PR Hurricane on Malta - field modifications?

[mahavelona]

Hello all,

 

I'm beginning a project using Airfix's 1/48 Hurricane Mk.1 new tool. I'm inspired to build this beauty:

 

1941 - at Luqa, Malta, operated by 69 Squadron. I believe it was flown by Adrian Warburton (Warby), a truly inspirational pilot. 

 

I'm looking for references and answers; I believe there is a page of detail about V7101 in Tony O'Toole's book 'No Place for Beginners' but I don't have and can't find a copy so I'd appreciate any details from people who own this book (plus I've already bought one book about hurricanes - the modeller's datafile!). I wonder if Britmodeller can, once again, enlighten me about an interesting PR bird?

 

WHAT I KNOW:

 

According to John Miller from the Model Paint Solutions website, who has built a fantastic model of this plane in 1/72 using 'No Place For Beginners' as a reference:

 

V7101 was a metal wing hurricane, modified on Malta, to perform high-altitude PR work, in 1941. Alterations included:

 

- Addition of F24 cameras (John doesn't list how many - PR Mk.1s had x3 from the factory)

- Removal of all guns

- Removal of armour (is that just the headrest behind the pilot's seat?)

- Removal or radio equipment and radio mast

- Addition of a 150 gallon fuel tank salvaged from a crashed Wellington (!)

- Painted overall blue - no PRU blue paint was on Malta so a mixture was used 

- After damage, rudder was replaced by a desert camo one from another Hurricane (as seen in photo above)

 

I believe this plane was transferred from 261 Squadron according to this web page. The page speculates (?) that the vokes filter was removed to improve performance but I don't know about this. 

 

To add some confusion, I've read in Taylor Downing's excellent "Spies in the Sky: The Secret Battle for Aerial Intelligence During World War II":

in 1941, "April, two Hurricanes arrived in Malta fitted out with twin F24 cameras. Warburton flew these on shorter recces". I'm not sure if these are separate aircraft to V7101. 

 

QUESTIONS:

- What did the 150 gallon Wellington fuel tank look like? I'd like to add it to the model.

- Cameras - two or three F24s in the fuselage? 

- What other details are there about the plane which I don't know? 

- Vokes filter; was it installed or was it removed?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Seahawk]

This question comes up regularly.  To avoid rehashing a lot of material, I suggest you do a search on V7101.  This site’s search engine is not the best but it will throw up multiple threads on the subject including Tony O’Toole’s own build of the aircraft which ISTR included a lot of info from his researches for the book.

 

[mahavelona]

2 hours ago, Seahawk said:

This question comes up regularly.  To avoid rehashing a lot of material, I suggest you do a search on V7101.  This site’s search engine is not the best but it will throw up multiple threads on the subject including Tony O’Toole’s own build of the aircraft which ISTR included a lot of info from his researches for the book.

 

Thanks for pointing this out to me as it's somehow passed me by! I'd not found these threads through Google. I had not realised Tony is an active BM member

 

 

Having read all @tonyot's posts which I can find, including his splendid model, I understand several things:

- V7101 was painted bosun blue - a novel dark colour

- It's likely that no Vokes filter was attached

- The rudder was bosun blue, too - the photo attached actually shows camo demarcations on the fuselage in better copies and was taken during the conversion to PR, when the aircraft still sported its 261 Squadron markings

- The fuselage roundels were repainted to two-colours

- Two F24 cameras installed (though various information about this)

- Various fuel tank arrangements were described, implying that some experimentation went on (I'd be really interested to hear about the specifics!)

 

I'm curious as to what information there is about the roundels. I'd have presumed that in the chaos of the Malta Blitz, only necessary works would have been undertaken and that the bosun blue would be painted 'around' the existing 4-colour 261 squadron fuselage roundels - rather than re-painting them totally. 

 

 

[Troy Smith]

On 23/11/2019 at 08:39, mahavelona said:

According to John Miller from the Model Paint Solutions website, who has built a fantastic model of this plane in 1/72 using 'No Place For Beginners' as a reference:

 

while the techniques are impressive... the Arma kit comes with two types of prop blade, and 3 spinners

 

the Airfix 1/48th has two types, DH Hurricane and Spitfire Rotol.

Warning,  you can fit either set of blades to either spinner.  And I have seen two models on here with DH blades on a Rotol spinner....

see

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980181-hawker-hurricane-propellers-and-spinners-a-modellers-guide/

 

from Tony's model, you need the Hurricane 'bullet' Rotol spinner which is not in the Airfix kit (it is a spare part in many Hasegawa kits IIRC) 

 

On 23/11/2019 at 08:39, mahavelona said:

(plus I've already bought one book about hurricanes - the modeller's datafile!

if you read a posting on here from the last few years that contradicts the Datafile book,  the book is wrong.  (compare the information on the props with the linked thread for example.  )

only have it as a pdf,  but as such I have never found one cheap enough to justify buying it.  

 

from https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Camouflage-Markings/Hawker-Hurricane

note factory positions of roundels.

 

Spinner the DH Hurricane type , note the position of fuselage roundel is wrong, as is position and spacing of serial... let alone the oft repeated profile details

Looks like this has been copied from an existing inaccurate profile... happens a lot.

 

 

This is why I have my sig line.....

 

@tonyot  may well pitch in.

 

HTH

[mahavelona]

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

 

while the techniques are impressive... the Aram kit comes with two types of prop blade, and 3 spinners

 

the Airfix 1/48th has two types, DH Hurricane and Spitfire Rotol.

Warning,  you can fit either set of blades to either spinner.  And I have seen two models on here with DH blades on a Rotol spinner....

see

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980181-hawker-hurricane-propellers-and-spinners-a-modellers-guide/

 

from Tony's model, you need the Hurricane 'bullet' Rotol spinner which is not in the Airfix kit (it is a spare part in many Hasegawa kits IIRC) 

 

 

@tonyot  may well pitch in.

 

HTH

This is why I love BM - I completely hadn't noted that detail! I'm equally very sceptical of all profiles (which are wrong much of the time). I really appreciate your link as it has provided me the education I needed on the Hurricane's props. 

 

The need for a Rotol spinner does present something of a challenge though I'm considering a bit of milliput to fashion the extra shape required on top of one of Airfix's parts... 

Though I'll have to have a good look at the blades!

Edited November 23, 2019 by mahavelona

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I asked the same question last year. Here is a link to my thread. 

Maybe there is something in there to help you ? 

 

Dennis

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,...... as I`ve been tagged all I will add is that from my own research,... a Rotol propeller (there were being freighted into Malta by submarine and were highly pried in Malta,..... crashed aeroplanes had their propeller hubs reconditioned at the dockyards with new wooden blades made there too,... which were preferred by pilots!) was added to V7101 to give it an improved climb performance, as altitude was its main protection and its targets relatively close by, although Italy was also recced too. The veterans gave me a mixture for their application of `Bosun Blue' and the finish was based on that being introduced in Egypt by 2 PRU who also used the same colour with red and blue roundels on the fuselage,..... some also had these repeated below the wings too.  

The antenna mast was removed, and as far as I can gather the camera were said to be fitted in the radio/battery compartment,...... but as this was directly above the radiator,.... I placed my camera ports directly behind the radiator,..... it seems that some experimentation was done as V7101 was said to be very tail heavy and hard to trim.

As others have said,..... the only known photo of this aircraft shows it when it was being converted,...... the Bosun Blue finish had yet to be applied and the rudder camouflage shows up particularly well because the rudder is slightly deflected and catches the light.

 

All the best

               Tony 

[AWFK10]

I recall reading somewhere, possibly in Brian Cull's "Hurricanes Over Malta", that a new, streamlined windscreen was manufactured from a cut-down piece of perspex from another aircraft (maybe a Blenheim). Must try and dig out the reference.

 

Found it - Page 117. Sqn Ldr George Burgess:

 

"This had given us the idea of putting cameras in a Hurricane and I was given the job of sorting this out [greatly assisted by Sqn Ldr Louks, the Command Engineering Officer]. We were given V7101. We took out the guns, radio, armour plate and anything else we could safely get rid of and installed two cameras. Unfortunately, we didn't have the facilities to install extra fuel tanks and so we knew its range would be restricted to Sicily."

 

However, a quotation from Sqn Ldr Louks contradicts some of this:

 

"Using crashed Wellington fuel tanks, put an extra 150 gallons within its standard parameters, with an extra 25 gallon oil tank in the leading edge of one wing. Additional oxygen and two cameras, plus a one-piece windscreen and a perspex panel in the floor completed the mods.  The windscreen was half a Blenheim astrodome, which looked about the right size. Again we were lucky. It was. The range was now a maximum of 1,500 miles, and the results so satisfactory that subsequently we built several more to the same design."

 

The Blenheim didn't have an astrodome, of course, so either Sqn Ldr Louks was misremembering the donor aircraft (the same Wellington the tanks came from, maybe?) or it was some other piece of Blenheim glazing, which off the top of my head could only be the perspex blister for the Browning mounted under the hatch in the nose.

Edited November 25, 2019 by AWFK10
Additional information

[teaselstudio]

Hi all. Having created a Hurricane I artwork for a BoB publication, I was casting around for some other schemes and stumbled on this thread. So, a bit late to the party, but sifting through the fascinating discussion, I have come up with this as a summation. Vokes is on, on the basis that it was most likely to pick up abrasive nasties on take off or landing, so engine life would probably have taken priority over weight saving. I must say, that Bosun Blue  is quite startling! I'd really appreciate your comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Graham Boak]

The evidence for a PR colour based on a commercial product called "Bosun Blue", but modified, is considerable, enough to be definitive.  This was also later seen in the Far East.  From the photographic evidence, it is more than reasonable that the aircraft modified on Malta used this colour.

 

Too aft CG was a problem with the Mk.I Hurricanes, and Sea Hurricanes retained the heavier DH propeller for this reason.  It shows how the performance was seen as overwhelmingly important that the same was not done here.  In which case the tropical fairing for the air filter would be an unlikely choice, despite the maintenance penalty.  However, photos of this aircraft do exist to show whether it had this or not.

[teaselstudio]

More than happy to cover both bases!