1:32 Revell Hurricane IIC - 5 sqn, 1943-44

[Guest]

Got a bit more to update now - cockpit details including the gun sight, base and some ancillary pieces... first though, the cockpit.

Seat belts added

Here you can see the control column and just about make out the control wires that have been added

and here finally is the gun-sight, mounted in the right place

So for a bit of a break from the aircraft itself, I turned to the base. This is a trusty old picture frame sourced from Oxfam, with a layer of claycrete stained with artists acrylics, dusted with various ground scatter, wood logs, small boulders, plants from long green and cream hairs and a scattering of mixed herbs nicked from the kitchen...

This is 11" square which is big enough for this model. So what about what else will be appearing in the diaorama? Well how about this:

its the RAF Accumulator trolley in resin from Iconicair and this iwhat it looks like assembled:

I'm sure there's been discussions about the various inaccuracies of this kit - ie the wheels being post war versions, but lets face it, there isn't much choice so I'm making do with this one. I'm not sure exactly what colour it should be to be in Burma - RAF Blue or Olive Drab or sand? I can't fond any definitive information about it so I'm going to go with what I feel will work - a blue base coat, over-painted with sand with the paint flaking off in places. Well thats what I'd like to achieve

Finally in this update, some tools from the 1:35 Aber PE set

Spanners:

Toolbox compartments with wires added to attache the hinges

and finally with hinges added...

and yes it DOES open and close as it should - although if it still works after painting I'll be very surprised!

[Vaughan]

Wow Andrew this is looking awesome the detail and work you are putting in is outstanding. I'm looking forward to finished result, the diaorama is really going to finish things off.

Vaughan

[colin m]

That tool box is brill........

[mossiepilot]

just caught up on your build Andrew, and what a build.

Cracking mate, just cracking, 'nuff said.

Tony.

[Guest]

I've also just found this, and all I can say is WOW ! The diorama and extras are just the icing on whats going to be a rather nice cake !! Well played sir !

Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

Hi Guys, not been online much this week so only now catching up with lots of unread posts!

Thanks Vaughan, Colin and Neil

So for progress this weeks its been a bit all over the place. I started work on the figure that will represent my father. Beginning with the Airfix Multipose 8th Army figure set as shown here:

the prone figure immediately stands out for the position of the legs...

so with a bit of manipulation this can be turned into this:

which is a very good approximation to the pose I've got in mind as inspired by this photo

except of course my Dad would be in tropical gear and not wellies!

In place this looks pretty convincing...

So what about the torso? This went on okay along with arms that make the right pose. The torso-waist join required a lot of filling with some epoxy green stuff, but came out okay with a bit of careful carving and sanding. After trying a number of arms, I found a handy one for the left arm which would be resting on the fuselage as a support, and a right arm reaching into the body. Here it is all primed up and ready for paint:

and from behind (the most common view)

So for the head, I salvaged a bush had from one of the Aussie infantry set. This led to the discovery that the plastic used in this is a very stiff form of vinyl and not polystyrene as I expected. This caused issues with sanding - ie you can't sand vinyl! However I did get around that problem by sticking it in the freezer overnight which acts to make the plastic more solid and allows a certain amount of sanding if done quickly before it warms up. That led to this:

So to fit, the head needed a bit of trimming, which is difficult to see in this photo as the white plastic has got overexposed...

Now what about the base and the trolley? Well the trolley has been completed, painted and weathered. In addition I've knocked up some wooden trestles out of balsa to support the panels that have been removed from the fuselage as I doubt they'd have made a habit of dropping them in the dust/mud of the airfield. Then I also made up some wheel chocks so all together on the base it looks like this:

Close up of the accumulator trolley:

I painted this RAF blue, then did the hairspray trick and painted it stone colour then chipped some of the stone paint off to make it look worn and knocked about. I've left the cable off for now as that will be connected to the Hurricane in the finished diorama.

Here are the wheel chocks

Finally for this update, I plucked up courage and fixed the cockpit into the fuselage. I then spent a very annoying hour or more trying to get the bloody front canopy glass to stay glued. I had previously masked this up and painted inside and out, but when attached, there is contact with the gunsight and the small amount of pressure from this is enough to push the transparency forward. I first tried to glue it with Krystal Klear ie PVA glue, but that took so long to dry it all came apart. I then thought I'd be clever and use a 5 min epoxy to glue it as this would be quite strong. Sadly it took a LOT longer than 5 min to set (I think I got the mixture wrong) and it made a complete mess which took even longer to clean up. That was this morning and I carefully put it all to one side and took a break before it ended up thrown across the room in frustration - something I know I would have regretted HUGELY!!! Eventually this evening, I returned to the tried and trusted polystyrene cement and that did the job very efficiently and quickly! Jeeze!

So the cockpit now looks like this:

I've sanded down the joint between the cockpit rear bulkhead where it meets the upper planel behidn the pilots head and painted this cockpit green. You can also see the masking tape I've stuck on the inside of the open fuselage panels. This should be easy to remove one painting outside is complete. I've also pre-sprayed my mix of faded RAF green (XF81 with a couple of drops of XF 57 Buff, which I'll be using more of later) around the cockpit area so I can mask it easier when it comes to spraying the whole thing later.

One other thing that I've done that hasn't been photographed is the main wheels got painted using Tamiya xf85 Rubber black. This will get toned down and muddied up when it comes to weathering later. I've also done a few more details on the undercarriage legs, making sure then fit well into the resin wheel wells. I've left them off for now so its easier to handle, but when they get attached, I'll then be adding wires and break lines as required.

So thats it for now. I think this week will see the wings and fuselage finally joined together - a pretty big job as the fit is pretty bad, so I expect to do a lot of filling and sanding - another reason for masking the panel openings!

[Guest]

:flattered:

[Vaughan]

Wow it's all coming together.

[Guest]

stunning workman ship,the manipulation of the man to get him in position is great and as for the WOW

mobear

[Dave W]

Absolutely superb Andrew.Wish I had your skills.I know what you mean about feeling like throwing it across the room!.Ive had a few moments like that with my Anson.

[michaelm]

Andrew it's just fantastic to watch this wonderful project come together, your skills are very impressive.

Thank you for taking the time to post such a comprehensive account of this great build. M

[Guest]

Thank Michael, its useful to post on the forum as it helps keeps me "honest" and on track It also helps with motivation when you see people interested in what you are doing...

[flyjoe180]

Superb work so far Andrew.

[Guest]

Thanks Joe

This weeks update... things slowed down a bit this week, partly due to being distracted with other non-modelling things. My girlfriend is coming over from Portugal this coming week for her first visit since I moved into the new house, so I've been "spring" cleaning and managed to almost do my back in moving the couch in the lounge! Oh well, its a good excuse to be sitting not moving about much lol. I'll have ot move all the paints etc into the shed when she's here as she has this silly thing about smelling paints, solvents and sundry chemicals. Very fussy!

So what about the model I hear you ask? Welll this was the week where the wings went on. The problem was the wing cord of the wings was much deeper than that of the fuselage joints! So this required a careful build up of the complex curve. First was to fill the coarse gaps with Mr Dissolved putty:

This was left overnight to dry out. Then a layer of squadron white putty went over the top and again was left overnight to dry out. This was then carefully sanded down, trying to keep the complex curves smooth. A bit more filling and sanding left a reasonable surface. To smooth the whole lot off, a coat of Mr Surfacer 500 was painted over the joints and again left overnight

The final stage was to sand this down and get a nice smooth finish:

It was while taking that last photo that I realised I was dumb and had prayed silver in the wheel wells instead of cocpit green as I originally planned as this was common on later Hurricanes. I'm happy with the wing joints now - I thought it would be harder to get a good joint, but it just took patience!

In other news, work continued on the propeller:

I've tried to represent a faded yellow tip using a mis of yellow and dark yellow. I painted the spinner metallic grey, then dabbed a few spots of masking fluid in streaks. Then once the tips were masked, I sprayed it with Nato Black. Next day, I peeled off the masking fluid then using a piece of kitchen towel polished up the matt finish to a more satin look.

In the background you can see the resin exhausts painted up but not yet weathered. All the while other bits were drying I continued on the figure to represent my dad. Hiw uniform was painted in XF 49 Khaki and exposed skin given a once over with some flash -coloured paint. A oil wash with burnt ochre was then applied and it was left for a day:

I then started on the head. Now I've not been very good with heads in the past so I looked up some tutorials on how to paint heads in 1:35 (although this is 1:32 of course!) and found a very good one on Missing Lynx which I'm following. Here is how the head looked after the first session - please excuse it being so dark - its bloody hard to photograph this thing without it being totally washed out with the camera flash!

The big downside with oil paints is of course the drying time! I hed to leave things alone for several days then came back to

touch things up again with some more oil wash to accentuate the shadows better:

The face in this looks a bit "Black and White Minstrels" because the light seems to have picked up lighter areas around the eyes which are not all that obvious when you view it live. I've quite pleased with how this look. Sadly it doesn't really look much like my dad, but I guess thats asking perhaps a bit to much.

What else? Lots of spare time to work on other bits and bobs like the cockpit canopy, which got masked up insid and out and painted. I'm using the canopy that came with the kit rather than the vac formed one I bought. The kit one is not bad, with nice moulded frame detail.

I saw a mention of Value Gear on a forum this week and that reminded me I had picked up 3 sets at SMW so I had a look through the various piece and found some that might work in this context.

These are several crates with some tarp aor tents over the top. I gave the crates and initial coat of buff, then overpainted roughly with red brown to give the wood some colour variation

The tarps got painted khaki drab and one in Khaki, with the straps being painted a variety of colours from lenoleum brown to buff to desert yellow to give the straps some variation. Then an oil wash was applied to accentuate the creases etc.

In the background you can also see the landing gear which was also given its initial silver and metallic gray colours. Unphotographed as yet, the tool box got sprayed silver, then given a coat of hairspray. Once all this has dried it'll be painted blue and then chipped/worn.

I've got a few more days this week before the GF arrives, then I'll be preoccupied for a week before I can return to the solvents and paint smells

[Guest]

looking real good,you would never think you used so much filler on the wing roots outstanding work,and the figures looking amazing and the boxes look awesome,well played my man

mobear