PCM Hurricane Fabric wing

[dennismcc]

Carrying on with the RAF/PCM theme this is my second build for 2021, a fabric winged early Hurricane Mk.I, the poor old Hurricane is much neglected by the main Kit manufacturers so when the PCM kits came out my wallet was ready, I did the same for the Fly kits but that will be for the future.

 

So while the Tempest is in the paint shop for its, paint, dry, paint, dry cycles I though that I would start on this one.

 

I then assembled my reference books and dug out some AM bits and pieces.

 

After looking at the kit instructions and my references I have settled on L1909 LR*R as my subject, this is a 56 Squadron Hurricane and I will be modelling it in it’s1939 guise.

At the time 56 Squadron aircraft were coded LR rather than the later US codes and were based at North Weald.

The Squadron fought in the Battle of France, though they were not based in France, they  provided air cover for the Dunkirk evacuation and flew for the entire period of the Battle of Britain. 

 

One of the reference books that I found really useful is probably one of the oldest, the Ducimus Hawker Hurricane Camouflage and Markings RAF Northern Europe 1939-45.

In it I found a photo of my subject which showed at the time that it had a three bladed propeller and judging by the shape of the blades it was a De Havilland prop but I am not a great expert on these things.

From the photo it also appears to have the later exhausts fitted and the early untapered radio mast.

It shows the B camouflage scheme and confirmed the markings that are on the profile in the same book.

The undersides paint finish is described as the night, white and aluminium scheme and looking at the profiles there was no under wing roundels. The Codes would be in MSG not Sky with  type B roundels on wings and fuselage with no fin flash.

 

The instructions would have you fit a venturi on the port side of the fuselage  but looking through my Hawker Hurricane Walk around, It gives L183? As one of the first to be built without the fuselage venturi, Hurricane batches follow each other so my subject would not have a venture either. The venturi was needed to provide a vacuum for the cockpit instruments, I found this quote on a Britmodeller thread. ' The absence of the vacuum pumps was very serious and external venturis had to be fitted on early aircraft to drive the gyro instruments on the blind flying panel "

Here are some of the books that I used for reference though some are better than others.

And one that popped up on the Bookworld Wholesale website last week

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

[Landrotten Highlander]

pulling up a chair....

[spartacus2000]

[Troy Molitor]

Pulling up a chair and . LOL.  

[monthebiff]

Very nice choice of project Dennis, I've built the metal wing version and loved the whole build, I also have the fabric wing version so will be watching along!

 

Regards. Andy 

[dennismcc]

14 hours ago, Landrotten Highlander said:

pulling up a chair....

Welcome aboard, get comfy this won't be fast though

13 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

Pulling up a chair and . LOL.  

Hope you have lots of pop corn

11 hours ago, monthebiff said:

Very nice choice of project Dennis, I've built the metal wing version and loved the whole build, I also have the fabric wing version so will be watching along!

 

Regards. Andy 

I'm a huge Hurricane fan but I only have the ancient Revell kit in my display cabinet so that needs addressing, I'm toying with the idea of building my metal winged kit in parallel with this one, the juries out but it makes sense to do it this way.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

13 hours ago, spartacus2000 said:

Hope that's a big bucket of pop corn as I'm a bit glacial on builds.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

So what's in the box, well for a start here is the box.

And a look inside reveals this

All neat and tidy

Some Resin

And on to the plastic

Clear parts

And the subject of my build (top)

 

Forgot the PE

Edit. Forgot the decals which I won't be using. though they do look great

 

Next up plastic bashing

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by dennismcc
Added Decal photo

[dennismcc]

Well I have made a start and after the experience of the Tempest I am well out of the super fitting Hasegawa mode and into the modelling required mode.

The first thing that I did was get rid of the starboard fuselage rectangular panel that my subject didn't have, this was filled with Mr Surfacer and sanded down.

 

While I had the fuselage halves in my hands I toned down the fasteners on the nose a tad using a chisel type blade and then polished them.

I then spent some time cutting parts from the sprues and cleaning them up, a lot of the sprue gates were a bit industrial and took some cutting.

Then as is my normal practice I attached the parts by their tails to clips ready for painting.

In my enthusiasm I painted all the cockpit parts grey green (Humbrol 120) then realised that Hurricane cockpits should be basically silver with sidewalls grey green.

So a mass silver paint operation was in order, for this I used Xtracolor High Speed Silver.

The kit does have a resin seat in it but it could be better so I ordered a seat and control column from Grey Matter, these arrived but the control column was a bit short so I contacted them and they sent a replacement.

However Royal Mail managed to shatter the replacement but with the original one I had enough bits to tart up the kit part, not perfect but I was happy with the result.

I then did some detail painting of the various cockpit parts and dressed them up with some MDC dials and Airscale placards.

Ah I meant to turn that one round, but forgot so you will just have to stand on your head or imagine it.

Other bits and bobs

Undercarriage parts, the Tyres were painted using my favourite Humbrol 67, the covers are Grey Matter items.

 

More coming soon

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by dennismcc

[spartacus2000]

Then let's hope this is enough

On 2/14/2021 at 11:33 AM, dennismcc said:

Hope that's a big bucket of pop corn as I'm a bit glacial on builds.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Then let's hope this is enough

 

 

source https://imgur.com/gallery/6KWTs

[dennismcc]

Thank you for that it made me laugh on another rainy lock down day, and yes that should fit the bill nicely.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Landrotten Highlander]

1 hour ago, spartacus2000 said:

Then let's hope this is enough

 

Then let's hope this is enough

 

 

source https://imgur.com/gallery/6KWTs

That is one eensy -teensy wee banana.  What scale is it?

[dennismcc]

Plodding away while the Tempest waits patiently on the shelf for it's camouflage masks and Dark Green.

More silver bits, undercarriage doors and bits,

Radiator scoop

Even found time to do the yellow tips in the prop blades

Then onto the tail planes, these are a butt fit so I decided to make them fit a tad better.

I carefully positioned them on the tail and drilled through the fuselage and into the tail plane then inserted some plastic rod and topped it off with CA.

This seemed to work well and hopefully I won't knock them off with all the sanding that I am anticipating later in the build.

Then back to the cockpit frame, this fitted together a lot better than the tempest version, though I was a bit wary about the height of the control column.

All the other bits ready to go, side console.

All I have to do now is squeeze it all into the fuselage.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Out2gtcha]

Looking good! Ive still got both the fabric and hard wings in my stash to do.....stuff like this always make me wan to break them out. 

[dennismcc]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

Looking good! Ive still got both the fabric and hard wings in my stash to do.....stuff like this always make me wan to break them out. 

Yes I know the feeling, in fact I may break out the metal winged Mk.I now while it is all fresh in my mind.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis