Sea Hurricane IIc undercarriage colour?

[Simon Cornes]

That says it all! Silver or Sky? The gear bay is sky but I think the legs and wheel hubs will be silver/aluminium. Am I right? This is applying to NF668 825/Vindex

Thanks

[Troy Smith]

if the legs are painted aluminium,  then the gear bay will be as well,  there are pics showing later on that there was a switch to painting the inside of the gear legs and UC bay the underside colour, previous it seems both were painted aluminium

 

Hurrican HW189 B front by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

aluminium above, underside colour below, note wheel centres for contrast

I suspect this is from the same sequence

Note lady at front is quite possibly same as above ,  seems to have same hair style, dark top and necklace

note the Azure blue on legs, and on what can be seen of the UC well.

 

 

And, here's one I did earlier...

 

 

for the HMS Vindex planes, which just about shows the gear legs and UC doors inside...

 

 

I'd suggest Sky, from what can be seen,  as aluminium tends to photograph as a lighter/different tone to Sky.   Given Sea Hurricanes were conversions, the UC bays maybe have stayed alumnium or the original underside colour...

 

Note also the cropped off corners on the gear doors, and the jerry rigged rockets, with a frame at the back, so they point up at quite an angle, and no blast plates,  as this was done on ship using the rockets for the Swordfish.

 

HTH? 

 

 

[Simon Cornes]

Thanks Troy

i wonder if anyone has scratch built those Hurrlcane rocket rails? Photos showing the rear bracket would be really useful!

I now can see that its just an open rectangle and that the rails attach to the underside of the wing at the front via a simple pin and I assume a similar pin attaches to the frame at the back? Unlike the Typhoon rails I have which have a faired front and rear bracket attaching them to the wing underside.

 

What a pain, the gear legs are Sky - I had plumped for silver! Ah well, its only paint!!

Cheers

Simon

[Graham Boak]

Carole Ann appears to have only one wing cannon, the radiator blank from S, the chocks from M and W, with the apparent remains of a badge under the cockpit.  An interesting exercise in weathering.

 

With such an angled launch, presumably there's no need for blast protection.  I think that's the first time I've seen dual launchers on a Hurricane, so now tell me it is from a book I've already got.  Can we be certain this is Vindex?

[Seahawk]

The story is told, with some photos, in Kenneth Poolman's book on Vindex, Escort Carrier.  IIRC the rocket rails were at slightly different angles to give a spread of fire (though I would have thought these rockets were so inaccurate they would achieve that without encouragement).  

 

Paraphrased from p.71-2: the idea of fitting Vindex's Sea Hurricanes with RPs came from her Commander(Flying), L/C Percy Gick.  After trial firings of 4 RPs from a Swordfish RP rack attached to a Hurricane wing, one aircraft was fitted with 2 RPs under each wing.  After a bit of enterprising wheeler-dealing enlisting high-level support, he managed to get Boscombe Down to agree that the installation was safe to use.  "Three days later Vindex's Hurricanes had been fitted with RPs, five of them retaining their 4 cannon as well.  The other fighter had two of its cannon removed to make way for 2 marine markers for the rapid investigation of HF/DF U-Boat bearings."   This all happened in early April 1944.

 

From the photograph above it appears that Carole Ann was the 2-gun aircraft.  I'm wondering if the cylindrical object visible inboard of the RP installation on the 4-gun aircraft in post 2 is a marine marker.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Seahawk
Correction of book title and author plus detail on RP story.

[Graham Boak]

It was common to spread the angles of rockets, it can also be seen on some Coastal Beaufighters.  I think the key problem with the accuracy was as much getting the right launch moment/speed/attitude as the variation from rocket to rocket.  Photos from CC attacks often show the rockets remaining fairly closely clustered, which is possibly preferable against small targets but when it as big as a ship then perhaps the wider the spread the better.  As it was fairly widely done, there must have been at least a superficially convincing reason.

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Can we be certain this is Vindex?

yes, the pics are from this book,  details of this are in the linked thread 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234940217-sea-hurricane-hms-vindex-with-rocketsyour-picture-question/&do=findComment&comment=1315518

 

has a few more shots of Hurricanes, and some Swordfish. 

15 hours ago, Simon Cornes said:

i wonder if anyone has scratch built those Hurrlcane rocket rails? Photos showing the rear bracket would be really useful!

I now can see that its just an open rectangle and that the rails attach to the underside of the wing at the front via a simple pin and I assume a similar pin attaches to the frame at the back?

they are rails off a Swordfish, so look to be a standard Mk.I rail,  the rocket is the Shot 25 Lb Armour Piercing, 

 

this type of rocket is in the Tamiya Mosquito NF.II/FB VI kit, so plenty out there is spares box land

 

the rear frame might be made from leftover bits of supporting strips from  etch if you have some.

the rail ironically is better seen when mounted on a tank (Tulip Sherman)

 

I'd thin the best thing is to get the model, and eyeball the installation.

[Simon Cornes]

Thanks Troy, thats great. As you say - eyeball it. Looking at the photo of the rails in situ and the picture above, clearly its a vertical rod front and rear, presumably with a couple of nuts above and below the rear frame to set the rear bracket positioning and to lock it? Something simple anyway. Wonder what colour it might be? Off a Swordfish so maybe light grey to go with the cirrux grey or maybe Sky but I cant imagine they'd be that worried about what colour it was! I'm using a set of rails from the Hase Tiffie and they have the two runners separate from the 'blade' of the rail. I think I'll leave the rockets off. Getting there!!

[Graham Boak]

Medium Sea Grey off Typhoons.    White on Swordfish, Cerrix Grey was long gone, as was Sky Grey and Sky itself.

[Simon Cornes]

So you reckon white then Graham, for kit purloined from the embarked Swordfish squadron? Pretty grimey after a few rockets had toasted the paint?

[Graham Boak]

No, too dark to be white.  Maybe Sky?  Maybe still primer?  I admit I was looking at the one on the tank...  I don't recall seeing any other evidence of griminess from the rocket exhaust, but then I can't say I've looked.  I think it would look less uniform. 

 

That it wasn't an "official" fit probably explains the absence of blast plates and hence a need to angle them nose-up despite the drag penalty.