dirkpitt289
Master Sergeant
Username: Dirkpitt289
Name: Dirk Pitt
Category: Beginner
Model: Lend Lease Hawker Hurricane
Scale: 1:72
Manufacturer: Revell
Aftermarket addons: None at this time, Decals if I can find them, Other then that OOB with minor scratch building.
This build was inspired by my quest to do something completely different. What better way to be part of a VVS/ Eastern front group build than by adding NOT a Russian aircraft or one of the aircraft flown by their diabolical German foe's. Not that the Russians didn't have a great collection of aircraft of their own. No, for this build I chose to go with a Lend Lease aircraft. The venerable Hawker Hurricane! And what better Hurricane to choose other then the very first Hurricane which was presented to Major-General A A Kuznetzov Commanding Officer Naval Air Forces, Soviet Northern Fleet, Vaenga, 1942
A Brief History
With Soviet Russia an ally of Great Britain following the German invasion in June 1941 war material was sent to her aid, probably the best-known British contribution in the early stages being the despatch of an entire Hurricane wing. No. 151 Wing, composed of Nos. 81 and 134 squadrons took a mixture of Hurricane Mk IIAs and Mk IIBs with pilots and ground crew. With twenty-four aircraft assembled and ready to fly and the remaining fifteen in crates. Their operational task was to give air cover to the northern Russian ports that received the convoys, before training the Russians in their use and the repatriation of the RAF personnel. Z5252 had been built by Glosters as a Hurricane Mk IIB, this mark carrying twelve Browning machine guns, and was one of those that arrived crated. It had been built with a "tropical" filter which it retained in its new Arctic environment. It was assembled at Keg-Ostrov, a mile from Archangel, and with others of the same batch was flown in September to Vaenga, where it was kept as a reserve aircraft.
On the 25th of September Major-General A A Kuznetsov, an experienced pilot who was Commanding Officer Naval Air Forces, Soviet Northern Fleet, arrived to test fly a Hurricane, and was presented with Hurricane Mk IIB Z5252 as his personal aircraft, the British markings being replaced with red stars, and the identifying number '01' painted on the fuselage.
The remaining Hurricane Mk IIs were handed over to the Soviet Air Force on the 20th of October, where they equipped 78 IAP. Z5252 failed to return from a mission on the 2nd of June 1942, but it has been recently discovered and recovered from a lake.
We'll get to that part of the story a little later on in the build.
The Model
Here comes one of those moments we as modelers dread... Opening a box and taking in that first smell of plastic and cardboard. We take each spree tree in hand and look over the formed plastics visualizing how they will go together. HUMMM
Then we come to a spree like the one below.
You see this little spree tree of clear plastic is clearly missing something. A quick look at the directions proves my suspicion... THE CANOPY IS MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT AGAIN!!! First the directions in my Revell Wellington were missing and now the canopy for my Hurricane. $%*frickin%#$*&frackin%#$@!(**^ Hoe!!!! Does revell have any quality control practices in place? Holly good god!
Well it is at this point I will leave you all to go search out some badly needed decals and now a canopy.
Name: Dirk Pitt
Category: Beginner
Model: Lend Lease Hawker Hurricane
Scale: 1:72
Manufacturer: Revell
Aftermarket addons: None at this time, Decals if I can find them, Other then that OOB with minor scratch building.
This build was inspired by my quest to do something completely different. What better way to be part of a VVS/ Eastern front group build than by adding NOT a Russian aircraft or one of the aircraft flown by their diabolical German foe's. Not that the Russians didn't have a great collection of aircraft of their own. No, for this build I chose to go with a Lend Lease aircraft. The venerable Hawker Hurricane! And what better Hurricane to choose other then the very first Hurricane which was presented to Major-General A A Kuznetzov Commanding Officer Naval Air Forces, Soviet Northern Fleet, Vaenga, 1942
A Brief History
With Soviet Russia an ally of Great Britain following the German invasion in June 1941 war material was sent to her aid, probably the best-known British contribution in the early stages being the despatch of an entire Hurricane wing. No. 151 Wing, composed of Nos. 81 and 134 squadrons took a mixture of Hurricane Mk IIAs and Mk IIBs with pilots and ground crew. With twenty-four aircraft assembled and ready to fly and the remaining fifteen in crates. Their operational task was to give air cover to the northern Russian ports that received the convoys, before training the Russians in their use and the repatriation of the RAF personnel. Z5252 had been built by Glosters as a Hurricane Mk IIB, this mark carrying twelve Browning machine guns, and was one of those that arrived crated. It had been built with a "tropical" filter which it retained in its new Arctic environment. It was assembled at Keg-Ostrov, a mile from Archangel, and with others of the same batch was flown in September to Vaenga, where it was kept as a reserve aircraft.
On the 25th of September Major-General A A Kuznetsov, an experienced pilot who was Commanding Officer Naval Air Forces, Soviet Northern Fleet, arrived to test fly a Hurricane, and was presented with Hurricane Mk IIB Z5252 as his personal aircraft, the British markings being replaced with red stars, and the identifying number '01' painted on the fuselage.
The remaining Hurricane Mk IIs were handed over to the Soviet Air Force on the 20th of October, where they equipped 78 IAP. Z5252 failed to return from a mission on the 2nd of June 1942, but it has been recently discovered and recovered from a lake.
We'll get to that part of the story a little later on in the build.
The Model
Here comes one of those moments we as modelers dread... Opening a box and taking in that first smell of plastic and cardboard. We take each spree tree in hand and look over the formed plastics visualizing how they will go together. HUMMM
Then we come to a spree like the one below.
You see this little spree tree of clear plastic is clearly missing something. A quick look at the directions proves my suspicion... THE CANOPY IS MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT AGAIN!!! First the directions in my Revell Wellington were missing and now the canopy for my Hurricane. $%*frickin%#$*&frackin%#$@!(**^ Hoe!!!! Does revell have any quality control practices in place? Holly good god!
Well it is at this point I will leave you all to go search out some badly needed decals and now a canopy.