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Bill Koppos
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Yay! Half a day today. Figured I’d post one up…Pac Coast Hurricane I….

March 29, 2013 · in Aviation · · 12 · 8K

Fabric wing model scale. To me the early Hurricanes are the best looking-that pointy nose just does it. The Pacific Coast kit is pretty good, the only big issue being poor wing fit. It has a real good interior, nice surface detail and shapes. I wanted Battle of France Ace Paul Ritchie's "Dear old G" of No. 1 Squadron so I had to paint on my squadron codes, also the wing roundels and rudder stripes. Have the Battle of Britain release in the stash too, want to do No. 32 Sqd. with those biga-- fuselage codes. Hope they eventually do a Mk.I trop. Ramble over, thanks for looking. Happy Easter.

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12 responses

  1. Very nice job, love the black/white under surface.
    N.

  2. Uff, a real beauty. Bravo.

  3. said on March 29, 2013

    Wow! That is one very bloody nice Hurricane! Yep, like ik very much!

  4. Bill: Nice work, but AFAIK (having done Mould's Hurricane from 1 Squadron, they only had the individual a/c letter in early Mk. Is while in France. Since they got metal-wing airplanes by January 1940, these markings might be for a later airplane.

    Good model though.

    • Did a bit of research before I painted this one. In Osprey "Hurricane Aces 1939-40" there is a photo of this kite, with full codes, that I worked off. I have a book "Fighter Pilots", a compilation of firsthand accounts, where Richie describes his first fights on May 10-11, and comments on the poor climb of his two-blader. He had to force-land a damaged "poor old G", with it's "gay red spinner", on a French airfield where it was strafed and destroyed. This great story is what inspired me to do this one. I would say it's constant admiration of the people caught up in that War that fascinates me so.

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        said on March 30, 2013

        Superb Hurri Bill. The book you read - Fighter Pilots check and see if it isn,t Fighter Pilot, which was written by Paul Richey in 1941. My copy is published by Cassell ISBN 0-304-36339-1. This is Richey's personal account of the Battleof France while he was with 1Squadron RAF. Photos in that book show their Hurricanes without the Squadron codes (JX) up to April 1940, which was also around the time a lot of their planes were upgraded to 3 blade props. I can reccommend the book as a great read to anyone interested in RAF opereations at the begining of WW2.

        • Yeah the book I have is "Fighter Pilots" which uses an excerpt from "Fighter Pilot" by Richie. It's one of those quickie bookstore specials you always find on the sale table, but there is some good stuff within. Apparently 1 Sqn. was in transition of all sorts in spring 1940, using both types of Hurri with various markings. Somewhere else I read where Richie got tangled up with a bunch of Me-110's and got clobbered. tough days they were.

  5. YES! I have had this kit in my stash for quite some time. I thought I was the only one who bought this wonderful kit! Your build is inspiring and I agree the early Hurris are the best! Beautiful job! (Ok enough exclamation points 🙂

  6. said on March 31, 2013

    Thanks much, Hurri lovers.

  7. A superb rendition Bill and I'm relaly glad you decided to paint the spinner tip red too as some of my references show this as a sort of brown colour - I just thought the references with red were nicer although I have no period colour images of either (do you?).

    I also not sure now, looking at the Montex masks I used, that the codes are a little too thick...hmm! Anyway, its nice to see other interpretations and yours is beautiful! I must go and change my spelling of 'Richie' too! 🙂

    • Yours might be a tad thick ,I always believed mine were too thin, somewhere in the middle...I have color no pics of the machine, just based the spinner on Richey's comment about "It's gay red spinner", plus other profiles I had seen. I have the BOB PCM Hurri would love to do the 32 Sq. machine with the extra-large codes. Probably get to that soon. Happy modeling.

  8. Actually...my spelling (Richey) is correct! 😀

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