Airfix 1/48 scale Hawker Hurricane Mk 1

[Joel_W]

Originally I was going to start the Eduard/Hasegawa 1/48 scale F-86F Sabre after I finished the Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat, and I actually did just that. Spent about 2 hrs in the cockpit, but my Mojo was calling me for another WW II prop. I've had the Airfix 1/48 scale Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 on my to do shelf for a while now, so I boxed the Sabre back up for another day, and opened the Hurricane box, and that's what my current build is going to be.

 

Naturally, the only British paints I had on hand were the late camo colors that I did my Eduard Spitfire Mk IXVc in a few years ago, and those colors were wrong for a BOB Hurricane. I've also started to switch over to Mig Ammo Acrylics rather then continuing to mix most colors with the Tamiya line, so I ordered the Early British set from Sprue Brothers who had it at my front door in 4 days time. Being me, I just assumed that the 4 colors in the pre-pack contained British Interior Green, and guess what it didn't.  My fault, not anyone else's. So I now had to mix my own once again.  I started off with googling the British color chip from a few sources, then pulling out my Witches caldron, I slowly mixed what I thought was the correct shade. Especially once it's enclosed in the fuselage and will receive a dark brown wash, it would do just fine.

As per the instructions I started with the 3 piece pilot seat and bulkhead. Now keep in mind that I'm a complete newbie when it comes to British aircraft. I google everything, checking known sources as much as possible.

The 3 piece seat assembly was really grossly overly thick. Also the stick lever attached to the port side of the seat looked out of scale to me, so I cut it off, then thinned the side panels. Then glued the seat together and thinned some more.

Naturally, in my haste to start, I forgot to take any before pictures. 

Here's the glued up and thinned out seat.

 

From what I understand the Mk 1 used the Sutton harness and seatbelt. for that to fit to the seat a 2nd opening was needed in the lower back of the seat. That was accomplished with a drill, and some files. I also opened up the belt opening in the bulkhead.

 

 

Once done, both were primed with Mig Ammo Black Acrylic primer to help with a more convincing shadow effect.

 

 

I painted the bulkhead with my mix of British Interior Green, and the seat with Alcad Flat Aluminum #101 as I didn't want it shinny but rather on the dull side.

I decided to try and make my own harness assembly out of layered masking tape. I've painted the belts with Tamiya Buff, but they still look a little to light and need to be weathered. I'm planning on using some misc. Buckles and latches from left over Eduard PE sets, but I haven't gotten to that point as yet.

 

 

 

I did manage to start the cockpit framing. Of course the aluminum plate in the middle of it has a huge ejector mark right in the middle of it. I filled that with a sheet plastic disk, and Bondo. I also drilled out the lightning holes in the pulley wheel.

 

 

And that's how far I've gotten to this point.

Joel
 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Joel_W

[dnl42]

Joel, Nice start! Looking forward to another fine build.

[Joel_W]

9 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Joel, Nice start! Looking forward to another fine build.

dnl42,

  Thanks for the confidence boost. Sure hope that the build lives up to  your expectations.

Joel

[JesusNut]

A very nice start Joel.  I do not know much about Spitfires, so I will be learning as you go.  

[Thommo]

Love the Hurricane - the true workhorse of the Battle of Britain.

[Joel_W]

15 hours ago, JesusNut said:

A very nice start Joel.  I do not know much about Spitfires, so I will be learning as you go.  

JN,

  Truth be told, I know very little about British aircraft, but thought it was about time I once again build a few. I've managed to build the Eduard Spitfire Mk IVXc late ver, and the excellent Tamiya Mosiquito Mk VI. both in 1/48 scale. One thing that's becoming quite apparent is that at least for the early years of the war, the Brits changed interior and exterior colors even faster then any of the USA branches did.  And lets not forget how they flipped flopped the A camo paint scheme into the B scheme, which caused me to have to strip the Mk IVXc and repaint. 

 

  BTW,  this time I'm building a Hurricane, not a Spitfire. Although they do look rather similar in early Mk 1 versions.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

11 hours ago, Thommo said:

Love the Hurricane - the true workhorse of the Battle of Britain.

 

Thommo

  Me too. 

 

Joel

[JesusNut]

4 hours ago, Joel_W said:

JN,

  Truth be told, I know very little about British aircraft, but thought it was about time I once again build a few. I've managed to build the Eduard Spitfire Mk IVXc late ver, and the excellent Tamiya Mosiquito Mk VI. both in 1/48 scale. One thing that's becoming quite apparent is that at least for the early years of the war, the Brits changed interior and exterior colors even faster then any of the USA branches did.  And lets not forget how they flipped flopped the A camo paint scheme into the B scheme, which caused me to have to strip the Mk IVXc and repaint. 

 

  BTW,  this time I'm building a Hurricane, not a Spitfire. Although they do look rather similar in early Mk 1 versions.

 

Joel

 

 Well, not only do I not recognize non-US aircraft, apparently I cannot read either!!!!     Hahaha!  And apparently I know even less about the Hurricane!  

[Joel_W]

1 hour ago, JesusNut said:

 

 Well, not only do I not recognize non-US aircraft, apparently I cannot read either!!!!     Hahaha!  And apparently I know even less about the Hurricane!  

 Tom,

That makes two of us.

Joel

[Tom G]

Off to a good start Joel.  I look forward to following your build.  How do you like the Ammo paints?

 

Tom

[Joel_W]

4 minutes ago, Tom G said:

Off to a good start Joel.  I look forward to following your build.  How do you like the Ammo paints?

 

Tom

 Tom,

 Glad to have  you along for the ride. The F6F-3 was painted with all Mig Ammo paints, and I've used them for various colors on other builds. In short, I love them. Fantastic color selection and they shoot perfectly. I thin them 1:1 with Tamiya yellow cap and a drop of Winsor & Newton Flow Enhancer for each 12 drops of paint mixture. Clean up is a snap.

Joel

[JesusNut]

4 hours ago, Joel_W said:

 Tom,

 Glad to have  you along for the ride. The F6F-3 was painted with all Mig Ammo paints, and I've used them for various colors on other builds. In short, I love them. Fantastic color selection and they shoot perfectly. I thin them 1:1 with Tamiya yellow cap and a drop of Winsor & Newton Flow Enhancer for each 12 drops of paint mixture. Clean up is a snap.

Joel

 

Joel,

 

Have you had any problems with tip dry using the MIG paints?  I have seen some comments on some of the Youtube videos complaining about it.  But I wonder if using either Tamiya yellow cap or my favorite, Mr Color Leveling Thinner would mitigate that problem.  

[Aigore]

Oooh, nice.....that Airfix Hurricane looks enticing :D

I like what you've made with seat.

[HOLMES]

Joel..

 

WOW !

 

WHAT A BRILLIANG START.

 

AWESOME build so far.

[Joel_W]

12 hours ago, JesusNut said:

 

Joel,

 

Have you had any problems with tip dry using the MIG paints?  I have seen some comments on some of the Youtube videos complaining about it.  But I wonder if using either Tamiya yellow cap or my favorite, Mr Color Leveling Thinner would mitigate that problem.  

Tom

    A little bit but I've been experimenting with a Acrylic retarder, and just a few drops really helps to cure the problem. 

Joel

[Joel_W]

1 hour ago, Aigore said:

Oooh, nice.....that Airfix Hurricane looks enticing :D

I like what you've made with seat.

Janne,

  Welcome to my build, as it's always appreciated when you join the party. 

  Thanks for the thumbs up on the seat. While I'm still trying to figure out how to make buckles and latches, these are an improvement over the stiff as a board PE ones I usually end up using.   I've got a few sets of the Fabric ones, but they really look like a challenge that I'm not so sure I'm up to.

Joel

[Joel_W]

25 minutes ago, HOLMES said:

Joel..

 

WOW !

 

WHAT A BRILLIANG START.

 

AWESOME build so far.

Holmes,

  Thanks so much for your most positive comment. it's really appreciated. 

The ChopperMan

[JesusNut]

6 hours ago, Joel_W said:

Tom

    A little bit but I've been experimenting with a Acrylic retarder, and just a few drops really helps to cure the problem. 

Joel

 

Thanks Joel.  I will have to check it out.

[Joel_W]

Well, another week of work, and not all that much to show for my efforts. But I've made some decent progress none the less.

As I continued with the confines of the cockpit, the molded rudder pedals look pretty nice, but the foot straps must scale out to more then a foot.

 

So I decided that even I could do better. 1st step was to cut off the existing straps.

 

 

Once painted, I made new straps out of thin strips of masking tape then painted them with Tamiya Earth

 

 

Good enough for being buried down in the bottom of the pit and under the IP.

The yoke is a piece unit and looks the part. I decided to add the two electrical wires from the MG trigger switches. then used masking tape once again to duplicate the straps holding them position.

 

 

They're certainly a little over scale but it's the best I can do.

There are two main wing spars that should be painted Aluminum not British Interior Green, so they were primed and then painted with Alcad 2 #101 flat Aluminum along with all the other various parts of the most complete tubular pit I've built in a long time. Airfix did a fantastic job in design and engineering, as everything fits perfectly with no need for any filler, or sanding/filing other then general parts clean up. I did vary from the instruction steps by 1st gluing in the rudder, Yoke, and heel plate floor, then I glued into position the heel plates. For me it was easier this way. Here's the cockpit tubing with only the Port side tubing and support glued to each other. the Starboard tubing is just dry fitted for support and alignment. Not installed yet is the yoke nor rudder pedals as I still need to add the decal for the top of the compass.

 

 

 

 

Finally I gave each fuselage half a coat of my mix of British Interior Green so I can start to add all the little details
 

 

Joel

[CaptainObvious]

Nice start Joel.

I like what you did with the seatbelts and foot straps.

I have this kit in the stash and will be following with interest.
 

[Joel_W]

6 hours ago, CaptainObvious said:

Nice start Joel.

I like what you did with the seatbelts and foot straps.

I have this kit in the stash and will be following with interest.
 

 Capt. Obvious,

  Thanks so much for your thumbs up to my little detailing efforts.  So far it's a great kit. One that Airfix should be proud of as it's meeting all my expectations. 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Another week of work in the books, and I actually made some decent progress.

I added a brown wash to the Sutton Harness, and dry brushed the fuselage side walls with flat Aluminum. Then I glued the wing spare/cockpit sub assembly to the full bottom wing. 

 

 

next up was gluing on both halves of the wing top sections.

 

 

 

 

One issue that I was already aware of is the thickness of the trailing edge of both wings.

 

 

My 1st inclination was just to thin them from the inside surfaces, but then the wing root joints would no longer align as perfectly as the do now. So my POA (plan of attack) is to very gently thin out both top surfaces, then slight round the edge, hopefully giving the illusion of a sharper edge. Hopefully that will work so that I don't have to destroy any more surface detail then is absolutely necessary.

Next up I glued the fuselage halves together, then glued in the front bulkhead and then IP. And speaking of the IP, this is one area that Airfix really needs to address. the IP has just raised bezels and the instruments are a very, and I mean very basically drawn as a decal. I tried it, and thought it wasn't nearly up to standards, so taking a good friend Torsten's suggestion of using Yahu IP panels, I went to their site, fell in love with those IPs, and then checked out their World Wide retailers. Hobbyworld is located in Salem, New Hampshire which is fairly close to Long Island. So I ordered 4 IPs from them on Saturday, and Matt got my order out USPS on Monday morning, which arrived at my house Thursday morning. Thanks Matt for the great service.

the Yahu IP consists of the finished IP and a 6 bezel center panel that is supposed to raised. It fit perfectly. The IP PE panel is a little to thin to properly fit the slots in each fuselage half, so I just used the kit IP and filed it down some. Couldn't ask for a better fit.

 

 

Next up I glued the wing sub assembly to the fuselage. Great fit. Needed a tad of persuasion to align both, but once done didn't require continued pressure. I glued them up with Tamiya Extra Thin.
 

 

 

And here's just how good the wing root fit is. Remember I mentioned that I didn't want to disturb it with thinning the trailing edges from the inside.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my build to date. It's always much appreciated.

Joel

[kurnass77]

Ehi Joel,

you're very fast!

I like your work 'till now.

The 4-holed "box" inside each wing is for some kind of gun bay details?

Keep up the good work friend!

 

Gianni

[dnl42]

Very nice work on the rudder pedals and stick. Those Yahu IPs are just amazing, truly.

[Wolfgun33]

Very nice!