The Last Hurricane - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

Now that the fuselage is together, I've made a start on the wings.  It's at this point in this build that I've started to run into fitment issues.  Although the issues are not serious, time needs to be spent cleaning up all edges to avoid problems later.

 

The first bit is to build up the centre section with the wheel wells.  This consists of a number of parts which comprise the wheel wells themselves, main wing spar and lower wing centre which carries the rear wing spar.  The "roof" of the wheel well is molded in clear plastic, but most of it has to be painted.  Just remember to mask of the little windows so the pilot can see if the wheels are up.  There are six parts making up the wheel well and there's a certain amount of flash which needs cleaning up to get everything to fit properly  I also drilled out the lightening holes on the wing spar, which carries a hydraulic fluid reservoir.

 

 

It  looks like this when fully assembled.  I've also added the hydraulic rams for the undercarriage.  Despite my efforts in cleaning up all the parts, there's still a very tiny bow in the main wing spar which forms the forward side of the wheel well.  Parts G106 and 107 are the culprit being too long, and despite my attempts at filing the front faces back where they attach to the spar there's still a little bow.  Thankfully this hasn't caused problems fitting the wing together later.

 

 

Bearing in mind that this is also the cockpit "floor", I painted both top and bottom of the wheel well, and when it's all together, it looks like this.

 

 

At this point, I test fitted this to the fuselage and straight away noticed a problem.  Notice how the left side in this pic sits a little high.

 

 

The problem turned out to be with the rudder pedal mount.

 

 

 

Cutting this part (E7) off the sprue at the very beginning, I didn't cut the part at the correct place here.  The sprues are cast in some places such that it's quite difficult to see where the sprue ends and the part begins.  A tiny correcting snip with my cutters fixed this and I glued the loose end to the cockpit frame.  Always cut too long - it's easier to fix 🤞.  Later test fitting the wing centre section gave a good result this time.

 

 

Next task is to fit the lower wing halves to the centre section, so I duly tried to test fit first, after dealing with a certain amount of flash and adding the wing lights.  Even after doing that, the wings wouldn't fit without breaking something.  The lower wings attach via holed tabs on the wing halves which mate to pins cast into the wing centre section.  Nothing fitted, so I took a look at the mating edges and found a little waviness on each of the outer wing surfaces.  Dealing with that was only partially successful.  The problem turned out to be a slight lip on the inner edge of the wing between the first and second tab.  It was rather like that lip you can get at the top of a worn cylinder of an engine.

 

 

A bit of filing fixed that.  It fowled the wheel well where the rear brace for the main undercarriage leg goes into it's well.

 

 

Although the lower wing was now together, I decided not to glue it yet.  The wing is a bit tricky anyway in that it seems best to glue the five main components together all at once to get that Hurricane flat wing look as dihedral on this plane is only obvious on the lower wing surface.  So here's those five parts that make up the wing on this model.

 

 

Given the problems with the lower wing, I decided to test fit the upper wing sections against the fuselage.  That showed up more issues with both halves, but mostly with the left half.  Both have a notch in them to mate with the wing fillet cast into the fuselage halves at the leading edge only, but the left wing has a second notch.  All of this needed a little adjustment wit the file; nothing big, but more a case of tidy up.  And of course, more flash.

 

 

Finally, everything fitted well, so gluing could begin with one lower wing attached to the centre section with Tamiya extra thin, followed by the top wing being glued on with my usual Revell liquid polystyrene glue.  This was immediately taped up tight to get the right wing dihedral.

 

 

 

Then the other wing went on in the same fashion, lots of tape pulled taught, followed by the forward wing centre and more tape, plus clamps.  A little extra thin was drizzled into the rear wing joint behind the ailerons too.  Then the wing was set on paint jars in the middle and left to dry once I was certain all the angles were right.

 

 

All of this may sound like the kit is not that brilliant, but it's actually quite good.  There's a lot of traps so care is needed.  The kit is certainly not in the Kotare/Z-M/Tamiya category, but its actually very thoughtfully designed and engineered by the designer.  In my experience, the problems seems to arise from the execution of that design and I suspect that the parts were removed from the molds a little too soon.  Combined with soft plastic, you get these issues.

 

I have test fitted the wing assembly to the fuselage this morning, and it's very tight which is great, but there's still a small problem which I'll cover in the next update.  My next step is to remove the gun barrels and fill the shell ejector holes as G-AMAU didn't have these and was/is unarmed.  I'll also be cleaning up edges etc then finally fitting the wing to the fuselage.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[PEYSSON Gilles]

Good evening, Michael.
Great work on the cockpit. 

 

Gilles

 

 

 

[geedubelyer]

Good progress Michael. 

Thanks for illustrating the "gotchas" as you go along.  It will be very useful for those that follow. 

[Dpgsbody55]

On 3/11/2026 at 3:50 AM, PEYSSON Gilles said:

Good evening, Michael.
Great work on the cockpit. 

 

Gilles

 

 

 

 

Thanks Gilles.  Here's hoping the rest of the model looks as good.

 

On 3/11/2026 at 3:03 PM, geedubelyer said:

Good progress Michael. 

Thanks for illustrating the "gotchas" as you go along.  It will be very useful for those that follow. 

 

Thanks Guy.  It's actually a nice model and I'd happily build another.  But you do have to be very careful as you build it, and I'm happy to pass on my experience with it.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Work continues on my Hurricane with the wings now being attached.

 

The first task, after removing all the tape binding the wing together was to cut off the cannon barrels.  The remnants were filed back to conform the the wing leading edge profile, but I went a bit too far with the first one, taking a bit of a divot.  This was filled with Mr Surfacer 500 and reshaped using a sanding stick.  The holes were then filed out and filled with bits cut off the sprue, which is those little bits at the bottom of the picture.

 

 

 

These stoppers were again file and sanded back and the leading edge filled with more Mr Surfacer.  Then the panel lines were restored, though I'm not that good at that and had to fill and redo a couple.

 

 

While waiting for filler to dry, I looked at the fuselage bottom panel which needed to have a light added.  I painted the light reflector in flat aluminium and the lens in clear orange and glued the light in place.

 

 

The next task was to get serious about fitting the wings.  I did a few more trial fits and found the fit to be pretty good, if a bit tight in places.  However, the top wing profile didn't quite match the wing fillet cast into the fuselage onto which the wing attaches.  It was a bit flat by a little less than 1mm on each side, by varying amounts.  This is an easy fix, in contrast to the wing being too rounded.  I used a couple of lengths of 2mm rod, each cut, shaped at the ends and filed to correct length and jammed them into the respective wing on each side, gluing them in place.  The pencil marks are where the wing was most out of shape and determined placement of my props, which was again fortunate as it fit best between the wheel well assembly and rear wing spar.

 

 

The instructions say to glue the wing in place, then later glue on the lower engine cowling and lower fuselage.  I found it best to glue the lower cowl in place and let that dry.  This made sure the wing didn't move forward while the glue started to dry.  Jiggling the wing into place, I used polystyrene glue to attach the front of the wing between the lower cowl and wing fillet cut out in the fuselage and taped this heavily in place.  Then once I'd got the back of the wing exactly right, I taped that up then drizzled extra thin cement into the remaining joint surfaces.  Dihedral was checked repeatedly, but there isn't much on a Hurricane.  The wing top should look flat as most of the dihedral stabilising effect is created by the bottom wing surface.

 

 

 

This was left to dry for a few hours, then the rear tape peeled back and the lower fuselage glued into place with yet more tape and the peeled back tape being reinstated as needed.  The fuselage tends to bow out where it attaches to the lower fuselage, and this was pulled back into alignment with lengths of 18mm tape to compress the fuselage sides along a length, rather than at one spot.  Then the tail wheel carrier was glued in place to complete the rear fuselage.

 

 

My next task is to tidy up the wing joint and add the tail planes and rudder then tidy up the model as a whole.  The radiator and carbie air intake will go on after that, and possibly the flaps and ailerons.  That's all for next time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

I've not spent a lot of time at the workbench this week, but there is some progress on my Hurricane build.

 

While the fuselage was drying,I set to work on the tail surfaces.  The tail planes are designed in such a way as to lock together within the fuselage so you don't have glue dripping out of the joint all over your exterior surfaces.  Well done Revell, and they sit perfectly flat on the model with proper alignment (provided you've glued the fuselage halves together evenly ).

 

 

Elevators went on next, and the kit allows some adjustability in how they're posed.  Mine have a bit of a droop.  Like me after a drink or five...

 

 

The rudder was mounted next, and again you could point it left or right if you wanted to.  I mounted mine straight.  I also painted on some Mr Surfacer into the joints around the wing/fuselage area as well as the tail plane.

 

 

Tail surfaces after cleaning off excess filler.

 

 

And the wing joint after cleaning off filler.

 

 

 

I mentioned earlier that the clear windscreen and canopy had the frames marked, but not raised in any way which makes it difficult to cut your own masks as I often do.  So I decided to purchase a set of masks, as well as a set of exhaust stubs from a Spitfire.  At the time in question for this model, it had individual exhaust stubs on each cylinder, not the hefty looking two into one jobs that wartime Hurricanes had.  I'll talk more on these later, as I haven't settled yet on how I'm going to combine the bits.

 

 

That's all for now as I'm under time constraints today.  Hopefully I'll post a bit more later on today about the flaps, ailerons and radiator.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[dennismcc]

Looking good, I have a Hurricane and a Sea Hurricane to build so will be using your build to guide me through the process, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[RCPlym]

That is a very nice looking build in progress... 👍👍👍👍

 

Hurricanes always sit well with me! 

[Dpgsbody55]

5 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Looking good, I have a Hurricane and a Sea Hurricane to build so will be using your build to guide me through the process, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks Dennis.  I'll look forward to your Hurricane builds when you get to them.  There's not enough of these and I think Revell have done a good job with this kit.

 

4 hours ago, RCPlym said:

That is a very nice looking build in progress... 👍👍👍👍

 

Hurricanes always sit well with me! 

 

Thanks.  I like Hurricanes as well, but there has been a dearth of good kits in 1/32 scale for quite a while.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Ok, so on with the update from earlier today.  The next step was the air intake and radiator.  The radiator itself needs to fit into the rectangular hole in the wing centre section.  The radiator housing fits into the horseshoe shaped groove you can see surrounding it and the whole lot is a bit tight.  First job was to sand the lumps away you can see in what is the radiator top that fits a couple of pipes that were last seen in the cockpit section.  This is part of cockpit part E39, and clearly Revell have the colour call out wrong.  They say to paint this part of E39 interior green, but I painted it in aluminium.  I was half right as the vertical section should be aluminium, but the horizontal part, which the coolant pipes mount to, should be black.

 

 

I found that the radiator itself still wouldn't fit until I'd sanded away at the radiator sides at the top.  This is the radiator itself after paint and a little dry brushing in flat aluminium, which the flash on my camera has made a bit more "subtle" than it actually is.  The radiator itself is a nicely molded piece and one of the better Hurricane radiators I've seen, but sand the top flat as any imperfection will mess up the radiator and rad housing duct installation.

 

 

The radiator is then glued into it's housing duct which is in two halves, intake and exit.  The instructions say to fit the front and back together then insert the radiator then glue the lot into place.  It should all line up.  Test fitting on my model indicated that it would be best to glue the rad into the rear half, glue that in place and let it set, then glue the front on.  

 

 

Here it is done, but it will need a little sanding.  The supports for the rear of the rad duct are a nice touch and fit into holes in the wing centre section.  Mine needed drilling out.  These duct supports are attached to the sprue, so be careful clipping this rear duct off the sprue.  The carbie air intake is also in place and fits well, except for the gap you can see on this side.  T'other side is fine.

 

 

Next, I put in the flaps.  The kit offers a choice of parts for extended or retracted flaps and I've gone for retracted flaps as taxying about with extended flaps in the RAF would result in a respectful telling off from your maintenance Flight Sargeant concerned about mud and dirt in your flaps.  "You don't want to cause unnecessary work on your aircraft when my erks are better employed on important maintenance on your aircraft, Sir. "  So the first thing to do is clean away all the flash in the flap hinge holes.  Most are too small, an some covered completely.

 

 

Here they are fitted, together with the ailerons added next.  I found it best to clamp the flaps in place, then add the ailerons later, as the ends on either the wing/flap or the ailerons themselves may need a little sanding.

 

 

The last parts to go on were the front of the engine cowl and oil catch ring, and also the landing light covers.  Before adding these, I masked them off using the masking set which arrived on Monday.

 

 

Painting will be coming up soon, but first I have to figure out the modified exhausts, add the top cowling, mask up the canopy and windscreen then fit the aerial and pitot.  So there will be one more update before I get my airbrush out and I still have to figure out the exact colour.  I'm thinking it will be painted Tamiya X3 royal blue, based on a photo I came across of this plane undergoing yet another repaint by the BBMF when they were removing all the old paint.

 

I also need to research the interior colour of the windscreen and canopy frames appropriate to a Mk.IIc Hurricane.  If anyone can shed some light on this, please pass on that information.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[malc]

Wow, you are cracking on with this!

Thanks for the detailed problem solving, it sure will come in useful when I do mine!

Malc.

[geedubelyer]

You're nearly there Michael. Super progress 

[Uncarina]

On 3/18/2026 at 8:51 AM, Dpgsbody55 said:

 

 

I also need to research the interior colour of the windscreen and canopy frames appropriate to a Mk.IIc Hurricane.  If anyone can shed some light on this, please pass on that information.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Wonderful work Michael and thanks for showing the way! Maybe reach out to Kotare since they are actively researching similar details for the early Hurricanes. Might be something applicable here.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Dpgsbody55]

On 3/19/2026 at 1:30 AM, malc said:

Wow, you are cracking on with this!

Thanks for the detailed problem solving, it sure will come in useful when I do mine!

Malc.

 

Thanks Malc.  Glad to be of help.  I look forward to seeing yours when you get to it.

 

On 3/19/2026 at 2:06 AM, geedubelyer said:

You're nearly there Michael. Super progress 

 

Not much to report in the last week.  I've been a bit busy with other stuff this last week, plus some research on this project.

 

On 3/20/2026 at 11:23 AM, Uncarina said:

Wonderful work Michael and thanks for showing the way! Maybe reach out to Kotare since they are actively researching similar details for the early Hurricanes. Might be something applicable here.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

 

Thanks Tom.  I've been doing a bit of researching this last week and have decided to go with a green windscreen.  Both black and green are correct for a Hurricane Mk.IIc so I guess it depends on where it was built.  My semi educated guess is that Gloster built Hurricanes had black windscreens and Hawker built ones had interior green.  I'm fairly certain that PZ865 was built at Hawkers as by 1944, Glosters were well into Typhoons and gearing up for Meteors too.

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Gazzas]

Very nice work, Michael.