Tres simple: FAFL Hawker Hurricane d'Afrique du Nord

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I am in the middle of a project I am calling "Hawker Hurricanes around the world." I've divided this project into three phases. In phase one I modeled one Hawker Hurricane in markings from each of Australia, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  I am now into phase two, which is to model Hurricanes in the markings of every other Allied nation that flew them, except for the RAF and those that wore RAF markings (e.g., Canada and New Zealand). Here is the WIP:

 

 

As part of phase two I am modeling a Free French Hawker Hurricane, and I put off starting it until this week so that I could join my first Group Build! I went back and forth between whether this would be an Mk I or an Mk IIb, but have settled on BG707, an Mk IIb.

 

 

 

I will be using this Fly kit.

 

 

There is some controversy over the camo scheme and markings this Hurc is wearing, but I intend to use the standard dark earth/middle stone over azure blue, and will figure out the markings later!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello M/E welcome to the build.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

In case interested, these are the "phase one" six that this FAFL Hurricane will be joining:

 

 

And this FAFL Mk IIb is joining four other "phase two" Hurricanes already underway on the bench.  These are, clockwise from top left, an Ireland Mk I (Arma), a Kingdom of Yugoslavia Mk I rag wing (Airfix), a Soviet Union Mk IId (AZ), and a Belgium Mk I rag wing (Airfix):

 

 

To some extent or another, these five will proceed alongside each other. But, this WIP is focused on France, so back to the Fly kit. Here are the sprues (quite a few considering this is a 1/72 Hurricane!):

 

 

A few resin pieces, which I may not bother with:

 

 

Kit decals (which will be used to some extent at least, but maybe not entirely):

 

 

And some masks:

 

 

My photo quality of the parts is certainly lacking, but hopefully you get the idea (and if anyone feels better quality photos of those would be helpful, let me know!).

[Wez]

Great choice of subject, welcome along and good luck in your first GB.

[Grandboof]

Hopefully some of the other phase two members will make the odd appearance in the background along the way. Phase one looks great . Any chance of a profile pic of the middle one in the top row 

Martin H

[ModelingEdmontonian]

8 hours ago, Grandboof said:

Hopefully some of the other phase two members will make the odd appearance in the background along the way.

No doubt there will be glimpses of other phase two-ers, but feel free to follow the whole project WIP if interested!

 

8 hours ago, Grandboof said:

Phase one looks great . 

 

Thanks for the kind words! Here they are again:

 

 

9 hours ago, Grandboof said:

Any chance of a profile pic of the middle one in the top row 

That's Argentina, believe it or not--quite an interesting story as to how it came to be. Sadly the model itself was a little bit beyond my skill level, and I really had some challenges with the decals. Here's the RFI, and a "teaser" pic!

 

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I own 20+ Hurricane kits, and have built 7, but this Fly kit's design is unlike any other. The forward fuselage is in separate pieces, for example, but rear wheel and antenna are molded onto the fuselage piece (although you have the option to hack off the rear wheel and replace it). That said, so far, fit seems quite good and I've glued together the forward fuselage parts, trop filter, and radiator. Next step was to drill out the 22 holes for the 12 gun ports--quite a task, although somewhat relaxing.

 

 

I'm not exactly sure how wide these holes should be--and also curious about the outer gun ports, did the guns stick out of these holes or not (I feel I've seen both)? I know @Troy Smith will know the answer to that. I plan to drill these out a bit more with the wings glued together, but I believe they will get some red "fabric" decaling overtop so not terrible concerned.

 

 

The wings went together quite nicely and were left to dry for the night--progress is slow nowadays as lots of other "post-COVID" things happening to take up my time! I struggled to get the camera to focus, but you get the idea here... 12 gun port holes and nice seams along the leading edge--frankly looking better than the Arma kits I've built, which surprises me.

 

[Troy Smith]

1 minute ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

and also curious about the outer gun ports, did the guns stick out of these holes or not (I feel I've seen both)?

the outer guns did protrude,  but were also often removed, as the extra weight so far outboard made the plane sluggish. 

I can't see any protrusions on BG707.

this is what the outer guns look like doped over

 

this is uncovered

 

And, the missing inner gun is because the bomb carrier on the wing used mounting points in the gun bay, so that inner gun could not be used.

The lump sticking out inboard of the guns is the camera gun.

The newer Bronze Green tails on older Buff painted bombs is also of note.  Both are of 402 Sq RCAF, on a press visit.

 

HTH

T

[Graham Boak]

The inboard camera gun is also noteworthy. 

 

In the top picture, the apparent match between the Ocean Grey on top and the Medium Sea Grey is something I've seen elsewhere, on a 607 Hurribomber picture (or maybe 174 - same aircraft, same pilot).  I recall Paul Lucas and the assembled might of the MAM readership getting all knotted up about "light Ocean Grey" on Spitfires.   Methinks it is a blue filter on the lens - or is it a yellow?   Not a great photographer, I'm afraid.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

the outer guns did protrude,  but were also often removed, as the extra weight so far outboard made the plane sluggish. 

I can't see any protrusions on BG707.

this is what the outer guns look like doped over

 

this is uncovered

 

And, the missing inner gun is because the bomb carrier on the wing used mounting points in the gun bay, so that inner gun could not be used.

The lump sticking out inboard of the guns is the camera gun.

The newer Bronze Green tails on older Buff painted bombs is also of note.  Both are of 402 Sq RCAF, on a press visit.

 

HTH

T

Fast and informative! Thanks, Troy. Great pictures--those help me get a sense for how wide the holes should be too. Since Fly does not include guns, I'll probably go with the "removed" option. Might not bother with the dope either, I rather like the uncovered look. 

[Graham Boak]

For desert use, some kind of cover would have been in place, but probably camouflaged to match.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Gun ports cleaned out, wing seams touched up in the rare spot they needed work, and all the plastic took a dish soap bath.

 

 

Despite my comments about the kit not including the outer, protruding guns, in fact I think they are on the sprues with the prop blades (they can just be made out in the photo above). They aren't included in the instructions, and I think if they were going to be added they should have been put in before the wings were glued together. Probably could still be slid in if modified, so we'll see what happens as we move forward!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very fine brass/Aluminum rod/wire will look better. Closer to accurate size for the scale. I use a duller scalpel blade and roll it back and forth on my mat until it scores and pops off the full piece. Cover over it with your hand or it will ping off into oblivion. Then glue into place with C/A gel or quick setting. Forgive if you already know this ? 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

5 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Very fine brass/Aluminum rod/wire will look better. Closer to accurate size for the scale. I use a duller scalpel blade and roll it back and forth on my mat until it scores and pops off the full piece. Cover over it with your hand or it will ping off into oblivion. Then glue into place with C/A gel or quick setting. Forgive if you already know this ? 

Thanks, @Corsairfoxfouruncle. I actually have never used materials like that, so appreciate the tips. You get such rod/wire at a hobby store? Ultimately I might leave these gun ports empty anyway, but good to know options. 

 

I began painting some aluminum on the freshly cleaned parts. All brushing painting for this guy. There will be some 

 

 

I have never seen this before, but Fly has you cut out an IP from the instructions to paste onto the plastic part.

 

 

So, I proceeded as instructed, albeit quite sloppily (I never feel especially motivated to do a good job inside the office...).

 

 

Next, I took some black paint to paint around, and then sealed it with Pledge. 

 

 

A little bit of sub assembly next, just waiting to apply some grey-green before buttoning it all up.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

K&S tubing covers a huge amount of diameters and shapes in brass and aluminum. You can usually get these in hardware stores, hobby shops, model railroad shops, online, and a few other places. These are strictly examples the sizes get down to about 1/4 mm  
 

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Tools-Blades/Brass-Tubes---1-16"/p/24128
 

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Tools-Blades/Aluminum-Tubes---1-8"/p/24127

 

Other uses are exhausts, landing gear reinforcement, and prop shafts if you want removable props for storage/shipping. 

Edited July 23, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Nothing fancy, but a bit of cockpit green more-or-less where it's needed...

 

 

And then fuselage closed (nice fit!) and wings attached.

 

 

And next the front fuselage piece attached.

 

[dogsbody]

Some of the old ( late 60's old ) Airfix kits had the same thing for the instrument panel. Cut it out and glue it on.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Grandboof]

13 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Some of the old ( late 60's old ) Airfix kits had the same thing for the instrument panel. Cut it out and glue it on.

 

 

 

 

Chris

The Ju 52 , Heron and Friendship did . Not sure what else . Very basic print 

Martin H

[dogsbody]

7 hours ago, Grandboof said:

The Ju 52 , Heron and Friendship did . Not sure what else . Very basic print 

Martin H

 

The Lancaster and the B-29 for sure. I'd have to look through my collection of old kit instructions to see what else there might be.

 

 

 

Chris

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Not too much to report, but last night I painted some gun metal on the insides of the trop filter and radiator and glued them in place, as well as the horizontal stabilizers. I continue to be fairly impressed with the fit, although my next step will be to start applying some filler in a few spots.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Took advantage of some hot weather today to blast some black onto wheels and prop blades:

 

 

That's all for now!

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I'm only managing a few minutes at the modeling table at a time right now, but was able to apply the filler I needed to last night. It was most needed around the trop filter and wing roots, but as I've been noting, really the fit has been pretty good mostly. 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by ModelingEdmontonian

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Next step was some primer, top and bottom. I use Tamiya's fine white spray can.

 

 

@Troy Smith has helped me notice the Fly spinner is lousy, so I borrowed an extra from an Arma Mk I kit and it seems to have worked out just fine.

 

 

The base and blades and rubber internal piece are all from the Fly kit, and the fit looks pretty good.

 

 

I realize now that BG707 has a black spinner, so I should have assembled before blasting the blades with my black rattle can. Oh well, it'll just need another couple coats.

[Troy Smith]

Neat work.  But, from the primer,  I'd suggest working on that upper cowl seam.   I'm a fan of using superglue and talc,  you can vary the mix, more talc makes it softer, dries fast, under 5 minutes,  easy to sand, does not shrink.  

You can just use suerpglue neat, but only for fine gaps, and as when fully cure it's harder than the plastic, sand as soon as initially cured.  

I mix and apply with a small flat screwdriver, or for fine work, and old straight scalpel blade.   Easy to scrape off the tools later.

HTH

[dogsbody]

On my Airfix Hurricane, I used Mr. Surfacer 1000 to fill seams. I applied it in small drops using a round wooden toothpick and my cut-off sewing needle. It worked quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris