Old but gold Airfix 1/24 Hurricane

[CheshireGap]

Copyright on the instruction dates this release to 1990, its been in my stash since around that time, and its turn has finally come around...I fancied doing something BoB this year, and chose this beastie, however lockdown and I did not get on, progress has been spectacularly slow after the mojo evaporated, only picking up again recently. Overall 2020 is likely to see only two kits come to completion, and one of those was started in 2019. I can only hope that next year is better all round...anyhow, to catch up with the progress since March, we kick off with what all old kits need, a good sound filling of ejection pin marks.

 

I decided I was going to have the cowls off on one side, so opening up the cowl fasteners.

 

To this end I separated the single piece cowls into two, testing fitting also seemed to imply that this would be easier to fettle into the slightly warped front fuselage.

 

I prefer a painted instrument panel, so had a crack at the Airfix two piece offering

 

Cockpit painted with Vallejo Duraluminium with a few drops of grey added to dull it down further

 

Some chipping and weathering

 

Whilst I am not going to super-detail anything, I did decide I would improve a few areas, such as the rear tail light, here being measured up against a piece of sanded clear sprue

 

Prop taking shape

 

And the gun bay, only one of which will be left open

 

There is a bit of warping around the front, and left to its own device the nose tilts forward slightly, meaning the top cowl does not fit without persuasion, and super glue; here the front has been glued, later the rear would be given the same treatment; note I have undercoated the rear with a bit of Humbrol Hull red enamel, which is a good approximation for the dope used on the fabric areas

 

A little view inside the cockpit which has been spruced up with some Eduard belts

 

And all finally together; the front cowl is just tacked on as that will be removeable

 

The aerial and base is being prepared, drilled and pre-fitted with some invisible thread; the fit has been fettled to make it near perfect so it can go in at the end

 

At this point plans started to change; I had planned to add camouflage but in the manner of the original would have been, over bare metal areas and doped fabric; however once this was down and a wash put on to highlight all those raised rivets, I thought it looked really good! Because enthusiasm is still up and down, I have elected to forgo the BoB paint job and finish it "factory fresh", as it would look off the production line before it hit the paint job, or at least how it would in my imagination. This finish looks great in the large scale. There is only one problem: the Vallejo wash seems to soften the Vallejo metallics, making them rather delicate, meaning that in attempting to clean up the wash some damage has been done.

 

Because of this I am going to mask up properly and tidy up both the metallic and the fabric areas. Washes will then be kept to a minimum, and having chosen this scheme it means I get to short-cut and head straight to final assembly - no weathering, no varnishing, no decals! That will wrap up what has been a long slog, and enable me to get on to something a bit smaller and less daunting, and hopefully a bit quicker!

 

 

 

 

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, CheshireGap said:

At this point plans started to change; I had planned to add camouflage but in the manner of the original would have been, over bare metal areas and doped fabric; however once this was down and a wash put on to highlight all those raised rivets, I thought it looked really good! Because enthusiasm is still up and down, I have elected to forgo the BoB paint job and finish it "factory fresh", as it would look off the production line before it hit the paint job, or at least how it would in my imagination. This finish looks great in the large scale.

Hurricanes were painted piecemeal on the line, they would not have looked like the above. 

The metal, AFAIK, got primed as well.

This is later production, but gives a very good idea of how they got painted as the progressed, but after the switch to grey green interior structure.

The Artist is Elsie Hewland, and she  2 more from Langley. 

 

If you want a partial NMF,  the 'Admirals Barge' form the Rhodeian Air Training Group (RATG) is a candidate

 

 

Other got a coat of overall aluminium dope, this one looks to have got the pre war finish, with bare polished metal.

 

WE have had other models like this,  there was a fascinating Mosquito and IIRC, IL-2 Sturmovik done like this.

 

Neat work on the old beast,