Hawker Hurricanes around the world

[Beard]

4 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

[...] presumably, wouldn't hold a candle to Arma?

Correct. They all have their faults, I can't remember them all but the Hasegawa (the youngest one) has issues with the fabric fuselage, the Airfix (which is over 40) has a too narrow nose and is lacking in detail, and the Revell is nearly 60 years old and, IIRC, has heavily riveted wings. I'm sure some-one more knowlegable (paging @Troy Smith) will be able to correct me.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

44 minutes ago, Beard said:

Correct. They all have their faults, I can't remember them all but the Hasegawa (the youngest one) has issues with the fabric fuselage, the Airfix (which is over 40) has a too narrow nose and is lacking in detail, and the Revell is nearly 60 years old and, IIRC, has heavily riveted wings. I'm sure some-one more knowlegable (paging @Troy Smith) will be able to correct me.

Something tells me Arma's Mk I will be the 1/72 standard for quite some time! Certainly I would have some suggestions for how the kit could be improved in terms of ease of assembly, but there's no denying it's remarkable.

[Troy Smith]

6 hours ago, Beard said:

Off the top of my head, before the Arma Hobby came along the choices were Revell, Airfix, or Hasegawa.

for what Mk?

 

The first basically decent 72nd Hurricane kits were the Heller IIc (late 70's) and Airfix Mk.I (1978)

Heller has a too upper nose nose, and the wing is too broad at the tips. PLus the wheel well follow cutout line. 

Airfix has the too thin upper nose, in 72nd, and is basic.   

Raised panel lines.

But, with 'some modelling skill' they are basically well shaped, the Heller fabric is of note.

 

I think the Hase kit are the first that get upper nose correct, or nearer.

 

The early 70's Airfix Mk.I/IIB is better shaped than usually given credit for being, but is covered in big rivets...

 

Re Revell,  they did a kit in the early 60's that is as good as most early 60's Revell kits were.  Pretty much unsalvagable shapewise, and later copied Aoshima. 

 

the later Revell of Germany kits have their problems.    I've not pinned down all the faults, but i don't think they are always what they are stated to be.  

The Academy has to to thin upper nose again.

 

The first overall decent 72nd Hurricane kits are probably the AZ/Legato IIC and the AZ Mk.IV.  

 

These are preliminary results, I've not really spent the time going through the 72nd, though this summer I wasted some cash on some of the missing  72nd kits, Airfix Mk,IV, Keilkraft IIC 

 

In time I'll do the run down on the lot, I'll probably build the crappy old ones for fun....  and see about fixes for the inbetween....   

 

I'll add more responses later...  

[Troy Smith]

5 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Something tells me Arma's Mk I will be the 1/72 standard for quite some time! Certainly I would have some suggestions for how the kit could be improved in terms of ease of assembly, but there's no denying it's remarkable.

I found it fiddly, but nothing that a bit of dry fitting,  adjustment and care would not fix,  and when I examined the IIC kit, that looked easier, though that as far as I have got.. 

6 hours ago, Beard said:

They all have their faults,

A brief run down of some above...  it's easier to list what I don't have than what I do....  think I'm down to 'needing'  a 1/96th Eagle and and 1/144 Crown/Arri IIC, and a 72nd HAsegawa Mk.II,  possibly got a 32nd Fly coming.  A builder Airfix Mk.IV would be good, I have one in 60's  bag, but that's quite neat as a nostalgia item...I have the remains of a built one in the shed though.

 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

4 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

for what Mk?

I was wondering what Mk I metal wing options existed pre-Arma; @Beard pointed out that there were indeed at least three, but all decades old and with their issues.

 

4 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

The first basically decent 72nd Hurricane kits were the Heller IIc (late 70's) 

I assume this is the Smer/Mistercraft I'm working with now? If so I didn't realize how old it was!

 

4 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

The first overall decent 72nd Hurricane kits are probably the AZ/Legato IIC and the AZ Mk.IV.  

I must say, I have grown to respect these kits (+the AZ Mk IId). They don't have Arma's polish for sure, but with some TLC they turn out alright. They also gave me my first opportunity to work with resin, which at first I was not so sure about but have come to appreciate as well.

 

4 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

I found it fiddly, but nothing that a bit of dry fitting,  adjustment and care would not fix,  and when I examined the IIC kit, that looked easier, though that as far as I have got..

Yes, my second attempt on the Arma Mk I has gone much better than the first in terms of the cockpit, wheel well, and propeller, so I definitely learned a few tricks (some of which I believe came from your WIP, @Troy Smith). And I agree all of these areas have been improved on the Mk IIb and IIc kits. I would still like them to mould the wings with the nav light cutouts instead of making me do that, but maybe I'm quibbling. 

 

I'm only about to work with the PE Arma's Expert kits include now (it will be my first time working with PE), but I've already been enjoying the masks they include, especially for the wheels. I am getting many uses out of them too--some of these must be getting used for the fourth or fifth time by now.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

So much for balmy... I went out to the garage to give the underside of these parts another blast . . . 

 

 

And on the way back inside a sprue piece blew off into the snow! Luckily, I was able to find it, but it was a close one!

 

[Troy Smith]

14 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I was wondering what Mk I metal wing options existed pre-Arma; @Beard pointed out that there were indeed at least three, but all decades old and with their issues.

I missed the Mk.I metal wing bit.  

The first would have been the Revell kit,  I was 'amused' to note that Revell are still including this and I think a similar vintage Spitfire Mk.I  in a BoB box set of theirs   

https://www.revell.de/en/products/modelmaking/planes/world-war-ii/80th-anniversary-battle-of-britain.html

 

You do get the new tool Ju-88, the rest are erm, 'Historical artefacts'  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFn2oXQdSw  

Decals look good though  

 

The next was the 1972 Airfix Mk.I/IIB,  which I think is really nearest to a Mk.IIA,  but also has bomb carriers, drop tanks, 40mm guns and rockets,  some early boxings list it as a Mk.IV.

I suspect this was 'inspired' by the 1/48th Monogram kit,  that again is closest to a Mk.IIA, and has the same stores options.

 

This was then supplemented by Airfix with the 1978 Mk.I,  the story of Airfix and the Hurricane is a strange one,  where they don't seem to refer to previous kits and what they got right and wrong,  I know this spans various owners,  but you'd have thought they might have seen what already had been done....

 

After that I think the next Mk.I is the Hasegawa, part of a multivariant kit, (of which you have done the Hobby 2000 boxing) though in their 1/48th kits, they have separate noses from windsceen forward, the 72nd kit have separate nose from wing forward, and so the base kit is a Mk.II, and some kits have a shorter nose section.   I only have one Hasegawa 72nd kit, their BoB Hurricane,  so not certain of their Mk.II details,  though they do appear to have used a US warbird for the Mk.II spinner. 

 

 

14 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I assume this is the Smer/Mistercraft I'm working with now? If so I didn't realize how old it was!

Yes, it was reboxed by Smer, some have a small etch fret.    I've 'lost' the box containing of the one I was adjusting. 

Technically also an Airfix kit, as it was included in 1990's era Battle of Britain Flight set.    I have one in a Humbrol as well.

 

cheers

T

[dogsbody]

4 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

So much for balmy... I went out to the garage to give the underside of these parts another blast . . . 

 

 

Yeah, that  blew up here, starting late last night. I just came in from a 1.5 hour session with my new snowblower.

 

 

Chris

[ModelingEdmontonian]

As @Troy Smith points out above, India (Smer Mk IIc) includes a photo etch part for the IP, as well as a thin plastic piece. So, before wrecking the lovely Arma stuff, I decided to make this my first foray into the world of PE.

 

 

The instructions suggest using the PE over the plastic.

 

 

There is no colour called for on the styrene. I had already painted it black, but then the clear dials on the plastic piece are useless, so I applied some white paint over the black, and painted the PE black.

 

 

Then I cut out the PE (harder than I expected!) and glued it to the plastic.

 

 

That gave me something to cut around. White wasn't working on the styrene, so I applied a little titanium to try to give it more pop. This was the result:

 

 

Why is the styrene piece so obnoxiously oversized? I considered hacking off the bottom, but decided I was not that motivated given how little (i.e., probably none) will be visible, and instead just re-painted the lower portion (and upper cut away) black. Then I dry brushed some titanium over top, before applying Pledge. 

 

 

Pretty underwhelming! Ok, ok, so I did this all fast, not allowing anything to dry properly, used my cheap junky paints for the black and white, and, sure, my poor photography and modeling skills are no doubt betrayed here; but ultimately makes me think Arma really has their IPs figured out (even without using the PE--their decals on the styrene are amazing!).

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I gathered a sextuplet of joysticks and "Pledged" the other IP pieces, although I had originally forgotten to sand off Portugal's (Arma Mk IIc) detail in order to prepare it for the PE, so it will need another coat of black. Those are the (over-sized) Smer/Mistercraft seats hanging out in the top right for the apparently legless pilots with giant torsos.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Some decals slapped on a quadruplet of IPs... on the top right Yugoslavia (AZ Mk IV) got a generic one I had; Netherlands (Arma Mk IIb) on the left and South Africa (Arma Mk I) on the right and Turkey (Mistercraft Mk IIc) on the bottom all got Arma decals, which come two-to-a-set (i.e., will all get a second decal overtop once these settle in).

 

 

Meanwhile, look how shiny Soviet Union (Mk IId) is on top!

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

All the decals are on Soviet Union (AZ Mk IId) now and I'm pretty happy with how most have settled overnight. There are a couple spots I'll re-apply Microsol and/or use a pin, but the fuselage stars in particular seem to have behaved admirably around the fabric detail. I used some of the AZ supplied stencils, plus dipped into spares to add walkway black and cut out some machine gun cover "fabric" for the lone machine gun the Mk IId carried.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Well, I was very intimidated by Arma's photo-etch, but in the end I am rather enjoying working with it.

 

 

Hopefully I get better with it but must say I am impressed with these seat belts and this is by far the best looking seat with seat belts I have been able to model yet.

 

 

On the other hand, not sure the work was all that worthwhile when it came to the IP (if you didn't know better, I am not sure anyone could pick out which one has PE on it):

 

 

Meanwhile, here is a pile of propellers 😆 Ireland's (Arma Mk I) is the one with the sky spinner. I must say, this is my third Arma Mk I prop spinner that did not go together properly 🙄 On the other hand, South Africa's (also Arma Mk I) did go together a little better. I have two more Arma Mk Is in the stash, maybe I can get it right on those 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Soviet Union (AZ Mk IId) now has a little underside weathering and her legs attached.

 

 

Won't bother with any weathering up top, so we're getting close to a matt clear coat before she's all wrapped up.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

The propellor factory continues with some yellow tipping. The Belgian (Airfix Mk I) prop is the two blade Watts and currently complete and waiting patiently elsewhere.

 

[PlaStix]

Very impressive progress again. I agree that seat with the harness does really good. Lovely job all round!

Kind regards,

Stix

[ModelingEdmontonian]

5 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Very impressive progress again. I agree that seat with the harness does really good. Lovely job all round!

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks, Stix! Maybe one day my Hurricanes will look a little more like yours... (we can hope, right? 😉)

 

All fuselages now buttoned up for the remaining phase 2 six, and one even has her wings (Netherlands [Arma Mk IIb])! The other five from left to right are: South Africa (Arma Mk I); Republic of Yugoslavia (AZ Mk IV); Turkey (Mistercraft Mk IIc); Portugal (Arma Mk IIc); and India (Smer Mk IIc). I have to say, it's really only now with these six that I'm appreciating how lovely TET can be to work with. 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

With a matt coat and prop mounted, Soviet Union (Mk IId) is all done from the underside.

 

 

Still need a matt coat up top and then of course canopy fitted and some silver applied as navigation lights before she's all done. 

 

[2996 Victor]

Great work, ME, Russia is looking splendid, if I may say so!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[ModelingEdmontonian]

India (Smer Mk IIc) will be my sole Hurricane of this project carrying bombs, so I borrowed Arma's bombs and bomb carriers, sanded off the pins, and mounted them freehand as best I could.

 

 

With those set, I could mount the wings and now have six winged birds; from left to right, top to bottom: India (Smer Mk IIc); South Africa (Arma Mk I); Republic of Yugoslavia (AZ Mk IV); Turkey (Mistercraft Mk IIc); Portugal (Arma Mk IIc); and Netherlands (Arma Mk IIb). 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Not much of an update, but some work has been happening on seven Hurricanes' worth o' wheels! After the paint, some Pledge.

 

 

Then some Tamiya panel liner applied to the hubs...

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Soviet Union (AZ Mk IId) is done! 

 

 

Meanwhile, some progress on radiators. Republic of Yugoslavia (AZ Mk IV) has a resin armoured radiator, and an unarmoured radiator (half plastic/half resin) is also in the box, as was the case for Argentina (AZ Mk IV), so those spares will serve as the radiators for India (Smer Mk IIc) and Turkey (Mistercraft Mk IIc). I got the resin ready for those and then moved to applying gunmetal to the interiors of six radiators, plus exhaust stacks (oh, and cannons for Portugal (Arma Mk IIc). I ran out of my Humbrol enamel gunmetal and was using Testors on Soviet Union, but really is not the same effect at all, so recently bought AK's version: https://ak-interactive.com/product/xtreme-metal-gun-metal-30ml/. Almost tempting to repaint Soviet Union's cannons with it, but I tend to want to leave completed models alone, so I probably won't. 

 

[Marklo]

That does look extremely good. Interesting colourscheme.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

That does look extremely good. 

Thank you, @Marklo

 

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Interesting colourscheme.

It's (supposed to be) Day Fighter Scheme, although I would acknowledge that the dark green (Tamiya XF81) I use is widely panned as an accurate representation of the RAF's colour. 

[Marklo]

13 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I use is widely panned as an accurate representation of the RAF's colour. 

Don’t get me started on accurate colour, there is no such thing.

 

As a modeller you can achieve pleasing colour or plausible colour. But seeing as colour perception is based on the lighting, the observer, the environment and the state of the object.

 

Trust me I’ve been trained in colour science. 
 

If you really want your head wrecked go check out the 4BO website, yes a whole website devoted to Russian vehicle green!

 

I’ll stop pontificating now  

Edited November 27, 2021 by Marklo