MPC/AIRFIX hybrid/bitzer Hurricane Mk I 1/24.

[silverfox63]

Hello everyone out there in Hurricane land.

Only 3 weeks late for this one.

What we have here, in a dilapidated box, is an MPC version of the Airfix Mk I Hurricane in the Superscale 1/24 size.

 

 

Edited August 23 by silverfox63
Remove doubled up pic

[Wings unlevel]

‘Super size’ is no exaggeration! That looks like a super size challenge, but no doubt you are up for it! 
 

Welcome to the build.

[silverfox63]

You know what they say; Go big or Go home. As I'm already at home, I guess I've gotta go BIG.

 

I bought this off eBay about 14 years ago as an incomplete kit. That is all the white parts. I organized all the missing parts from Airfix. Those are the blue/grey parts. Those parts, along with others for other kits, cost me a LOT of money.

Anyway, here are some more (a lot) of pics.

 

[silverfox63]

The kit also had no instructions or decals (if you are following any of my other builds, you may notice a pattern of behaviour).

If I remember correctly, the decals came from Airfix with the parts.

I downloaded the corresponding instructions form Scalemates.

The original instruction booklet came from eBay.

 

For those that don't get the title, this build has bitzer (bits of) MPC, bitzer Airfix, oh and possibly bitzer Airscale.

 

There will be a break for about a week while I wrangle a Frogspawn Beaufighter in the last week of Anzac2 GB.

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited August 24 by silverfox63

[Wings unlevel]

That’s a LOT of plastic! 

7 minutes ago, silverfox63 said:

You know what they say; Go big or Go home. As I'm already at home, I guess I've gotta go BIG.

And fortune favours the brave!

[Pete in Lincs]

Chris, Good on you Mate. Who needs a shake and bake kit? A challenge is much more fun. 

[silverfox63]

Pete, you think this is a challenge? Have a look in Anzac2 GB to see the mayhem I'm about to cause, mainly to myself, lol.

Cheers,

Chris.

[glwanabe]

It appears that the good Dr. Is in the house.

 

 

 

This should be intresting. 

[silverfox63]

Me again.

Did a little bit on the Hurricane yesterday.

Following the later instructions (gasp, shock, horror), I located all the parts I needed for step 2.

I could swear I took a pic of the engine block (the front edges were cemented before I got the kit) before I cemented the back edge, which showed evidence of having been poorly glued before, and adding the internal strengthening parts, which also showed glue staining from prior work.

I assembled the supercharger parts, Just waiting for it all to dry before sanding the base for the final part.

After a bit of a sort through, I now have all the parts for stage 2 ready for more assembly. One thing I have to sort out is the location of part no.18. It is shown attaching to part no. 10, the supercharger gearbox (?), yet there is no obvious location point for it. A mystery for future me.

 

That's it for now, more later, sometime. I'm trying to do a good job on this, so I'm not going to rush anything if I can avoid it.

Cheers,

Chris.

 

[Wings unlevel]

It does look like you’ve set future you up for success with the engine assembly! Have to confess all those loose parts would leave me a bit overwhelmed, but I’m sure following the instructions helps! 🤣

[silverfox63]

I am a little bit worried, however, the bluish bits came from Airfix, so all loose in a bag. The original kit parts, well from the look of the box, I would guess that it has been in a tumble drier, possibly more than once, as a lot of parts were floating loose in the box when it arrived at my desk. I'm sure OzPost had nothing to do with that, lol.

[glwanabe]

3 hours ago, silverfox63 said:

Me again.

Did a little bit on the Hurricane yesterday.

Following the later instructions (gasp, shock, horror), I located all the parts I needed for step 2.

 

After a bit of a sort through, I now have all the parts for stage 2 ready for more assembly. One thing I have to sort out is the location of part no.18. It is shown attaching to part no. 10, the supercharger gearbox (?), yet there is no obvious location point for it. A mystery for future me.

 

That's it for now, more later, sometime. I'm trying to do a good job on this, so I'm not going to rush anything if I can avoid it.

Cheers,

Chris.

 

 

On my kit, there is a hole on the supercharger, that the little round piece fits into.  I didn't pay attention and once parts were assembled there was no way I was going to get it in there. 

I left it off, 🤪

 

there are a few tiny parts on this kit that I swear they molded just to have more parts.  

 

Good to see some movement here. I was just looking last night for this thread to see if I missed it.  

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Just seen this one Chris. The 1/24 Superkit is one Hurricane I’ve been eyeing off for a while. I’ll watch on to see how you get on with this great lump of a kit. 
 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[silverfox63]

Okay folks, pull up a comfy chair, grab you favourite snacks and beverages and STRAP IN, this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Right, first off, remember these two pics?

Well, here is the first speedhump.

See all those white pieces, the ones that came in the MPC kit? Please forget you saw them as they are actually Packard-Merlin parts. How do I know this you may ask? Well, when I went to fit the blue Airfix Hurricane (notice this) parts, they didn't want to fit. After swearing at this for a while, I looked at the parts, then looked at the instructions, then went huh? The pieces I had didn't match the illustrations. No biggee I thought, I just happen to have a spitfire that came without an engine but due to my efforts on eBay, had what I thought was a complete Hurricane engine, bought because I read somewhere that it is better detailed than the earlier release Spitfire version.

Speedhump number two:

See this pic. The Spitfire is the 3rd box from the BOTTOM of this pile.

See? Also note the P-51 box.

Now, to get to those boxes, I had to move the boxes in front of them, then move the boxes from on top of them.

Easy right? 

Not for this idiot. 

Due to not making sure I had everything I needed, I moved these stacks at least FOUR times.

Anyway, got the Spitfire box, removed the Hurricane engine parts compared them to the "Hurricane" parts on the desk. 

 

Guess what. The engine block halves, sump, ignition leads, all different.

Right, what the hell were these white parts actually from. 

Thinking ahead, I checked in the P-51 box (the white one). Looked at the built engine in there and went BINGO! I now know what the problem is.

Somewhere along the line, before I got it, the MPC Hurricane lost its engine parts but gained most of a Packard-Merlin from a P-51 kit.

What to do. 

First, pry off the supercharger parts because I need the gearbox.

Second, place all the white P-51 engine parts in a bag and place in the Spitfire box.

Third, restack everything once or twice more because I've got nothing better to do with my time.

Once I had finished my exercise for the day, I got stuck in to assembling a proper Hurricane engine, ignoring the fact it has a P-51 supercharger gearbox, and the front cover. Once it's all painted I wont care.

 

Sorry for the long, pic heavy post.

Now I am back to where I was two days ago, and can now continue forward without any more hiccups, right?

 

More when I calm down enough to look at this again.

It is so good that this is a relaxing hobby.

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited September 8 by silverfox63
Remove another double pic.

[Wings unlevel]

1 hour ago, silverfox63 said:

Once it's all painted I wont care.

It will still make the same V12 Merlin glorious sound!

 

1 hour ago, silverfox63 said:

More when I calm down enough

Maybe ease off hitting all those double shot coffees! 🤣

 

1 hour ago, silverfox63 said:

It is so good that this is a relaxing hobby.

Type 2 fun!

[silverfox63]

3 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

Maybe ease off hitting all those double shot coffees! 🤣

Amazingly enough, I can't stand coffee, or tea. I do however drink a LOT of Pepsi, so I take my caffeine cold. Explains so much in my life, lol.

[glwanabe]

Silverfox, working in his lab pens a note to the original parts seller. 

 

Sir, where did you get the parts for the engine?

 

 

 

 

Undaunted, he presses forward.

 

 

 

 

I left out the whole grave robbing where you took parts from other kits.

🤣

 

nice work.

 

[Chuck1945]

My Hurricane in this GB has parts from three different kits -having that kind of resource available is my justification for a huge stash. All just in case, right?

[silverfox63]

A small update. There has been paint.

Airfix call for Hu 33 matt black but given the reaction I had to Hu 78 interior green on the Beaufighter the other day, I'm a bit reluctant to use Humbrol again at the moment. Also, all the pics, and the engines I have seen in real life, all seem to have a slight sheen to them, so I used Tamiya x-18 semi gloss black. I like it, looks about right to my eye.

More anon.

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited September 8 by silverfox63

[glwanabe]

With the paint appication it's looking quite nice. 

 

 

[silverfox63]

Yes, the paint has made the engine look like one unit, disguising its origins nicely. Plus, the Tamiya enamel paint, to me, doesn't smell as strong as Humbrol does, brushes on better, seems to self level, and most importantly, dries a whole lot quicker than Humbrol does.

[Rabbit Leader]

Love Tamiya’s X-18, it’s a lovely black that has a glorious sheen straight out of the bottle. That engine looks superb Chris. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Wings unlevel]

That’s a great ‘colour’ choice for the engine, it does have a nice realistic sheen and depth to it. 👍

[silverfox63]

That was my thinking here. Also, it hides a multitude of sins, lol.

[Chuck1945]

6 hours ago, silverfox63 said:

That was my thinking here. Also, it hides a multitude of sins, lol.

So true 👍