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1:72 Hurricanes - one old & one new


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Well here is my entry into the Group Build, two 1/72 Hurricane kits one old and the other new.

Hurricane-Kits.jpg

Parts out of the box/bag

Hurricane-Parts.jpg

The boxed kit is a Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary series kit that I purchased for this GB. Decals are provided for 2 aircraft; RAF, No.87 Squadron, flown by Flt. Lt. Ian Richard (Widge) Gleed c.1940 and an Irish Air Corps aircraft of No.1 Squadron c.1945.

HurricaneMkI.jpg

The kit has raised panel lines and rivets and not much in the way of a cockpit at all. When compared with the Aero Detail No.12 line drawings (scaled from scan) I thought the overall shape and dimensions were pretty good. Overall I thought that this kit is pretty good and would go together nicely. Not so with the 60’s era kit. To start with I got this kit for a dollar and it was missing the instructions and cardboard flap on top of the bag. The owner said that this was a 60’s era Airfix kit and I have no reason to doubt this; however, I am sure that someone out there would know more about the kit. The Clear Plastic stand says ‘An Airfix product, Made in England†so I believe the kit meets the rules for entry. The decals state Hurricane IV. RP and has markings for KW919 code FJ*C, which suggests that they are the original decals that were provided for this kit. They look old and yellowed, but, surprisingly good for their age.

HurricaneMkIV.jpg

All I can say is that this kit looks very crude by today’s standards, particularly when compared to Airfix’s later effort. The new kit has not much in the way of a cockpit; this kit has a pilot who has a hole in his guts. No seat, no anything, so I am not sure how he was meant to sit in there. The good news is that the clear bit is so thick that I don’t think you will see anything anyway. The few panel lines that exist are a mixture of raised and scribed (more like valleys), but, a quick check also shows that a lot of them are in the wrong place. While length is ok for a later Hurricane, overall dimensions only vaguely approximate the real thing. I think it will look like a Hurricane when done, but, I might wait till I am finished before I confirm that.

After a few months off, I wanted to ease back into it with a quick easy build. Not sure that this will meet that expectation, but, I am looking forward to getting started :wave:

Edited by nubaba
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Nubaba,

You're keen to do 2 builds at once!

I'll love to follow your build through and see you at the finishing line.

Enjoy the build(s).

Cheers,

Gabe ;)

Edited by gkicsak
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First off, I found out a bit more about the old kit in a article put together by Brian Baker on 'Modelling the Hawker Hurricane in 1/72 Scale'. Apparently the kit was released in the late 50’s. While it was boxed as a Hurricane Mk. IV, the instructions said that a Mk. I, Mk. IIB or a Mk. IV can be built. Brian went on to say that the kit is reasonably accurate considering its age, but the fuselage and there is no real cockpit or wheel well detail (no surprises there).

The statement that other versions could be built sparked an idea. Why not simplify things and build two Mk.I’s. Now I don’t have to worry about the poor condition of the old decals as the new kit has two sets of markings :yahoo:<smiley yah> . Given the overall shape issues I don’t think it matters too much, which version I build...I have to fix things anyway.

So out came the saw and it was time to carve a bit off the front end. Nothing too dramatic, I just tried to line things up with the new kit.

MkIVHurricaneCockpit.jpg

The bigger challenge was the cockpit. I don’t usually do pilots and this kit just had a hole where the cockpit should be. I could not live with a hole so built a rear wall and seat out of styrene. I also used some stretched sprue and my handy dandy hole punch to create some basic shapes for the sidewalls. Nothing too dramatic, as it is hard to see a lot of detail through the canopy in this scale. Hopefully it is still keeping within the spirit of this GB. The instrument panel is a homemade decal. All up about an hour and a halfs work with painting (not counting drying time). The decal did take me a bit of time but....damn PC’s fault . With a bit of paint on it came out looking ok to me.

Mk1VHurricaneCockpitpainted.jpg

Next up was the new mold Mk.I. A basic cockpit is dressed up with some basic shapes on the sidewalls from stretched sprue and styrene.

MkIHurricaneCockpit.jpg

Add a stick, decal for the panel and a lick off paint and in a little under an hour she is taking shape nicely.

Mk1HurricaneCockpitpainted.jpg

Hurricane Cockpits side by side

HurricaneCockpitspainted.jpg

Time to clean them up and join everything together.

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Buttoned up the fuselage for both kits and both lined up very well.

HurricaneMk1Buttonedup.jpg

Still a lot of work to clean up the joins without damaging the raised panel lines. Very evident from the photo the different approach taken to depicting the outer skin of the Hurricane. The molded in detail on the new kit looks pretty good, if not a little too pronounced in places. The old kit just uses raised lines, which look wierd; however, I am just going to leave these as is. Next it was on to the wings on the old kit. The raised panel lines were incorrect for the Mk.1, though not sure they were right for any model of the Hurricane.

Hurricaneoldwings.jpg

I sanded off the old lines and rescribed lines using 1/72 scale plans. I decided early on that I did not want to go overboard and only scribed the main details.

GEDC0026.jpg

The wings were then joined and the fit was horrible. A lot of sanding required to get them to match. I did a little work thinning the trailing edge, but, again wanted to leave some of the original detail.

The wing was then joined to the fuselage and the join could only be described as ugly.

HurricaneJoin.jpg

Upperjoin.jpg

A lot of filler is needed and more sanding apears on the cards. For a tiny model it sure needs a lot of filling and sanding

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A quck update. The old kit took a lot a lot of work to get the seams looking ok. Now that I have primed it I see that I still have a bit of tidying up to do; but, overall I am quite happy with where I have ended up.

Modifications to old kit include; removed old scribed/raised detail on wings and forward fuselage, re-scribed main panel lines, drilled out holes for guns, cut holes for landing lights, reshaped scoop (still a bit small but shape looks better) and cut hole in underside to take stand where gap between wheels should be. I had thought about cutting out the gap that should be there between the wheels, but decided that if I moved the kits stand forward it would hide this area sufficiently for my purposes.

Top view - the fit of the canopy was horrible and a lot of filler was needed (hopefully, I haven't ruined it)

OldTop.jpg

Front view - Gun ports drilled in wing and gap for landing lights to be added cut out

Oldfront.jpg

Underside view - showing modified scoop

OldBottom.jpg

Thankfully the new kit went together easily with only a small amount of filler needed. In fact I was quite impressed with the overall fit of the parts....a gigantic improvement from the 60's era kit. I added a small amount of detail to wheel well and drilled holes for guns, but, the rest is pretty much as it came out of the box.

Top view - canopy fit was near perfect

newTop.jpg

Underside view - wheel well floor added as well as a bit of piping. This kit has the correct cut-out between the wheels and the little scoop that is missing on the old kit.

newbottom.jpg

Front view - holes for guns drilled out

Newfront.jpg

Side by side they both are starting to look like Hurricanes

Primed.jpg

Time to move onto paint :D

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Nubaba,

It's great to see these 2 birds all primed and ready for paint.

I always love to see in-progress shots of a full build.

Keep going. Still going great.

Cheers,

Gabe :thumbsup:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Paint on and mask off. Unfortunately the canopy on the old kit is a bit cloudy on the inside. There was a large gap between the canopy and fuselage so I used some gap filling cyano glue to fill the hole and glue the pieces together. I thought that the future covered canopy would be ok; however, it obviously wasn't. Not sure how I am going to fix that :(

P1030463.jpg

Decided to keep things going while I looked for a cheap solution for my $1 kit. So on with a coat of future and then the decals. After a good dose of Microsol another coat of future before moving on.

P1030472.jpg

P1030473.jpg

Underside of the RAF Huricane......

P1030478.jpg

....I am a bit stuck here as I don't know what colour to paint the wheel wells. Decal markings are for a No.87 Squadron Hurricane Mk.1, of the RAF around 1940. My references show that the well started out as silver at at some time they switched over to the same colour as the underside. Does anyone know what colour I should use?

Cheers.

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Nubaba,

It all looks great so far.

I have just checked my Spitty and ithe wheel wells are the same colour as you already have it. I have put a wash through it and that's all that is needed.

Once again, great work.

Cheers,

Gabe :thumbsup:

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Thanks for the reply. My references showed that it probably started out silver then was painted some time the same as the bottom...date unknown. In the end I flipped a coin and went with silver, which added a bit of contrast. Almost done now and just waiting for the matt finish to dry.

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Off the production line then the wheel wells would be silver. After an in-the-field repaint they would end up the same as the undersurface colour, everything including static parts of the gear legs and inside the doors. P2798 was manufactured and delivered during March/April 1940 and would have been finished in black/white undersurfaces. The instruction went out for aircraft to be painted with Sky undersurfaces in June, so it is most likely that the wells were re-painted in Sky.

peebeep

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