Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 (tin wing conv.)

[acklington]

V7013, 317 Sqdn, Ouston, April 1941 (24) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

V7013, 317 Sqdn, Ouston, April 1941 (10) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

Just finished. This is the new Airfix A01010 'fabric wing' Hurricane, but I have converted it to a metal wing using a new resin wing from 'AlleyCats'. This conversion is specifically designed for use with the Airfix kit, and it goes together reasonably well. However the resin wing trailing edge is far too thick, so some detail was lost in thinning it to a sharp edge. The Airfix kit also suffers from much shrinkage, with some 30 indentations having to be filled. I scratch built and added exhaust glare shields and rear view mirror.

The decals for this specific aircraft came from the Polish firm 'Techmod', and they are nicely detailed but very thin and fragile.

Hurricane V7013 'JH-L' of 317 "Wilenski" squadron is commonly illustrated at RAF Acklington, but in April 1941 the squadron moved to nearby RAF Ouston in Northumberland, from where they scored their first Ju88 kill on 2nd June 1941.

[csnewton2701]

Cracking build. Have you ever tried Xtradecals from Hannants?

Chris

[acklington]

Thanks Chris. Yes I use Xtradecals a lot, as many of my kit builds are 'one off' schemes and markings.

This Hurricane was a specific choice (to join my RAF Ouston collection), and fortunately the aircraft was included on the sheet of Polish Hurricanes as issued by 'Techmod'.

Next up on my 'Ouston list' are a 131 Sqdn Spitfire Mk.1, and a 613 Sqdn Mustang Mk.1

[woody66]

I might have to have a look at allycats. The results look good on your Hurricane. Do you use an airbrush by the way?

[acklington]

Airbrush? Never have, they're all brush painted. Two thinish coats of enamel colour (humbrol, matt or satin, doesn't matter), then a light sanding or cloth buffing, followed by two thin coats of acylic gloss varnish onto which the decals hopefully don't silver. Finally a coat of acrylic varnish (matt, satin, or gloss depending on subject). I only use acrylic for the varnish stages as hopefully it doesn't yellow with age.

On camo schemes that require a soft edge between the colours, I mix the two camo colours 50/50 and paint a very thin line between the two - this deceives the eye into thinking the demarcation has been spray painted.

I rarely mask the schemes before painting, and instead prefer to quickly remove any mistakes, or straighten wonky lines, using a clean brush dipped in white spirit. This clean brush technique can also be used to soften demarcation lines.

At all stages of painting I closely examine the finish for dust specks that invariably materialise from a parallel dimension, and then remove them with a sharp blade. But the final matt/satin/gloss varnish is always the worst, as there is nothing that can be done to remove the final invasion of the dust devils! That's when I resort to photoshop.

[csnewton2701]

I very rarely airbrush mine, the only one that has so far was the 1/72 tornado gr4 Dambusters special. Most often it's easier just to brush apply I believe.

Chris