1/32nd Belgian Hurricane Decals

[LSP_Ray]

Well I am getting closer!

I thought I would have it wrapped up this weekend, but of course nothing goes that easy.

 

This will be a two step decal set. The white, and black, decals are made on the ALPS. So you place those first, or at least the ones for the roundels and the thistle emblem:

 

Note, this wing was sprayed with Tamiya Red Brown and Dark Green, followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Gloss, all from the rattle can (for speed). I used Micro Set to help place the decals, and Solvaset over the top.

 

Then, the color decals are placed over the undercoating:

These were also placed with Micro Set and Solvaset.

 

I used two types of decal paper for the color, one turned out much better than the other. The smaller roundel was done with Papilio decal paper which took the Epson ink much better than the MicroMark paper. Unfortunately, the Papilio is a bit thicker. However, though thicker, the Papilio paper sure placed a lot nicer and took the Micro Set beautifully. The Micro Mark inkjet paper was a little tricky and had a tendency to stick where first placed. The red color has been tweaked a bit, it should be a bit darker. My latest printing (not shown) looks right on to the FS number given in my refs. I hope you like the yellow Erwin, it is a bit darker and is right on with the FS number given, too. The Belgian yellow supposedly is brighter than insignia yellow, more of a lemon yellow. This rendition is a shade darker than the previous decals however so hopefully you will like it. I also have adjusted the thistle insignia a bit.

 

One question on the thistle insignia: the writing *might* not be white. It shows kind of darker than white on the photos, and some profiles. However, this may be simply because it is small and so may get lost in the photo printing process? Do you want it white, or do you want me to try for an off-white?

 

Anyway, besides tweaking some colors, another little annoyance is with the printer: I have to lay the ink rather thick to get good even tones. Unfortunately, the rollers are leaving some marks as the sheet goes through. So I am gong to have to spend some time aligning my art to miss as many of the rollers as possible.

 

BTW: how many others are interested in a set? I plan on selling them for $12 + postage. Will include profiles and placing instructions in the final runs.

 

I will post another test with final colors later this week.

[Erwin]

That's great work Ray !!

 

I shall let you decide what's best on the Thistle. But AFAIK the writing was white. Like you I can also just judge from bad BW pics and sometimes incorrect profiles.

 

Just a Q Ray. Can you enlarge those to 1/16 th scale ? I have a wooden 1/16 th Hurricane in mind

[Erwin]

Hi Ray,

 

I did some more digging on the codeletters.

 

I see you made nr 39,witch can be turned into 36 too

 

Belgium used nr 20 up to 34 on their origional delivered planes. Using 35 to 39 on confiscated RAF planes witch landed on what was then still neutral Belgium.

 

Nr 39 was used on a Rotolprop Hurricane. Later nr 45 was also used for a Rotol Hurricane

 

So might I suggest that you incluide nr 2 also to offer a wider range of tailnumber possibilities.

 

But that would also mean making an extra nr 2 for the underside.

 

It's just a suggestion. It seems using nr 36 or 39 can be debatable as correct or not on a two-bladed plane since it's not sure those where two bladed or threebladed..

[Erwin]

...and there's more to concider.

 

I painted my model in scheme B used on Hurricanes ending with odd serialnumbers.

 

The Belgian Hurricanes were painted by the RAF, using scheme A or B depending on the serial.

 

So in my case I can only use a tailnumber according to the RAF serial witch ended odd.

 

In my case: 21,23,25,27,29,31 and 33. So printing one of these would be better than "39"

 

Have a look at the pic and it will become clear( I hope

 

The H is Belgian,the L is RAF serial.

[Erwin]

info...

 

Scheme A : even serial

 

Scheme B : odd serial

[LSP_Ray]

Hello Erwin,

 

According to my references, H-39 was the only 3-bladed Rotol propped Hurricane the Belgians fielded, confiscated from the British when it landed in Belgium. I would have to check again about H-45.

 

As I am planning on offering the decal set for sale, I thought I would include one set of decals that could be used on the old Revell Hurricane I basically OOB with out having to buy the MDC wing set (or used on a Revell Mk IIC tht had the wings backdated). The sheet includes the posibility for several other machines, including 33 and others in the 20's such as 12, 13, 19, 22 ,23, 21, 29 etc. so you should be fine. You are only limited in that I have not done a 5 or a 7.

 

Does the yellow look better? Like I said earlier, the red will be a shade darker on the final version.

[LSP_Ray]

One thing I have to mention, this new printer is awesome! It is the Epson Stylus Photo 2400. It is the most configurable printer I have ever had, by far.

 

It handles paper up to 13" wide, will take thick stock (up to 1.3mm thick), and can print on a special coated canvas! Does incredible photos, including B&W. It holds 8 ink cartridges including the usual CMYK + two shades of grey and a light cyan and light magenta. If you print in B&W, you have the option of cool, warm or sepia, and from there you can manually adjust the tone.

 

For color pics, you can also adjust all the color levels, plus increase or decrease the ink saturation level. Plus, you can add hesitation time between each printing pass to help the ink dry a bit. This is where I am adjusting to get better decal images, I am adding to the ink saturation and having the printer pause between passes.

 

If they would come out with an opaque white ink, and a line of truly waterproof ink, I would be in heaven!

[Erwin]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the update.

 

The yellow looks much better now.

 

Can't wait to get them

[LSP_Ray]

I am glad you like it. I have finished my second round of testing and am happy with the colors and technique for printing them now. I will post another pic of the final decals today or tomorrow. BTW, I forgot to mention, I can print these out to any scale. I drew them in CAD actual size, so all I have to do is change the scale when I set up the page for printing.

 

So anyone else interested in a set??? I will also soon be looking for ideas for the next set, leaning towards Yugoslavian Hurricanes/Zreni's or very early RAF, and later some odd IIC or Sea Hurricane stuff.

[Erwin]

Hello Erwin,

 

According to my references, H-39 was the only 3-bladed Rotol propped Hurricane the Belgians fielded, confiscated from the British when it landed in Belgium. I would have to check again about H-45.

 

 

 

This answers the H-45 question...

[LSP_Ray]

This answers the H-45 question...

I guess my resources were right! Only one 3-bladed Hurri!!

 

Here are pics of the final version of the decals. This is what you will get with the set. Here is the black & white decals (Alps printed):

 

Here is the color portion of the decals (Epson printed), with the final red shade:

[LSP_Ray]

..And here is what they look like placed, with a gloss coat applied. I will apply a matte coat this weekend to see how they look finished.

 

 

The roundels to the right were an experiment to see if I could get away with less layers of white under the color. The answer was, "No!" so everything gets three layers of white to ensure opacity. The two roundels to the left both have 3 layers of white on the underlying decal.

 

And here is a detail of the thistle squadron insignia:

 

 

All I have to finish now is the instructions. Like I said before, $12 a set.

[Derek B]

Very impressive Ray. I may need to talk to you about eventually 'comissioning' some decals for me for my P-47 razorback Thunderbolt .

 

Cheers

 

Derek

[Erwin]

Very nice work.

 

They seem to take to the surface very well. Looks as they were painted on.

[Draken35]

Hello everybody,

 

Sorry if it seems silly to update a topic dating from 2006, but as you can see it's my first post on that forum that I've just discovered some days ago...

 

The work on the decals for the Belgian H-39 is impressive and very nice.

 

But there is a mistake: H-39 is a British aircraft interned during de "phoney war", and as it was interned it was bought to the British government to be integrated in the Aéronautique Militaire. It's the only one known tripale Hurricane of the Belgian Aéronautique Militaire.

As you can see on the picture upper on this page, the aircraft is still camoflaged as a British aircraft: the undersurfaces are: fuselage in aluminium, one wing in white and the other in black.

The number "39" was placed on the black painted wing; so it's not a black code but a white one! I have seen a pic showing that aircraft destroyed (bad landing) after the interception mission of a German bomber (mission where LTT Henrard was killed piloting the H-26) and it's clearly visible that the 39 code under the wing is well white painted (source: Brussels Air Museum Magazine; I cannot post the pic here because it's a copyrighted one).

 

On the other hand, one of the Belgian Hurricanes (bipale) did not have had the thistle on the fuselage: it's the H-42, the first Hurricane constructed under licence by the SABCA: the aircraft was delivered on 9th of may, and destroyed during the straffing of the 10t of may: too short time to paint the thistle...

 

Hope this can be of some help...

 

Greetings to all,

 

Daniel