited by MarkH206
mention the expert boxing
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I built three Arma Hurricanes here: 

 

 

I found them to be exceptionally delightful kits, and I highly recommend them as the best Hurricane of any mark in 1/72.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

I didnt want to mention Arma as it might have helped 'navigate' any reply to such, but after some time, almost failing to find a decent Mk1 in 1-72, I came across a review of Arma out of the box and it struck me as a company I have never heard of, have put other manufacturers to shame, better panel lines than Airfix maybe, and why havent Tamiya and Hasegawa managed to make an accurate model after all these years of our second most famous fighter and key player in the Battle of Britain and Battle of France. I am definitely, now this confirms it, getting an Arma Mk 1 Hurricane. Probably two and put Airfix's fabric wing on the second.

Arma have done it appears a fantastic job, about time someone did so, I hope they do a Mk1 Spitfire next, as having built the Airfix one, the panel lines just spoil it big time, as big as if a 1/32 kit, more like a metal Dinky Toy kit, Tamiya's 1/72 Spit shows how it should be panel wise, though it has some shape problems inc canopy. I hope now that they have a stunning accurate 1/48 they downscale it. Maybe Arma will upscale to 1/24 their Hurri .

 

Procopius, that you did 501 Sqdn is great as its my fav Hurricane sqdn. I applaud you on the intro as well, its why I build, or intend to build, models, the history .  The Sovereign paints dk earth and dk green in your photos, though I go by daylight at end of day, would appear to be decent and match the colours I found Valejo do (white top 893 and 873) that are exact matches or as good as makes no difference to the RAF colour chips for Dk Green and Dk Earth respectively for WW2 in the 'British Aviation Colours of WW2' book with colour chip chart by Arms and Armour Press, RAF Museum series, and the only book to have WW2 actual paint chips as far as I know.

 

What paints did you use on the rlm 71/02/65 Me109E by the way ?

 

I shall be getting some of those RAF paints from Sovereign as well. The sky was a bit strong when first seen but I would need to see it in daylight. I had to custom mix sky as not one manufacturer had come close to the colour in the chart., that says something !  When I matched it my model looked right, being as per chart it was right. (without getting into scale effect discussion). If one stands 72 ft from a full size aircraft and hold up a 1/72 model it will be same size, so 72 ft from a sheet of sky painted out, it still looks exact same as the sample of sky held in hand. I dont believe in adding in loads of white as per Monogram Luft colour book advice.

 

Matt varnish though is still a nightmare, an idiot proof non yellowing not overmatt varnish that does not remain tacky, is there one ?

 

Merlin

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Merlin said:

Maybe Arma will upscale to 1/24 their Hurri .

1/24, Trumpeter, believe it or not.   A few glitches, though the recessed rivets maybe a deal breaker for some.

a few other problems, but the overall shapes are great.

 

9 minutes ago, Merlin said:

I found Valejo do (white top 893 and 873) that are exact matches or as good as makes no difference to the RAF colour chips for Dk Green and Dk Earth respectively for WW2 in the 'British Aviation Colours of WW2' book with colour chip chart by Arms and Armour Press, RAF Museum series, and the only book to have WW2 actual paint chips as far as I know.

 

On 12/04/2019 at 18:01, Troy Smith said:

Hi Tim

good idea for a topic

this came up in another thread,  a member said that 873 US Field Drab was a better match than 921 English Uniform

(and a suggestion,l edit in the Vallejo names, much easier than their numbering system..)

 

921 English uniform is left,  872 US Field Drab right, over RAF chips , taken outside

 

33716726818_7fc0961a12_b.jpg50620620 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

 

 

  32651236687_4d47199273_b.jpg50620618 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

outside in non direct light.    

 

I find 921 English uniform is closer, not quite green enough, but  872 US Field Drab is more 'biscuity'   though maybe of use for one of the US made Dark Earth's,  and Dark Earth was noted for chalking, so maybe good for a more weathered version

 

32651237597_7563454346_b.jpg50620617 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

this adds 893 US Dark Green,  921 English uniform ,   872 US Field Drab , over RAF chips , taken outside in brighter light,  the RAF chip is greener. 921 English uniform is oranger,  872 US Field Drab red-browner in this brightly lit shot, but 921 is a still a better match of the two.

 

the difference under different light levels is of note.

 

when I used 893 US Dark Green one the Hurricane, I found when applied looked too pale and blue,  so I then used Xtracrylix Dark Green

 

Again, perhaps good for a slightly faded version.  

 

Photos above are not the best, and I never got around to redoing them.

 

Hurricane

this is 921 English Uniform and 893 US DArk Green

40377117653_8bedda50c8_b.jpg50620587 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

this is 921 and Xtracylix Dark Green with Kleer

46624059994_7be90eea8c_b.jpg50620588 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

maybe good for Eau de Nil, too dark and too green for Sky.

I have some of the Model Air, I'll check them at some point.

 

PS 

47324893582_d4345b4452_b.jpg50620611 by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

Panzer Aces 301 Light Rust is good for RAF wartime Red 

I repainted the Hurricane roundels as the Airfix red was too pillar box red  for me..

 

21 minutes ago, Merlin said:

The sky was a bit strong when first seen but I would need to see it in daylight. I had to custom mix sky as not one manufacturer had come close to the colour in the chart., that says something !

Vallejo 70.885 is matched to US Sky ANA610/FS34424 

(yes, I know ANA and FS are not the same, though I think in this case the ANA was taken over to the FS system)

It is slightly greyer and lighter than the RAF museum chip, but for slightly weathered it looks good.

46812734934_2a1b0e8dfa_b.jpg&key=8f22b2b

 

9 minutes ago, Merlin said:

Matt varnish though is still a nightmare, an idiot proof non yellowing not overmatt varnish that does not remain tacky, is there one ?

 

W&N Galeria? 

That's what I used on the above Hurricane.  

 

32 minutes ago, Merlin said:

I didnt want to mention Arma as it might have helped 'navigate' any reply to such, but after some time, almost failing to find a decent Mk1 in 1-72, I came across a review of Arma out of the box and it struck me as a company I have never heard of, have put other manufacturers to shame,

Mk.I  not 1,  arabic numerals are post 1946

Arma had the humility/sense to seek as much advice as possible,  they had a thread here for glitch hunting.

I'll edit it in if I find it.   It was an interesting thread

 

HTH

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

AlleyCat Models do a resin metal wing conversion for the Airfix kit. I have one but haven't used it yet. I've heard there are some fit issues with the Airfix fuselage but when I tried the fit to my as yet unfinished Airfix kit, it looked like just a bit of filing/sanding was all that would be required.

 

https://www.alleycatmodels.co.uk/metal-wing-conversion-for-airfix-hurricane-mk1-fabric-wing-6534-p.asp

 

 

 

 

Chris

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

True the Arma’s are the best on the market currently. I will be buying some Arma’s soon but  I wont turn my back on the Airfix kits either. Heres my Airfix Mk.I with the Alleycat conversion. 

just a little filling and finagling under the cockpit to get it right.
    I just did this Airfix last month where I sanded and rescribed the wings to get a metal wing. 

The only thing that's incorrect is the landing lights but they can be shifted if needed ? 
 

Dennis

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

I must get a pot of 921 and go test, from sampling these and comparing using the correct grey card method, 921 would seem to match better, but human eye and cloudy sky midday is the only way.

 

here are the colours compared from those photos as a start point, using photoshop to grab a square out of them . I certainly recall thinking wow it matches, but it was in desperation having found nothing else that did. The resulting aircraft looks right though. Always open to improvement.

spacer.png

These photos need to be taken as shown here, and compared as such (grey is rgb 125 125 125)

 

paint must be painted onto plastic card as intended for us, in opposing directions, or airbrushed on,  and enough layers made to give 100% opacity. paper card can alter colour.

 

bottom row is I presume taken in sunlight though not obvious in the third photo. 50620617.

921 has a tendency to be yellowy, I might try mixing them to see if a best match results.

 

they must be attached to a vertical surface, not laid on a table, as that will reflect light from the sky and alter their true colour. A door with grey card on facing a dull multi-coloured object is ideal, in a northlight and sky cloudy, not blue, as we might not realise it but that blue is sending out, 'blue', thats why we see it as blue, and it WILL alter the colour ! Canford cover paper (daler) Gunmetal is I recall the one, their online chart gave me this grey .

 

The shots of the hurri in gloss and sun is not of use for this, I see Valejo 301 as a suggestion for the red, again I will go get a pot., and test as above. Photos by the way cannot show us true colour but give guidance as to what matches together.

 

The sky 885 looks pretty good. Again a pot and test compare to the paint chip in the book.

 

Merlin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Merlin said:

Matt varnish though is still a nightmare, an idiot proof non yellowing not overmatt varnish that does not remain tacky, is there one ?

 

If you're passing through Scandinavia or have a pal here, get them to send over, Panduro Oceanlack Matt Varnish:

 

spacer.png

I used this for the first time with my last build and was simply stunned with it. I'm a brush painter so have to be pretty finicky with varnishes to try and avoid brush marks. Both their Gloss and Matt varnishes go on beautifully, self level, are dry in half an hour and have no trouble with decal solutions, enamel panel line washes. I literally won't use another kind of clear coats after finding this stuff. Here it is on my latest.

 

AnJT7zs.png

 

Well worth getting hold of if you can as it's just brilliant stuff.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

True the Arma’s are the best on the market currently. I will be buying some Arma’s soon but  I wont turn my back on the Airfix kits either. Heres my Airfix Mk.I with the Alleycat conversion. 

just a little filling and finagling under the cockpit to get it right.
    I just did this Airfix last month where I sanded and rescribed the wings to get a metal wing. 

The only thing that's incorrect is the landing lights but they can be shifted if needed ? 
 

Dennis

The only issue with that conversion is that the Airfix Mk.I only has the deHavilland 3-blade prop as an option for a metal-winged aircraft. You can source a Rotol prop and the domed spinner from the Airfix Spitfire Mk.I/Ia/II kit

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

The only issue with that conversion is that the Airfix Mk.I only has the deHavilland 3-blade prop as an option for a metal-winged aircraft. You can source a Rotol prop and the domed spinner from the Airfix Spitfire Mk.I/Ia/II kit

 

Would the Rotol from the Hasegawa kit be a viable alternative?

 

 

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

If you're passing through Scandinavia or have a pal here, get them to send over, Panduro Oceanlack Matt Varnish:

 

spacer.png

I used this for the first time with my last build and was simply stunned with it. I'm a brush painter so have to be pretty finicky with varnishes to try and avoid brush marks. Both their Gloss and Matt varnishes go on beautifully, self level, are dry in half an hour and have no trouble with decal solutions, enamel panel line washes. I literally won't use another kind of clear coats after finding this stuff. Here it is on my latest.

 

AnJT7zs.png

 

Well worth getting hold of if you can as it's just brilliant stuff.

Hmm. I wonder if they can be mail ordered. According to an English translation of the product page on Panduro's website, they are water-based.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, Space Ranger said:

Hmm. I wonder if they can be mail ordered. According to an English translation of the product page on Panduro's website, they are water-based.

 

It is water based Michael and seems to have no issues. I've used it on top of enamels and even put enamels over the top of it with washes and touch ups with no problems.

 

One other nice thing about it is that it isn't 100% dead flat like something like Testors Dullcote or some other very, very matt finishes. I really like that because WWII paint finishes weren't 100% completely dead flat either.

 

The gloss is awesome too, I like it better than original Klear/Future.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, dogsbody said:

 

Would the Rotol from the Hasegawa kit be a viable alternative?

 

 

Chris

I think the Hasegawa Rotol is basically okay. I built a Hasegawa Mk.I in Bader's markings and seem to remember the prop and spinner looked about right. As noted though, it is the same unit usually found on Mk.II Spitfires, hence the backplate has a larger diameter than the nose of the Hurricane and overhangs the edges a bit.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Smithy,

I presume the varnish is white liquid when in the pot.

 

Any chance of painting it out onto something that is black and seeing if it makes it go an off matt black or an off matt dark grey, I tried all varnishes including liquitex, Valejo, (the milk coloured ones) and only Galeria preserved the blackness, just making it go matt instead, the other milky ones gave me a grey instead, as the white has to go somewhere, its not a myriad of microscopic bubbles that evaporate away, its a 'colour' or pigment as such as white isnt a colour and I was put off a bit by not wanting my accurate camo colours carefully matched to original paint charts altered.

However I like that fact that its idiot proof and not dead matt.

 

Just how do we get hold of it though ?

 

Dont suppose you are coming to Telford and could bring a few to hand  over to us if we 'cross your palm with silver' ?

 

Merlin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/22/2019 at 8:56 PM, Merlin said:

The Sovereign paints dk earth and dk green in your photos, though I go by daylight at end of day, would appear to be decent

 

Merlin

 

Thank you, but I'd certainly hope they were decent matches. They're matched by spectrophotometer to the RAF Museum chips, as is our Sky. We own two copies of the RAFM chips as well as having access to three copies of BS381C 1996 as a backup.

 

Whilst the tabulated colour coordinates in BS381C are consistent between the two copies there are surprising variances between the expensive BS381C chips. The RAF Museum chips are consistent between our two copies from different editions with different front covers.

 

If serious about this colour evaluation malarkey you should throw all this visual colour matching stuff into the long grass and measure objectively using a calibrated light source and an instrument - for your purposes I'd recommend looking at the "Nix Pro Color Sensor" www.nixsensor.com which is relatively affordable compared to a professional/industrial desk mounted spectrophotometer (the one hooked up to the paint machine's computer is calibrated annually, btw) and is both highly portable and convenient to use with a smartphone app which gives you results in many colourspace models. CIELAB is of course the current benchmark, and the DeltaE calculation is the current best way to concisely denote closeness of match or otherwise.

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Merlin said:

Hi Smithy,

I presume the varnish is white liquid when in the pot.

 

Any chance of painting it out onto something that is black and seeing if it makes it go an off matt black or an off matt dark grey, I tried all varnishes including liquitex, Valejo, (the milk coloured ones) and only Galeria preserved the blackness, just making it go matt instead, the other milky ones gave me a grey instead, as the white has to go somewhere, its not a myriad of microscopic bubbles that evaporate away, its a 'colour' or pigment as such as white isnt a colour and I was put off a bit by not wanting my accurate camo colours carefully matched to original paint charts altered.

However I like that fact that its idiot proof and not dead matt.

 

Just how do we get hold of it though ?

 

Dont suppose you are coming to Telford and could bring a few to hand  over to us if we 'cross your palm with silver' ?

 

Merlin

 

Hi Merlin,

 

This is the bottom of the same Hurri which has the White and Night underside. Don't know how it looks via the internet and your monitor settings but it's black in the flesh at least to my eyes and not a very, very dark grey.

 

cXJYKdF.png

 

It's sold through Panduro which is a hobby and craft chain here in Scandinavia. Unfortunately I'm not coming to Telford otherwise I would have taken a crate of the stuff and set up a stand!

 

Maybe I should set up a distribution company ;)

 

Tim

Edited by Smithy
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

Thanks Jamie, matched to RAFM series Volume 3 will do me 🙂

I am forever seeing wrong dk green and dk earth, even models next to each other exhibit vast differences, asking modelers what was used and why, usually its well I like the way the paints go down or its my current go to range of paint, total trust in the accuracy of the colour or dont really care. They dont have the RAFM book so dont know how right or wrong their choice is.

Advertise the fact that these are matched to RAFM vol 3 and anyone wanting to get the colours right will come knocking. A business 'no brainer'. I am forever telling Luft modellers that your Luft paints are matched to Merrick/Kiroff and look no further.

I could not find a single make of modelling paint matching or anywhere near Sky in the RAFM chart, glad to know there is one at last.

 

Quote

Smithy....Maybe I should set up a distribution company

Smithy, please do. I would risk a bottle anyway, I would need to see it painted on part of something black to compare before and after.

 

buy some and sell them on ebay perhaps.

 

Merlin

Edited by Merlin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...