A Restoration of a 1982 Era Revell Hawker Hurricane

[Brigbeale]

I sanded the radiator housing and it looks quite good now.

 

I  mounted the Hurricane on two cocktail sticks (in a foam block) into the holes for the main gear. 
Then it was out with Halfords Plastic Primer to give the Hurricane a coat of grey primer.

 

That was all I managed, before my trip to the Hospital for a scan on my ear.

 

 

[Brigbeale]

I could have sworn I had a pot of Tamiya Sky paint somewhere…….

 

While I was out and about today, I stopped off at Model Railway Solutions to get a pot of Mr Color Aqueous Sky. It’s actually labelled as no 74 Semi Gloss Sky (Duck Egg Green) RAF Aircraft. I also checked it against at tin-let of Humbrol 23 Duck Egg Blue - practically the same colour allowing for the shading on the top of the tin-let.
It had gone up by 15p a pot, but I needed it anyway! 
 

Anyway, I lightly airbrushed the underside of the Hurricane with it. I didn’t want it on too heavy as there’s going to be some light weathering done and I wanted some blotchiness/thinning on the painted surfaces.

 

I deliberately airbrushed the wheel wells as I wasn’t overly happy with the brush painted Aluminium paint. I’ll mask the undersides and airbrush the Aluminium in instead.

 

Even though it’s a lighter coat, the actual colour is, well, lighter. I got the Gannet out of the cabinet and placed the two side by side. The Gannet’s Tamiya Sky paint had been lightened with white paint to something better IMO. 
The Mr Color Sky is, again in my opinion, better than the Tamiya Sky as it’s paler.

Fortunately the two models are in different cabinets so the effect won’t be that noticeable.

[Brigbeale]

I had a bit of a panic last night as I went to get the Dark Earth and Dark Green paints out ready for the camouflage on the upper surfaces. I found the Dark Green, but I couldn’t find the Dark Earth anywhere.

Being unsuccessful, I went to bed later last night thinking what I could do to the Hurricane Instead - the only thing I could think of was the main gear.

I woke this morning, and it hit me as to where the paint was. I quietly raced downstairs (SWMBO was still asleep at the time) and looked in a cardboard box which had some paints that wouldn’t fit into the bottom of my ‘paints toolbox’, and there it was.

Great! I could get on with painting the Hurricane.

 

So tonight, I started masking up the Hurricane using an Airfix Mk1 kit for the placement of the masking under the rear fuselage. Everywhere  else was just straightforward.

I also masked up around the gear bay to allow airbrushing if the Aluminium paint.

 

Unfortunately, I broke off the replacement propeller blade during the masking process. I’ve put it in a safe place (Yes I know where it it at the moment, but whether I remember later on remains to be seen) for reattaching later on after the camouflage painting is done. It may be the last part to be fitted. 
 

Using the same old nail sanding block I used when I primed the Hurricane as it allows me to handle it without actually touching the model.
I airbrushed Mr Color Aqueous No.72 Dark Earth on as a base coat.

I like this paint as the other Dark Earth I have is Revell and it’s too ginger compared to the Mr Color offering.

The paint went on well, but it I did have a small amount of spitting where a small hair found its way through the airbrush and lodged in the spray outlet. This allowed paint to build up on the hair (probably from the paint brush I used to stir the paint when I thinned it) and the airflow blew the drops off the hair. I spotted it early so the paintwork isn’t ruined. While the said paint brush was still wet with the paint, I used it to fill a couple of gaps/crevasses- the canopy front and wing to fuselage joints.

 

Im going to let that dry and mask and paint the Dark Green tomorrow.

I also used the Airfix Hurricane kit to copy the landing gear doors and 3D print them.

 

[Brigbeale]

In tonight’s thrilling instalment………

 

I searched to see what camouflage pattern that P3069 RF*C would have had during its service with 303Sqn in 1940.

It would appear if Airfix’s colour call-out/decal placement picture for this particular Hurricane is to believed, that it was Pattern A. 
According to a couple of sources I read, but didn’t know previously that Pattern B was the mirror image of Pattern A. (The pattern on the port wing on Pattern A would be reversed to be the pattern on the starboard wing on Pattern B). During production, aircraft were painted with Pattern A and then Pattern B alternatively as they came off the production line. Pattern B was abandoned in January 1941.

I printed off an Arma Hobbies camouflage pattern diagram and used that to give me a template. 
 

Using the ‘spaghetti’ white-tac & masking tape method, I masked the Hurricane up for the green camouflage pattern (A).

Upon opening the Mr Color No 73 Dark Green, I found it was almost empty. Fortunately, there wasn’t that much to paint green so I figured there would be enough paint in the pot to airbrush the pattern. I’ll now need another pot before I can paint another camouflage pattern on another model.

I found it handy though that the three main paints are 72 Dark Earth, 73 Dark Green and 74 Sky (Duck Egg Green) - it makes it easier to remember them when I need replacements.

 

As usual, I was like a kid on Christmas morning and couldn’t wait to get the masking off. 
The more masking that was removed, the happier I became with the result.

As stated before, these Mr Color paints, IMO, give a very good colour contrast nearer to the actual colours (especially in this scale) than other brands of paint.

I got my restored Airfix Wellington which was painted with Revell Dark Green and Dark Earth to emphasise the contrast between paint manufacturers.

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

I have just found a photo of 9 303 Sqn Hurricanes in flight which does show some in Pattern A and some in Pattern B schemes.

But it appears from this photo, that Airfix got it wrong and RF*C (visible behind RF*V) is in the Patten B scheme.

Too late now

 

I’ve also found from this website from when someone else was doing RF*C that apparently, the serial code P3069 has no historical evidence that it was with 303 sqn. 
RF*C’s serial number should apparently be V7244. 
Or as @Troy Smith suggested back in 2011, RF-J could be depicted from the decals by cutting the ‘C’ (even though the font fir the ‘J’ wont be accurate but at least the camouflage pattern will be right) and producing a pair of V6665 serial numbers.
Thats no problem as I’ll print off a couple on transparent decal paper.

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

This is going to be a bit embarrassing tonight….

 

While doing the homework on the accuracy of the identity of RF*C and whether P3069 was or was not one of 303 sqn’s aircraft, I got carried away and was all set to cut up the decals to make the ‘C’ a ‘J’ and print off a pair of ‘V6665’ serial numbers.

 

I came downstairs this morning and made a cup of tea.

While I was drinking it, I mulled over the possibility of building the Airfix early Mk1 (fixed two blade) Hurricane. 
Now the Hurricane kits are stacked on top of my PC tower. As I went to pull the kit out of the pile, the whole lot went onto the floor - no harm done as the tower is on the floor.

However, the Arma Hobbies kit was on the bottom of the pile but ended up on top of the upturned pile of kits, face down. This meant the rear of the box was uppermost showing the 4 variants which could be built from this kit.

I picked it up and casually looked at the back of the box. (this deserves two of these)

That’s when I noticed that one of the depictions is from 303 Sqn. Namely V6665 RF*J. (It deserves another one as well!)

 

During the day, I gave the Hurricane two good coats of Astonish Floor Polish to protect the Mr Color paint from the Humbrol Decalfix and alleviate silvering from the decals.

 

So this evening, I decalled the Hurricane with the Arma Hobbies decals.

My biggest fear was the red band which wraps around the fuselage in front of the tail-fin not fitting.

Fortunately, it fitted almost as though it the decals were made for this kit.

Other than the under piece of the red band splitting in two (which I expected as it was quite thin in the middle), the decals went on very well. 
I managed to get all of the identification decals on tonight but I would also like to apply the stencil decals as well. That will be tomorrow’s job.

 

I put the propeller back on this morning and promptly knocked it off again this evening. I’ve now used some sprue-goo to reattach it hoping the extra thickness of it will help support the blade.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

What a fortunate accident to discover the Arma decals! Looking great and such an interesting (re)build!

[Brigbeale]

The stencil decals were applied tonight. 
They also applied very well, with most of them being in the underside so there’s not that many on the upper/side surfaces, but probably enough to add some extra interest.

 

While I was applying the stencil decals, a thought popped in there saying that the RF Sqn code seemed familiar. Whether it was because of the searching for the subject aircraft identity remained to be seen, but something was telling me it was something else. 
So I went looking at the display cabinet, firstly looking at the awaiting restoration Hurricanes. Nope - wasn’t them. 
Then I spotted it sharing the shelf with my Revell Halifax - a Spitfire Vb - identity RF*D BM144. (It’s ok, but it was early days in my return to modelling and this one was a restoration of a kit which I built with my wife’s friends son, but he lost interest half way through and it went into my box of sentimental models. I stripped it back to its component pieces and rebuilt it. However the Tamiya Dark Green that I used is,IMO, way too dark).

 

Anyway, the Hurricane’s propeller tips were brush painted white and then yellow. Once that had dried sufficiently, Mr Colour flat black was used to paint the spinner and propeller blades.

 

The Hurricane was photographed and posed next to the Spitfire and then put back on the stand and into the cabinet for the decals and paint to dry.

 

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Brigbeale said:

However the Tamiya Dark Green that I used is,IMO, way too dark).

If it was a while back, then you may well have used Tamiya XF-61, which was a 'Tamiya match'

They did introduce some specific RAF paints when they did their 1/32nd Spitfire IX, XF-81 Dark Green, XF-82 Ocean Grey, XF-83 Medium Sea Grey.

 

None are great, though there are some shockingly poor RAF acrylics,(eh Humbrol have been punting out H30 as Dark Green since the 70's... and it been a blue green since at least 1975)   the ones I have XF-81 was too brown, XF-82 was too dark and too blue and XF-83 was too dark and too yellow. 

This is visual comparison to the RAF museum book paint chips.

 

Dark Green is dark olive green, Ocean Grey is mid green hued grey, and Medium Sea Grey is light grey with subtle purple blue hue, which is true of all the Sea Grey family. 

 

On 25/04/2022 at 21:11, Brigbeale said:

I have just found a photo of 9 303 Sqn Hurricanes in flight

This is from a flight sim I think. Not an actual photo.  Not a reliable reference.  I did say this the other day,  but seems it didn't post...

One problem is the A/B odd/even scheme does work for the L and N serials, but the P serials introduce black out blocks, this messes up the pattern as it is no longer linear sequence.

eg 

Block 1/G, First Gloster Produced Block

Serial Range P2535 - P2584 (50), P2614 - P2653 (40), P2672 - P2701 (30), P2713 - P2732 (20), P2751 - P2770 (20), P2792 - P2836 (45), P2854 - P2888 (35), P2900 - P2924 (25), P2946 - P2995 (50), P3020 - P3069 (50), P3080 - P3124 (45), P3140 - P3179 (40), P3200 - P3234 (35), P3250 - P3264 (15) - Total 500

 

Note how you get even-even and odd-odd.  I have been meaning to go on a photo scour to see if I can see any correlation can be made. 

 

Neat work on the restoration.    If you ever get around to doing the the Arma kit you will see just how off in shape the old Revell kit is....

 

 

 

[Brigbeale]

It was time to deal with the main gear last night -  i.e. the making of the parts to replace the stowed gear that the Hurricane originally came with.

 

Using a photo of the Airfix parts in Onshape I designed and printed simplified gear struts (not as fine as the originals but at least they are stronger) and the gear doors. 
A file was used to tidy the top of the strut and a drill to clean the hole in the wing. 
The two fitted together nicely so the same was done to the other side which also fitted very well.

Sprue-goo was used to fit them in position.

1mm styrene rod was used to make the axles - deliberately cut long but they can be trimmed once the wheels are on.

The gear doors were also fitted using more sprue-goo and they were painted with Mr Color Sky.

The wheels were printed using the Fairey Gannet wheel design. I just resized them. They looked ok when I cleaned them up a bit, but once dry fitted they were too thin - so an adjustment was made to match the Matchbox Hurricane wheel size and they were reprinted this morning.

The glue has set and the landing gear is solid. 
I just need to tidy the reprinted wheels, paint them and the gear legs and fit them to the Hurricane.

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good Brian , that certainly was a happy accident that the kits fell off the tower revealling the Arma kit.

Brilliant 

Chris

 

[AdrianMF]

Looking good! I must admit the first picture of the Airfix radiator after sanding down and priming did remind me of a fig roll biscuit...

 

What colours did you use on the Wellington? I've been using the Revell acrylics for DE/DG recently and I'm beginning to think that they are a bit too bright.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brigbeale]

22 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking good! I must admit the first picture of the Airfix radiator after sanding down and priming did remind me of a fig roll biscuit...

 

What colours did you use on the Wellington? I've been using the Revell acrylics for DE/DG recently and I'm beginning to think that they are a bit too bright.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Fig roll?? I haven’t had one of those in ages!

 

The Revell colours were 39 Dark Green and 82 Dark Earth.

[Brigbeale]

I’ve finished the restoration of this Hurricane.

The re-printed wheels were lightly sanded, painted with Revell Anthracite for the tyres and Tamiya Aluminium for the wheel centres. They were then fitted with Mr Cement S and the weighted flats put to the bottom before the glue set. the axles were trimmed off and a dab more Aluminium paint was added to cover the styrene rod. 
The tail-wheel was also painted.

 

My nome-made wash was added to the panel lines and rubbed off to highlight the panel lines. 
My cheapo weathering powders were used to dirty the airframe up a bit and add exhaust stains (but I might have overdone it on that front).

 

An aerial mast was added from the spares box - just a piece of stretched sprue. That was painted dark earth to match the existing paint.

 

The canopy was unmasked and that looks a lot better than the original.

 

Then it was just a case of giving the Hurricane a coat of Galeria Matt Varnish.

 

The photos were taken never though the varnish hadn’t fully dried.

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Smashing! You would never guess that it's been hauled back from the dead, and was such an old kit to start with.

 

After seeing this thread I agree with your colour conclusions (although I like the darker Sky/DEB), and I think I will have to have a look for a better DE/DG combo than Revell in the water based brush friendly acrylic space - I will give Mr Color Aqueous a go. I think the Revell might be OK for a factory fresh finish, but too bright for something that's been outside a while.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[opus999]

Wow!  Outstanding work (again).  The shape may be off on the kit, but it looks beautiful anyway now that you've restored it.  

[Dave Slowbuild]

Picked up on this very late, but just read the whole tale start to finish.  Inspiring stuff!  The kind of modelling many of us aspire to.  Great result too!

Your spruce-goo is clearly very useful, with many uses.  I guess it is sprue dissolved in some type of solvent?

 

Dave

 

[bigbadbadge]

Great job  on this Brian , it is a fantastic model and to think what you started with too.  Look wonderful. 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

4 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

Picked up on this very late, but just read the whole tale start to finish.  Inspiring stuff!  The kind of modelling many of us aspire to.  Great result too!

Your spruce-goo is clearly very useful, with many uses.  I guess it is sprue dissolved in some type of solvent?

 

Dave

 

Yes the sprue goo is handy for filler and glue.

it is indeed sprue dissolved in Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.

[Brigbeale]

I’ve just posted the RFI here.

 

[marvinneko]

Another inspiring restoration. Thanks!