Airfix 1:48 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 (Soviet colour scheme)

[homechild]

Having all the patience of a hungry two year old, I find myself starting a new kit.
My kit and associated add ons for the BoB group build have all arrived and are all ready and waiting but that’s 4 weeks away so I’m getting this one started.
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I have 4 options but I’m not sure which to do. I’m leaning towards the black one but haven’t made up my mind yet.
I just need to order a resin seat for it as the kit one is pretty basic and I don’t feel quite ready to make seat belts.

The kit itself is as you would expect from Airfix. Nice and clean lines, can’t see anything that will need to be cleaned up and there’s some good detail on the fuselage for the fabric section - hopefully this will still be visible once I’ve been at it!

I’m going to have one of the wing gun bay hatches open and the thought of cutting into the wing is giving me the fear already!
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Anyway, I’m away to make a start on this...

[JR]

Any thing Russian and I'm in, so front row seat please Drew.

[homechild]

Pull up a chair John, kettle’s on.

[homechild]

It's been a bit slow going but mainly because I was waiting for the seat to arrive and my eldest turning 15 a couple of days ago.
I've now put together what will probably be the most time consuming part of it and certainly the most detailed cockpit I've ever built - 15 parts and that's without the instrument panel or anything that gets attached to the inside pit walls.
Due to the different material the seat is made of I decided I should probably give it a quick spray of undercoat, for some reason the Tamiya light grey primer seems to go on better than the white I have. maybe it's just that specific can of white that's a bit dodgy, who knows.
Anyway, here's where we got to.

It was at this point, after spraying with primer, that I realised my big mistake.
I should've left the seat/seatback off and painted it separate to the framework and THEN attached it.
But no...I just have to make things difficult for myself. Something else to learn from I guess.

I've put on a quick first coat of the basic colours on this assembly but I'll wait until I've finished and it looks a bit better than it currently does before showing that.
Hoping to get some more done this weekend but it all depends on what jobs come my way, my wife's already mentioned that she's planning on tidying out the greenhouse and I can already see something coming from that.

Oh, just remembered something else. While I was waiting for the seat to arrive I decided to bite the bullet and just go for it, so, armed with my newly purchased craft saw I did my first piece of model mutilation.

It was a bit nerve-wracking but it was fine in the end.
That was the easy one, I still have one of the wing gun-bays to open up!

[Fernando N]

Nice choice and start Drew, JLC saw is a pretty good one to have for those mods :thumb2:

[Komedy]

Will follow this one with interest

[yak face]

This looks like a fantastic kit Drew , nice progress , did you decide which scheme you were going for ? Cheers tony

[colin m]

Looking very nice. I've got a Hurricane or two on the shelves, but doing a foreign scheme, gives me the perfect excuse for another. Splendid.

[homechild]

This looks like a fantastic kit Drew , nice progress , did you decide which scheme you were going for ? Cheers tony

The piece that I cut off was to make way for the Vokes air filter so it’s the black colour scheme I’m going for. I’m going to use the Tamiya Nato Black paint as it’s not quite black and I’m hoping that the pre-shading of the panel lines will still show through.
Plus, the black one looks pretty awesome.

Komedy I wouldn’t expect any masterpieces but hopefully it’ll turn out okay.

colin m I like the unusual so I may do some more aircraft in future in colour schemes you wouldn’t normally associate with those particular planes.

[homechild]

It was a warm and bright day today so I set up camp at the patio doors today since the light was so good.
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I’ve really only been working on this at the weekends so progress has been slow but steady.
The cockpit is painted, instrument panel painted (looks okay from a distance), wings assembled and fuselage assembled.
I was surprised at how much of the interior was to be painted aluminium, so much so that I looked for some reference pictures online! Even the seat is bare metal - couldn’t have been very comfy!
My reference pictures were taken from the National Museum of the US Air Force. There was a cool 360 degree cockpit that lets you see everything you need to see.
I even braved the cut I was worried about. I opened up one of the wing gun bays with mixed success. There are one or two stray scratches and one of the lines isn’t exactly straight but these will be covered up when it’s finished (I have a cunning plan).
Tomorrow we’ll see what the fit is like and hopefully get a little more done.
For tonight though, this is the state of play.
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[homechild]

Quick update.

Removed the tape today and it all stayed in place - yay!
On the dry-fit test I thought I was going to be left with some horrific gaps to fill.
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It turns out the rear section just needed widening slightly.
It really could’ve been doing with some kind of internal piece to ensure the two pieces were glued correctly (see red line below).
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Anyway, top glued to bottom now I’ll need to find something else to do for a bit.
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Out of curiosity, how can you tell if a plane’s going to be a nose sitter before it’s finished?
I still have the piece at the back to go on and this would be an ideal time to glue in some of the brass BBs that I have for this kind of situation.
There’s nothing in the instructions about adding weight but not sure if I should add some anyway.

[homechild]

I’d been working on this in bits and pieces but none seemed worthy of an update but I’m calling it finished now.
I planned to have some RAF and Soviet mechanics around the open gun bay and the cockpit in a “sharing of information” type scenario but hit a snag.
The spray varnish unexpectedly misted up the canopy!!
Oh well, another lesson learned.
Other than that I was quite happy with the build, the colour scheme looks pretty awesome too (I think).
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