What a superb entry, my friend @airbum! What a subject! Looking forward to it!

Gonna be interesting indeed @johnb and @fiveten.

Comparing notes. . . or rather, noses

In order to see what to expect I broke out a few other kits.

No photos are known to exist, so all will be speculation, except that scetches has survived, and it is known that it was a fabric-covered Mk.I with the early non-armoured windshield and five-spoked wheels. To the best of my knowledge the centerline will have to be 11,4 cm below the RR engine plane, roughly 2,4 mm In 1/48 scale.

How would the nose have looked compared to a Hurricane Mk.I then? Well, fortunately this engine was manufactured by other nations, and their planes may be giving us an idea.
First, we have a few Italian planes

quite a different nose.

And looking at Japanese offerings

sort of gives us the same general idea.

As for the kit chosen for the conversion, John B was so kind to get me a Hasegawa Mk.1, in the shape of a rebox by Hobby2000. The old classic airframes kit is very expensive when they pop up on auction sites, and besides the old Hasegawa kit is with separate fuselage and engine, making it ideal for this.

Now, the classic is with the correct fabric-wing, and Hasegawa is a metal-wing. I found a conversion for the wing for this kit in Canada. A few years back my good friend and fellow iModeler Klavs (@klavs1972) gave me a Hurricane book, and I have been plowing through that one in preparation for this build. A few pictures of the kit, conversion and book.

and now it is off to the workbench!

I have to figure out how to make the surgery, will it be some scratchbuilt re-shaping of the kit-nose, or will I need to sacrifice one of the other kits to use the nose from one of these?

Will be an awesome conversion, my friend @airbum!

Welcome aboard @eb801. I shall be happily chipping away in a few hours time @fiveten and @johnb!

Card.

A simple card profile made to check alignment etc.
I decided to use the Ki.61 as a template for locating the engine. First the fuselage and nose were dry-fitted to get a visual reference.

Then the spare clear fuselage from the Ki.61 was used to check the propshaft location against the hurricane parts.

and the panels checked for exhaust etc.

Then a cardboard profile were made and the kit-nose cut off along the panelline

All in all it looks like it is doable. There will be an issue with the exhausts and intake for the air, and some online drawings make guesses on how it might have looked. Considering it took 3 weeks to install the engine and make testflights, my guess is that it had minimum changes to the hurricane cowling. The prototype Hurricane had a panel under the exhaust that went from the nose to the firewall, whereas production examples had two panels, the one aft covering the area including the firewall, so on an operational plane the firewall is actually behind the middle of that panel. The exhausts on a DB engine will be the deciding factor!

Let me hear your ideas too – nothing is fixed yet, but I hope to get moving later today!

Your current approach looks like to have the best chance of succes, Erik @airbum
Incredible to see the difference in height with the original nose.

Another exquisite project my friend! And surely another DB engine pouring high octanes 😉 @airbum
To my skills this would be a daunting challenge, and probably a sure fail, but in your capable hands it’s already a joyride

Thank you for all the positive vibes gentlemen. A small update on this mornings progress @fiveten, @johnb, @gblair, @holzhamer and @eb801.

Office dryfit.

I painted and assembled the major parts of the cockpit this morning

I had to sand a little to make it fit, but nothing major so far.

I am certain this kit has had its innards revealed a lot of times, so I shall not go into details.

Suffice to say I did thin the armourplate and seatback, all else is OOB

Now the small parts will be added and then I will close the fuselage.

with the fuselage assembled next, it will be left for a few days to cure, and then I shall commence some scratchbuild on the nose – or perhaps fit the wings? Tune in again later to check.