‘Hurricat’ 1/48 Hurricane & Catapult

[Gisbod]

Hi,

 

Thought I’d share my next project - Airfix’s new tool 1/48 Hurricane Mk.1 and the Resin & Brass NeOmega Catapult.

 

I saw the catapult at Telford and just had to have it, so I went scurrying round and found myself a Hurricane to sit on it with a few aftermarket items to spruce it up. A limited number of these CAM ships (Catapult, Aircraft, Merchant) were operated with (surprisingly!) some success. Not a plum posting for the pilots I would imagine!

 

First thoughts on the Hurricane are excellent! I’m surprised at the level of detail already for the cockpit and wings. The gun bays can be opened, but my initial thought is to keep them closed.

 

The Catapult looks great in the box..

 

Cheers

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by Gisbod

[Benbow]

Definitely pulling a seat up to follow this if you don't mind. I, like you, saw and bought the catapult from the Neomega stand at Telford as I thought it was a cracking way to display the Hurricane. Great progress so far!

[Troy Smith]

57 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

First thoughts on the Hurricane are excellent! I’m surprised at the level of detail already for the cockpit and wings. The gun bays can be opened, but my initial thought is to keep them closed.

Hi Guy

Have a read of this, as it deals with the Airfix Hurricane, warts and all. 

 

Never got an explanation of the paint job here

Sea Hurricane by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

There are some great photos about showing the Hurricane mounted on the catapult very well.

(I'll see if they are still about)

Also, check what prop you use,  do you have a specific subject in mind?

 

cheers

T

 

PS this is the one I had in mind,  note the catapult attachment hatches, and the sealed up gun ports and  shell ejector slots underwing,  and the cover on, and hose into the radiator.  

Pic will enlarge if opened in new tab

more CAM pics here

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hurricane/Sea-Hurricane.html

 

Note this plane has the Hurricane Rotol spinner,  not in the Airfix kit.

see here

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

 

 

[dnl42]

Oh, this is so cool!

 

[Gisbod]

Troy: 

 

Many thanks! Lots of very useful info there, much appreciated.

 

I’m going for this one - I’ve already got custom masks for it.

 

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

[Gisbod]

Ps Troy, is there a link to that Hurricane review you mentioned?

 

Guy

[Troy Smith]

28 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

Ps Troy, is there a link to that Hurricane review you mentioned?

 

Guy

 

here 

 

forgot to paste the link in 

 

also..my sig is there for a reaon

 

compared to the above, the photo shows non standard underwing (positions and proportions) and Fuselage roundel, blue ring is thicker than usual.

 

 

This one has the blunt Spitfire Rotol (in the kit)

 

 

 

this LU-V

 

has the DH Hurricane unit (in the kit)

 

IIRC this plane was flown, or to be flown by the late Wing Commander 'Tim' Elkington, who I corresponded with a while back.

I may have a bigger picture somewhere

 

HTH

 

PS https://johnelkington.com/2010/02/cam-ships-remembered/

 

PPS

I have attached a copy of photo of a Hurricane being offloaded onto a barge in Halifax, prior to its transfer to HMS Seaborn. The picture was taken by a CAM ship pilot Tim Elkington, who went on to flying Hurricanes in Russia

 

 

 

P3544

 

more in the linked thread

[Gisbod]

Blimey Troy,

 

That’s above and beyond the call of Britmodeller duty! Thank you. Loads to pore over there! 

 

Guy 

 

🤩

[Gisbod]

I’ve been pressing on and the cockpit didn’t take too long to finish. 

 

The Yahu instrument panel is insanely good and it feels like cheating using it!

 

There are other areas with photo etch - I only had a set for the Hasegawa Hurricane, but a lot of it was still useable for the Airfix kit 😉

 

The seat harnesses are HGW and although fiddly, are worth the effort I reckon.

 

I've closed everything up (fuselage & wings) and the fit is pretty good. I’ll need to tidy up a couple of seams but nothing too drastic.

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Off to a good start and making great progress Guy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

This is a very cool project; definitely got my attention.
 

I recently acquired Neomega’s not dissimilar section of 1/48 RN catapult, designed for the Airfix Walrus. It looks gorgeous, though I haven’t got further than opening the box yet. Being a contrary sort of git I think I will probably use it for my Tamiya Swordfish floatplane; it will need a bit of adaptation in the cradle, but should otherwise be fine.  It also enabled me to feel safe in donating Tamiya’s beaching gear to @Martian Hale’s splendid Roc floatplane target tug (of which there may well be a photo in the aviator’s dictionary alongside the entry for “parasite drag”!).

[Planebuilder62]

Dear Guy

 

When the Hurricat was launched, wooden blocks had benn fitted to keep the flaps set at the correct angle for more lift. Once airborne the flaps were jiggled so they fell out. 

 

Will that be replicated on your model?
 

Regards Toby

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

They did something similar with wooden wedges in the flaps when launching Spitfires from carriers on the Malta ‘club runs’.  

[Kushan_Farsight]

I always thought this was a courageous role to take on as a pilot, heavens forbid if you ever had to operate after sunset.  Great start on the project so far, love the interior details, and will be following with interest! 

[Gisbod]

Ah that’s interesting, no I didn’t know that.. 

 

Any pictures/ images of the said blocks? 
 

Guy

 

ps Eduard flaps partially installed:

 

 

 

 

[Astir8]

There was a description in Geoffrey  Wellum's "First Light" of wooden wedges being used on the Malta-bound Spitfires butit went no further than the fact that a lucky seaman was delegated to hold them in position while the flaps were retracted - and trying to avoid the loss of fingers in the process!

[Troy Smith]

3 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Any pictures/ images of the said blocks? 

just wood cut the right angle.   Hurricane (and Spitfire flaps) are a simple up/down affair,  so setting an angle would  require them open, add block, shut so it sets the angle and holds the piece of wood in place, open the flaps when in flight, block drops out, shut flaps as normal.  

 

in the links I posted above there are images like this

 

 

 

Hurrican flap when dropped are open wider than this,  as seen below, so I'd just eyeball the angle from the pics above. 

 

which is from this very useful walkround 

cheers

T

[Gisbod]

Many thanks again! 
 

Yes, the Sea Hurricane at Old Warden is lovely, I went there for an air show last year and got a few pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s just about the best airshow for photography! Here are a couple of others...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous day out!! 
 

 

I’ll think on the blocks...

 

 

Guy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 11/28/2019 at 9:10 PM, Troy Smith said:

Never got an explanation of the paint job here

Sea Hurricane by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

Salt on areas of the airframe that they couldn’t reach to clean?  Let’s face it, they weren’t going to be too fussed about long-term corrosion, cos they were planning to chuck the poor beastie into the Oggwash after one sortie anyway.

 

Just a guess.  Great photo, anyway.  Ditching or parachuting into that kind of sea would be dicey at the best of times; factor in Arctic temperatures when people died of cold shock within a very short time of immersion, all the more so.  Those boys were unbelievably brave.

[Gisbod]

24 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

Ditching or parachuting into that kind of sea would be dicey at the best of times; factor in Arctic temperatures when people died of cold shock within a very short time of immersion, all the more so.  Those boys were unbelievably brave.

Back in the day I did ditching drills in the Solent in full immersion suits in May time and people were really struggling after 20 mins. There’s a graph somewhere of survival times v temps etc and I seem to remember it being down to a couple of minutes at extreme temperatures.. 

 

As you say, the courage required to do that is pretty staggering - no immersion suits back then.

 

Guy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Likewise; wet winching every 2 years, with the Solent, Falmouth Bay, Portland Harbour and the Clyde Approaches all sampled at some point.  And that was wearing a goon bag (definitely not available to WW2 Hurricat pilots!), with a safety boat and knowing that in the end you’d definitely be rescued.  
 

My Dad told me that when he went through St Vincent for his initial Fleet Air Arm training in 1943 (en route to being a Barracuda Observer) his swimming was OK but nothing more; he asked the Instructor, a veteran of Artic Convoys, whether he could have extra tuition out of hours, and was told “Not really worth it, lad; if you’re unlucky enough to get shot down or sunk, it just takes the swimmers a little longer to drown”.

 

A Sea King friend of mine ditched in the South Atlantic, where the sea surface temperature is considerably lower than the UK because of the lack of Gulf Stream.  He and all his crew survived OK, but he said that the effect of suddenly entering the cold water literally took your breath away; it makes you involuntarily gasp, which can be fatal if your gasp occurs when your mouth is underwater.  And the Arctic would be even worse.  

[Nikolay Polyakov]

It’s a very interesting thread, Guy... Nice start with a cockpit - looks perfect! Watching your progress here. 👍🍿

[Gisbod]

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Likewise; wet winching every 2 years, with the Solent, Falmouth Bay, Portland Harbour and the Clyde Approaches all sampled at some point.  And that was wearing a goon bag (definitely not available to WW2 Hurricat pilots!), with a safety boat and knowing that in the end you’d definitely be rescued.  
 

My Dad told me that when he went through St Vincent for his initial Fleet Air Arm training in 1943 (en route to being a Barracuda Observer) his swimming was OK but nothing more; he asked the Instructor, a veteran of Artic Convoys, whether he could have extra tuition out of hours, and was told “Not really worth it, lad; if you’re unlucky enough to get shot down or sunk, it just takes the swimmers a little longer to drown”.

 

The dunker was my least favourite though! Used to dread that every year 🙄

 

Your Dad sounds like he had a fascinating career! My Dad was a photographer on HMS Eagle in the early 50’s.. I’ve got a stack of fabulous photos of aircraft from the time - Firefly’s, Sea Hawks, Avengers etc 🙂

[Gisbod]

I was planning on completing the Hurricane in it’s entirety, but the instructions for the Catapult are a bit vague as regards the positioning of the forward spools - the bit that is permanently attached to the aircraft - that slots into the catapult. So basically, I need to build the cradle first so I can be sure of the positioning.

 

 

 

Guy

[AltcarBoB]

Loving this build so far, keep up the good work.

 

Its amazing how the Hurricat pilots could fly let alone climb into the cockpit what with walking around with a huge pair of solid Brass balls in the long john department