BobM's 1:48 Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk. I

[BobM]

For this GB, I'll be building Airfix's 1:48 Hawker Hurricane Mk. I with no aftermarket add-ons. I've heard great things about the new tool Airfix kits and from looking over the sprues this shouldn't disappoint.

Still being a relative newbie, I'll be continuing my theme of firsts with this build. This will be my:

• first Airfix kit,
• first British aircraft,
• first camouflage scheme.

What's in the Box? by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

The Hawker Hurricane may well have been Britain's most historically significant plane during World War II. It gained its notoriety during the Battle of Britain where it scored 60 percent of the RAF's air victories. But I can't possibly give this important aircraft's history the treatment it deserves; for that I'll refer you to it's Wikipedia article. And to see some amazing photos of fully restored Hurricanes, as well as more history and discussions of Hurricane restorations I direct to the website of Hawker Restorations, who Airfix credits in the instructions for helping with the development of this kit.


Hurricane I 1 Sqn RAF at RAF Wittering 1940 [Public domain],
by S.A. Devon, Royal Air Force official photographer, from Wikimedia Commons

Now on to the sprues consisting of the most parts of any kit I've tackled thus far!


Sprue A (bottom) and Sprue B (top) by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Sprue C by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Sprue D by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Clear Sprue E by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

A modest decal sheet with two marking schemes:

Decals by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

The instruction booklet is 16 pages with 59 steps! Here's a peek:

Instructions Peek by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

I've chosen the second marking scheme, R4118, for no particular reason other than I like the "balance" of its squadron code better. This scheme is laid out on the last page of the instructions:

Hurricane R4118 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Once completed, my build will look exactly like the actual aircraft as fully restored by Hawker Restorations:

Hawker Hurricane - Shuttleworth Uncovered 2015 (21648117754)
[CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
by Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK (Hawker Hurricane - Shuttleworth Uncovered 2015), from Wikimedia Commons

Right. And if you believe that...

[Avgas]

Got this in the stash so watching with interest.

[BobM]

Update 1:

So after a couple of hours of removing parts from sprues, filing, sanding and filling, the cockpit is mostly ready for assembly. There were several ejector marks that might be visible in the cockpit, so I filled those with bondo Glazing and Spot Putty. Is it just me or is this plastic pretty soft? It cuts and sands really easily and both the bondo and Tamiya Extra Thin attack it really quickly.

Well, here are all the tiny, delicate parts for the cockpit:

Update 1 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

After letting the bondo cure completely, I sanded it out which seems to have come out well. These will be hard to see, if at all, so I'm not too worried about how they look. I then assembled all the pieces that are to be painted Aluminum; that's every thing except the bulkhead behind the pilot which will be Interior Green.

Below is the cockpit all assembled. The bulkhead and seat are just in there temporarily for fit and to determine any areas that don't need paint. You can see several of the spots that were filled, again I'm not sure they will be seen. If you are familiar with this kit you may also notice that I drilled out behind the pilots head. I was attempting to scratch build seat belts from masking tape and wire and the plan was to run them through there. They turned out OK, just too big, about twice the size that they should be. Oh well, it was a fun thing to try. If I can get some finer wire and can figure a good way to shape it I may try again.


Update 1 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And a close up where you can see the other filled ejector mark, this is the one that I thought really needed filling; the others were more for practice.


Update 1 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next, I think, is to prime and paint the cockpit. This will be the most complex structure I've airbrushed; I hope I don't screw it up to bad!

Until next time...

[BobM]

Got this in the stash so watching with interest.

Cool. If you see anything you want to know more about, or have questions, let me know. If I can't answer... I'll make something up!

[ElCapitan]

Great progress so far! Shame about the seatbelts, hopefully you can get something to work. Should be a fun build!

[Tomcat64]

I built this one last year and it was a lot of fun. The only issue I had was the surgery necessary to get the pilot into the seat, but if you're leaving him out it shouldn't present any problems.

[demarcation]

Good luck with the build!

[Lysus]

Nice and crisp cockpit cage, looks to be a great little kit!

[BobM]

Update 2:

Disaster strikes! Well, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but at the time it felt like it...

While watching the Frid.., um, Saturday's Live Show and preparing some parts for paint, the thing I've read about and swore would never happen to me... happened to me. I knocked over a nearly full bottle of Extra Thin!

Aghhhh...

Of course it got all over one of the upper wing halves! Fortunately nothing else took damage (except my cutting mat) and I quickly got things out of the way and cleaned up. I set the victim aside to dry trying not to touch the wet areas:


Update 2 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

During the initial panic I managed to get a slight thumbprint that I think you can see in the lower right corner. After leaving it dry for a while I did some light sanding with some 320 and 400 grit sanding sticks and managed to get most of the surface looking more uniform without damaging the detail too much. Some of the details, raised rivets and/or bolts(?) seem to be a bit "softer" than the others, but oh well... weathering, yeah, that's it....

Once I settled down and realized that it wasn't all that bad, I got back to priming and painting the cockpit.

I primed with Stynylrez black and painted with XF-16 Flat Aluminum and XF-71 cockpit green. One of the new-to-me things in this model is having to figure out what needs to be painted before the wings and fuselage are assembled. Well, at least there are more interior bits exposed through the landing gear bays than I've run into before. I ended up having to reload my airbrush a couple of times after I had cleaned it because I had forgotten an area. Eventually I got everything sprayed! There is an option to build with the gun bays open; I'm not exercising that option otherwise there would be more areas to paint at this point.

With the base color on I did some detail painting and finally weathering with some oil washes I made. I spent a good amount of time on this, too bad it will be difficult to see once assembled. But at least I'll have these photos to look back on:


Update 2 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Update2 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Up next, assembling the wings and fuselage!

Thanks for looking in!

[Avgas]

Pit looks great although I agree about time spent doing something that you will hardly see. I'm trying not to waste too much time doing detail like that anymore as it annoys me when you button a fuselage up and all of that hard work disappears!

I ended up having to reload my airbrush a couple of times after I had cleaned it because I had forgotten an area.

Yep that's my favourite trick too...

[Lysus]

Pit looks great although I agree about time spent doing something that you will hardly see. I'm trying not to waste too much time doing detail like that anymore as it annoys me when you button a fuselage up and all of that hard work disappears!

I ended up having to reload my airbrush a couple of times after I had cleaned it because I had forgotten an area.

Yep that's my favourite trick too...

I know what you mean, working on mine right now and though I enjoy the exercise it feels silly since I'll never look at it again. This pit looks fantastic!

I too have spilled TET and it really could have been much worse. You handled it well.

And realizing I need to paint something right after I cleaned the brush is my SOP.

[BobM]

Update 3:

Got some time to assemble the wings, fuselage, etc. The fit is OK, not great. I think I'll have some small gaps to fill at the wing roots. This was a different way to fit the cockpit, wings and fuselage. Not sure I liked it. I really had to press to get the fuselage to "snap" into place. At least I hope that was it getting into place and not breaking anything. As you'll see below it took a couple of clamps to get that seam together as well as I could. I probably could have sanded some areas to get it better, but I didn't want to keep pulling the fuselage on and off...

Well, here it is:

Update 3 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Update 3 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Update 3 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next up, painting some small parts (including the canopy, oh, that looks like fun!) and preparing for painting the body. I'd like to have the canopy open, but I'm not quite sure how I'll accomplish that. I'm sure I'll figure something out we I get to it.

Thanks again!

[Tomcat64]

Nice work Bob - it's starting to look Hurricane-shaped

[twotterdriver]

Great looking cockpit, and nice save on the wing!

Looks like the kit goes together nicely!

Gord

[jnbattleship]

Very nice pilot's office.

[BobM]

Update 4:

Well, it been a while since the last update for two main reasons: 1 - life (need I say more) and 2 - I stumbled on to some difficulties with this build that have taken some time to to get past. Well, I think I see the light at the end of that tunnel; more on that in a bit...

At the last update I'd finished putting the main assembly together and was getting ready to paint a few small bits (mainly the air scoop assembly) so they could be attached before painting the entire body. They got painted and assembled, during which time I also worked on cleaning up the body so it would be ready to paint. As you can see here, the fit of the bottom section wasn't great. I'm not sure if it was the kit or me, but you can see the worst of it back near the tail; the other side had issues, but not nearly this bad.


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Since there weren't any really large gaps/holes to fill, I used my go to bondo Glazing and Spot Putty thinned with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. I applied it fairly thick with a disposable Micro-Brush and let it dry for a day or two. After sanding it looks real good, but I'll hold off declaring victory until primer is on!


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

There were also some minor gaps at the wing roots, these where filled with Perfect Plastic Putty thinned and smoothed with water. I chose PPP for this since it is a more difficult area to sand and I knew that even after drying for a few days it would be easy to smooth the PPP with a little water. In this photo you can see the filled wing root as well as the filled seam along the top of the cowling. You also get to see how I've masked the cockpit with "white" tack.


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

After that, I finished prepping the body (including some rescribing) and prepared several of the other miscellaneous parts (mostly landing gear) for paint.


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

In the last update, I also mentioned needing to figure out how I would tackle the canopy. Well, during the above, things went south fast! It started when I tried creating masks for the canopy using some tape I had not used before. At some point in that process I needed to peel off some of the tape and noticed it left a residue behind. Well, I immediately decided to not continue with that tape; removed it all and attempted to remove the residue... Well, I picked the wrong thing to try to remove it and totally crazed/fogged/ruined the canopy!

Well, that's OK, I had two things going for me. First, Airfix includes two canopies, one for the open position and one for the closed position; I still had the "closed" canopy to fall back on. Second, was the internet! I really wanted the canopy open and while it isn't clear what the difference between the two are, the closed canopy just didn't sit right in the open position. So I thought maybe I would just use the internet to figure out if I could salvage the open canopy. Well, I saw how others have sanded and polished canopies with success so I proceeded to do that. Sanding went well and up to the finest polishing stick I had it was looking good. But some of the inside had been damaged and the outside really needed more polishing. Well, being impatient and cheap as I am, I didn't bother to get the right supplies to do a proper polishing. Instead I tried a few home remedies, including toothpaste. I wasn't getting the results I was hoping for and in the process I managed to create a few minor cracks that pretty much ruled out salvaging this piece.

OK, on to the closed canopy. Did I mention I wanted the canopy open? The closed canopy sort of fit in the open position and if forced down it seemed OK. Well, I guess I just needed to spread it out a bit. I think I've read about people using hot water to soften the plastic enough to reshape it... I'm game. My hottest tap water didn't seem to have much of an effect. OK, boiling water. I'll dip it for a few seconds, it'll be OK. Nope, not enough, a few seconds more... Nope, more... OK much more... There! It seems to have moved... Great... Oh wait, there isn't supposed to be a big bend in the bottom frame! Arrrgghhhh...

Two down, now what. Oh yeah, I heard that Airfix is really good about replacement parts. Internet to the rescue again. I contacted the US spares department and they got back to me within two business days... no sparse available.

Now what? This time Amazon to the rescue!


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Yep for a mear $5+ (and another $20 in other "necessities" to fill out the order and get free shipping) I now have two more canopies to screw up! This is my first introduction to Squadron vac-u-form canopies, I hope they treat me well!

After carefully cutting one out and sanding the edges, things finally started to head in the right direction. The next decision was how to mask for painting. The vac-u-formed canopy's "details" are pretty subtle so creating a mask was going to be difficult. I decided I'd try a variation of bare metal foil masking as described so well by Paul Budzik in one of his videos (for those not familiar with Paul, look him up; he is a master and a great teacher).

I started by filling the interior with "white" tack for some stability. Then, so that I could see the framing better, I cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tape and covered the framing. (Excuse the "white" tack in the photo; it is no longer white and full of lots of paint, dust and debris; but it still works!)


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next, for the bare metal foil I was too lazy/cheap to go to the hobby store to get the real stuff. We have aluminum foil in the kitchen and I found some cheap low tack spray in the closet; Paul mentioned in his video that that should work. Hmm... only "heavy duty" aluminum foil in the kitchen; sure, why not. I was able to cover the main canopy and moved on to the front; that wasn't going so well, but I was making it work. I then started trimming out the framing which was also going well. I was nearly finished when I noticed that the foil wasn't really sticking that well! Argggghh! But I was pretty happy that it was at least working! I guess the cheap spray adhesive was indeed cheap and/or old.. It really just set too fast. It also left a residue, which this time I cleaned more carefully with mineral spirits; that worked out just fine.

At this point I wasn't going to give up. I could either go out and get some new adhesive and standard aluminum foil or, wait, REAL BARE METAL FOIL FROM THE HOBBY STORE! So off to the store...


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

As you've probably guessed, this went on much easier!


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And after a little trimming, it's ready for paint!


Update 4 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

It's not perfect by far, but seems to be the best I've done yet; only time will tell.

Now finally, on to the paint! Hopefully the next update won't be too far off.

Thanks for looking in!

[Lysus]

Curious to know what you think of BMF for canopy masking, tried it a couple times and I'm back and forth on whether I like it or not.

Ah yes, the old "I need more for free shipping" trap. There's always a "necessity" that I need so I know it well

[BobM]

Update 5

Curious to know what you think of BMF for canopy masking, tried it a couple times and I'm back and forth on whether I like it or not.

So far It's working out better than trying to cut them out from Tamiya tape, but will wait until finished before rendering a final verdict. For the Fighting Felines build I have an Eduard ProfiPACK that comes with masks, I'm guessing that is much easier!

Just a quick update now that I got some painting done. I started with painting the canopy with Cockpit green, it will show through to the inside and I think that is the right color... Well it is now:


Update 5 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And this was overpainted with Stynylrez Black Primer as that was the primer under the cockpit interior and the primer that will go the exterior (just in case this has any effect on the topcoat).


Update 5 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

And of course everything else has been primed...


Update 5 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

With the primer on I can see all the places where filling/sanding weren't so great. I'll let it dry for a day or so before fixing those areas and priming again.

Thanks!

[BobM]

Update 6

Today I had time to cleanup the areas that needed additional filling and sanding. It was pretty minor and after re-priming those areas they looked really good.

While I did that, I also painted the landing gear. For the tires, I used Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black. The gear and hubs were done with a mix of Vallejo Silver and Gun Metal.


Update 6 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

So on to the color coats! Now I'm no student of WW II or British Aircraft, so I need to rely on internet research to determine colors etc. I must say, there seems to be plenty of opinions on what colors I should use! I think the proper colors are British Standard 210 Sky for the underside and a camo pattern of 350 Dark Earth and 241 Dark Green on top. Comparing these standards to photos of restored planes, other models, various instruction color callouts and the instruction sheets I have, I see very little agreement! The Dark Earth doesn't seem brown enough and Dark Green, well, isn't green! So I hope I don't offend anyone by going a little "off script" and come up with my own colors. You know the rules, my model, my colors!

So let's start with "Sky", the underside color. For mixing paint colors, I use the iPhone iModelKit app since I'm no artist and that seems to at least get me in the ballpark. I chose to stick with BS 210 Sky for this and using the Tamiya paints I have in hand I came up with a mix of 9:XF-55 Deck Tan, 3:XF-77 IJN Gray, 2:XF-2 Flat White. I ended up adding a few drops of XF-5 Flat Green and a bit more XF-; I'm happy with the result. It looks much better (to me) than the XF-21 Sky that I originally bought with the kit; that just seems way too green.

So here it is:


Update 6 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

I tried black-basing as I've seen around on the web. I suppose that I need A) more airbrushing practice, B) a better airbrush, C) better paints than Tamiya, or most likely, D) all of the above! It kind of worked, I think you can see some subtle variations. You can probably also see some streaking. This came about because after I had "finished" I was trying to wipe off some dust and, well, I ended up with some small scratches in the paint. Rather than more airbrushing I decided to very lightly brush on some very thin paint with a nearly dry brush. This did a great job of hiding the scratch and as a bonus it added the streaking effect. The streaks were a bit much, so I eventually ended up over spraying with more really thin paint; this tone the streaks down just enough. I think once more weathering hits it will look great.

Tomorrow I hope to get started on the camo; I'll leave my color choices for next time.

Since this is my first camo pattern, I'm not sure how to go about it. I'd like to match the pattern as close as possible. I found a PDF instruction sheet for some masks which I rescaled and printed. I think I can use those for a guide. I may end up making Tamiya tape masks from them. For now I'm cutting them out to see how well they fit. These look like they are designed to paint the Dark Green first, mask that and then paint the Dark Earth. I was thinking the other way around, but I suppose that works. Wish me luck!


Update 6 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Hopefully I'll have an update late tomorrow. Until then

[BobM]

Update 7

As promised, here is my next update. As I've mentioned several times already, this is my first attempt at a camo pattern and I've been a bit apprehensive but still excited. Before starting the camo, I masked the underside with Tamiya tape and blue tape to fill the larger areas.

For the camo, my process was to use the paper masks I showed in the last update to create some practice/rough masks with well "de-sticked" blue tape. These masks are intended to cover the Dark Green areas. For that I did a custom mix of 9:XF-13 J. A. Green and 2:XF-77 IJN Gray; this produced a nice slightly desaturated dark green. I applied the masks and sprayed the edges lightly with my green mix, just enough to outline the areas I needed to paint. I didn't want to cover the entire surface with Dark Green and then cover that with the Dark Earth, too much paint! This technique worked OK, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture at this stage.

After removing the masks I proceeded to fill the Dark Green areas using a black-basing mottling coat until I could no longer distinguish the lines left from the mask. I wasn't worried about going outside the lines as long as I didn't apply too much green. The mottling was oversprayed with a light blending coat. Again, too excited so no pictures.

With that done and while it dried I prepared final masks from Tamiya tape using the paper masks as guides. After letting the paint dry for a couple of hours (I probably should have waited a day but...), I applied the masks and cleaned them up filling areas that didn't fit quite right. Finally a picture!


Update 7 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

You should be able to see the green overspray, this was of course intentional.

For Dark Earth I did yet another custom mix of 8:XF-72 Brown/JGSDF, 3:XF-15 Flat Flesh and (here I made a mistake) 2:XF-2 Flat White. I had planned 2:XF-71 Cockpit Green, but oh well, the color came out fine. I again tried black-basing mottling and blend coats, I think the latter got a bit heavy so there isn't as much variation, but I think it still looks fine.

After a couple more hours of drying (again more would have been better) and with much anticipation, I removed the masks and...


Update 7 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr


Update 7 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Not bad! The Dark Earth might be a bit light, but hopefully clear coats and weathering will darken it enough. There are a few spots to touch up; you can easily see at least one in each photo.

I'm going to let this sit at least a full day before a coat of Aqua gloss in preparation for decals!

Again, thanks for looking in!

[Lysus]

This is looking great, that's a lot of masking to do and you dove right in. Yeah, 24 hours is best, but Tamiya thankfully isn't as finicky as lacquer so long as you're careful

Really coming together nicely.

[BobM]

This is looking great, that's a lot of masking to do and you dove right in. Yeah, 24 hours is best, but Tamiya thankfully isn't as finicky as lacquer so long as you're careful

Really coming together nicely.

Thanks Lysus...

The only real issue was fingerprints! A little bit of touch-up seems to have hidden them along with a couple of holidays and dings. Masking was fine, no issues removing it. I'm currently letting the touch-ups dry before a coat of Aqua Gloss.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work Bob - the camo pattern definitely looks the right shapes

One other thing I've used for those kind of edges is white-tack - it saves all the cutting around masking tape and can be moulded to pretty much any shape and into angles where tape is tricky to get in.

As to the colours as you've already found there's as many opinions out there as to what is "right" as there are people using the internet. Go with what looks right to you

[DrSprue]

Wow! Oh No... I shouldnt be looking at this one (haha) no just kidding. So well done so far Bob, that kit is looking great. Compared to my old Monogram, it seems airfix did a great mold here and your making it look awesome. Count me in to see it completed!

This is where I may learn alot from you realy good kit makers. So new to planes and such and out of it for so long, thanks for sharing your work. I am honored to see it's construction done so well.

I hope you dont mind but I may ask a lot of questions as I start mine with yours so close to the end?

[BobM]

Wow! Oh No... I shouldnt be looking at this one (haha) no just kidding. So well done so far Bob, that kit is looking great. Compared to my old Monogram, it seems airfix did a great mold here and your making it look awesome. Count me in to see it completed!

This is where I may learn alot from you realy good kit makers. So new to planes and such and out of it for so long, thanks for sharing your work. I am honored to see it's construction done so well.

I hope you dont mind but I may ask a lot of questions as I start mine with yours so close to the end?

Thanks for the compliments! Although I'm not sure how deserved they are; there are plenty of better builders on this site than me! I've only completed three kits (in the modern era), so I still have plenty to learn.

Ask away! I'll be glad to help if I can, but don't be surprised if I can't. I'm sure someone will pick up the slack...

I saw your thread, but haven't had a chance to look at, but I will! It will be interesting to see the differences.

Thanks again!

[BobM]

Update 8:

At the end of the last update I was waiting for the color coats to cure before moving on to an Aqua Gloss clear coat. This was completed before the Friday June 16th Live show. Here is the photo I posted for that. Thanks for the kind comments on the show guys!


Friday June 16 Live Show Update by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

With the clear coat on it was time for decals. No major issues here but I think I needed something a bit "hotter" than MicroSol to really get some of the decals to sit down. It took a couple of decaling sessions which was followed by another Aqua Gloss coat. Here is the result:


Update 8 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Next I wanted to see how my canopy had come out. During that last clear coat I also cleared the canopy, still with it's masks on. Then it was time to remove the bare metal foil. More easily said than done. It was hard to get a corner started and there were a few places that chipped and/or peeled. I think it may have be for two reasons (or maybe more). First, after masking I didn't prime; instead I sprayed the cockpit green directly on the bare clear plastic. This was followed by a spray of Stynylrez Black. Then I forgot to spray the green while I was doing the camo, so instead of pulling out the airbrush, I brushed on the green. I think that last bit may have been the mistake as it was a bit thicker than if I had sprayed. Anyway, I did a little touch up with a brush and I think it came out OK. The bare metal foil left a bit of residue behind. This made me a bit worried since that was what had sent me down the road of an aftermarket canopy! But a little (and I mean a little) mineral spirits on a Q-tip cleaned it up nicely. So here it is, this is what I'm going with! (And yes, it is dark green!)


Update 8 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

After that I removed the "gray tack" I used to mask the cockpit, landing gear bays, air scoops and lights. There were a few chips around the landing gear bays so I touched this up with a brush along with a few other nicks and holidays that I found. Also during the decaling (I think) I managed to knock off, for I think the third time, and this time loose, the aerial mast (?) on the tail! I found a piece of the interior frame that is installed if the gun bays are open that seemed about the right size/shape. So I sanded a slightly better profile and cut it to length. It's hard to tell it's not the original! At this time I also installed the main aerial mast behind the cockpit; I hope its not too early. But there isn't much more handling at this point, just some weathering and assembly of the final details!

Speaking of weathering... I just started the first round with Black Panel Line Accent. I'll let this dry before removing the excess with a Q-tip dampened with mineral spirits.


Update 8 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

Well, it may be a couple of weeks before my next update as I'll be on vacation for the next week. Until then,

[Lysus]

Vacation? You poor thing.

Looking great, man. The camo is slick, something I've yet to try.

[BobM]

Vacation? You poor thing.

Looking great, man. The camo is slick, something I've yet to try.

Vacation... yeah, it's tough, but someone has to do it!

Update 9:

OK, so I lied. I found some time before vacation so I made progress on the panel lines. This shows the progression of the underside of the wing from dried Panel Line Accent to fully "cleaned".


Update 9 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

For those not familiar with the process, a little mineral spirits (in my case Mona Lisa Odorless Paint Thinner) on a Q-tip (aka cotton bud) goes a long way. My process was to dip the Q-tip in the mineral spirits and wipe off all excess on a paper towel; and I mean all the excess. You might think it's dry, but it isn't. I then wiped this over an area and you can see it actually wets the surface. Let this set a bit while wiping other areas. Then return and wipe it away. It's kind of magic! Sometimes it took a few passes, and some areas, where the paint was rough (from poor airbrush technique) required a good bit of rubbing. But the Tamiya paint and Aqua Gloss held up well!

And here is the top side, showing before, during and after. You may notice that some of the panel lines on the port side didn't take the accent so well. This is most likely due to my TET incident from Update 2; this seems to have softened the panel lines enough to prevent the capillary action and allowed the Q-tip to remove the accent. But it still looks much better than without!


Update 9 by Bob Mortensen, on Flickr

I'm not sure where I want to go next with the weathering. I imagine some washes and/or pigments... I think it over during vacation... maybe!

Thanks again!

[DrSprue]

Oh that looks really great Bob! wow, it coming out so well. I may have abit of a problem tho being that my hurricane has all raised rivets, by the way they used to do this stuff in the dim time and no low panel lines. Hmm I think your technique may accent the rivets If I do it right? Too soon to tell. Looks really nice tho my friend, so well done. Have a very nice vacation and dont think about models... (yea, easy for me to say, I think about them all the time) haha!

[BobM]

Update 10:

OK, back from vacation... It took a couple of days to get back to the bench, but I finally carved out some time the other day. So I decided to tackle some weathering; something I'm still getting the hang of.

Here is a reminder of where I left off; just some panel line accent added:


At this point it was still looking too "factory fresh"; I wanted to fade the paint some. I mixed a few drops of Tamiya Flat White into some AquaGloss and added a bit of Ultimate Thinner. I used this for some very light dusting and streaking. I then added a little Flat Black, dusted/streaked and added a little more, repeat. After drying a bit here is the result:



I got a little heavy handed in a few places, but overall I like the effect. Oh, you can also see that I added the exhausts; these were painted with a mix of Tamiya paints to get a rust color (I don't recall the combination). I then dusted(?) them with Gun Metal and Orange Rust from Tamiya's Weathering Master set C.



Next, I used some lamp black oils I have to add "less subtle" grime streaking. Much less subtle, maybe a bit too much... Actually the photos seem to accentuate it more than it is in person. I'm hoping the final flat coat will tie it all together better.









Let me know what you think. Too much? I still have some time to remove some of the oils, they take a long time to cure. I'll be letting this sit for at least a week before a final flat clear coat.

Oh, almost forgot. I also painted the prop, I'll be leaving it Stynylrez Black. The tips were primed with Stynylrez White (over the black) and then painted with Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow. Not sure where to go with weathering this yet. Suggestions?

[DrSprue]

Wow, with your excellent painting and Airfix's great modling it sure is coming out just awesome! Well done so far Bob!

[Tomcat64]

Nice work Bob - that's looking like a well used example.

Regarding the prop I dry-stippled some aluminium onto the boss and along the leading edges of the prop blades with a stiff brush to give a scuffed effect.

[BobM]

Wow, with your excellent painting and Airfix's great modling it sure is coming out just awesome! Well done so far Bob!

Thanks Tony, but I think you give me too much credit!

Nice work Bob - that's looking like a well used example.

Regarding the prop I dry-stippled some aluminium onto the boss and along the leading edges of the prop blades with a stiff brush to give a scuffed effect.

Thanks Neil, I also have that Tamiya Weathering Master Set C with a silver; I think that would produce a similar result if I'm careful. We'll see...

[DrSprue]

I love the way you did your canopy with that squadron find? It looks so nice with the painting that seems spot on. Are you going to make a mirror for it? or did your mk 1 have one? Im looking at mine which is a bit thick, but I need to cut it near the front so I can slide it back, because I am going to try and show some detail inside, but never cut one.

Do you have any suggestions, so I dont ruin the only one I have? I have a good, very thin xacto saw but seeing the closed canopy that came with the kit and the mirror like stump scares me a bit.

Im doing a mk IIc which from what Ive seen has that mirror.

[BobM]

I love the way you did your canopy with that squadron find? It looks so nice with the painting that seems spot on. Are you going to make a mirror for it? or did your mk 1 have one? Im looking at mine which is a bit thick, but I need to cut it near the front so I can slide it back, because I am going to try and show some detail inside, but never cut one.

Do you have any suggestions, so I dont ruin the only one I have? I have a good, very thin xacto saw but seeing the closed canopy that came with the kit and the mirror like stump scares me a bit.

Im doing a mk IIc which from what Ive seen has that mirror.

Not planning to add a mirror; one doesn't come with the Airfix kit. I hadn't really given it a thought until you mentioned it. Photos of the restored plane show a mirror, but it isn't clear if this was "correct" or not. I'm not much for scratch building (at least not yet) and I don't have a collection of spares to raid...

Tips for cutting the canopy? I don't think I have any. Go slow and be careful? The Squadron canopy is vacuformed so it is real thin, pliable and cuts with a knife. It was molded in two parts, but these needed to be cut out of the sheet. For support I packed it with blue tack (actually a gray museum putty in my case). This helped with the cutting, masking and painting, but was a real pain to remove.

For painting, I tried to follow Paul Budzik's technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHJmxKKxsew. If you haven't seen his videos, you should; he's a real craftsman.

I don't know if that helped, but good luck with your build.

[DrSprue]

I love the way you did your canopy with that squadron find? It looks so nice with the painting that seems spot on. Are you going to make a mirror for it? or did your mk 1 have one? Im looking at mine which is a bit thick, but I need to cut it near the front so I can slide it back, because I am going to try and show some detail inside, but never cut one.

Do you have any suggestions, so I dont ruin the only one I have? I have a good, very thin xacto saw but seeing the closed canopy that came with the kit and the mirror like stump scares me a bit.

Im doing a mk IIc which from what Ive seen has that mirror.

Not planning to add a mirror; one doesn't come with the Airfix kit. I hadn't really given it a thought until you mentioned it. Photos of the restored plane show a mirror, but it isn't clear if this was "correct" or not. I'm not much for scratch building (at least not yet) and I don't have a collection of spares to raid...

Tips for cutting the canopy? I don't think I have any. Go slow and be careful? The Squadron canopy is vacuformed so it is real thin, pliable and cuts with a knife. It was molded in two parts, but these needed to be cut out of the sheet. For support I packed it with blue tack (actually a gray museum putty in my case). This helped with the cutting, masking and painting, but was a real pain to remove.

For painting, I tried to follow Paul Budzik's technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHJmxKKxsew. If you haven't seen his videos, you should; he's a real craftsman.

I don't know if that helped, but good luck with your build.

Oh thanks for the tips Bob and Pauls link... I think you mentioned him a while ago.. amazing builder.. You helped alot thx. Need to get better tools but I have some evergreen from a while ago so scratch is still new for me but looking ok for now. That vacuum formed kit does look nice. Ill try a nice slow cut on my ""thick"" canopy, wish me well... hehe, thanks Bob.

[BobM]

Final Update!

I left off having just completed weathering with some oil paint streaks. I let these dry for at least a week before coating with Tamiya XF-86 Flat Clear thinned 50/50 with Ultimate Thinner. I'm not sure if it was the thinner, the weather or my technique, but I ended up with a lot of frosting and hazing from the clear coat. Along a couple of panel lines it looked like that corrosion you see on aluminum; on the wings it looked like ripples of sand. This concerned me a bit because I didn't think I could write it off as "weathering"! I wish I had taken some pictures, but at the time I was too embarrassed.

While I pondered what to do about this, I attached the canopy using a UV curing glue. With that complete I took to the internet to see if other had similar problems that they had solved. I don't recall where I saw it but someone suggested misting with thinner. This sparked a memory about other using Mr. Leveling Thinner or Tamiya Lacquer Thinner to smooth out a gloss coat. While this wasn't a gloss coat, the idea is the same; reactivate the surface and let it settle and re-dry. So I went for it applying several very light mists of straight Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. This worked great! It removed all the hazing and greatly reduced even the worst cases of frosting. Phew.

Unfortunately while touching up after attaching the canopy and misting with thinner, I made a big mess around the cockpit. Eventually I used a brush with IPA to gently remove some of my mistakes. This kind of worked, but left a rather rough crackly finish. Fearing further damage and thinking that this could at least be "sold" as weathering, I left it and just recoated the area with XF-86, this time thinned with lacquer thinner. You can only see it up close; I think it will be obvious in some of the final reveal photos.

With that done it was just a matter of tying up loose ends: prop, landing gear, lights, etc. The landing gear were glue with CA, both thin and medium. CA for the prop. The colored running lights were done with CA (after painting with Tamiya Clear Green and Clear Red). The clear headlights and bottom light were attached with PVA.

Here I'm starting on the landing gear:


And a view of the underside with completed landing gear and lights:


And to end this thread, a sneak peak of the completed model before the final reveal. You can see some of the "extra weathering" near the front of the cockpit:


Thanks for tuning in! The final reveal should be up later today, or more likely tomorrow.

[BobM]

The reveal thread is up!

Thanks for looking!