My first post here! Monogram 1/48 Hurricane

[ChicagoTom]

I’ve been a long time fan of this site, but this is my very first post here. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and like most kids in that era, I built plastic models. My very first kit I ever built was the old box scale Monogram A-26 Invader. I think the Testor’s silver paint that I brushed on is STILL drying, lol! And of course, I got glue marks with my fingerprints all over it. I built over 100 kits as a boy, then stopped in high school when I discovered girls.
 

After a long hiatus from the hobby, my brother got me a Monogram 1/48 P-40 “Tigershark” as the box termed it, a name I’m pretty sure was never actually used for the P-40. So in my mid-30s, I picked up the hobby once again.
 

I am not a prolific builder by any means – maybe 6-8 on a really good year, some years I’ll only finish 1 or 2. But our only child is now off to college 2000 miles away, so I expect I’ll be able to complete more kits every year from then on.
 

Monogram kits were my favorite as a boy. The “White Box” era of Monogram – pictures of built-up kits on a plain white background, rather than box art – was what I built most often. And one of my favorite kits I built as a boy was the Monogram Hurricane. I really loved the retractable landing gear, and my build had both the 4 x 20mm Hispano cannons AND the 40mm Bofors slung underneath. Heck, I may have added some bombs too! Don’t judge, I was 11 at the time…

I am almost exclusively a vintage kit builder. I really love taking a crude old kit and improving it. I do a little bit of scratchbuilding, will use some aftermarket resin (I dislike working with photo-etch though), and aftermarket decals.
 

This is an original PA-90 boxing of the Hurricane from 1964, so it’s only a year younger than I am. I’ll be building a night fighter version.



I’m amazed to see the comparison of the very old decal for the instrument panel versus the Aeromaster aftermarket sheet’s attempt. The Monogram’s IP is sharper than Aeromaster’s!


And despite the fact that I don't much enjoy working with PE, I will use a few pieces from this Airwaves set, meant for the old Airfix kit.



 

Edited September 24, 2022 by ChicagoTom
posting images issue

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome to the build my name is Dennis and Im also from Chicago. Well west burbs to be honest. 

[ChicagoTom]

10 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Welcome to the build my name is Dennis and Im also from Chicago. Well west burbs to be honest. 

 

Glad to see a fellow Chicagoan here! I actually do live in the city, about a mile north of Wrigley Field.

The Airwaves piece here fits almost perfectly:



But I can't get the wing walks to lie as flat as I had hoped. But they are superglued and won't be going anywhere. Well, the secret to *finishing* a kit is to give up all notions of perfection, so "mission accomplished!"

[ChicagoTom]

Here is my attempt at painting the pilot. Slightly less awful than my usual result, but I can live with it.



I have used at least 3 different brands of paint so far on this guy. The kit's painting instructions are sorely lacking, so I'm making up as I go along. (I've done live improv on stage at Second City, so I'm used to this sort of thing).

[ChicagoTom]

Using Medium (660px) size pix seems to be plenty large enough. I used Large (1024px) for the first few posts, they seemed obnoxiously large, so I'll switch.

Everything fits quite well so far (for the era, that is). 



Here you can see how the wing walks are a little proud of the surface. Grrrr.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Big Cubs fan here, currently at my in-laws at 90 & Nagle so not too far west of you. Ive not had a chance to build up this kit before but grew up building 90% monogram and Testors. Drove by the Factory/corp. headquarters all the time. And am I diehard member of the Monogram Mafia. 

[ChicagoTom]

I regret I never took a tour of the Morton Grove plant while it was still operational. I'm a Tigers fan myself though, I'm from the Detroit area originally. When I was a boy, I *much* preferred Monogram over Revell. I did not find out about Airfix, Frog, Otaki, Hasegawa, etc., until I was around 13. I begged my mom to take me to the original Squadron Shop in the Detroit suburbs, about an hour away, for my 13th birthday. I was in utter heaven when I stepped inside, I never wanted to leave. A few last pix for the day, a stencil set by Avieology from Canada. These red stencils were used on night fighters, which the Aeromaster sheet did not provide.

 

[Mike]

10 minutes ago, ChicagoTom said:

Using Medium (660px) size pix seems to be plenty large enough. I used Large (1024px) for the first few posts, they seemed obnoxiously large, so I'll switch.

to your first build thread.  You'll find most folks will be much happier with 1024px, as most folks have a 1080p screen these days, and 660/680px seems a bit small on a HD screen.  You get more detail with 1024 too, which is always good.  As long as the file size is around (or below) 200kb, with a max of 300kb, you'll find no problems with posting the larger size

[ChicagoTom]

6 hours ago, Mike said:

to your first build thread.  You'll find most folks will be much happier with 1024px, as most folks have a 1080p screen these days, and 660/680px seems a bit small on a HD screen.  You get more detail with 1024 too, which is always good.  As long as the file size is around (or below) 200kb, with a max of 300kb, you'll find no problems with posting the larger size

 

Thanks for the advice! Well I always appreciate larger pictures myself. I was perhaps concerned about people who look at this site on a phone or tablet. I'll happily post at 1024px from now on.

[dnl42]

Welcome aboard! 

 

Nice work.

[stevej60]

Welcome along,good start nice to see this kit join the GB.

[Mike]

8 hours ago, ChicagoTom said:

I was perhaps concerned about people who look at this site on a phone or tablet.

Most phones these days have pretty high resolution screens too.  Gone are the days of 240x320 screens from pre-Android and iPhone days.  Thankfully!   My current phone is 2,532 x 1,170 px (Full HD is 1920x1080px), and while the pics may be small on the 6.1" screen, there's loads of scope for zooming in

[Troy Smith]

16 hours ago, ChicagoTom said:

These red stencils were used on night fighters, which the Aeromaster sheet did not provide.

I think this is a myth.  AFAIK, there were no factory painted nightfighters., so they didn't get  much, if any stencilling

 

FWIW, the scheme on the Aeromaster sheet is this,  Ian Gleed's LK-A,  when based in the Scilly isles in winter 40/41,  a Mk.I, 

 

 

same plane as this, this is few months before, in TLS

 

see here

and

https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/32588-hawker-hurricane-mk-i-of-i-r-gleed-87-sqn

 

 

 

The Monogram kit is closest to a Mk.IIA   

 

There was a warbird done in these colours a while back (crashed in 2007) 

 

note the  odd non standard prop/spinner,  probably from a Lockheed Constellation.   

 

PS there was later  BE500, a Mk.IIc, also overall Night.

Hurricane Mk.V.......................          11 Aug. 1943. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

the close up reveals the paint flaking on the canopy, which flexes as it moves,  showing the original green under the black.  Again, a MU or unit repaint, with no visible stencilling

[ChicagoTom]

10 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

I think this is a myth.  AFAIK, there were no factory painted nightfighters., so they didn't get  much, if any stencilling

 

 

the close up reveals the paint flaking on the canopy, which flexes as it moves,  showing the original green under the black.  Again, a MU or unit repaint, with no visible stencilling

 

Ah, this is a VERY helpful picture so I can do some exhaust staining, thank you Troy.

I should say that I am not greatly concerned with accuracy. I realize the Monogram kit is a mish-mash of various marks and does not quite match the scheme I am planning. I'm okay with that. My model-building priorities are: 1) enjoying my build 2) avoiding my tendency for perfectionism so I might actually FINISH the kit, and 3) creating something that pleases myself, even knowing it could never win a contest.

[ChicagoTom]

I’ve masked off the canopy using very thing Tamiya tape and masking agent, then painted just the vertical frames first. I find doing greenhouse canopies in two steps is far easier. Then I removed the masking, reapplied it again for the horizontal frames, attached to the fuselage and painted it all NATO Black from a Tamiya spray can.



The Tamiya is a semi-gloss, and I’m not sure if that is good enough to avoid silvering. So I tried a few stencils in the lower tailplane, out of sight when sitting on my shelf. For the single stencil on the right, I brush some Future first, and then on top. For the other two, I used Mr. Mark decal softener only. I think the latter approach will work, but I won’t really know for sure until my final flat coat.

I was worried that these decals for the red area on the nose might be a challenge...



But Mr. Mark has helped a great deal, still some touchup will be needed.

[ChicagoTom]

Slight progress... and problems. First, these Aeromaster decals are very thick and stiff. The upside is that they are very opaque - the black does not show through at all, which is nice. But the stiffness is a problem with the tail decals. It's hard to see in this photo, but at the leading edge of the tail, the decal does not conform and stands proud of the surface, despite Mr. Mark Strong. What are my options?
 

1) make tiny cuts to the leading edge of the decal and add more Mr. Mark?

2) try to PAINT the exposed are, and hope to match the colors of the decal?

3) try using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to get the decal to conform?

4) flood the gap with Future and hope that makes it stick to the curved leading edge better?

 

Also, more decal gripes. You see the glitch in the roundel in the top photo. These are hard to move on the surface and it folded under itself there. I might be able to touch it up using another extra roundel on the sheet. But then there is the fact that Aeromaster requires THREE layers of decals to make this roundel! I *think* they will conform well enough to the fabric surface details underneath - three layer would not work so well had there been raised rivets there. 

(Take a deep breath Tom, perfection is not your goal...)

[ChicagoTom]

And then this happened: I picked up my prop/spinner to do more painting, and the tip of one prop just... disintegrated. I glued it back but clearly some plastic just crumbled - I'll have to putty it and hope it won't break again. If push comes to shove, well I do have another boxing of this kit in my collection, a newer issue, so I could always cannibalize that part.

[helios16v]

Welcome to BM, and more importantly GBs, the Hotel California of BM.  

[CliffB]

Welcome from me too.  Interesting to see this one putting up a bit of a fight, but glad that you seem to be winning nevertheless!

 

Cheers

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

9 hours ago, ChicagoTom said:

It's hard to see in this photo, but at the leading edge of the tail, the decal does not conform and stands proud of the surface, despite Mr. Mark Strong. What are my options?
 

1) make tiny cuts to the leading edge of the decal and add more Mr. Mark?

2) try to PAINT the exposed are, and hope to match the colors of the decal?

3) try using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to get the decal to conform?

4) flood the gap with Future and hope that makes it stick to the curved leading edge better?

Ive always used Microscale Microsol, I have that same set of decals. If the Microscale doesn't work Ive used future and also Elmer’s school glue, It dries clear. Just a tiny drop under the edge and let hold it for a bit. Then let it sit and dry. 

[Pete in Lincs]

Welcome to the forum. I always use a bit of spit under decals. It helps to move them about.

Elmers, try a drop applied with a wooden cocktail stick to the wing walk edges. It will wick into the gaps nicely.

Again, remove excess with a tissue or finger and a bit of spit. 

The prop blade might be doable with a touch of superglue. That can be rubbed down later.

[stevej60]

looking very nice indeed Tom,keep up the good work.

[ChicagoTom]

15 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Welcome to the forum. I always use a bit of spit under decals. It helps to move them about.

Elmers, try a drop applied with a wooden cocktail stick to the wing walk edges. It will wick into the gaps nicely.

Again, remove excess with a tissue or finger and a bit of spit. 

The prop blade might be doable with a touch of superglue. That can be rubbed down later.

 

I'd forgotten about the spit technique - I used to do that as a boy. Thanks for the reminder.

 

I tried something that looks just like Elmer's, but is specifically for clear plastic parts. It helped, I'll have to take another look tomorrow after it dries. But it sure looks like my leading edge there is either going to need touch up with paint or decal, or I'll have to live with a black leading edge there. 

 

 

Turns out the "white box" issue was a fiction of my imagination. I do have a nice collection of Monogram kits with that style boxing, it was what I bought for 99 cents as a boy in the 70s - just not the Hurricane. I may see if my Hasegawa or Aifix kits offer more than one spinner option and see if they fit. I'll try to putty that crack and repaint, but I am skeptical.

I painted the exhausts a metallic black, then dry brushed them with Model Master Acrylic Rust. 

[Jinxman]

Looking very smart.

[ChicagoTom]

A modest update.

 

I've applied some exhaust staining using chalk. I'm not very experienced at this, but am fairly pleased with the result - even though the colors are not close to the pic so helpfully provided by Troy Smith. I did not have a brownish chalk to match the photo, sadly. Also, I think my gun blast stains are too much and toned them down a bit after I took this picture.  I lightly sanded the rivets to make them pop a bit, as you can see if you compare the picture below to my last post.

 

 

And I'm having more self-imposed trouble with the one-piece prop/spinner. I tried masking the spinner with liquid mask, but probably applied it too thinly. When I went to remove it, I gouged the red paint. I have since sanded it a bit, primed again, and repainted in another red spray paint that, luckily, seems to be a better match to the red decal flash at the front of the fuselage. Now I'll need to mask the prop tips again and paint them yellow, which never seems to work well for me. I always get bleed under the masking, even if I spray a flat coat first to try and seal it better. Does anyone have a better method for painting prop tips that won't cause me to pull what little is left of my hair from my head?



 

Edited October 14, 2022 by ChicagoTom
added information