Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 (fabric wing)

Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 (fabric wing)

Author
Discussion

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 7th October 2014
quotequote all
johnS2000 said:
I've just got back from the Hornby Centre in Margate .

Managed to get a 1:72 Typhoon for £3-50 ,a FRS1 SeaHarrier 1:72 for a fiver and a 1:72 Spitfire /Messersmit 110 gift set for a tenner all look like new tooling .

So am hoping that Airfix kits are a bit better than previous posts depict.
They are what they are, the Hurricane is one of their latest offerings, and despite positive "in-box" reviews, IMO is a poor effort on several levels for a brand new kit if you actually build it. If you're a beginner and/or not looking for refinement then they're fine. Or, as I was with the Hurricane if you want a specific variant of aircraft that's unavailable elsewhere then you may have to put some extra work in.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 8th October 2014
quotequote all
Tailplanes and rudder fitted tonight. The port wing root has had some work and looks much better. Also glued on some scrap clear sprue for the tip light covers:



Although the leading edge radius needed a lot of filling and rescribing; it's still not right, but it will have to do:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
quotequote all
Sounds like I could be in for a long wait for a replacement canopy, so I messed about making a radiator duct stay out of a brass tube offcut:



Also continued making the the wingtip lights by cutting out the plastic and pva'ing some clear sprue offcuts into the notches:



Then, when set, filing and polishing the sprue to the correct shape:



Then prise out the lenses to clean the surfaces up and drill them from the back to form bulb sockets which will be dotted with red and green paint; pva is surprisingly strong on plastic:



dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Monday 13th October 2014
quotequote all
The pitot/static tubes on the early Hurricanes were larger and less refined than later versions, but even so, the kit part was pretty crude; too square and the tubes were moulded as one piece. I thought it was some kind of traction engine starting handle:



I cut the 'tubes' off and rounded the triangular fillet before drilling and fitting brass tubes. When finished a bit more and painted it will look much better than the original:



Also painted the centre fuselage with smooth silver and dark grey preshading:



Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to paint the black and white outer wing panels ready for applying RedFirecrackers custom made decals smile (the Xtradecal decals turned out to be wrong for this aircraft).

Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
I have to say those kit pitots look very poor. 2 out of 10 Airfix.

Your replacements look spot on. I will bear this in mind when I build this kit myself.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
I have to say those kit pitots look very poor. 2 out of 10 Airfix.

Your replacements look spot on. I will bear this in mind when I build this kit myself.
I think this one was done by the intern. Strangely enough, the alternative pitot tube included in the kit is the conventional "L" type, and is absolutely fine.

I did get an e-mail from Airfix just now saying they'd posted a new part (hopefully the canopy!) first class, which is pretty good. The service e-mails are a bit confusing, IIRC when I messed up the Gladiator top wing they said there were no spares available, so for the sake of a few quid I bought another kit, and a couple of days later I got a new top wing in the post...

Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
Ours not to reason why.......

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
Black and white wing panels done tonight and coated with Klear:


Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
I find them eminently buildable - and good value. You got some good bargains there.
I cannot see the point worrying about getting bargain models when the amount saved on the kit is peanuts compared to the amount invested into paint, fillers, airbrushes, etc, etc. If you factor in an hourly labour rate the amount spent on the plastic kit is vanishingly small. Thus I would suggest it makes good financial sense to buy the best plastic kit you possibly can and not worry about its cost too much.


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
Ayahuasca said:
Eric Mc said:
I find them eminently buildable - and good value. You got some good bargains there.
I cannot see the point worrying about getting bargain models when the amount saved on the kit is peanuts compared to the amount invested into paint, fillers, airbrushes, etc, etc. If you factor in an hourly labour rate the amount spent on the plastic kit is vanishingly small. Thus I would suggest it makes good financial sense to buy the best plastic kit you possibly can and not worry about its cost too much.

Exactly.

The fact is that at least in my local model shop, Airfix kits are no longer 'cheap' compared with the latest Revell and existing Academy models.

Make your own judgement on relative quality...

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
quotequote all
I am a bit disappointed that you are not making the fabric wings out of actual fabric wink


Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Wednesday 15th October 2014
quotequote all
Ayahuasca said:
I cannot see the point worrying about getting bargain models when the amount saved on the kit is peanuts compared to the amount invested into paint, fillers, airbrushes, etc, etc. If you factor in an hourly labour rate the amount spent on the plastic kit is vanishingly small. Thus I would suggest it makes good financial sense to buy the best plastic kit you possibly can and not worry about its cost too much.

Everybody gets different things out of the hobby.

When I build models, I'm not normally in a race to finish it. If it needs a bit of fettling or "accurising", I don't mind. I kind of enjoy those aspects.

As you can see from many of my builds, I am quite keen on old "classic" kits from the 60s and 70s which often need a bit of persuasion to improve their looks. So, if a modern "new tool" is less than perfect, I don't mind. It will almost definitely (although not always) be a big improvement on an older kit.

And cost is important to me. I think an 80% accurate Hurricane at less than £10 is preferable to a 95% accurate Hurricane for £20.
Others will have different views, of course.

What REALLY annoys me are grossly inaccurate, expensive, new tool kits. We have had a few of these in recent years, mainly from China (Trumpeter and Dragon- I mean you).

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 15th October 2014
quotequote all
New canopy arrived today wohoo. It's fine, but I did manage to scratch it removing it from the sprue...

Anyway, made some progress on details like the lamps - ventral signalling lamp painted amber/red, tip lights drilled and the holes filled with red/green to represent the coloured bulbs, and the leading edge lights had silver brushed into the lamp apertures to represent reflectors:



Also drilled out the instrument venturi (looks like it needs touching in with a bit of black paint, but it is only about 2mm long):



And made a ring and bead sight. The ring is the centre ring of the spare sight from my 1:32 Wingnut Wings SE.5a, the bead is just some brass tube with a blob of pva on top. I might get rid of the pva. both are a bit overscale, but at least they are now there.

Also added the unstreamlined aerial mast, and have since fitted the windscreen:


Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Thursday 16th October 2014
quotequote all
Doc, that is looking fantastic. What silver did you use - I have a P51 to build, and that looks just about right

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 16th October 2014
quotequote all
Mutley said:
Doc, that is looking fantastic. What silver did you use - I have a P51 to build, and that looks just about right
Ta. After much trial and error trying to find a smooth silver, I settled on Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, Steel and/or Silver. There's a thread BM here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topi...

Alclad II lacquer still probably shades it for absolute smoothness, but it can be tricky to work with. For a start it really needs a glossy, dark base coat, and you can't use it on bare plastic because it dissolves the surface.

For a P-51 you might want to look at using slightly different shades of silver on different panels to represent the various grades and grain directions of the real metal.



Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Thursday 16th October 2014
quotequote all
Very interesting and great research.

I am a fan of the Alclad products but they are a bit non-user friendly when to comes to fumes and cleaning.

I think a trip to my local model supplies might be in order. I will be spraying my Air Corps Magister this weekend and Valejo metallics might be an easier alternative to my intended Alclad Aluminium.

Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Friday 17th October 2014
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Mutley said:
Doc, that is looking fantastic. What silver did you use - I have a P51 to build, and that looks just about right
Ta. After much trial and error trying to find a smooth silver, I settled on Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, Steel and/or Silver. There's a thread BM here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topi...

Alclad II lacquer still probably shades it for absolute smoothness, but it can be tricky to work with. For a start it really needs a glossy, dark base coat, and you can't use it on bare plastic because it dissolves the surface.

For a P-51 you might want to look at using slightly different shades of silver on different panels to represent the various grades and grain directions of the real metal.
Doc, thanks for that, and will have a read of the BM thread

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 17th October 2014
quotequote all
I've masked and painted the canopy - this one is much better:





Unfortunately after glueing the original windscreen (on left) in place I realised it too has a flaw over the top edge. I'd assumed it was part of the framing, but after comparing it with the spare one on the canopy sprue (and some reference pics), it is indeed a moulding flaw. Luckily it was a simple matter to prise it off the fuselage and fit the new one:



Also today got the corrected underwing serials from RedFirecracker. The Xtradecal plans show L1599 to be all silver underneath, but according to my incredibly knowledgable source over the pond (thanks Tango98) it was delivered from the factory with a three tone finish. I therefore needed a white serial. Despite my best efforts to confuse things, RedFirecracker made some perfect matches which as usual appear to be spot-on at the first attempt, so that's sorted:



Thanks RF!

And finally, got the corrected 5-spoke wheels:



They do look a bit thin, and the rim detail isn't as well defined as the Airfix ones, but at least it's consistently absent:

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
The finish on this one will be more important thaqnusual: I wanted a clean looking early spec. machine, and apart from roundels there are hardly any topside markings to draw the eye from any painting flaws.

Started by masking:





followed by a coat of Earth preshaded with German Grey:



Then overcoated to leave just a hint of shading along the panel lines and control breaks:



Hopefully get the Reflective Green on this evening.

Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
quotequote all
Nearly there. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.