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Greetings Here's the next one on the table - the 1/32nd Fly Hurricane Mk IIC. My first British LSP build.... This is a build where the last thing I bought was the actual kit...all the AM was bought quite some time ago I couldn't get hold of the standard 2C kit (the one with the NF markings), so I was forced to pick up the Sea Hurricane version.... Luckily, it's basically the same kit, but with a resin insert for the lower fuselage and hook, so I won't have to do any cutting and modifying there, but..... being the Sea version, it doesn't come with the Night Fighter decals or the exhaust shields that are included in the standard kit. The glare shields are easy enough to SB from brass sheet stock, and as for the decals/markings, I've seen a sheet for FM-E Flight Commander Gerald Stapmea Stapleton, DFC & Bar 257 (Burma) Sqn, RAF Honiley, March, 1942. The serial number of the aircraft is unknown. So that'll be pretty easy to design and sort out the markings on my Silhouette machine. A/c finished in "Night" and has standard sized insignia. Got a couple of extras to throw at it.... I'll probably end up using the resin barrels from Fly, the Master ones I bought a looooong time ago has the flat recoil springs, not 100% sure they're correct. Now I don't have ANY reference material for Hurricanes, so what info I get is going to be scoured from the net. And not having that reference is perhaps a good thing....I hopefully won't find any super-detailing/correcting rabbit-holes to fall down into So hopefully a pretty much OOB build this time. (that being said, having seen other builds of this kit, I know there might be a few fights with the kit) Here we go!

In the spring of 1940, the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (RLM) Technical Office asked the Arado company at Brandenburg/Havel to undertake the design of a bomber/photographic reconnaissance aircraft to be powered by the new turbojet engines under development at Junkers and BMW. No performance details were specified, except that the aircraft should be capable of covering Britain as far north as the naval base at Scapa Flow. The design work at Arado resulted in the first design E370 (Erprobung). On basis of this design the first prototype Arado Ar 234 A - V1 (Versuchsobject) was constructed and flown for the first time on July 30. 1943. Later it was considered to use the less powerful BMW 003 turbojet engines in two more prototypes with four engines. On the prototype (V6) Wrk. Nr. 130006 four BMW engines was mounted separately under the wings, using the mounts for the rocket boosters for the outer engines. This was to become the worlds first four engine'd aircraft. Wrk. Nr. 130006 was given the code GK+IW and it's maiden flight was done on the 25. April 1944. The prototype of the Arado Ar 234 A (V6) Wrk. Nr. 130006 GK+IW with the characteristic 'take off dolly'... The base kit for this build is Fly Models Arado Ar 234 B-2. The build required some massive conversion to the kit. Fuselage was narrowed. The fuselage was later widened to accommodate the landing gear in the production models. Engine nacelles have a different form to fit the early BMW 003 engines. Landing skids under each nacelle. Complete 'overhaul' of the cockpit canopy and instruments. The characteristic 'take off dolly' had to be scratch build.

So I'm in with the Fly kit of the Arado. One of the kit marking options is for one in RAE markings. As luck would have it, I hava a Cutting Edge decal sheet in the stash which has the markings for the aircraft flown by then Lt Cmdr Brown. Since the roundels and fin flash are already in the kit for a slightly different version, I just needed the yellow P emblem so the plan is to use one from the Meng Me 163 kit. That about covers it for now. I'll probably start working on it later this week. Carl