The Hamfisted Modeller: 1/48 Arma Hobby Hawker Hurricane IIC - 11 Sqn RAF - 1944

Depicted as an aircraft flown by Squadron Leader Denis Sharp DFC RNZAF based operating from Tamu in Burma in December 1944.

Denis Sharp had quite an interesting career/life flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain. He later trained to fly Hurricanes off aircraft carriers before ending up in Singapore in 1942. He flew the last Hurricane out of Singapore before the island surrendered ending up crashing it in Indonesia.

After reaching Colombo he volunteered for a "special mission" thinking it would get him back in the cockpit but ended up serving with the Chindits as an air-controller directing supply drops.

After the Chindits he served and commanded both 5 and 11 Sqn RAF flying Hurricanes out of India and Burma. He later flew Corsairs with the RNZAF before rejoining the RAF to fly Meteor, Vampire and Lightning aircraft. In 1959 emigrated to Australia where he lived out his life.

If you're interested in more details on him here are some links.

I wanted to do a SEAC Hurricane IIC with the Tropical Filter because I think it makes the Hurricane look quite brutal.I also wanted to try and do a machine used by a Kiwi. Quite quickly I stumbled across Denis Sharp (via those 2 websites).

I found the aircraft serial and code in the Squadron record books for 11 Sqn which I downloaded from the UK national archives. 11 Sqn's records are also typed and very thorough which made it simple to find out what aircraft were flown by each pilot on each day. This aircraft was flown regularly by Sharp but also by plenty of others.

The Kit

1/48 Arma Hobby Hurricane IIc (Kit No 48005)

This was the initial release of this boxing so it had a lovely 3 D printed seat, exhausts and cannon barrels although I chose not to used the barrels

Aftermarket

Master Models Cannon Barrels

The Build

There has been plenty written about how good this kit is. My experience was the same. While not quite a Tamiya kit fit wise, it's not far away.

My only issue is the large sprue gates which require you to take a bit of care when removing the part from the frame and bit of time to clean up these. There was also a slight bit of sinkage on the left hand horizontal tailplane join area.

The resin seat included in my kit is an excellent update to the kit.

The instrument panel decal and other cockpit decals look great

Major Sub-Assemblies

The fuselage to Wing joint was the best I've experienced. No gap and no filler needed, just a click fit.

Painting

After priming I painted it all over Mr Color Dark Darth (C369). My Hurricane Expert (Well Bruce's Scale Models) advised that a hard edged camouflage was the go so I scaled up the instructions and printed them out

Masks Scaled Up From the Instructions

Working in sections allows you to paint the pattern pretty easily with the aid of some tape. Mr Color Dark Green (C361) was used for the green.


Dark Green Going Down

Upper Paint completed. A number of different greens and browns sprayed through various splatter masks to add some tonal variation to the finish.

Some Tonal Variation

Ready for Markings

Markings

There are no decals for this particular machine but they are pretty simple so I just made masks using the kit decals for the sizing.

To ensure things are aligned correctly I like to make the edge of the masks on the panel lines.I chose kabuki (Ok Washi) sheets over masking vinyl because it's easier to burnish down.

Masks On

The dark blue of he roundel was a custom mix of Tamiya Flat Blue, Royal blue and black. The Light blue is Mr Color Air Superiority Blue (C74) . SMS Insignia White was used for the code letter and Gaianotes German Grey for the serial.

More weathering with the airbrush and splatter masks. Tamiya XF81 (which I really like for RAF dark green) was used a lot to add some variations. The brown was varied with some random browns to dirty it up.