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A massive 601 Sqn Hurricane (1/24 Airfix)


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Hello All,

 

This is the build I have been looking forwards to this year. It will be of the most flamboyantly liveried Hurricane from my Grandad's squadron, which had an RAF roundel on the spinner and a lightning strike down the side of the fuselage.  

 

It appears the squadron rotated several times between Tangmere and Exeter during the Battle of Britain and the clearest photo I have seen comes from Exeter:

 

The photo below is linked from another Britmodeller thread

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This is the kit I will be using:

 

50086608142_49eb32e10b_k.jpgIMG_20200707_102503_658 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

 

In addition to the kit which was a rather awesome present from my parents, I have a few extras:

-Yahu Instrument Panel.

-HGW fabric seatbelts.

-Montex Mask for the scheme (and then another mini mask for the canopy because the scheme one was designed for the trumpy kit and so I suspect might have some slight fit issues).

-Tamiya pit crew who will be subject to mild surgery to make them into RAF ground crew.

 

I also have this scheme in 1/72 so may do an Arma Hobbies version of this same aircraft as a pick me up if this turns into too much of a slog.

Mostly though, I am just excited to get the Friday and get started on my biggest build to date!

 

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9 minutes ago, OutcastJoel said:

@Erwin It looks like a really nice kit, the detail is much better than I was expecting, having built other Airfix kits from the 70s.

Most of all, it is a beast, I can't get over how huge it is!

The Hurricane is one of the best from the old series (not Mosquito,Typhoon and Hellcat).

 

IMO the Ju 87 is the best.

 

But if you want a better detailed Hurricane,then you should go with Trumpeter.

I have one for the MTO group build later this year.

Edited by Erwin
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3 minutes ago, Erwin said:

The Hurricane is one of the best from the old series (not Mosquito,Typhoon and Hellcat).

 

IMO the Ju 87 is the best.

I have never actually seen any of the others, have you built them? 

 

The main problem with models this big is where to put them once done. This will be hung on the wall but If I made many I would run out of wall space very fast!

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21 minutes ago, OutcastJoel said:

I have never actually seen any of the others, have you built them? 

 

The main problem with models this big is where to put them once done. This will be hung on the wall but If I made many I would run out of wall space very fast!

I've build all WW-2 at some time. Not yet the Hellcat.

The Ju 87 is in fact the only one I kept over the years,and the more recent Typhoon and Mosquito.

 

Here's my rating:

 

Nr 1 : Ju 87 

Nr 2 : Hurricane

Nr 3 : Fw 190 A

Nr 4 : P-51 

Nr 5 : Me 109 E 

Nr 6 : Spitfire  

 

BTW,don't worry about 1/24 being big.

I've build the 1/18 th Hobby Boss Me 262 last month and I am currently building the Fw 190 A.

 

Those are BIG !

Edited by Erwin
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18 minutes ago, Erwin said:

I've build all WW-2 at some time. Not yet the Hellcat.

The Ju 87 is in fact the only one I kept over the years,and the more recent Typhoon and Mosquito.

 

Here's my rating:

 

Nr 1 : Ju 87 

Nr 2 : Hurricane

Nr 3 : Fw 190 A

Nr 4 : P-51 

Nr 5 : Me 109 E 

Nr 6 : Spitfire  

 

BTW,don't worry about 1/24 being big.

I've build the 1/18 th Hobby Boss Me 262 last month and I am currently building the Fw 190 A.

 

Those are BIG !

A 1/18 262 must be about a meter across? That is a serious project, do you have a build link?

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45 minutes ago, OutcastJoel said:

A 1/18 262 must be about a meter across? That is a serious project, do you have a build link?

 

Edited by Erwin
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Lovely to have you guys along, the more the merrier!

 

I have been so stoked about this build and ripped into it as soon as work was over today.

The detail is much nicer than I was expecting, and there is less flash than I was expecting for the zillionth repop of a 1970s tooling.

 

The Merlin is really lovely but there is some squiffy fitting around the top end of the block so quite of lot of filing and filling is needed. 

Unfortunately, I need to leave the filler to dry so I have had to halt my progress on the engine, fingers crossed for getting the paint on tomorrow.

50097824968_fca540e4b2_k.jpg20200710_212835_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 

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35 minutes ago, MarkSH said:

The Merlin is great isn't it?, nice start.

It is a gorgeous little kit, as an engineering geek I think I would buy it by itself if Airfix ever released it like that. 

(If anyone has one they didn't use on a build and they want to sell please PM me!)

 

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I have pretty much finished the engine, it will probably add some more wiring and piping as it get added onto the fuselage but it is done for now.

50108382968_b7f109bd2a_k.jpg20200713_161414_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

 

The cockpit isn't too far behind, I am working on the truly beautiful HGW seatbelts which are amazing!

50109191492_581401d450_k.jpg20200713_185424_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

50108382743_aef6efe639_k.jpg20200713_185234_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

 

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Engine and pit are looking really good there, top job!

 

The casting on the Merlin looks a lot better than Airfix's big Spitfires does, at least the one that came with my banana shaped release.

 

Geoff 

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7 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

Engine and pit are looking really good there, top job!

 

The casting on the Merlin looks a lot better than Airfix's big Spitfires does, at least the one that came with my banana shaped release.

 

Geoff 

Thank you. Given how many repops there have been of this, the molds are in surprisingly good shape! 

My fuselage halves are still on the sprue but look to be much straighter than the horror stories I have heard about these big kits from Airfix.

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Think some of it is luck, but some of it is most definitely down to the release. My copy is the 2011 gift set of the Spit, more flash than spruce, several different plastics used, more warping than an episode of Star Trek and helpfully, 2-3mil difference in the two hull halves and all parts on those runners. Challenging!

 

Geoff 

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@Bugle07 "more warping than an episode of Star Trek" 😂 

Excellent description!

Mine is the 2014 gift set boxing which is supprisingly nicely molded, I wonder if they got such a pasting in 2011 that they refurbished the molds? (Is that even economically possible?) I suppose it is also possible that the tooling on the Spit just degraded faster.

The use of multiple different plastics is just inexcusable though.

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18 hours ago, OutcastJoel said:

The cockpit isn't too far behind, I am working on the truly beautiful HGW seatbelts which are amazing!

50109191492_581401d450_k.jpg20200713_185424_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

 

 

Looks like Airfix have not bothered to update the paint instructions.   For many years the dogma was RAF aircraft were all grey green inside, and later on in the war, they were.

 

But, Hurricane internals apart from the upper cockpit walls and rear bulkhead, which are grey-green, the rest is aluminium paint

That's cockpit framing, seat, engine bearers, inside wheel wells, flaps, gun bays.....

This is true for all up to it seems the eight production batch in 1942, apart from the ones built at Austin Motors, and most of them went to Russia.

 

5 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

My copy is the 2011 gift set of the Spit, more flash than spruce, several different plastics used, more warping than an episode of Star Trek and helpfully, 2-3mil difference in the two hull halves and all parts on those runners.

from threads on here with post by folks who know about injection moulding, not the moulds, but lack of care in the moulding,  probably running too fast and without care,  especially if a later batch is OK.

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@Troy Smith thank you, I did wonder, most of the preserved examples seemed to be all green except the US airforce museum and I nearly went with silver just to add a little more contrast but went the wrong way at the last moment. 

I am undecided as to whether I can be bothered to fix it...

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17 minutes ago, OutcastJoel said:

@Troy Smith thank you, I did wonder, most of the preserved examples seemed to be all green except the US airforce museum and I nearly went with silver just to add a little more contrast but went the wrong way at the last moment. 

I am undecided as to whether I can be bothered to fix it...

A quick spray using a Tamiya Acrylic Bare Metal Silver rattle can could save the day?

 

Mike

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8 hours ago, mick b said:

A quick spray using a Tamiya Acrylic Bare Metal Silver rattle can could save the day?

 

Mike

Annoyingly the seatbelts are glued in place... 

I did basecoat it with Alclad for chipping purposes so I might just attack the seat with a toothpick tonight. 

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On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2020 at 2:37 PM, Troy Smith said:

 

Looks like Airfix have not bothered to update the paint instructions.   For many years the dogma was RAF aircraft were all grey green inside, and later on in the war, they were.

 

But, Hurricane internals apart from the upper cockpit walls and rear bulkhead, which are grey-green, the rest is aluminium paint

That's cockpit framing, seat, engine bearers, inside wheel wells, flaps, gun bays.....

This is true for all up to it seems the eight production batch in 1942, apart from the ones built at Austin Motors, and most of them went to Russia.

 

from threads on here with post by folks who know about injection moulding, not the moulds, but lack of care in the moulding,  probably running too fast and without care,  especially if a later batch is OK.

Thank you very much for posting this, Troy.

 

I had no idea.

I might add a Hasegawa Hurricane Mk I to the GB and I'd have painted that complete interior grey green.

 

Cheers, Stefan.

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Thank you very much guys for the help and suggestions.

I am slightly annoyed with myself for not asking up front what the scheme should be but after a good chunk of time scraping away with a toothpick, I think it looks pretty decent.

Whilst it isn't strictly accurate I left green on the foot rests because I really like the chipping effect.

I also started on a 1/72nd version of the same aircraft, so, little and large:

50123812801_2a3ffd143d_k.jpg20200717_215759_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr

 

I am also making slow progress on more of the sub assemblies and hope to have something pictureworthy at some point over the weekend.

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