Andwil’s Hurricane #2 - Finished

[Andwil]

As a second entry I will building this old tool Hurricane alongside the Legato one:

 

 

I found this in the stash, I’d forgotten I had it and it’s not listed in my stash on Scalemates.  This is the perfect opportunity to build it.  The plan is to build it as a 80 squadron plane flown in Greece by Bill Vale with the spaghetti camouflage on the nose and leading edges.  I will be building this old kit OOB with the addition of a Vokes filter from the Legato MkIIc kit, and a Yahu IP.  The rest of the sparse cockpit will be filled with the pilot figure.  The only other improvement I plan on making is to cover the void in the gear bay with some plastic card.

 

Sprues:

 

 

I’ve made a start by cleaning up and priming some of the parts.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

26 minutes ago, Andwil said:

The plan is to build it as a 80 squadron plane flown in Greece by Bill Vale with the spaghetti camouflage on the nose and leading edges.

Great subject choice AW, I’m looking forward to seeing it. And nice to see you giving an old kit some new love.

[Andwil]

Work so far on this old kit has been on preparing the cockpit internals and painting up the pilot.  The “cockpit”:

 

 

My grey-blue is a bit too light but not much will be seen through the canopy anyway.

 

Fuselage closed up:

 

 

As with the Legato kit, the “cockpit” will be slid into place from below.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

Your pilot looks great, if a little confused as to where he’s supposed to put his hands and feet to fly the thing! 😂

[Andwil]

The “cockpit” has been cemented into the fuselage and some small sink marks filled:

 

 

I roofed the gear bay with some scrap plastic card and inspired by @Rabbit Leader’s build added a bit of detail:

 

bits of plastic card and rod, a piece of lead wire and a rocket head cut in half.  The radiator bath tub has also been attached.

 

Thanks for looking

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

Really effective extra detailing there, AW.

[Andwil]

Today I attached the wing, the fit was poor and there was a huge gap at the starboard wing root:

 

 

fixed with a shim:

 

 

I am leaving the tailplanes off to paint separately.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

That’s quite a chasm, but neatly fixed.

[Beard]

That pilot's nicely painted, is he wearing shorts?

[Andwil]

12 hours ago, Beard said:

That pilot's nicely painted, is he wearing shorts?

No, he’s wearing light coloured khaki drill trousers.  I used a sandy colour as the closest I have, like the too light blue-grey of his jacket.  It will all be lost through the canopy anyway!

 

AW

[Beard]

7 hours ago, Andwil said:

No, he’s wearing light coloured khaki drill trousers

A combination of smartphone screen and failing eyesight meant that I could see properly.

[Andwil]

The Vokes filter from the Legato kit has been filed and sanded to a better fit and attached under the nose.  The remaining gap is being progressively filled with sprue goo.  
 

This will be on hold now as I’m going away again on Sunday for a week, when I get back it will be off to the paint booth.

 

Thanks for looking

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

You’re giving it a new lease on life. 👍

 

1 hour ago, Andwil said:

This will be on hold now as I’m going away again on Sunday for a week, when I get back it will be off to the paint booth.

 

Safe travels - off to somewhere warm I hope!

[Andwil]

14 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

Safe travels - off to somewhere warm I hope!

Driving up to Maree to take a look at Lake Eyre full of water.  Temps forecast to be in the mid twenties so an improvement on what I’m getting at the moment!  Having just spent a month on the Gulf of Carpentaria getting home to Adelaide winter was a rude shock.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

5 hours ago, Andwil said:

Driving up to Maree to take a look at Lake Eyre full of water

Bucket list stuff! Enjoy that, and post a photo or two here when you’re back. 👍

[Andwil]

Back home and back to the bench.  But first, as requested by @Wings unlevel, a few photos from my trip up to Lake Eyre.  For those who don’t know it, Lake Eyre in the north of South Australia is the largest lake in Australia.  It is usually a dry salt lake, but from time to time following rain in Queensland, water makes its way down inland rivers and into the lake.  About once every 30 years it fills up and it becomes an inland sea, and that is what has happened this year.

 

 

 

The smaller Lake Eyre South is still just a salt lake:

 

 

The enigmatic Marree Man, 5 kilometres from head to foot, no one knows who made it!

 

 

The Cessna we flew in:

 

 

Back to modelling, today I attempted to attach the canopy.  The fit is awful, I had to scrape away a lot of plastic from the rear of the cockpit as the canopy is too narrow to fit over it.  I have also had to glue some thin plastic card beneath the canopy to fill the gap.  I don’t remember having this trouble when I built this  kit several years ago.

 

 

To be honest I’m losing interest in this build, it almost went into the bin today.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

[Wings unlevel]

22 minutes ago, Andwil said:

a few photos from my trip up to Lake Eyre

Looks spectacular. An appropriately enough as i type this, it’s pouring rain here. Reminds me that there’s so much of this country I’m yet to see. Thanks for sharing.

 

24 minutes ago, Andwil said:

To be honest I’m losing interest in this build, it almost went into the bin today

That’s fair. If it’s not bringing you enjoyment or reward, why do it. That said, I hope that’s the worst of it and you’re able to keep on with it.

[Rabbit Leader]

Not sure why or how I haven’t commented on this as yet Andrew, so apologies there my friend.
 

Now I’m not sure why your canopy is giving you issues in that area? Mine was a little off around the windscreen, however I blended that all in with some Mr. Surfacer until I was happy with the result, but the rear portion was fine. Perhaps your canopy may have been misplaced from another kit as they all look the same when you fondle kit parts around?? 
 

It would be a shame to bin it at this point as once complete, it really does capture the look and feel of a Hurricane quite well in my opinion. 
 

I just finished mine last night so will take some glamour shots later and post these in the gallery. 
 

Your holiday snaps look nice too, what a great place to visit. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Andwil]

2 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Perhaps your canopy may have been misplaced from another kit as they all look the same when you fondle kit parts around?? 

It did actually cross my mind that I had inadvertently swapped the Legato and Airfix parts, but on double checking found that not to be the case.  The Airfix canopy failed to reach the sides of the Legato cockpit.  I think that for whatever reason the canopy must have shrunk when cooling (is that even possible?)

 

AW

 

I’m so embarrassed, just back from triple checking and it seems that I have swapped the canopies 

 

AW

[Zephyr91]

Good save!  

 

[Wings unlevel]

11 hours ago, Andwil said:

just back from triple checking and it seems that I have swapped the canopies 

Definitely the kind of thing I can do. Bit like me not installing the landing lights in the wings of my 1/48 build before closing them up and then discovering too late that you can’t install them with the wings joined. 🤦

[Andwil]

Moving on to paint, today I primed the model using my existing bottle of Stynylrez grey primer.  This is my second bottle, the first was beautiful, went on very smooth.  This one is not so good, doesn’t cover evenly and requires extra coats.  I don’t know whether it’s a bad batch or they have changed the formulation, but when this bottles finished I won’t be getting any more.  While I had the black primer in the airbrush for my other Hurricane I did a bit of dodgy pre-shading:

 

 

A bit heavy on that starboard aileron!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

16 minutes ago, Andwil said:

While I had the black primer in the airbrush for my other Hurricane I did a bit of dodgy pre-shading:

That’s the beauty of preshading - it can never be dodgy! Looking good.

[Andwil]

Today I shot some aluminium into the gear bay:

 

 

I will be able to mask this off using the wheels up option doors provided by Airfix.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Wings unlevel]

2 hours ago, Andwil said:

will be able to mask this off using the wheels up option doors provided by Airfix.

Handy