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Scott Brelsford
8 articles

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Hurricane Mk1

January 23, 2024 · in Aviation · · 45 · 506

Hey fellow modelers. With great excitement I am proud to bring you my latest and 3rd build.

This project was one of three Xmas gifts received from my daughter. I'm a lucky guy ๐Ÿ™‚
I started the build somewhere in the Twighlight zone between boxing day and the new year. I had a good week or two to have some nice quality time on the kit. Then progress was slowed down by returning to work - pesky job ๐Ÿ˜€

This kit challenged me at times I have to say. In good and not so good, but an experience I needed to have. There were times that I thought this build was fighting me every step of the way, like some bad fits on the wings and the cockpit requiring heaps of sanding back, to tiny parts that snapped trying to remove them from the sprue and one or two decals that as soon as they landed on the model, the refused to budge, no matter how much I asked them nicely. Luckily Tamiya extra thin sorted out the breakages of parts and you would never know now! Mostly I did have fun with this kit.

So, I opted for the second option of this kit, and I built the aircraft that was flown by Flight Lieutenant Ian Richard (Widge) Gleed, of RAF 87 Squadron, from Exeter in Devon (UK). Devon was the place of my birth, so it felt right to do this one.

I again, used my trusted Tamiya acrylics and airbrush. All out of the box build apart from the aerial rigging and the seat harness (Eduard kit). I did enjoy having a go at drilling out the exhausts a little to create a little more depth, but I think I probably didn't go deep enough through fear that the plastic would split. I did also drill holes in the back of the wing tip navigation lights (clear parts) and filled those holes with Tamiya red and green clear paint respectively. On the top side of the wings I did use a riveting tool to add more detail. I wish now that I had done the underside also but chose not to.

For colours I used:
RAF Dark Green 2 XF-81.
Dark Earth (brown) is a ratio mix of Flat Earth XF-52:5 + Kakhi XF-49:1
Sky (underside) is XF-21.
Nose cone X-7.
I experimented with a Tamiya weathering pallet on this build as well as using some oils for streaks on the wings.

So on with the photo show. As always, I'm happy to hear your thoughts and feedback, to help me improve on the next build...

Thank you for dropping by ๐Ÿ™‚

Reader reactions:
23  Awesome 6  1  1 

26 additional images. Click to enlarge.


45 responses

  1. Very nice Hurricane with good details. Nice connection to your hometown also. I always think builds come out better when thereโ€™s a personal connection.

  2. Nice Hurricane, Scott! Gun bays look especially good.

  3. Excellent job and superb result, Scott! Love your painting and weathering!

  4. Very nice result all around. And you said the magic words - it was fun. Thatโ€™s my motivation and will always be. Fun to challenge myself and learn new skills. Keep going.

  5. Excellent result on this Hurricane, Scott @scottiya
    It looks dynamic with the gun bays and canopy open and a slight offset of the rudder.

  6. Gorgeous build, Scott @scottyia! Love the scheme, lovely weathering! Sure looks like a Hurri thatโ€™s seen its fair share of battles.

    • Hey Felix (@fxrob)
      Thank you for your feedback on this. I really enjoy making my WW2 models look like they have seen war action rather than looking like museum restorations (which are great but not the look I'm aiming for) ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Beauty matey, beauty. Nice job.
    Have to love a Hurricaneโค๏ธ

    They never really got the acclaim they deserved but if you know...

  8. Hey Chris (@chrisballard)

    Nice comments mate thank you ๐Ÿ™‚

    Absolutely right about the Hurricane, but those who were there - they know! Lest we forget.

  9. Another beautiful job Scott! It.really look nice. I'm a bigger fan of the Hurricane than the Spitfire, ( and the P-40 over the P-51) I guess I'm an underdog kind of guy. This kit is waiting for me to start sometime soon, after I finish a few other builds. I hope mine turns out as nice as yours.

  10. Awesome work on your Hurricane, Scott. I'd say you performed some really nice airbrushing, weathering is fantastic...excellent addition to your collection!

  11. Iโ€™ve always preferred the looks of the Hurricane over the much revered Spitfire, and youโ€™ve made a great job on this Airfix kit, youโ€™re a lucky man to have such a kind and generous daughter.

  12. Very nice work indeed, Scott @scottiya! ๐Ÿ‘ That's a great looking Hurricane! ๐Ÿ‘

  13. Scott, your Hurricane is certainly one to be proud of. Thanks for including the breakdown of the paints you used. I have always had a strange fascination for the Hurricane. We visited one of the museums over there in 1965 and even then it seemed like a winged anachronism to my eight year old eyes. Like Kartveli said of his Thunderbolt, it was โ€œa dinosaur with good proportions.โ€

    • Thank you Russell (@russjurco) and you're welcome regards to the paints ๐Ÿ˜€

      I don't think I've ever seen a Hurricane close up on the ground come to think of it! I've seen it flying in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with the Spit and Lancaster.

  14. Again a beautifully built model. Opening the covers really brought this model to life.

  15. Excellent! Your paintwork looks very nice - I especially like the underside - some nice variation on the weathering.

    • Hey Greg, thank you again ๐Ÿ™‚

      I'm very pleased with how the underside looks. Initially I thought maybe I had under-done the weathering, but I think it looks OK. There did seem to be less reference photos of the Hurri in comparison to the Spit. Maybe I asked the wrong questions of Google ๐Ÿ˜€ Anyway, I went with my gut and my imagination ๐Ÿ˜€

  16. What a fantastic build!
    Especially like the overall attention for detail and in particular the underside of the Hurricane.
    Amazing job.

  17. Thank you so much Alfred (@alfred) I appreciate your feedback ๐Ÿ™‚

  18. You did some really nice work on this Hurricane, Scott and keep having fun building those awesome models. @scottiya

  19. Nice looking build, Scott

  20. Well done, nice work all the way around.

  21. Scotty, this is a good read for Hurricanes down the line. Just don't count the beggars๐Ÿคฃ
    https://armahobbynews.pl/en/blog/2023/06/16/rivets-screws-and-all-that-dzus/

  22. Scott @scottiya, I am finally checking out your hurricane after you commented on mine. I love what you have done with it. Great job. After reading your account of the build, I am now remembering my issues with getting the body and wing section to fit properly. I still don't know if I found out what exactly was the issue, but it took some serious convincing to join properly. I am glad to were able to persevere and produce an excellent model.

    • Hey Joel,

      Thanks for reaching out and checking out my Hurricane. I do appreciate it and your comments ๐Ÿ˜€

      I didnโ€™t notice your post until just after I bought my like kit, day after boxing day and days after you posted yours here.

      I also loved what you did with yours and itโ€™s amazing how we all put our individual styles and interpretations on the same kits. No two models are the same.

      Not sure what went wrong with the wing assembly. I think possibly the cockpit section in the wing wasnโ€™t down correctly or the plastic wasnโ€™t true (didnโ€™t lie completely flat in the channels of the bottom wing part). Anyway I made it work.

      I thought I was going to have issues putting the fuselage section and the wing section together but that was a breeze. So I assume from that, the safety cage part of the cockpit was square.

      Apart from those issues I did enjoy the kit and loved the cockpit build.

      And as you say, itโ€™s great to recreate one of the RAFโ€™s true heroes of WW2.

      Keep doing what youโ€™re doing Joel. It looks like you have some great minds supporting you at a modelling club that youโ€™re a member of.

      All the best ๐Ÿ˜Ž

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