**** DONE: GB-45 1/72 Hurricane Mk.I - BoB/Foreign Service

nsmekanik · Feb 9, 2020

User Name: Nsmekanik
First Name: Tim
Category: Intermediate
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: ArmaHobby
After market: Seatbelts

I'll be using the kit decals for YO*N, serial V6605, a plane from RCAF 1 sqn on lone to 303 sqn and in which F/O Zdzislaw Henenberg claimed 1 Me 109 probable.

Wurger · Feb 9, 2020

Crimea_River · Feb 9, 2020

Good stuff Tim.

nsmekanik · Feb 10, 2020

Alrighty then, having bit off more then I can chew in one mouth full twice now, I decided to get my feet back on the ground and try something a bit more realistic........sssooooo here is the much promoted Arma Hobby MK I Hurricane kit. I cheaped out and got the basic kit, as for my display purposes it should be more then adequate.

Much to Arma's credit they broke from the norm and chose to start the construction sequence from the gear bay, this makes perfect sense though, as the roof of the gear bay also doubles as the floor of the cockpit with a few nigglies attached, such as the control column........

One issue with this kit is, aside from the fuselage, wing and lower cockpit framing as seen above, is the alignment peg holes are to small for the pegs. Not shown as I didn't take pics at the time is the ones for gear bay walls are square, so my advice is to shave them off and use the upper wing attachment to align things. Another of the other issues with this kit is that according to the instruction one is to attach the landing gear before assembling the wings which, of course, does not bode well for the survival of said landing gear, or masking the bay off for painting. Apparently it is possible to thread the landing gear in after assembly, but that is more akin to threading a camel through the eye of the needle gate.

It was at this point I realized the alignment holes were to small here, but using a .06 Carbide bit worked out well

As can be seen here, the landing gear attachment point is really good and fool proof, there are 2 tabs at the top of the attachment that prevent the gear from going in to far so it doesn't matter how much or little one shaves off the top, these do make things more difficult in threading things through.

Everything in place.

My solution to that problem was to cut the ram off and glue it in place. Once everything is built up and the landing gear installed this won't hardly be visible unless one is really looking for it, if at all.

For the gear bay I decided to try out Vallejo's 71.063 Silver RLM 01, which under a coat of Tamiya's Lacquer Flat Clear looks pretty convincing.

Crimea_River · Feb 11, 2020

Good work Tim. Looks like a really nice kit. Being 1/72, I've never given it much attention but I like what I see here and how you're putting it together.

nsmekanik · Feb 12, 2020

Thank you all for your kind remarks, much appreciated

This is a very nice kit and I can highly recommend to anyone with a bit of experience, but I wouldn't for a newbie as there's a few fiddly bits, especially the interior. One can get the kit with the added extra's if one wishes to torture oneself with photo etch, which I don't mind on occasion, but as far as I'm concerned the detail inside and out is more then adequate out of the box except for as lack of seat belts, which are presently winging there way to me from the pond form Jolly ole England. Yes Arma Hobby has done a fine job on this one and I may pick up some of the other boxings in the future.

I drilled out the four alignment holes on both sides of the fuselage with the same bit as before, and helpfully this allowed a snug fit of the side framework so that it would stay in place without glue and would also be easily removed. Arma would have you glue in each side and then glue the back plate and cross brace to one side before glueing the fuselage halves together. The problem with that though is that both the back and cross brace are a bit to wide and need a bit of trimming to fit. Given all the trouble involved in getting things to fit I figured it would be just as well to assemble the framing as a separate assembly which would also make things much easier to paint.

The fit is excellent and the fuselage halves stayed together without any assistance which made things a lot easier

And here is the cockpit frame ready for some paint

The pilots seat will be a bit tricky to install but I think the extra effort will be well worth it

I made a little bo bo with the colors, the plate on the left side rear is actually plywood as it turns out and was painted in interior green. In this case I'm using Tamiya interior Green and Semi Gloss Black along with Vallejo's RLM 01.

So a little touch up with the airbrush, and some detail painting......

And then of course to obligatory disaster struck and once again I spilled some lacquer thinner and in this case the IP went for a swim

Fortunately nothing else was touched and no real harm done, except to the rear where it was attached to the tape, so counting my blessings here for sure.

Wurger · Feb 12, 2020

Crimea_River · Feb 12, 2020

Beauty Tim.

nsmekanik · Feb 12, 2020

Post edited

fubar57 · Feb 12, 2020

Looking good

le_steph40 · Feb 13, 2020

Nice start :thumbright:

nsmekanik · Feb 14, 2020

Quiz of the day, whats wrong with this picture? I call it a moment of bliss before an impending disaster.....

Any Hurricane experts should be able to sort this one out fairly quickly. Actually there are two things amiss, one is the result of my own failure to pay attention, the other is a kit "Gotcha". More in a bit......

The decals are printed by Techmod and preformed well enough with care, the IP has raised details for the instrument bezels and getting things lined up was tricky, not helped by the decals folding over though and a black panel didn't make things easy but with perseverance I managed to get things lined up reasonably well