Author Topic: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)  (Read 1034 times)

cph64

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Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« on: May 04, 2023, 02:46:23 PM »
This build is the coming together of items from various sources. Tracy bought me Paul Lucas' Colour Conundrum Compendium No.1 for Christmas and in the chapter headed 'Middle East Confusion' there's a profile of a Mk.1 (Trop) Hurricane from 3 Squadron RAAF, based at Benina, Libya, circa February 1941. The upper surfaces of which are standard European finish, for the period, but the undersides are 'Middle East Blue', an unlisted/identified colour and the areas that caught my eye are on the nose, spinner and wing leading edges, which are Sky Blue mottled with purple and dark grey. During a discussion with Neil he told me this was to 'mimic' the finish of Italian aircraft in that theatre, so being weird enough (is that me or the finish?) I had to attempt this finish on the part built Hurricane that Zak had kindly passed on to me. Now all I needed was a Mk.I's Trop filter. The Revell Mk.II has a Trop filter but it's the wrong shape, luckily during our discussion Neil said Paul Lucas had produced one in resin and duely contacted him to see if he could get one for me. This arrived by a circuitous route so thanks to everyone involved.

chriswil42

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2023, 02:53:31 PM »
Should keep you out of mischief.
Chris

zak

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2023, 05:34:50 PM »
That filter could be a potato chip of sorts.
Grumpy by name and nature

cph64

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2023, 04:20:10 PM »
The build continued to a point where it was undercoated with Halfords Grey Primer. after the cockpit was masked using foam. The wing leading edges were then sprayed Vallejo Sky Blue with Dark Sea Grey and a homemade mix of purple added for the mottle. This was then masked and various attempts were made to create the blue required for the undersurfaces. Online references and The Colour Conundrum showed differences so in the end I went with 'it looks near enough'. The uppersurfaces were sprayed Tamiya Flat Brown and RAF Dark Green. It was at this point that things didn't gp according to plan. I didn't have a 'square section' J remaining in my stock so looked online for an alternative from 3 Sqdn and found a photo of OJ-B P3763 from the same period which fortunately didn't have any codes on the sides so I went for this even though it meant repainting the leading edges and cowling. The fuselage roundel also appears to have had it's yellow ring overpainted and the wing upper ones appear to have no white. The former were overpainted using flat brown and the wing roundels sourced from spares.

kiwichappers

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2023, 12:09:23 PM »
Like this rather interesting scheme.

chriswil42

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2023, 12:52:52 PM »
Yes, it is certainly different.
Chris

cph64

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2023, 11:21:51 AM »
Painting completed and a mix of kit and stock decals applied then all the little items that could break off during the build were added before a coat of satin varnish was applied. Once dry a wash of Flory Sand was applied and left to cure overnight before it was 'cut' back. I tried to get the desert feel with the photos due to the sun shining. Not quite north Africa but hey ho. This is second new Airfix tooling of the build I've built and I think it goes together very well, my only complaint is that the instructions are for the early twin blade propellor version so if you want to make one using the three blade in the kit you have to find references.

chriswil42

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2023, 12:27:32 PM »
Looks good Chris.
Chris

kiwichappers

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Re: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Trop)
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2023, 11:16:24 AM »
Good work there Chris. An interesting scheme that apparently fooled enough Axis AA crews to be very effective.