Dirk's 1/72 Airfix Sea Hurricane of Johnny Red

[dirkpitt289]

I had recently taken a break from my B-24 build to try something I'd never done before but that I've read a lot about. A 24 hour non-stop Blitz build. I figure what the heck. I started the build Thursday morning at 7am EST. Here's how it went.

The Kit

Airfix's new tool Hawker Sea Hurricane

The Subject

The Story

As the story goes while he was in flight school he gets into an argument with an instructor/ officer. A scuffle ensues and the officer falls and breaks his neck (DEAD).

Johnny is court marshaled and kicked out of the service. He then joins the Merchant Marines and while in a convoy heading for Murmansk the convoy is attacked by Stuka Dive bombers. The pilot of the on board Sea hurricane is killed by one of the Stuka's bombs so Johnny steps in.

After the battle he heads for the Russian coast and finds himself among the Falcons, fighter squadron cut off from all supplies and thought to be dead.

Later tonight I'll post the process of creating the decals for this build. Mean while Johnny's hanging out drinking some joe waiting for his create to be built. As you can imagin he's not someone you want to keep waiting.

Thanks for looking

 

[dirkpitt289]

I was allowed by the moderators to do the decals before hand.

The decals are done. They are about as good as they are going to get.

I searched out the skull and saved it to my computer. Using Photoshop I was able to modify the image a bit and make it an acceptable size for the Hurricane. I first printed them out on regular paper. Trimmed them and sized them against a Russian Hurricane I built last year. Once i was happy I printed the image onto white decal paper

next before I go to bed tonight i'll give the decals a coat of Klear. This will keep the ink from smearing when applied to water.

I think I'm as ready now as I'll ever be.

 

[dirkpitt289]

Then came the day

12 Minutes into the build

The stage is set, the girlfriend has taken the kids on an adventure to the Jersey shore leaving me to my own vices. The orchestra is fine tuning their instruments in the background. This is a nice kit. The parts are crisp and clean, no flash. The only issues I have it that all the attach points are rather thick even on the smaller more delicate parts. This means more care will be requited when cutting the parts from the sprue. Another issue I see is the entire kit seems so sharp until you get the the area just behind the rear intake scoop. The detail there suddenly appears fuzzy and blurred. My last complaint is that the pilots face is virtually featureless. Other then that, Great looking kit so far.

The parts have been laid out and a TV marathon has been set up to keep me busy in between modeling tasks.

In the immortal words of our host, Johnny Red

 

[dirkpitt289]

43 Minutes into the Build

The last hour was spent organizing the workbench and getting some color (RAF Interior Green) in the cockpit and wheel bays.

Johnny's office is coming together

 

[dirkpitt289]

1 Hour into the build

I feel this is moving along at a nice pace

Time to make it a Sea Hurricane

With the fuselage in place its time to Time to add some filler to the Mk IIc wings and remove the holes for the 20mm cannons. Happily virtually no filler was needed at the wing roots

BEFORE

While I have the filler out I'll a few more areas.

Since I have to make this a Mk IIb I will need to do some modifications to the wings. I filled the existing holes for the cannons and now I need to get rid of the bumps on top of the wings. I'm not going to go nuts and re-scribe the whole wing because there just isn't enough time.

Johnny inspects the wing

Thanks for taking the time to look at my work

 

[dirkpitt289]

Almost 3 hours into the build

Thanks Sissel

After reading OT's thread I realize I didn't post any breakfast food. I was planning on splurging and have one of my favorite breakfast sandwiches. Bacon Egg and Cheese on a roll but decided against it and opted for the bowl of Cheerios instead.

Next set of pictures

The filler has been sanded and she is ready for some primer. I'm happy with the way the wings came out

I drilled out the holes for the 8 Browning's. Not my best work but this is a blitz and I need to keep moving forward.

Now for some primer

This should take no time to dry.

 

[dirkpitt289]

5 1/2 Hours into the build

The primer is dry and the panel lines shaded

And now my first mile stone. After 6 3/4 hours we have the first coat of Crimson Guard paint applied!!!

Time now for some lunch

 

[dirkpitt289]

8 Hours 47 minutes into the build

As many have said in the past, Acrylics are the way to go for Blitz projects. The first coat is dry enough to handle already. I'm going now apply the second coat in order to tone down the per-shading. Every time I've ever done pre-shading in the past it gets obliterated with the fist application of paint. This time it was tho opposite.

The second coat was applied and it looks better but I think its still a little too pronounced. I'm not going to waste time putting on a third coat at this point. Maybe it will look better with some weathering later on.

In the mean time I decided it was time to get cracking on Johnny Red our pilot. I think its more then acceptable considering what will be seen through the cockpit glass.

Thanks for looking

 

[dirkpitt289]

13.5 hours into the build,

The Hurricane is all dried and I'm able to handle it with full confidence that I won't mar the paint job. Now its time to move on to some of the small bits and bobs.

I was able to mask off the canopy while i was watching "Battleship" this afternoon and it got a coat of red at the same time the the Hurricane got its second coat.

Here's a look at some of the pieces. The kit comes with two sets of exhaust manifolds but I'll be damned if i can tell them apart. I hope I got the right ones in place.

I started by giving them a coat of Steel. Once that was dry I applied some Rust to simulate the ... um... err... rust. :ha:

The wheels and tires were done in two stages. First the Red...

And then the Gunmetal. I always do my tires in Gunmetal because i think it looks closer to the real thing then black. Just my humble opinion. It took two coats of the gunmetal to get a good finish

Next Johnny was put in place and then the canopy. It was a tight squeeze to say the least.

Thanks for looking

 

[dirkpitt289]

Just about 9 hours to go

Here we go for the final push... Decals!!!

I made up an extra set of decals the other night just in case the red of the aircraft bled through the decal

I have to say I'm very happy with the final result. Only one decal needed. And before any one says anything about the decals being out of register they aren't. The skulls were roughly painted on in the field under unfavorable conditions. It's not meant to be perfect like a factory applied identification marker.

 

[dirkpitt289]

Ok, I'm getting tired and I need to separate myself from this all red aircraft for a while so its time to look at the base.

Here is what i got.

A wood base that I stained about a year ago

and some custom and less expensive snow from my local railroad shop.

I started by pre-ping the base with some tape to make a boarder

Adding some glue

Once the glue was applied I used a sifter and sprinkled the base with the snowy powder. I then made a mix of Elmers glue and water and placed the mixture into a spray bottle. Then sprayed the top of the base

 

[dirkpitt289]

Well that's about it my friends. I finished with about 7 1/2 hours left on the clock. The base should be dry by then and I'll take it out for some glamour shots. If I decide to do any further weathering it'll be at a later time. Till then here is one last parting shot for the evening

:ha: :ha: Night Gents... :ha: :ha:

 

[dirkpitt289]

 

[Rogi]

lol this is awesome work

 

[Crimea_River]

Great, so what's up for tomorrow?!

 

[dirkpitt289]

Johnny Red's Red Mosquito. LOL

 

[N4521U]

That is fan...tas...tic!

 

[Wurger]

An interesting work Dirk. Nicely done.

 

[Wayne Little]

Agreed! nicely done...

 

[rochie]

Love it Dirk, do you know Johnny Red also flew a Mosquito later on in his adventures, it had a skull on the nose where the machine guns were ?