Stokesy's FLY 1/32 Hurricane IIc (Trop)

[digger303]

I'v never liked in box reviews, seems Like a waste of 25 minutes. A picture of the sprues yes , but that's all.
Would the bits fit better if they had a quick squaring off at the join or at least reduced the gap or would that throw the continuous edge out of alignment ?

Don't burn out on us now with those late hours.

[Stokesy44]

I'v never liked in box reviews, seems Like a waste of 25 minutes. A picture of the sprues yes , but that's all.
Would the bits fit better if they had a quick squaring off at the join or at least reduced the gap or would that throw the continuous edge out of alignment ?

Don't burn out on us now with those late hours.

I could have tried to trim the connection point on the fuselage for the tail pieces but it would have been difficult to sand it flat along its length without just rounding off the ends which would have made it worse. TBH the fit at the tail is the worst of it. In the end the hard part was actually attaching stabilisers and making sure the join sight was flat and the stabs were properly aligned horizontally. I can deal with a flat to flat line and the outcome should be better than if I had tried to trim the joins manually.

[Hawkmoon]

Starting to look the part now and nice work

[Stokesy44]

Starting to look the part now and nice work

Thank you Sir.

Control surfaces added and most of the filling done. Only a short session today but very happy with how this is looking now.







Just need to do the interior work on the radiator housing then attach it and the air scoop. The scoop will need a bit of filling as its a crappy fit but other than that I can almost smell the primer now.

[Stokesy44]

Got the radiator sorted today. As mentioned before, the kit only provides PE for inside the housing so you can see straight through it! It would also have been ab absolute b**** to attach so something needed to be done.

Please bear in mind I have the scratch building skills of a 2 year old.

I CA glued the front and back base rad panels to plastic card



After trimming the plastic I added the additional 2 layers of PE provided by the kit then made some connecting pieces from plastic card to make the front and back sections into a box so I didn't have to worry about trying to CA the sections into the housing.







Sits nicely in the housing now



Primed



Radiator test fit. The tropical filter and scoop was done this morning.



The filter needed a fait bit of filler where its connected. Placement was also guesswork despite looking at reference pics. The front of the scoop is right in terms of distance from the prop but I think the real thing stretched a little bit further back than the kit one does. Oh well, close enough for government work as they say!



Looks like the real thing eh?

[Hawkmoon]

Looks good to me and a nice solution

[Tomcat64]

Just done some serious catching up - the cockpit looks fantastic and the rest of it is definitely bending to your will mate and really nice work on detailing up that radiator too!

[Stokesy44]

Just done some serious catching up - the cockpit looks fantastic and the rest of it is definitely bending to your will mate and really nice work on detailing up that radiator too!

Looks good to me and a nice solution

Thanks Guys. I've been de-furloughed so I'm back at work as of yesterday. The Hurricane will have to wait until the weekend because, if yesterday is anything to go by, I'll be too tired in the evening to work on it. The 2 Kronenbergs didn't help either!

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely detailing on the iconic rad mate

Good luck with work mate

[Donkeywalloper]

What a belting job you are doing on the venerable Hurricane. Your busting this out of the park, and its all credit to the builder
DW

[digger303]

Improvements coming along all the time looking better and better.

[Stokesy44]

Improvements coming along all the time looking better and better.

What a belting job you are doing on the venerable Hurricane. Your busting this out of the park, and its all credit to the builder
DW

Lovely detailing on the iconic rad mate

Good luck with work mate

Thanks guys. Its been hard work but I've been pleased with the build. Mostly, I've been pleased that I've stuck at it, maybe it wasn't the best of decisions to go back to aircraft building with this type of kit but it has definitely restarted my wingy things mojo. Historically my interest has been aircraft over armour so the love for aircraft and what they represent is way stronger than it is for the brutes of iron. Don't get me wrong, my interests have broadened as I've got older but as a youngster I knew next to nothing about WWII land warfare compared to immersing myself in the great air campaigns of 40-45.

In short, I'm enjoying the build immensely and eyeing up the aircraft in my stash with a beady eye:

1/24 Trumpeter Hurricane 2c (Trop)
1/32 Tamiya Corsair, Spitfire IX and Mossie
1/32 Trumpeter Me 109F (Trop)
1/48 Airfix new tool Hurricane I Battle of Britain ground set

1/72 Airfix Lancaster and B17 - probably shouldn't have bought these as I'm really not a fan of 1/72. Also, despite being new tools the surface detail is very basic, especially on the Lanc.

[Stokesy44]

She's been a proper hangar queen this week as I have been back at work but I managed to get some work done yesterday. I'm still trying to get her to the point where I can prime but its taking a little while to get her over the line.

Resin cannons attached. In typical style 2 of them broke and the connection holes on the wing leading edges needed some work to make them fit. It didn't help that the instructions are arse about face too, indicating the longer barrel housing should be attached for the inner cannon - nice try guys, but its the other way round

Don't be put off by thinking they are not aligned - its the 'fish eye' effect of using an iPhone for taking pictures





Resin exhausts, nice surface detail and less drama during the attachment - although I did snap one when removing the casting block



Radiator housing attached, gaps filled and sanded





Spinner sanded and rescribed - I like the Mk II's spinner, its longer than the blunt spinner on the earlier Hurricanes, makes it look sleeker and faster.



The Mk II nose in all its tropical glory





I'm going to repaint the wheel bay in aluminium as reference pics don't have it as green. Once that's done, I'll mask the bay and the cockpit then its priming time - finally

[digger303]

I wanna see a micrometer on those guns and those leading edges filled

[Stokesy44]

I wanna see a micrometer on those guns and those leading edges filled

Ultimate Primer hides a multitude of sins my friend. I took the Hurricane over to the firing butts this morning to get the cannons harmonised by the ground crew. 1 round of ball ammo for each gun harmonised at 200 yards. Only 2 registered on the target, Lord knows where the other 2 went!

[Hawkmoon]

All looking good and starting to look the part now

[Stokesy44]

Small update to finish the day. I decided the get the landing and navigation lights done before painting. I also looked at the undercarriage assembly and test fit of the windshield. I'm going to leave the windshield off until the painting is done because there's every chance of it getting broken and or knocked off during the next few sessions if I did attach it now.

The wheel bay doors are nicely detailed on both sides but the real bonus are the resin wheels, lovely surface detail. Both sets are reasonably solid and the wheels are a nice fit after being drilled out.



Fit looks ok. I'll CA glue them when the time comes. I just don't trust this plastic.



The glass inserts for the landing lights needed a bit of fenagling, a bit of sanding here and a bit of trimming on the wings. In the end they all went in and fit flush to the leading edge.



Now she's ready for painting. Wheel bay first then primer and marbling.

[Hawkmoon]

Time to put some slapp on . The undercarriage axles look on the thin side will they be able to take the weight and looking good

[Stokesy44]

Time to put some slapp on . The undercarriage axles look on the thin side will they be able to take the weight and looking good

Lol, I’m stuffed if they don’t!

[Twokidsnosleep]

She’s coming along nicely that big ol bird

[Twokidsnosleep]

She’s coming along nicely that big ol bird

[Stokesy44]

She’s coming along nicely that big ol bird

Thanks Scott. The pace has slowed a bit since returning to work but I've definitely got the aircraft bug again. She certainly is a chunky old thing. Its only when you see it in this scale that you see just how big an aircraft it was, particularly the cross section of the wings and tail, its all so thick when compared to the Spit and 109.

I've got a 1/24 Hurricane from Trumpeter in the stash so if you think this Hurricane is big, its dwarfed by the Trumpy kit! Its a beautiful kit too. I had a good look at it the other day when I was checking some location 'issues' I was having with this one. It really is a beast.

[Kevthemodeller]

Really coming together now, can't wait for the paint to start

[Stokesy44]

Really coming together now, can't wait for the paint to start

Thanks Kev

It needs one big session to really get going with the painting. I just wish I had more energy after work then I could be doing much more. Basically I’m just lazy!

[RangerNeil]

Really coming together now, can't wait for the paint to start

Makes two of us - at least

[Stokesy44]

Really coming together now, can't wait for the paint to start

Makes two of us - at least

Thanks Neil



couldn't resist - especially given my avatar.

[AirCadet424]

Looking good sir, and I agree, that later shape of spinner does give it a much sleeker look overall. Really looking forward to seeing some paint on this. Well done.

Kev.

[TommyKillander]

Excellent job done, sir!

I really like the solution for the PE grills in the radiator


Tommy

[Stokesy44]

Hooray its the weekend.

All buttoned up and ready for some primer



I sprayed the wheel bay with dark aluminium then it was time for the Ultimate black primer. I think the pressure was a bit lower than I normally have it because I had a fair bit of tip dry. It didn't change the result, it was just a bit off faff.







Joins don't look bad. Wing root looks a little off but not much I can do about that without losing all the surface detail. I'll just say the Hurricane was a rough and ready aircraft





Other side looks better



Rescribing looks a bit agricultural but the joins on and around the tropical scoop are ok. Missed the bit of mess on the wing leading edge. Its smeared CA glue from when I was 'encouraging' the wing to fit properly. I'll give it a gentle sand before the marbling goes on



All that lovely surface detail



Radiator and rear wing / fuselage joins are ok too. Worth the effort and I'm hoping they will look great when painted.



I'll give it a few hours to cure then I'll do the marbling prior to the base coat. Should be fun, only my second ever go at that type of effect.

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh yes, let the painting commence, great looking primer coat

[digger303]

Oh yes, let the painting commence, great looking primer coat

I'll second that

[Hawkmoon]

Starting to come to life now the slaps going on

[Stokesy44]

Thanks Guys. Its been a great day, session wise. I had 2 good stays at the bench and the kit is transformed.

Marbling done. Not the greatest but not bad for a newbie







Then it was on with the paint. When I first started it was going down so thin. I realised I hadn't mixed the paint in the tin properly do when I added thinner in the airbrush cup as normal it was way too thin. Once I corrected that the coverage got better.

I'm so glad I repainted the wheel bay, it looks so much better now.



You can see the marbling effect. Not really sure about it tbh but it is what it is.







This pic shows the effect off best. I'll let it cure over night then mask off the blue so I can paint the light brown tomorrow.

[Hawkmoon]

Looks good to me and nice work

[Kevthemodeller]

Great looking marbling there mate got the same thing planned for a future build of mine

[digger303]

You got it going your way now

[Stokesy44]

You got it going your way now

Great looking marbling there mate got the same thing planned for a future build of mine

Looks good to me and nice work

Thanks Guys. Been busy with work so the bench has been lonely this week.

Masked off the underside and got started on the camo today. Mr Hobby paints this time. I'm used to Tamiya so I think I over thinned the paint (again ) but it got there in the end.

I also broke 2 of the cannon barrels off - again!











Hopefully this should be ok to mask tomorrow and I can get the dark brown done

[Hawkmoon]

Nice to see some base going on and the poky out bits are always on the casualty list. Looking good and nice work

[digger303]

It's a tight fit in the booth. Going to be tricky getting those guns zeroed in again. I hate it when I break something off, but I know you'll fix it.

[Stokesy44]

Nice to see some base going on and the poky out bits are always on the casualty list. Looking good and nice work

It's a tight fit in the booth. Going to be tricky getting those guns zeroed in again. I hate it when I break something off, but I know you'll fix it.

Thanks Guys. I'm considering breaking off the other two and putting them all aside until the end then reattaching them. They are stupidly fragile and affect how I handle the aircraft when I'm working on it!

[Stokesy44]

Pressing on now.

Masked up using white tack and Tamiya tape. Took about an hour



First thoughts are ok. A couple of spots of underspray on the wings but that can be cleared up. As for the colours themselves, mot of that later in the post.





Masking looks ok, its soft but not diffused









Little bit of mess at the wing root. The tape was just a fraction loose so the airbrush found me out!



Now. The colours. Broadly speaking the lighter colour lacks a yellow tinge and the darker colour is a fraction too red and also not dark enough. That's what my eyes are seeing anyway. A yellow filter first on the lighter colour only then a dark earth filter over all. Hopefully that should do it.....

[Hawkmoon]

See what you mean on the color not enough sand in the light color and needs a tinge of green on the brown but apart from that very nice work sir

[Stokesy44]

See what you mean on the color not enough sand in the light color and needs a tinge of green on the brown but apart from that very nice work sir

Now that is interesting. Thanks Hawkmoon. I hadn't thought of green. I'll try a sand/yellow filter on the lighter colour to bump it up then go for a dark green filter to remove the red hue of the darker colour.

[RangerNeil]

FWIW - I rather like the appearance you've got with the "mess" at the wing root. Odds are some parts would be painted by hand for speed so you get an "in service" look!

[digger303]

I love what I'm seeing

[bfrd]

I think it looks awesome just the way it is.

[Stokesy44]

I couldn't leave the colour issue over night. I used desert yellow sprayed only over the lighter colour then the same with chocolate brown for the darker colour. I tried a green but I didn't like how that came out so after trying it on a section on the tail I discontinued that.

In the end the best thing was to spray a filter of the chocolate brown over the whole kit, then a yellow filter over the lighter areas. Here's the before and after pics.





I may try and darken the darker colour a bit more but at least its closer to what it should be. The whole effort has muddied some of the camo lines a bit but I am planning to really weather the kit anyway so hopefully it wont look out place. That's what I'm telling myself anyway!

[Stokesy44]

I think it looks awesome just the way it is.

I love what I'm seeing

Thanks Gents

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh yes the cammo looks superb mate

I've struggled using blue tak and Ammo masking putty it just wouldn't stick the the surface and kept falling off. I ended up doing my Spit freehand.

[RangerNeil]

I like the way its turned out - the darker colours look more like how they were. Congratulations on the work thus far.