1/72 Arma Hobby Hurricane I x 3

[Stew Dapple]

Hello gents  

 

Having fulfilled my 'contractual obligations' by completing a build, but still having a full two months' worth of Group Build left, I thought I would start another build, secure in the knowledge that should I fail to complete it no permanent shame would attach  

 

'It' as in them, as it turned out, since I had been hankering to build the Arma Hobby Hurricane I since I first got hold of one. I actually ended up with... well let's just say 'several' and not enquire further. The most recent three were the 'Battle of Britain' edition sets, one of which I pre-ordered from Arma Hobby and promptly forgot about, and two from BlackMike Models:

 

 

I acquired some aftermarket specifically, namely three of the Peewit mask sets for this kit, two vinyl camouflage mask sets ('A' & 'B' schemes) and from the existing stuff-stash three sets of the Eduard Microfabric Sutton harnesses which I believe they no longer make, which is a shame as while they have their limitations I preferred them to the pre-painted etched ones:

 

 

Also from the existing stash I have accumulated over the years quite a selection of transfers:

 

 

That's most of them, I've actually got some others but there's no need to go nuts about it. I'm planning on doing Flight Lieutenant Ian Gleed's LK-A 'Figaro' from 87 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Michael Crossley's GZ-B from 32 Squadron and the Belgian Pilot Officer Victor Ortmans' RE-D 'Bebe' from 229 Squadron.

 

I started by cleaning up the wing parts and removing the moulded-in navigation lights as these are provided as clear parts and you'd be missing out not to use them. I also de-sprued and cleaned up the landing-gear bay parts:

 

 

I say 'cleaned up' but in all these cases it just required tidying up the sprue attachment point nubs and the mould seams on the compressed air bottles. The gear bays were assembled:

 

 

... and fitted. I actually didn't cement the gear bays in place, they just click in but there is enough play I think to put them in slightly wrong which could make joining the wing halves problematic. Leaving them unglued gave me the capacity for a little wiggle room and only finger pressure was required to close the wing halves up:

 

 

I'm on leave this week, so hope to get more done today...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, a Stew Dapple 1/72 triple!

[Graham T]

My daughter came home from work today with an Arma Hobby Yak 1-b.  Her boss bought it and asked her to give it to me - no idea why, except he knew I build models!  Anyway, it's really the wrong scale & subject matter for me but it looks really, really nice so I'll nail it together & let him see the result.

[Rabbit Leader]

23 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

... and promptly forgot about. 

Either you have way too many kits or there were a few too many candles on last years birthday cake Stew! 

That's an impressive start to what is proving to be a very popular little kit. Those lads at Arma must be quite chuffed at recent sales. 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[Stew Dapple]

42 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Either you have way too many kits or there were a few too many candles on last years birthday cake Stew!

 

Six of one Dave, and a half-dozen of the other  

 

Arma deserve to be doing well from it; I built their P.7a and was very impressed with that, these Hurricanes seem to be equally well-engineered and -thought out and the surface detailing is just beautiful. I've got a couple of the 'Expert' set as well, but to be honest if you don't use the seat harness and IP you don't need anything other than the basic set and some masks. I've got the IIb kit as well, and it looks like they changed some of the less well-thought out parts - like adding the undercarriage legs at an early stage of assembly - for the later kits. As it happens I didn't fit the undercarriage legs yet as it has been proven by @Procopius and others that you can fit them at the end anyway, so I'm happy to save myself the trouble right now  

 

I fitted the interior parts to the upper wings, they should be easy enough to paint in situ:

 

 

... and de-sprued all the parts to be painted Aluminium:

 

 

Some of those will need a bit of interior Grey-green too. I might do that first. Also I sorted out the relevant paint:

 

 

Better get back at it  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Stew Dapple]

My progress up to this morning... I de-sprued and cleaned up the canopy parts, they were a little less than optimal but after a couple of dips in Klear they looked a deal better:

 

 

However subsequent to that I read that Arma Hobby have revised the clear parts and made new thinner ones, which are on sale individually, so I ordered a few of those and will hold off on the masking untll they arrive; if the new ones are noticeably better I shall use them instead. I made up some 'paint kebabs' for the parts that need to be sprayed interior green:

 

 

... and one to paint the interiors of the radiators in Sky:

 

 

That was duly done, and while I was waiting for the paint to cure I made up the props and spinners - all three of my choices had Rotol spinners:

 

 

Then I sprayed the Aluminium, I used some AK Extreeeeeeme Metal White Aluminium which arrived from Duncan at BlackMike models; it sprayed nicely onto the unprimed plastic though it is hard to descern in the picture due to the shiny qualities of the unpainted plastic:

 

 

I painted the radiator grilles and scraped the Sky paint off the mating surfaces:

 

 

... and now I can start the detail painting and fitting bits together  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Graeme H]

Blimey you are a machine

[Stew Dapple]

6 minutes ago, Graeme H said:

Blimey you are a machine

 

A machine who has the week off, come Monday it's back to normal

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Graeme H]

11 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

 

A machine who has the week off, come Monday it's back to normal

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

OK, all done by Saturday then

I had so much trouble getting my props together and you seem to have aced them in a single go, I must be doing something wrong

[Stew Dapple]

8 hours ago, Graeme H said:

OK, all done by Saturday then

 

 

8 hours ago, Graeme H said:

I had so much trouble getting my props together and you seem to have aced them in a single go, I must be doing something wrong

 

Was it fitting the spinner to the backplate that gave you a problem? It doesn't sit quite flush and it had me scratching my head for a while, but I believe that it's not meant to fit flush so that when installed you have a slight gap between the nose and the prop unit as you see on Rotol Hurricanes.

 

I fitted the seats and seatbelts:

 

 

I applied a little Citadel Nuln Oil black wash to the slot in the armour plate and the hole in the seat to give more of an impression of depth rather than just an indentation in the plastic. Not the best photo, soz.

 

I painted up the IPs and applied the transfers for the dials, there are two to lay on top of the plastic part, one goes on top of the other. It was a bit of a learning process and if I'd known at the start what I knew at the end I would have proceeded as follows (note that this applies to the sets with the Techmod decals, it may not be the case with the Expert sets which have Cartograph decals): don't use a setting solution, use water on the IP part and let the decal soak and apply it wet, otherwise it will stick where it lands and neither God nor man will move it. If you land it on a wet surface it can be moved around easily enough and is strong enough to take being prodded around with the point of your tweezers or a cocktail stick or the like. Once you've got it in position press directly down on the transfer with a damp cloth and it will sink straight in, no problem. I applied some Deco Strong afterwards; how necessary that was is up for debate but overkill holds no shame for me. This is how it ended up, not perfect but adequate given what will be seen from outside the cockpit after assembly:

 

 

I fitted the interior side parts and did the detail painting:

 

 

I've seen that trim adjuster wheel in black and a sort of Bakelite brownish-red colour as well as Aluminium, but from the few wartime cockpit photos where it can be made out I decided to go with Aluminium. I scraped out the recess for the IP with a file as this seems to be potentially problematical when closing the fuselage halves so some sanding and test-fitting will be advisable to minimise the risk of filler later.

 

Finally as a sort of side project I assembled the radiators:

 

 

Hopefully will start getting the cockpits together today  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said:

Was it fitting the spinner to the backplate that gave you a problem? It doesn't sit quite flush and it had me scratching my head for a while, but I believe that it's not meant to fit flush so that when installed you have a slight gap between the nose and the prop unit as you see on Rotol Hurricanes.

I wondered the same thing and came to the exact same conclusion. 

[Johnson]

What an amazing production line Stew!

 

My Arma Hurricane arrived today and it looks great (along with the Hobby 2000 F-4C Vietnam Aces Vol 2 - which also looks fantastic ). As you say, 'surface detailing is just beautiful'.

On 9/3/2020 at 7:36 AM, Stew Dapple said:

I read that Arma Hobby have revised the clear parts and made new thinner ones, which are on sale individually, so I ordered a few of those

I see what you mean from your pic. Thinner ones not available from Hannants yet, if they ever are.

 

10 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

(note that this applies to the sets with the Techmod decals, it may not be the case with the Expert sets which have Cartograph decals): don't use a setting solution, use water on the IP part and let the decal soak and apply it wet, otherwise it will stick where it lands and neither God nor man will move it. If you land it on a wet surface it can be moved around easily enough and is strong enough to take being prodded around with the point of your tweezers or a cocktail stick or the like.

That's very useful. I got into all sorts of trouble using Techmod decals on a Corsair last year. They were beautifully printed, very thin, but stuck instantly and broke-up when trying to move them. Almost gave me a nervous breakdown.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:03 PM, Johnson said:

I see what you mean from your pic. Thinner ones not available from Hannants yet, if they ever are.

 

Thanks Charlie, I ordered mine direct from Arma Hobby, I've dealt with them before and can recommend them.

 

On 9/4/2020 at 6:03 PM, Johnson said:

That's very useful. I got into all sorts of trouble using Techmod decals on a Corsair last year. They were beautifully printed, very thin, but stuck instantly and broke-up when trying to move them. Almost gave me a nervous breakdown.

 

They're really nice transfers and look great when they're on, but they can be 'challenging' but I think with plenty of water you should find them easier to use, don't worry about washing all the sticky off them, they've got plenty  

 

I fitted the interior parts, this is what I ended up with:

 

 

I test-closed up the fuselage halves after each bit and believed I had done it correctly but subsequent events led me to question my faith in this. A couple of things to look out for: the most obviously awkward part to fit is the triangular tubing that runs from the IP to under the seat - it attaches to a recess in the back of the compass mounting as here:

 

 

At the back end I attached it underneath the rear bulkhead, but I think I may have fixed the bottom of the rear bulkhead too far forward so that it sits on the side tubing. When I came to attach the wings this area gave me trouble, being fractionally wider than the 'slot' between the two upper wings and I had to do some sanding there, so I think perhaps the rear bulkhead should fit just behind the side tubing - I have no way of knowing for sure, until I build another, but I will have a bit more caution there, it just seemed the obvious place for it to go, but the apparently obvious is not always the correct assumption. Excuse the mess behind the rear bulkhead, by the way, after fitting it I slathered some gel superglue there to make sure of the attachment.

 

To skip back a bit, the fuselage halves went together fine, I'm sure sanding the edges of the IP and deepeninig the slots a little saved me some grief there, but in any case the fit was really good, the back half required no more than a scrape with a scalpel blade for an invisible join; I ran some Mr Surfacer 500 along the top of the cowling in the hope that the join along there will be equally invisible:

 

 

In between that I sprayed the spinners and props RAF Night:

 

 

As intimated above I had to sand the wing roots and upper wing halves to get a comfy fit of the wings, and this required some use of rubber bands and Anglo-Saxon but was acheived in the end:

 

 

While those were setting I made up the tailplanes:

 

 

These only fit one way up, so if you have difficulty there, try it the other way up. They are poseable if you want to build them with the characteristic 'droop' but for the sake of easier masking and spraying I fitted mine in the neutral position.

 

I de-sprued and cleaned up the tail-fins; forewarned by @lasermonkey a test-fit showed too tight a fit to the stabilisers to be happy with, so as he had done before me I thinned the parts that fit into the stabiliser slots with a couple of strokes of the scalpel on both sides:

 

 

That made for a much more comfortable fit and suddenly: Hurricanes!

 

 

Oh. and I fitted the radiators:

 

 

And that's where I am now. Hopefully I'll get some more done today. Back to work tomorrow, not looking forward to that  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

[jean]

Hi Stew,

impressively brilliant comes to my mind.

Stakanov had nothing on you, but look at the bright side: you will be able to rest at work!

 

Great show

JR

[Jabba]

A glutton for punishment with building 3 at once, but you are coping with it very well with 3 impressive builds.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks very much gents  

 

When I first built up the wheelbays I used them as a template to roughly cut out some bits of washing-up sponge:

 

 

These were fitted to each of the aircraft:

 

 

... and today the Sky undersides were sprayed. For the last few years I have used a base-coat of (almost) black paint and built the colours up from there. It's not a difficult process, at least on single-colour schemes and works well with lighter colours in particular. However it is time-consuming as well as being a bit of a faff and I thought this time I would just spray the colours onto the bare plastic and see if the difference black-basing makes is actually worth the effort. I won't know for sure until the end, of course.

 

 

As you can see, I removed the sponge masks from the gear bays. I have these to use again at a later date if so required, possibly I might even need three of them in one go again  

 

 

I even remembered to paint the undercarriage doors - for those of you wondering about the sticking power of the AK Extreeeeme Metal colour, I can confirm that it can be stuck to a coffee stirrer with Blu-tack while the reverse side is sprayed with Sky and then removed from the Blu-tack without the paint coming off:

 

 

Well you can't see it very well, but it is there. Finally I painted the jaunty red spinner for Ian Gleed's 'Figaro'. I pondered briefly doing it in dull Roundel Red, but I'm sure I remember Widge Gleed describing it as 'bright red' somewhere - I didn't remember where so I couldn't verify that, but I thought I'd risk what's left of my reputation and go with a bright red.

 

 

Next up will be masking the undersides. (Unenthusiastic Cheer sound effect here please)  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[wimbledon99]

Blimey, I thought there was something wrong with my eyes. You'll have Greg Wallace knocking on your door asking how the factory works!!

 

Lovely progress though

[Stew Dapple]

In a series of acts that clearly illustrate the term 'Displacement activity' instead of masking the undersides a couple of things occurred, one directly linked to @lasermonkey's haunted invisible seams on the upper cowling which led me to apply a layer of Mr Surfacer along said seams in the hope of not having to do any more filling and sanding after this, and the second came with the realisation that I would need to fit the canopies prior to painting the uppersurfaces anyway. I painted the forward part of the 'doghouse' RAF Dark Green (the bonus being that these are Dark Green for both the A & B schemes), the instrument panel coaming in Interior Grey-green and painted and fitted the little gunsights:

 

 

Then I got out the punch and die set and made some little discs out of clear acetate:

 

 

These were then fitted to represent the reflector plate on the gunsights:

 

 

I think they are perhaps slightly overscale and are largely invisible except when they catch the light, but it amused me for a couple of hours and that is sufficient justification for me  

 

Next will be masking and fitting the canopies; the new-mould ones from Arma are still showing as 'pre-order' so I will go with the ones provided with the kits. Once that is done it will - really - be time to mask the undersides but those are jobs for the weekend  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

Looking good, Stew!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Stew

Very good job so far ..

Best regards

Patrice

[Johnson]

3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

In a series of acts that clearly illustrate the term 'Displacement activity'

I'm doing that all the time. Explains why my build drags on... and on...

 

Looks good Stew, worth the effort.

[Stew Dapple]

Thank you gents  

 

I fitted the Peewit canopy masks; they fit very well:

 

 

I did all three of course but since the all look the same it seemed a waste of effort to photograph all of them  

 

The canopies were then fitted:

 

 

Then the undersides were masked. I mostly used the normal Tamiya tape for this but at the forward wing to fuselage join and the underside of the rear fuselage I used some Vallejo masking tape that I got from Duncan at BlackMike models - I bought it as it comes in 3mm width as well as 6mm and 10mm and I thought it would be easier for the narrower fuselage underside. I was very iimpressed with it, obviously the proof of the pudding will be in the removal but in terms of applying it I thought it was better than the Tammy tape, quite flexible and with a good stick to it. That said, my Tamiya tape is quite old and the difference may just be down to that. Anyway, here's where I'm at:

 

 

I sense some Dark Earth in my immediate future  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Stew Dapple]

So: I sprayed the Dark Earth, they got lovely smooth milk-chocolatey coats that do not show up at all well on my screen:

 

 

... while that was drying I opened the P-Mask vinyl mask set and... Hell's Kitchen! What deviment is this?!? The masks are for the Dark Green portions of the camo! 

 

That to me flies in the face of logic; isn't it always darker colour over the lighter colour? 

 

Well we are where we are, and they are heading back to the spray booth. 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[dogsbody]

Aren't masking 1/72 Hurricane canopies just the greatest? How you managed to do three at once is beyond me! I had a hard enough time doing one.

 

 

 

Chris

[wimbledon99]

I reckon you're in denial over those masks Stew. Looks like grey primer to me   

 

P.S. I have to ask; What's with the happy and sad corks??