It's been a minute ay?

Still needing to get round to doing a headline post for that big ol Tamiya Corsair I did at the beginning of the year, as well as a quick Defiant and Tempest I managed to squeeze in since then, I figured I'll get back to posting a progress topic which I've quite missed doing.

Life gets in the way of hobbies unfortunately but I have a couple weeks leave coming up and being back home at the bench this weekend means I can get a start on one of two kits that showed up recently. No doubt you've seen Tom Cleavers progress post so you'll know what's in this new Arma Hobby offering, superb detail both raised and recessed and a great fit (supposedly, haven't got to that stage yet!).

The topic gives away that I'll be going for the out of box option for Kurt Kettelwascher's Hurricane Mk.IIc in all black, one in which he managed to find great success on solo hunts flying across the channel and shooting down unsuspecting and vulnerable bombers returning to their bases.

First Steps

With not a huge amount of time this weekend I want to get the majority of what I can do quickly done, for me this is building a bunch of sub-assemblies and hopefully getting a black base coat on them. The parts I see are extremely well detailed and fine, with no issues of broken tiny parts that I had previously dealt with in the aforementioned previous Airfix Defiant and Eduard Tempest.

I was debating going wheels down for simplicity, but I ended up going wheels up though unfortunately this is one of those kits where the undercarriage panels just do not line up at all with the wing. I'm not too sure why it's so far out, as far as I can tell that 'strut' that comes off the main gear panel doesn't move when the wheels are retracted, either way some card stock and sanding/cutting of the original parts will do.

I will say one thing I don't particularly like is how large and obtrusive the sprue joins to the model, it's quite hard to not damage the base plastic in some way. And sure, sanding down a few rivets won't ruin the model but it's a shame to have to do it to clear up some excess plastic on a kit this detailed.

Regardless it seems to be going quite quick and could very easily be built in a short time frame, when I preordered this kit (seemingly ages ago) I got the resin guns and exhausts which look very nice as well as a discount on a PZL-11, but I think I should have definitely got a another a Hurricane and built it as a dual build with one being a Burma or North African tropical Hurricane of which the parts are all here except the decals, but even then Arma now sell a dedicated tropical kit too.

This seems to be the “hot” kit of the year. Too bad about the sprue attachments though. Keep moving forward, Harvey.

Use nippers for taking the parts off the spru trees, you won't have the problem you've noted. Also on the small parts do not nip them off the sprue directly - cut the sprue off the tree, then with the part firmly on a cutting surface, cut it off with a fresh #11.

Actually, if you didn't notice on the gear door, that extension moves as the gear retracts.

Superb progress, my friend @scalerambush!
The pilot looks awesome!

That pilot looks impressive, Harvey @scalerambush
As does the progress of the Hurricane.

Your pilot is terrific, Harvey. Black shouldn’t be too difficult if you have those different shades to work with. Light to dark as usual. I would think the choice of finish and weathering will be the challenge.

Just wanted to add this:

The Eduard FM-2 wingfold comes with an extra set of wings, so I've got plenty of chunks of plastic to test paint on. Going from left to right is:

1. MRP Tyre - Rubber (which is the base coat shown)

2. MRP Super Matt Black

3. MRP Black

4. Tamiya Rubber Black

5. Tamiya NATO Black.

The MRP Rubber has a bit more blue to it and I think works well as a scale 'black', I think it would work superb as a stand in for RAF Night which had some ultramarine in it. I can imagine using it on something like a Lancaster or Mosquito Pathfinder, as well as Mitsubishi Zeros cowling which also had a hint of blue.

As for the model in question, I don't think it looks bad in MRP Rubber as evidenced by the base coat, I may use MRP Rubber for the fabric parts and use Tamiya's slightly darker Rubber for the metal parts to create some variation. NATO black seems too grey to me, and the MRP Black and Super Black could work but would possibly make variation a bit more challenging.

As far as I can tell these Hurricane's were painted in Special Night, which was black, opposed to the RAF Night which was the ultramarine/black

Excellent progress and great test results on the various black shades, my friend @scalerambush!