Tucks Hurricane Mk.I, DT+A aircraft V6864 in 1/72nd Scale
Finally finished a R.S. Tuck aircraft, the Hurricane Mk.I from late 1940 with call letters DT+A V6864. I got inspiration to build one of his aircraft from reading his biography, ‘Fly for Your Life: Robert Stanford Tuck' by Larry Forrester, Bantam Books Inc, 1978. Although I did finish the bio last year, this is my third build with the book in mind and will soon be finishing/posting a fourth. I would have never have guessed that this RAF Ace actually started out as a Sea Cadet in the Merchant Navy.
I did have several options to choose for an aircraft flown by R.S.Tuck since he did fly several Spitfire Mk.I's before being assigned to fly a couple of different Hurricanes before going back to the Spitfire as Wing Commander in a Mk.Vb
After looking through all my kits, I was pleased to find that I had Hasegawa Kit AP38 which had the markings for Tucks DT+A aircraft V6864 with No.257 Squadron. This Hurricane kit is a Late Mk.I with the all metal wing. I did have a couple of Airfix kits, but they all had the original fabric wing which would not do. I found a nice photo from a F/B Veterans page picturing this specific aircraft being refueled in early January 1941. I didn't have a Hurricane on my shelf and figured this would be my first.
Simple enough kit that went together nicely with a little filler required at the wing roots. I've been using homemade tape masks for the camo scheme and finished with the kits suggested Hr. Hobby Aqueous H330/H72/H74 and Tamiya X-18 for the half wing. Fine flex mask tape and XF-7 Red helped get the prop spinner done. The decals were typical Hasegawa with all the white areas being their special shade of light grey/green, so I did go back to Techmods Hurricane insignia sheet for the Fuselage and Underwing insignias. Other than that, the kit decals were used for everything else. The Hasegawa decals were probably 30 years old and they did work very nicely after coating them with Micro Decal Film, I did find them to be a bit fragile to handle and the Decal Film does wonders with older decals. I was impressed with the fit and look of the wing light/glass. I first coated the interior of the glass bits with silver and had to slightly sand them with 400 grit to have them gently slide into place and was very pleased how the look on each wing.
Upon reading the Hasegawa instructions AFTER applying the decals, I realized I was supposed to fill in the 2 outer holes on each wing – who would have thought of reading the instructions?
In case you do not have time to read the book, I recently found that Arma Hobbies does have an excellent post on their ‘News Blog' page complete with video! Arma Hobbies features Tucks Hurricane in their 1/48 Hurricane lineup, an amazing kit. One photo on teh blog page shows just how weathered and worn the red nose spinner was.
https://ARMAHOBBYNEWS.PL/EN/BLOG/2023/07/28/R-R-S-T-OR-ROBERT-RONALD-STANFORD-TUCK-1916-1987/
Thanks for viewing
Really nice, another George
Thanks original George (@blackadder57), It was a nice quick kit to build.
Excellent Hurricane, George! Whatba beautiful model!
Thanks Spiros (@fiveten), not my most favourite airplane but I'm so glad with this Hasegawa Hurricane.
Very beautiful , George !
Thanks Jay (@ssgt), it was an enjoyable build.
Nice work on this George. The Tuck Hurricane Arma does is his early IIc from Spring/Summer of 1941, before he was taken off ops and sent to the US to see about American training programs and aircraft.
This looks really nice - I thought it might have been the Airfix Mk.I 1/48 for a moment.
Thanks Tom (@tcinla), R.S. Tuck sure was a busy guy.
I was thinking of doing his IIc with the Revell kit, but I had no decals.
Glad you like the build.
Excellent Hurricane, George @georgeswork
She does look much bigger than a 1/72 model.
Thanks John (@johnb), I confirm it's 1/72 and THANK GOODNESS for bifocals!
Excellent work George! This is a beauty of a build and you've been on a great tear with your builds!
Thanks Bob (@v1pro), thanks for the comment.
After helping my wife after her Achilles tendon operation, helping my daughter with recent twins and busy prepping to sell some kits at a hobby show, I did have a bit of a backlog building up and I finally had time to finish a few.
Got back to my average 1 post per month. Cheers.
A beautiful Hurricane, George @georgeswork. Love the scheme and the spinner!
Thanks Felix (@fxrob), same method of masks used and the paints worked amazing. I really like the Aqueous Line. Gotta admit, the spinner was a little bit tricky.
Very nice, George. I thought it was 1/48.
Thanks John (@j-healy), I'm still in 1/72nd mode until my 72nd shelf is full. I few more to go.
I am going to say this is a wonderful build so as not to repeat all the other superlatives that came to mind but have already been used. You really nailed Tuck’s aircraft. I also appreciate the article and link to the Arma article. The embedded link to the Pathé video is a real bonus. I knew about the Hurricanes and Spitfire Mk. V Tuck flew but not the Mk. I(s). I will have to see what I can find on those.
Thanks Russell (@russjurco), I was so pleased when I realized my Hasegawa kit was the actual aircraft I wanted to build. The actual aircraft type witht eh metal wing and the decals all in one package.
Thanks you for the comments. Cheers.
I built the Revell 1/32 as DT@A back in the 70’s. (Not very well I am sure.) As with so many experiences for young modelers, the box art carried the day. And it likely had a big influence on my obtaining 1/48 and 1/32 Microscale sheets featuring Tuck’s Hurricane.
Another wonderful build in 1/72, George (@georgeswork). Knowing the differences between the Hurricanes is almost as demanding as the differences between Spitfires or P-51s. I really thought this was 1/48 when I first looked at it. Well done.
Thanks George (@gblair), you're correct about the different types.
I actually did not know about the wing transition on the Mk.I prior to making this build.
Always some new detail to learn.
Like they all said - Well Done!
Nice build, George.
Great painting!