175 Squadron Hurribomber finished!

[Phil88]

3 hours ago, mozart said:

It's a very readable book Gilles, and I don't doubt that I'll be renewing my acquaintance with it again before too long.  We still don't know which crash is "extra" in my book though! 

 

Thank you, it has worked out well but the fact that there were no fit issues, indeed the opposite because it goes together so well, made it easy.

 

I've been working on a few details today, firstly drilling out some of the holes on the nose panels:

 

 

The lower ones are port and starboard and appear to be for hand-cranking the engine if needed:

 

 

Also on the front end, many Hurricanes were fitted with metal strips to prevent glare from the exhausts.  Looks like many of 175 Squadron's Hurribombers had them:

 

 

....in particular Steve's "B' Flight ones, so I had to set about making some.  I used 10 thou plastic card and 1mm angle strip, dimensions and position are gauged by Mk 1 eyeball using this lovely photo:

 

 

The results are OK I think:

 

 

I'm planning at the moment to use the Grey Matters fish tail exhausts but they'll need a spacer to make them fit the inside of the engine area.  Moving on to t'other end:

 

 

I was pleased to see the detail of not only the rudder control horn, but even the tiny one on the trim tab.  They're both a bit thick though, but five minutes with a sanding stick fixed that:

 

 

Grandpa duties for the next 3 days so severely limited modelling time, unless I can sneak away! 

 

 

 

I did it on mine. Good job

[geedubelyer]

Much more important to spend time with the grandkids Max. The Hurribomber will be waiting for you when they've gone home .

[mozart]

A little time this morning to get some idea of what lies ahead, with time to ponder:

 

 

The fit isn’t as bad as these pictures make it look, holding with one hand and snapping with t’other gives a slightly false impression. However, some judicious sanding is going to be needed in the right places to achieve the optimum fit with the least amount of filling and sanding. And a couple more lovely Warmwell Hurribomber shots:

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23 by mozart

[Archimedes]

I see the issue Max but it is nothing you can’t cope with!

 

Lovely period shots too! Thank you!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[mozart]

I've had "time off for good behaviour" with "Immy time", so ON WITH THE WINGS!!  Carpe Diem!

 

I got the best dry fit that I could, sanding and knife work then glued the port upper wing to the fuselage in three stages; aft wing root then time to dry, forward wing root ditto, and finally middle section.  Gentle pressure from underneath at the third stage ensured a tight fit:

 

 

Yep, there's going to be a minimum of sanding and filling at that "L" junction toward the front, but just a smidgeon.  The starboard side was just as easy:

 

 

with the same area needing some attention.  But all in all, a good result.

 

 

The dihedral I hear you cry!!   Be calm....all's good.  The join to lower and upper needs some prep when the top wings are solidly set:

 

 

These gaps of course will be much reduced when glue and pressure are applied, so no worries there either.

[Derek B]

Nice work Max, it's looking great! 

 

Something about the actual aircraft images bothered me - it is the exhaust flame glare sheilds. To me, they look like the front and aft trailing edges of the plate are angled, and not 90 degree 'square cut'. I checked out some other internet images as reference and it appears so (hopefully, this will be a very easy fix for someone of your prodigious talent!).

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.vintagewings.ca/hurricane-mk-xii

 

HTH

 

Derek

Edited February 25 by Derek B

[LSP_Kevin]

I was going to mention the glare shield angle too, but Derek beat me to it! One of reference photos you posted seems to show it pretty clearly, Max.

 

Kev

[mozart]

Thanks both for that, an easy fix! Funnily enough I noticed the apparent “angle” on the shadow but though it may have been the sun’s relative position! Obviously not so! Back to the board. 

[mozart]

A pleasant afternoon doing the mask preparation.  There are no clear photographs of any 175 Squadron Hurricanes but I've used those that I have to figure out the most likely scheme, and I'm at odds with all the profiles.  They all show the revised scheme which was introduced in May 1942:

 

 

which primarily would have been applied at the factory.  True, some squadrons may have retrospectively changed them but photos taken around July/August 1942 when the squadron was at Warmwell indicate that the "older" scheme dating from August 1941 still applied.  

 

 

 

So my mask reflects the 1941 scheme:

 

 

More plastic fettling tomorrow.

 

 

[mozart]

New glare shields made and fitted this morning, much happier with these because of the corrected shape, the "sit" on the fuselage and the inclusion of Anyz rivets:

 

 

One other part of the nose which I thought could be improved was the small air scoop at the wing root; it's "blind" and difficult to drill out.  Some years ago I bought some resin air scoops for my Bf110G4 and fortunately had a couple left:

 

 

I opened them up a little more, pared off the existing one and voila!

 

 

(Sorry about the ugly old git in the background!)   It's pleasing though that this Hurricane is BE505 of 174 Squadron which actually took part in the Dieppe Raid, as did my subject BE687.

[mozart]

Work on the outer machine guns. The kit offering is a bit basic:

 

 

but the Master brass replacements are worthwhile:

 

 

 

The wing leading edge is quite a complicated affair right now and the wing camera will make it more so:

 

I have opened out the back of the landing light area to make it look more closely like this:

 

 

Should be fun getting all that fitted nicely! 

 

 

[mozart]

Not much time for modelling today  but here's a couple of good shots of Hurribombers at Warmwell:

 

 

These are 402 Squadron.  The little I have done is with the landing lights....and my first grumble about the Revell kit.  I sprayed the wing framework interior green then coated the light's lens with chrome ink then searched for the "three pronged cover" (not sure of its function nor name!) as a kit part number.  Nothing there, checked the instructions....nothing shown.  Revell obviously didn't want to go down the PE route just for this part, understandable I guess but it does leave a "hole".

 

Fortunately I have a spare from the PCM kit:

 

 

which I'll be fitting tomorrow.

[monthebiff]

Really nice progress Max, really like your work on the glare Sheila's and the use of the Master barrels. She is looking mighty fine!

 

Regards. Andy 

[mozart]

13 minutes ago, monthebiff said:

Really nice progress Max, really like your work on the glare Sheila's and the use of the Master barrels. She is looking mighty fine!

 

Regards. Andy 

Yep, Sheila’s mighty fine Andy! Don’t you love predictive texts? 

[monthebiff]

I'm loving that one Max, Sheila and the use of Master barrels 

 

Regards  Andy