AIMS 1/32 PR/Tac R conversion for Revell Mk II kit

[Pastor John]

1/32 AIMS Hurricane PR 1

Hi everyone I thought I would make a start on my AIMS Hurricane PR 1 conversion. I love Monotone finishes mostly because i loath masking but i feel that monotone finishes require a little help and so I try to open at least one hatch or panel. This in turn leads to more work obviously. The wing assemble / gear bay is together and ports filled in - there were a lot of sink holes and badly fitting leading edge parts to fill also. It is a crying shame that Revell produced smooth wings - it is the biggest let down of the kit and expensive to correct as a rivet wheel burring up the plastic surface a little just will not cut it - not in this scale. Pipework and panel locks are a must as a result of the panel being left off which made the Hurricane 'Inside and Out' book a must! Eyes of the Phoenix is also a must read for Hurricane recon operations in the far East and has more PR and Tac R Hurricane photos in it than any other book I am aware of. Finally I have no authority to say that where I have placed the Camera heater selector box is correct - is is purely deductive reasoning based on where the pilot can reach it and where the structure and a lack of other fittings allow. Enjoy

John

[Pastor John]

AIMS 1/32 Hurricane PR I build - Cockpit painted. Really enjoyed doing this - nice way to take time off AIMS - making an AIMS conversion lol!!!. I wish I had got an after-market dash but I punched out the kits instruments instead and where the details were hopelessly wrong robbed the spares box. The HGW lap belts were great and you will see that I have not included the kits lower pilot armour but this means you need to do a little work to attach the lower brackets correctly so I drilled them out and will slot in pre-painted rod. The red/brown staining is due to the prevailing soil type in the area of my subject's operations. Regarding the white data plate on the right sidewall - I printed this out myself and liked how it turned out together with the grubby maps I stowed in the map box. Enjoy, thanks. John

[Pastor John]

AIMS 1/32 Hurricane PR I conversion update.....

Hi everyone. Lots of little things to do if one wishes it so but the biggest issue for me is that I need any work to the surfaces to be signed and sealed before I start using my super expensive resin raised rivet decals as I will be unable to sand away problems latter. I will try to run through the jobs for you - obviously you can see i got a poor fit behind the upper engine cover and the resulting filler destroyed the kit details there which I have tried to fix. I had poor fit in many places, never mind. Leading edge - recessed rivets done before joining with fuselage, 3x retaining screws added to the doped over main gun battery covers, solid side sections of landing light framework hollowed out prior to wing assembly, landing light ready for spraying chrome and then latter black wiring will be added. Nav light housings have a little wire and junction boxes added prior to painting. Once the Nav lights and landing light interiors are finished I can get the clear parts on and make sure all is ok before painting a base coat ready for the rivet decals. Exhausts - I have already said in a previous post that I wish I had got an after-market dashboard and as I ended up doing a lot of work on the kits exhausts I wish I had purchased the Eduard set with their exhausts and pre-painted resin dash and thus solved both issues in one purchase! Glycol radiator housing - the retraction arms for the louver actually go into square plates not just holes in the floor - there are also some breather tube holes needing drilled in that area. The housing itself needs the front and rear section join line smoothed away as it is not a real join line - and a lower-upper seam line scribed in from the centre of the front opening. I drilled a small hole at the front also for the rod that is there - the fuse wire will be added and cut to size at the end of the build. Mid fuselage - when I do the rivet decals I will also add decal to some parts of the rear upper cockpit coaming but for now remember that if the stirrup is in the extended position then the hand hold is automatically in the open position so this has been drilled out and some card will be added latter. Tail - Jacking points drilled out, Rudder trim in neutral as rudder will be deflected (trim mass balance will be scratch build at a latter date) and finally my chosen decal option clearly shows in the photo of it that the tail wheel fork is the early style and so i have to either fabricate one from scratch or try to alter the kit's late style linked type. As for the camera belly fairing and camera set up - note that the rear F.24 is in the vertical position and the front F.24 is in the angled position. So that is all for now - hope it helps someone. best wishes, John.

[Pastor John]

AIMS 1/32 PR/Tac R Hawker Hurricane build update.

Hi all what madness have I been up to whilst trying to also start doing private orders again? Well thanks to Revell providing the world with a MK II Spitfire that had fuselage dimples instead of raised rivets I had the opportunity to express my detail compulsive modellers disorder (dcmd) by dropping in micro balls!!!! And now with their Hawker Hurricane Mk II it is a case of only providing a few raised rivets here and there - leaving the wings looking completely blank - might i dare to say - in comparison to the fantastic Amor Hobby Mk II C Hurricane - the Revell kit looks like a toy! It is obvious that one company cares about giving the modeller the right details - the other company wants to give the modeller 100s of hours of extra work and frustration!

I had got myself a sheet made of close together small rivets with a few larger ones that i would need for the tail fillets etc. I also got a few packs of the Quita Studio's single row (with wider spacing than mine - product QRV-022. And a few packs of Archer offset double row product AR88196. These are great but there are only a few rows with the correct spacing - the rest are tighter than should be. I hope to use the correct ones on the upper surfaces and the tighter ones on the lower and hope I have enough as the upper and lower outer wing sections are just covered in raised staggered double row rivets. I have never considered myself a 'Rivet counter' as we normally reserve this turn of phrase for those we consider good at modelling but rather nit picking of other's efforts whilst praising their own. That is not me - I have valid complaints about a company's lack of effort in such a noticeable scale but I have said not one bad thing about the finished kits I have seen without the needed details. No my friends I am a 'Rivetlayer' - like a bricklayer only with more expensive products - making the whole build cost me a fortune! Anyway I have finished basically the fuselage and centre section and I need now to cover this with Future or spray gloss and let dry before I can move on to the outer wing sections. I did not put on the fuselage rear any primer as the amount of handling would have badly damaged the paint surface by now so slowly slowly bit by bit - i will get there eventually! hope you enjoyed my sermon!

[mc65]

good lord!
just these days I was toying with the idea of opening some panels in the otherwise flat Hurry Revell, and here's your fantastic work! man, you made my day, thank you.
now I'm off to find the suggested book, and of course I eagerly follow this construction.

keep it rollin'! Cheers, Paolo

[monthebiff]

Nice to see you back at the bench John, very nice work on your Hurricane and that cockpit is a work of art! I remember doing a PCM Hurri a few years ago and giving it the Archer raised rivet treatment

 

 

Cost a small fortune but was worth the effort once the paint went down.

 

Regards. Andy 

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent work John!  Glad to see you at the bench as well

[Kagemusha]

6 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Excellent work John!  Glad to see you at the bench as well

 

X2, received your conversion just last week, excellent as usual, bought a Fly Hurricane for it, might be a more difficult build, but the surface detail is superb, swings and roundabouts...

[LSP_Kevin]

6 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Excellent work John!  Glad to see you at the bench as well

 

x3!

 

Kev

[Learstang]

Great work with those rivet decals! Great work with everything!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[scvrobeson]

Happy to see you back at work John. This is a beautiful start to the project, love all of the extra detailing you've added in

 

 

 

Matt 

[Pastor John]

Thanks guys, hands terrible but it is either this or give up on everything and I do not want to give it all up so pressing on. When I was an infantry soldier before being a pastor we would say 'I am on my chin strap!' well so be it but thanks for all your encouragement.

[mozart]

Sterling work and detailing as ever John, and as others have said….welcome back to bench time! 

[Westland WhirlWill]

The rivet work and cockpit looks beautiful John but you’ve got your work cut out with the wings still to do if Andy’s picture is anything to go by!  Good luck, you have more patience than me! 
 

 

[Pastor John]

AIMS 1/32 PR/Tac R Hawker Hurricane build update.

I have started the lower wing rivet layout using my tight-nit single row decals either side of the main panel lines. Note that the forward edge of the lower panels have sunken rivets like the wrap around leading edge panels. Note also that there is a single row at the base of the ailerons and a tight double row at the base of the outboard landing flaps. Finally note the two staggered rows in the centre - these are two latitudinal panel lines not present on the kit that need scribed in first.

Laying down single row rivets nice and straight - even following a panel line is very difficult - double row rivets are much more stable and if I had had some parallel double row tight-nit rivets i might have used them - but although it easier to get a straight line placing double row rivets - placing them perfectly either side of a panel line is also difficult as with all the liquid you cannot see the panel line so maybe the single rows work best after all? With all this sealed in next up I will map out with a pencil what I can see on the photos and scale plans before adding the staggered double row Archer product and the few single lines here and there of the Quinta product. Thanks for looking - hope it helps someone equally mad as me!