Bite Me! - Shark mouth USAAF Hurricane IIb

[Ragtag]

My third and final (at the moment) entry to the GB will be in the shape of BP654. Serving in the Middle East with 127, 225 and 241 sqns it was acquired by the 350th Fighter Group of the 12th Air Force, USAAF (possibly by 346th Fighter Squadron). I've yet to determine the exact circumstances by which the Americans got their hands on this particular machine, however 225 and 241 sqn were deployed to North Africa in late 1942 as part of the Tunisian campaign, and the aircraft is recorded as being with 241 sqn in March 1943. The 350th FG was operating in the area in early 1943 and I suspect the aircraft must have changed hands around that time.

 

Converted to an unarmed 2-seat squadron hack, BP654 flew from Elmas airfield in Sardinia and was ultimately lost over the sea on August 6th, 1943 after suffering an engine failure.

 

Lots of interesting features that caught my attention on this aircraft - number one obviously being the shark mouth. 

 

There can't have been too many Hurricanes in 'stars and bars' either, though I do know of at least one other.

 

The colour scheme of this beastie intrigues me too - the uppers are widely believed to be in Olive Drab. The aircraft is described by the American Air Museum in Britain as having "Olive drab upper surfaces, sky blue under surfaces" and "US colours [Olive drab/Sky Blue]". I think it unlikely that the undersides are a US shade, however, as under the port wing the RAF roundel appears to have been painted out in olive. This makes me suspect that the original RAF colour was left in place on the undersides.

 

Given that 241 sqn were posted in North Africa that leaves no shortage of possible shades for the undersides. Here's a contemporary 241 sqn aircraft in what looks like Tropical Land or Desert Scheme to my eye, which inclines me towards some form of Sky Blue or Azure Blue (likely Sky Blue given the paleness?). The DK decals callouts have the undersides in Sky Type S, however, but without reference.

 

[Wings unlevel]

41 minutes ago, Ragtag said:

the aircraft is recorded as being with 241 sqn in March 1943

Wonder what the Brits got in exchange?!

 

Another fascinating subject, and I do like the sounds of an olive drab Hurricane.

[stevehnz]

A good call, yet another variation for the mixing pot.

Steve.

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice subject choice and something very different to adorn these GB pages. Will this be another Arma kit or something different? 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 
 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

4 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Will this be another Arma kit or something different? 

I'm REALLY excited to see this one built, and I'm also very curious what kit you'll use and how the conversion works!

[Ragtag]

11 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Will this be another Arma kit or something different? 

 

Arma is what I have in the stash for Mk.IIs so that'll definitely be my starting point

 

I'll be using the second set of sprues from this boxing, the others being my RCAF Mk.XII:

 

 

6 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I'm also very curious what kit you'll use and how the conversion works!

 

Yes, that's rather a good question. I have a preliminary plan for the canopies which I think should work, not too sure yet on the interior. More research needed!

[Ragtag]

Off and running with this one, starting with cutting the fuselage back to make room for the second seat.

 

The base kit comes with a 3D printed pilot's seat as an extra which means the regular kit part is available as a spare - perfect!

 

The bulkhead behind the passenger seat came from an early Airfix Hurricane (some boxings have a choice of armoured or unarmoured parts), whilst the Arma kit part was cut down and the headrest fitted above the passenger seat.

 

With that done, the fuselage halves were buttoned up.

 

Quite happy with the outcome so far (despite the cruel close ups!)

[Wings unlevel]

Neat! Doesn’t look like the guy in back has much of a view! But great progress.

Edited August 28 by Wings unlevel

[Ragtag]

I can't imagine there was a lot of legroom either, it looks like the in-field conversions kept the second seat as far forwards as possible (presumably given the Hurricane's sensitive centre of gravity). The pilot is leaning quite far forwards here to get his face visible between the windscreen and the canopy (look how close his seat back is to the passenger).

 

Interestingly, doesn't seem to be an issue on the Iranian or Russian 2-seaters.

 

[Ragtag]

I've been rather lax with updates on this one, so best get things caught up. First the olive drab - I could be convinced to do more USAAF aircraft, it was a pleasant change not having to mask off camo!

 

In the end I could find no evidence that the aircraft was in anything other than desert scheme when acquired by the USAAF, so I settled on azure for the undersides. A spare RAF roundel was used to ensure correct placement of the overpainted patch:

 

Neutral Grey was suggested to me as the colour of the patch, but if supplies were available I feel like the whole undersides would have been repainted. I therefore opted to paint the patch in olive drab. It appears to have been a quick & rough job based on the photograph, which I tried to replicate but I think in this scale it just looks like I'm a sloppy painter. Oh well!

[Nick McV]

Missed this one, somehow. Very interesting subject , looking forward to seeing how she comes along.

 

Cheers

 

Nick

Edited October 4 by Nick McV

[Wings unlevel]

Looks terrific. I like your method for placing the star and bar and rationale for the colour to overpaint the RAF roundel.

[Ragtag]

Calling this one done. Didn't realise until uploading the photos that it clearly needs a dust before going into the cabinet...

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how the two-seat cockpit turned out.

 

 

 

[Nick McV]

Superb rendition of an interesting and unusual Hurricane! 👏🏻 

[Wings unlevel]

What a fantastic result! Fascinating subject, and excellent work for the two-seat conversion. Thanks for taking part in the GB with it. 👏

Edited October 12 by Wings unlevel

[Rabbit Leader]

Now that is different, however you’ve capture the two seat look convincingly well. 
Cheers and well done.. Dave