**** DONE: 1/48 Hurricane MkI "Willie McKnight" - Defense of Britain/Atlantic.

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OK, had some quiet time with my project tonight. Let's start with how it looked yesterday after I flat coated it and installed the unpainted aerial post.

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Attention then turned to finishing the prop. I added the Rotol label decals and hated them right off the bat so a quick reference was made to period pics and, thank God, many, if not the majority of the pics show no evidence of the labels. A 15 minute sanding and repainting session solved that.

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I then started going over the model with small dabs of colour to represent wear and tear. The pic below actually makes these colours pop more than they actually do but the effect is close to what I was looking for.

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A few more odds and ends to attend to and this one will make a quick flight to the display case.
 
With all above Andy. Nicely done my friend. A tip though.... looking at the prop with the Rotol label decals applied ( apart from the fact you didin't need that there ) ... these are to large taking the prop blad width into consideration. In a such case it is better to cut back the excess of the the decal base in order to limit the dimensions before soaking with water and applying on parts of a model. Applying of a such cropped decal marking will be easier and it can fit to the part surface better. Just thought.
 
The Rotol labels look a bit overscale as well... prop looks much better without. The flat coat looks nice... that skeleton emblem is so bada$$!
 
Thanks guys.

Wojtek, yes, I agree they are too big - one of the reasons I didn't like them. I was hoping that the black background would sit down with solution but it just stayed there, sticking out.
 
Nicely done Andy. I nearly added the rotol badges and data to my Spit, but then realised that these are 'modern' additions. In the rare cases where the Rotol markings are seen on WW2 props, it appears that only the 'winged' badge was used, almost central on the blades, with the data close to the root, but, like you, i could find no evidence of these for the period being covered.
 
Thanks guys.

The canopy was next on tap. I decided to bin the kit canopy and use an extra Squadron Vac-formed unit that I had left over. After masking the inside and outside, the very thin frames were painted and the outer masks removed:

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Next, I decided to not use the kit-supplied PE canopy handles as they looked a bit thick and large so I made my own using lead wire. The 0.2mm wire was wrapped around a piece of square bar stock and then cut in half to make two square C-shaped handles.

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After quite a bit of fiddling, I managed to get the 4 of them glued onto the frames. I also added a track to the bottom of the canopy using a narrow length of thin plastic card. This would serve to hold the canopy in the groove on the fuselage.

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Here is the finished canopy installed on the model. Unfortunately, a bit of CA glue got sucked up the inside of the glass and can be seen at this angle. Another blemish.

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I'll see the back of this one this weekend and will post the finished pics probably on Sunday. Not feelin' the love on this one and will be happy to relegate it to the lower shelf and start on something new.
 
Wow, I didn't even realize that the Hurricane had handles on the outside of the canopy! Great work Andy! I can't even see the CA blemish.
 
It's a pain when things don't go as hoped, but it looks good all the same Andy. And I've lost count of how many Hurricane canopies have had adhesive blemishes, of various types, over the years !
 

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