1/48 Revell Hawker Hurricane IIC - No. 87 (F) Sqn RAF - September 1942

 

Depicted as an aircraft operated by No. 87 (F) Sqn RAF Charmy Down, UK September 1942

The Build

This is Revell boxing of the Hasegawa kit in 1/48,I picked it up for $25 in the local toyshop on special.  I also picked up a CDK detail set at a swap meet a few years ago for cheap so I thought I’d have a go it.

 I really picked the wrong kit because the standard cockpit is excellent (minus the seat and Canopy). Well my first impressions or using resin stuff is “Won’t be doing that again” Way to many small fiddly bits for my shaking fingers!. Plus the fit was average. I think I would have made a better job of the cockpit with stuff out of the box. 

I chose the night intruder option in the box because I wanted something different. I had to add the strake in the air intake; I also dropped the flap at the rear of the air intake as most the photos showed this down when the aircraft is one the ground. I also added the exhaust flash protectors as the pictures I’d seen of night fighters/intruders had them fitted. I replaced the kit exhausts with the Ultra cast ones. They look so much better IMHO. 

Painting

It was painted with Gunze 302 for the dark green, Tamiya 54 for the dark gray and flat black underneath. I did the upper surfaces freehand as I like the effect of the feathering that freehand gives but for the black on the rear fuselage I used blue tack to “mask out” the lines as my hands weren’t steady enough, plus I want to try that technique out. It’s not to bad although it’s probably a little sharp for my taste. 
 I won’t be painting flat black on such large areas again, it was very hard to get smooth with 4 of 5 coats of One Go, In fact it was never smooth enough for big decals, thankfully none is required. Next time I’ll paint gloss first then add a flat coat. BTW a thanks to Dave Turner for the replacement decal. ( I seem to ruin one per model)

Weathering

I used oils for the wash, (dark grey underneath and a raw umber on top) and then used silver on a fine brush for the weathering. Many of Hurricanes in the photos I had were very banged up so I added a fair bit of weathering to this one. Not sure if I went overboard. It’s a line I find hard to define.  

Final Assembly

The Aerial is Ezy Line (thanks Phil H) first time I’ve used it and it was a dream, I may even consider doing a WW1 aircraft now.

I used the kit canopy for the front windscreen and went through 2 vacuum canopies for the back part. I really struggled with the painting of this part and I’m still not really happy with it. Even though the kit ones are to thick by scale they are so much easier to work with. Why Hasegawa/Revell didn’t include an open canopy to show of the cockpit is beyond me.

I want to do a Desert Hurricane IID some time in the future so hopefully I’ll remember all thing things I did wrong on this one. All in all though  I’m happy with the final product though, I’d recommend this kit to anyone.

The Photos