Battle of France 1/48 Airfix Hurricane Mk I

Started by Rick Wilkes · 38 · 10 years ago · Battle of France
  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 4 months ago:


    Between sessions on the Stuka, I've started work on my next BoF/BoB project. The only extra bits on this one will be an Ultracast seats and Quickboost exhausts.

    Just getting started here, filling pin marks etc.

  • Profile Photo
    Seamus Boughe said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Despite it's age, the 1/48 Airfix Hurricane is probably one of the best Hurricane kits out there. I like how Airfix is re-vamping their kits. Still a lot of bang for the buck.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    I'm following your Hurricane build Seamus looking for extra details to add. Haven't decided what to copy out of that beautiful wheel well you built, but I did add the rod in the radiator scoop.

  • Profile Photo
    Gregor d said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Rick - you and I seem to have the same kits in our respective stashes! The last Airfix 1 48 Hurri I built had a bit of bother with the wing to fuselage fit - quite a big step that required a lot of sanding. Nice to see someone tackling these old Airfix classics. I'm in the process of rescribing the old Airfix 1 48Spitfire Vb, you got that one too?

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Hi Gregor. A big step at the wing root...Yikes now I'm wishing I hadn't already glided the wing tops on...lol well it will sort itself out one way or the other. Don't have the Airfix Spit V, but I do have the 1/48 Spit Mk I/II/IIa & the 1/48 Bf-109E-1/3/4. I bought the Stuka, the Hurri, the Spit & the Emil for this build and I'm quite happy I did. I haven't build an Airfix kit since the '70's. I've bought and sold most of their new aircraft kits starting with the late mark Spit/Seafires the EE Lightnings. Some "new thing" would come along and need to make room for them. Although since I've started this BoB GB, I find these older kits I'm working on now are easily as nice as the Monogram kits I was building back then.

    I never got into rescribing a whole kit, I get to heavy handed, and muck it up crooked lines, scratches, you name it. On raised panel kits if it's just the panel line that needs repaired, I'll run a knife over it to raise a burr. Once it's under paint it generally looks like a raised panel line.

    Rick

  • Profile Photo
    Gregor d said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Rick plenty of dry/test fitting should see you right with your Hurricane mine turned out fine in the end. The Airfix 1/48 Bf 109E is a very nice model and i'm sure you'll enjoy that one. Are you doing a yellow nose? I was thinking of doing a 109 for the group build, as i have a couple of these (if theres time - control tower is progressing slowly). My rescribing efforts generally take an age because i've only got patientce/concentration for small amounts of time per session.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Gregor, I appreciate the heads up on the wing fit. After I read your message I did a quick dry fit and the step was indeed there. I think a little trimming will fix it.

    For the Bf-109, I found an E-3 in Battle of Britain "Theater" markings with a full white nose, etc. on the Xtradecal Anniversary sheet. I'd never seen those markings before so I'll be using that scheme.

    What has you stuck on your control tower? Is it something on the build or have you not been able to spend as much time working on it as you wanted.

  • Profile Photo
    Gregor d said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    The control tower hasn't got me stuck as such...As you may know its just a shell - there are no internals at all so i'm pondering how much to add. At the moment i've got a first floor ready to put in so it doesn't look that empty. I'm now contemplating partions...If i was to build it straight out the box i'd have the main structure built! Procrastination is one of my bug bears, once i sort it out things will progress much quicker..I hope 🙂 Like the sound of your E-3 I think i've seen these markings with the white nose.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 4 months ago:

    Is there any way you could make the front or back wall and roof removable so you can show off the work you are doing inside? I get stuck on how to do things on builds, it took me over a year to figure out how to paint my Cylon Raiders.

  • Profile Photo
    Gregor d said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    I think it would be possible to have the roof come off to show the first floor detail - if i add enough! Don't know about the ground floor tho'. I did uncover plans for the ground floor on the web. I'll post it up in the wip thread today. Thanks for al your suggestions Rick.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    Lot of pictures today to get caught back up on the Hurricane.
    Thought I'd posted this before, but here's the first part of the build

    Didn't like the way the cockpit bulkhead was mounted so a brace was added to keep the angle true.

    No changes to the kit interior except other than a resin seat.
    The canopy is going to be closed on this one Gregor.. 😉


    Fuselage closed up, not to bad, but I'm going to have to fix a bad mismatch on a panel
    line on the upper cowling.

    Wing cleaned up and ready to mate to the fuselage.

    Gregor had warned me about a big step at the wing root and he was right. It was probably
    1/16th of an inch in places. After a lot of cutting and scraping, it was better but I was still having trouble when I realized that the cockpit bulkhead was binding on the right side. Once that was fixed I was able to get a pretty good joint.

    So here it is with the with all the flying surfaces added. MV lenses were installed for the landing lights and that's how it sits now.



    Rick

  • Profile Photo
    Gregor d said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    More nice work Rick, looks like you've tamed the beast in terms of that wing to fuselage mismatch 🙂 . You're putting me to shame with all this great progress on your builds!

  • Profile Photo
    Seamus Boughe said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    All I can say is that your Hurricane is looking real sharp.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    I have an unfair advantage, my only employment is being a full time Grand Dad. Plus I've got friends here and at home to motivate me to peck away while my Grandson's at school during the day.

  • Profile Photo
    Rick Wilkes said 10 years, 3 months ago:

    Got the landing lights faired into the wing today. It took so much sanding I had to re-profile the leading edge of both wings to get rid of the humps and bumps. Should have taken some before shots, but here's the result.