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

[Dave W]

This is great stuff.ive been toying with the idea of doing a diorama for some time.But have been put off because ive never done any figures.You make it look easy.Although I know it's not.

[flyjoe180]

Good job on the filling Andrew, and those figures are slowly coming to life.

[Guest]

Thanks Ole, Dave and Joe

Here is a small update to cover the work up to to this evening. I doubt if the re will be any more progress for the next week, what with the GF arriving tomorrow!

First off then, the crates got their final oil washes, matt varnish and a little bit of pigment dusting on the boxes:

Trust me they are matt finish!

Next, the figure is almost complete. This has had multiple oil washes followed by a bit of drybrushing to bring up the folds and creases. The head was attached this evening and the only other thing I might do before the GF arrives is attach the hat.

The view that will be most common in the diorama

The shinyness comes from the oil washes. I will be giving it an all over matt varnish spray to tone that down.

and finally, the Volkes filter is being fitted. This was a bit of a trial as the version provided in the kit was designed to fit on the original nose which was a MK I. Since the MK II has a longer nose, the curve is all wrong, so this had to be sanded, fitted, filled and sanded.

Still needs a bit of something here, although thinking about it I maybe ought to scribe a panel line in the joint as these were essentially bolted on so it wouldn't have been a smooth joint. Hmm, only just thought of that as I posted this!!!

I also realised I forgot to take a pic of the wheel wells now that they have been painted up properly, but as you can see I've stuffed them with tissue to protect them against the spraying that will be in the near future...

Hmm this image makes me think that scribing is going to be tricky! Looks like I've got a bit more research to do on how well the Volkes filter fitted onto MK II noses!

So that it for now. Other things that have been done but not photographed: tail wheel painted up, cannon barrels painted, undercarriage legs painted. along with the inside of the landing gear covers, tools for the toolbox painted.

Its coming together!!!

[Guest]

the figure is outstanding(or laying)lol,crates are great mate look the DBs

mobear

[Guest]

...a week goes by...

Actually it was a very enjoyable week even though hardly any modelling work got done. Celebrated my birthday on Monday with my girlfriend in London, had a great time. She's likely to be making more visits in the future now she knows how nice my new house is, so I'm going to have to do some work on getting the shed habitable as the model gear will bet forced out into the shed. In the meantime, as soon as she left, it all got put back in the workroom and progress was resumed!

We are not the stage of painting now, so first off lets try some pre-shading...

yeah, I'm not very good with the pre-shading yet. Still need to practice it more! Next was the underside. This was a custom mix of Tamiya XF 18 with some buff added to fade it out a little. The paint surface came out VERY matt, so had to be sanded down a little, but worked out okay. The pre-shading doesn't really show through very well - again more practice needed.

On the topside, I sprayed the inner port wing with a patch of flat aluminium and coated it with a layer of Klear and then when dry, a layer of hairspray. This is to allow some paint chipping where there will be wear from the pilot mounting the aircraft. It will also be the area where my father's figure will be sitting.

I then masked the entire underside and once the hairspray patch was fully dry, sprayed the entire topside with another custom mix of XF 52 and buff again to give it a mode faded/sun-bleached look. While this was drying I scanned a page from the On Target Profile 12, hawker Hurricane in RAD and Commonwealth Service by Aviation Workshop. This page depicts a Hurricane IID from 5 Sqn in July 1953. I resized the scanned image and printed it out to use as templates for the masking of the RAF green. The scan and print out came out slightly small which worked nicely as I was using blue tac to shape the exact demarcation lines of the camo so this worked out well.

The detached tail and elevators were similarly masked and one of the removed panels from the port side was also masked to add the green camo. Again I used a custom mix of XF-81 Dark Green 2 (RAF) with some buff to simulate the sun fading and sprayed this as well. Once the masking was off, I could finally see if my masking of the open panels and cockpit had leaked...

and I am very pleased to say that they didn't!!! Phew!

I then removed the tissue packing/masking from the wheel well:

I've also done the paint chipping on the port wing and next job will be to give this the whole things a spray with Klear to form the base for the panels washes and initial weathering.

Finally for this update, I order some laser-cut paper Jungle foliage which I've then painted with oil paints to give an interesting variation to the vegetation:

Not entirely sure it works well - I may need to add more to make it a bit more "jungle-like" - any suggestions?

[Guest]

looking immense mate

mobear

[michaelm]

Fantastic work Andrew, really enjoying watching this. How about some bamboo for your jungle feel? M

[flyjoe180]

Awesome paint work Andrew, the setting is looking good to me. Like Michael suggested, maybe some bamboo if you wanted to intensify the jungle setting?

[Guest]

Its finished!

I haven't posted much during the later stages of painting because it was pretty standard fair - Klear, weathering, klear, decals, klear, matt varnish, last bits of weathering.

The only construction elements were adding the undercarriage legs and wheels, although that was not simple nor straightforward as the modifications needed to fit with the GMF Resin wheelbays meant a lot of realigning, detaching the doors from the legs, rebuilding the extra door panels and general alignment issues. I also manage to break off the pilots step two or three times and had to eventually rebuild it as the hoop got swallowed by the carpet monster.

Since taking these photos I've realised I've forgotten to attach the pilot's rer-view mirror and the pilot tube under the wing doh! Anyway here are the photos of the completed diorama...

I'm very happy to have finished but somewhat frustrated that there are still numerous faults with the model. The vast majority of these come down to the awful Revell kit. This really is a bad kit and IMHO if you own it, use it as landfill as its nothing but junk! The GMF additions help, but generate their own issues, not least with the interaction between the Mk II nose and the cockpit interior. They really need to sort that out.

Anyway, here it is - I doubt if it will win any prizes, but its an interesting diorama and I am happy with it for all its shortcomings I know I will definitely produce a better model later in the year when I do the 1:32 Hobbyboss Spitfire Vb trop converted into a Vc trop as would have been used when my Dad was with 81 Sqn in Algeria in 1943! Watch for that one later this year

[Dave W]

Absolutely superb Andrew.The fact you used a dog of a kit makes it all the more amazing.

[Guest]

i am now gonna get me a hurri,yours is soooo gorgeous andrew,and what a fine tribute mate,the paintwork down to the tool box and tools is awesome,thnx for showing us.5*s from me for the plane and 5*s for the added extras lol

mobear

[Guest]

Thanks Dave and Ole, I'm glad its over - towards the end I was really struggling to complete it - just kept find ing more and more faults with the kit... Next time I'll try the PCM Hurricane

[Guest]

Nice job.

The Hurricane is a favourite of mine.

Malc.

[Guest]

congratulations, a really great job and a very nice model.i like it.

:bounce: