1/24 Airfix Hurricane

[LSP_K2]

This ought to be cool. I saw a 1:48 Mustang a few years back done the same way; gear in the process of folding, ailerons & elevators ever so slightly deflected, very cool stuff indeed. Should be most impressive in this scale.

 

Regards,

[DougN]

Mate DONT decal this! Use Montex masks you will never look back I promise

 

I would just advise that if you are going to use their masks, make sure you do your own research for the markings of the aircraft you are modeling. I've purchased 3 sets so far, and 2 of them had what I could consider major errors. The Spanish Civil War 109E1 masks have fuselage codes and circle that are too small, and the "6" is the wrong shape. On the Battle of France Hurris, L1842 is coded as "G", which is incorrect, should be "T", and even if the "G" was correct, it is too large. I have not done any research for the markings in the 3rd set I purchased yet, so I cannot say if those are correct or also have errors.

 

Cheers,

 

Doug

[Kostucha]

Doug,

 

Thank you for the heads up!

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[Kostucha]

Some time was spent today on mocking up the cockpit to get the right shape of the pilot with one hand on the throttle instead of on his knee... and hand on the control stick. There was some work done to the figure too, to shave down the old parachute straps to allow for new ones to be made (along with the parachute), as well as shaving off the mask hanging disconneted down his chest, and starting to make a new one from tamiya putty.

 

Once that was (finally) done, I started to construct the cockpit, replacing some plastic frame with brass pipe, and incorporating some of the Trumpeter AM PE parts into this cockpit. It'll be a fun combination of stock pieces, trumpeter pieces and scratch built pieces.

 

Pictures to be posted up tonight. I'm hoping to get some more done so I can FINALLY try out the new airbrushes and comressors.

 

Cheers!

Mark.

[Kostucha]

I started by making the PE seat from trumpeter. This wasn't completely simple, as their instructions are backwards with regards to the two reinforcing pieces being shown attached to the back of the seat. But, this was solved, and the seat was made. Here's the original on the left, and the new seat on the right mocked up with the bulkhead from the kit:

 

 

The fitment is actually surprisingly good! I added a piece of evergreen and did so to make it look like an additional piece of armour (that some pilots took upon themselves to add to behind the seat from lessons learned the hard way. After that armoured "spacer" was added, you'd think that this PE seat was meant for the Airix kit. I did find one thing though, in that the original seat had some type of 'bands' (two up and one across). Don't know what they're for exactly, but they're there. I used some thin vinyl tape cut to size to duplicate this. Even though the pilot will be in the seat, he'll be leaning forward a little, so this will be seen:

 

 

After that, it was mocking up the cockpit assembly to get the pilot 'bent' into shape to line his hands up with the control column, throttle, and get the right heigh (including the parachute underneath him):

 

 

 

This is the figure with the molded parachute straps removed, and the mae west scribed roughly in. In addition, the loose oxygen mask has been removed, and will be replaced with (as mentione) tamiya putty to make the mask situated over his face. As for the mae west clips and straps, those are also going to be added too. As can be seen, I ended up using the Airfix figure, rather than stealing one from the Mosquito kit. This figure isn't at all that bad and is definitley going to be easy to work with. The position he's in here is the way he'll be in the seat. The only thing to change will be to heat up and "wrap" his hand around the control column, as well as insert a black rod into the left hand, heat it up and wrap his fingers around it as though he was holding the throttle:

 

 

 

Last but not least is the cockpit thus far. Still unpainted, but you can see what's original kit, what's added from my brass collection, and the rudder pedal straps, rudder pedal adjustment, and compass mount from the Trumpeter PE set.

 

 

All in all it's coming along well, soon this assembly will be painted the appropriate green, and work will carry on. Thanks for looking!

 

Mark.

[PhilB]

Jeez Mark, that is stunning work!

Love your brass in the cockpit.

Looking forward to more!

 

Phil

[Kostucha]

Thanks Phil!

 

Well, I couldn't wait, so I tried out the airbrush. Tonight I just used the B-200, and I was head over heels! I had no idea that I'd be this happy with them. Anywho, here's a few shots:

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

Mark.

[big matt]

Cool work in the cockpit! That pilot looks like he is trying to tell me something... like he's had enough beer maybe.

[JRutman]

Nice work. I love this concept.

J

[Kostucha]

Hello!

 

Thank you very much for the kind words gentlemen.

 

Jerry, it's a unique idea for me, as I've yet to make a model with a base at all. All of a sudden, I've got a 1/48 Mitchell that's on display in front of the school I'm making as a gift, and this one. When it rain's it pours?

 

Progress is coming along nicely I must say. I'm happy with it at least. I added a few of the smaller details to the tube framing inside the cockpit (more brass and PE stuff). As well, I remade the two levers on either side of the seat. I wasn't happy at all with the kit pieces as they simply looked like blocks of plastic. The PE set from Trumpeter needed a bit of a body to mount the locking brackets onto. That, and being out levers, I used some 1/16th tube, thinner plastic rod, "squished" them accordingly. For the body, it was quite open (by body, I mean the structure the locking brackets are mounted to). There wasn't much to them, so I hollowed out a thicker plastic rod to fit the 1/16th tube under the seat, and cut that into a round thick "washer", then used some 1/32 styrene strips glued around the bottom into a "V" shape, and then mounted the Trumpeter PE parts to it, and slid in and glued the scratch levers.

 

 

The one side didn't matter too much - it was the seat height adjustment, where the other was the "cooling flap" control... set to what it'll be on the rad. I mean set roughly... jeese, wouldn't that be anal, counting teeth in the locking bracket to align with what the rad flap is at.. rivet counters beware!

 

 

Here's a picture of the first one done before painting:

 

 

And here's the two on the frame section under the seat:

 

 

Here's a picture of the cockpit right now with a few additions:

 

 

 

 

The plan is to get these basics in there - what needs to be put in before the pilot obstructs all access to it. Once he's done and strapped in, then all the finer details and other large parts (like the res. tank) will be put in. All the wiring will then be added afterwards once the pilot, seat, bulkhead, instrumen panel, res tank, firewall and cockpit are all one solid piece. *I learned from the Stuka to do things this way, rather than 'guesstimate' lenghts of wire/cables and either have too much that get's in the way of joining pieces, or too little... which, let's be honest guys, being a bit short is always embarrassing... *

 

Here is where the pilot is at right now. A lot of rough painting. Once this is all dry, then touch ups and other details will be added. To take away the gloss from the skin, pastel chalks will be used as well. Again, a lot of details are missing, such as... straps and other details for the oxygen mask, straps and tags for the mae west along with a couple of other small things, the shirt/tie underneath need to be painted, rank on the shoulders, brass zippers added to the boots, white socks, and black for the bottom of the boots:

 

 

Once he's all done, and the details to the face are acceptable, I'll then build up the parachute and straps, along with the actual chute he'll be sitting on. Then it's into the seat he goes, mounted to the bulkhead, and the harnesses added to him as well. From there, all the connections between him (comms, oxygen) will be connected accordingly. You'll notice his hands have been heated up to add the grasp of both the throttle and the control column.

 

Well folks, cheers!

How about that 1/24 Airfix Mustang build going on! I swear it's the real thing being made in front of our eys.

Mark.

[Kostucha]

As an added side note, I've been asked how the Trumpeter PE set works out with the Airfix Hurricane.

 

As this Airfix kit is many years older than I, I'm quite surprised that it took Trumpeters 1/24 Hurricane in the last couple of years to actually get anything decent for this kit with regards to AM. And yes, I'm being very specific with the 1/24 Hurricane AM items out there. The only other item that's out really, are made for this model to sit on, and if you want them I'm hoping that you're planning on a diorama with her legs still tucked inside, because the original kit pieces are a far better bit of quality, especially considering the price tag associated with them.

 

So, that being said, even though the only 1/24 AM parts are made by the same company that gave us another 1/24 Hurricane, this 35 dollar set (CDN) is worth it.

 

How to the parts from this PE set work with the Airfix kit? Quite well. Some of the PE inside the cockpit is stand alone items, while others require their parts. In the stand alone portion, it's quite simple, you simply either add the PE set, or shave off something that was there before. In this case of Trumpy onto Airfix, this isn't so difficult. Where parts are needed, not that often really mind you, one can either fabricate a new part (as I did with the locking levers on the sides of the seat in the post above), or modify existing ones (for example, shaving down the molded rudder adjustment mechanism off the rudder pedals off the piece and replacing it with the new one).

 

Are there items that can't be used? Internally? Yes, there are. One needs to remember, this is for Trumpy's Mk. IIc, so your research is VERY important to ensure you don't add some extra's you don't need. Externally, from the looks of it, you could massage many parts (including the flaps) to work for you. Surprisingly, these kits are both very similar from just looking at how Trumpy set up the PE replacement/addition parts.

 

So, all this good news, what's the down side? Their bloody instructions. There are some messed up pictures in the cockpit, where their blow-up diagrams are more confusing than anything. I'm looking into whether or not I can scan one instruction section, showing an overlap of about 6 parts total, over their landing gear selector switch. The parts are right, the reference pictures I've got finally showed me how to use it, based on the actual Hurricane cockpit. The instructions caused me to make a couple rum and cokes and many smoke breaks.

 

Aside from that, are their any other shortcomings in using this set for the Airfix kit? Well, given the quality of the cockpit in the kit to begin with, no! Whatever the PE set may not cover, there's quite a bit already to begin with when it comes to the Airfix molds. They definitely did their homework. That being said, go with the kit instrument panel. Especially if you luck out and get an older kit like mine where the details are crisp. The kit panel is far superior to the flat faced PE set offered.

 

Cheers!

Mark.

[Kostucha]

Just a few quick shots as the pilot is progressing. This could be considered stage 2. Everything is still a high gloss. Once it's dried, tomorrow at some point hopefully it'll be cleaning up some of the lines, and adding all the small details to him, from zippers, to scribbled writing on the mae west, along with all the other details on the mae west. Once that stage is done, then the last one will be to dull the whole shoot and sha-bang down with a few coats of dull-coat & pastel chalks to give a more believable (and hopefully less plastic) look.

 

 

 

 

 

As always, comments, criticisms always welcomed.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[fam43]

Hi Mark,

the race is on.

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks great Mark. The eyes are particularly impressive, and that alone often makes a huge difference in realism.

 

Kev

[Kostucha]

Hi Mark,

the race is on.

 

 

 

Come again?

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Kev! I must say, working with the Airfix figure, as old as it may be, the figure was not wasted. Crisp molding made my life easier, given the depth of the eyes, they're almost like little trenches in there, so adding a dab of black really does make life simple. Thanks again Kev!

 

Cheers!

Mark.