B
Boldman
Guest
Having completed the 5 Sqn Curtis Mohawk, its done the job and whetted my appetite for the rest of the "Planes my Fatehr Fixed" project. So to that end, lets have a go at one of the main aircraft he worked on - the Hurricane IIC that was the replacement for the Mohawk for 5 Sqn in India and Burma.
Some history: 5 Sqn had been based in the far east at the outbreak of WWII and when Japan joined the war, the Sqn were moved to Calcutta in an air defence role flying Audaxes, but these were inadequete so they were replaced with the Curtiss Mohawks, which were to provide air defence and bomber escort duties for attack in northern Burma.
Eventually in mid 1943, the Mohawks were replaced with a mix of HUrricane IIC and IID. My father was transferred from 81 Sqn to 5 Sqn in November 43 and spent Christmas in Sapam, 50 miles from the border with Burma and coincidentally just down the road from the recently relocated 81 Sqn - they invited my father for Xmas dinner and I still have the menu which my dad had got his old comrades to sign. Spam was an ideal position to launch ground attacke raids into the Japanese positions along the Chindwin Rover.
So for this build I will be using this kit which I was lucky enough to pick up at the Telford Kitswap as the basis:
Its not a terribly complex kit - its major downfall being that it has raised panel lines. I'm not sure I'm yet up to the task of rescribing... maybe this will be the time to try it out! Ther eis a lot of rivet detail that I'm loath to ruin though:
so I'm in a bit of a quandry about this - any suggestions?
So to improve the build itself, I invested heavily in aftermarket gear at Telford, picking up several items from Grey Matter Figures such as the cockpit and wheelbay enhancements. here is all the aftermarket stuff I aim to be using:
Moving in a clockwise direction: on the black page you can see the cockpit set in the top left and the wheelbays in the bottom right. Next to that is a set of decals for the lettering in the right colours and size for 5 Sqn in India. Below that is a vacform canopy and next is a set of replacement exhausts, then replacement cannons and finally some masks for the canopy.
Of course this is the build that I want to make diorama out of, featuring my dad doing his job as an electrician. So here are the final extras that will be used to create the diorama. In the family photo album, we've got several pictures of my dad from this period and in all of them he's wearing a bush hat, open shirt and shorts. So to get that combination I've got this little lot:
Clockwise from the left: Airfix 8th Ary Multipose figures - this will be useful for the lower body, Airfix 1-32 Australian infantry - this will be great for the bush hat and open shirt torso. Next is the 1:32 Aber hand tools set - you'll have seen the 1:48 version of this in my Mohawk build, I suspect that this set will be easier to put together - not so eye-straining! Finally, I will toss in the 1:32 resin accumulator trolly from Iconair. Now I think this will need to have a compressor motor scratch built on the top, but lets cross that bridge when we come to it!
So let us begin with the build. One of the first things I noticed was the elevators are cast as one complete piece. Well thats no good if I'm build a parked up machine undergoing maintenance! So I assembled them and then the razor saw came out and they were cut up. The notch that exposes the hinge was cut in and some plastic rod added. Two brackets were also added in the appropriate places to provide the attachment points for later.
I also started opening up the fuselage to expose the electrics that my dad would have been working on:
which also shows the elevators in an earlier stage of construction. Since the plastic of the fuselage is quite thick I chamfered the edges to thin the visible skin:
I've been researching the internal layout of the fuselage so I can scratch build what will be visible behind these panels. Follow this link to the IWM collections to see the sort of thing I will be aiming to achieve, although not with the wellies! I'm still doing the research to get the internals as correct as possible - I'll start building the cockpit next as this will provide the basics from which I can build further back into the fuselage to provide the framework for the electrics I will be displaying.
Some history: 5 Sqn had been based in the far east at the outbreak of WWII and when Japan joined the war, the Sqn were moved to Calcutta in an air defence role flying Audaxes, but these were inadequete so they were replaced with the Curtiss Mohawks, which were to provide air defence and bomber escort duties for attack in northern Burma.
Eventually in mid 1943, the Mohawks were replaced with a mix of HUrricane IIC and IID. My father was transferred from 81 Sqn to 5 Sqn in November 43 and spent Christmas in Sapam, 50 miles from the border with Burma and coincidentally just down the road from the recently relocated 81 Sqn - they invited my father for Xmas dinner and I still have the menu which my dad had got his old comrades to sign. Spam was an ideal position to launch ground attacke raids into the Japanese positions along the Chindwin Rover.
So for this build I will be using this kit which I was lucky enough to pick up at the Telford Kitswap as the basis:
Its not a terribly complex kit - its major downfall being that it has raised panel lines. I'm not sure I'm yet up to the task of rescribing... maybe this will be the time to try it out! Ther eis a lot of rivet detail that I'm loath to ruin though:
so I'm in a bit of a quandry about this - any suggestions?
So to improve the build itself, I invested heavily in aftermarket gear at Telford, picking up several items from Grey Matter Figures such as the cockpit and wheelbay enhancements. here is all the aftermarket stuff I aim to be using:
Moving in a clockwise direction: on the black page you can see the cockpit set in the top left and the wheelbays in the bottom right. Next to that is a set of decals for the lettering in the right colours and size for 5 Sqn in India. Below that is a vacform canopy and next is a set of replacement exhausts, then replacement cannons and finally some masks for the canopy.
Of course this is the build that I want to make diorama out of, featuring my dad doing his job as an electrician. So here are the final extras that will be used to create the diorama. In the family photo album, we've got several pictures of my dad from this period and in all of them he's wearing a bush hat, open shirt and shorts. So to get that combination I've got this little lot:
Clockwise from the left: Airfix 8th Ary Multipose figures - this will be useful for the lower body, Airfix 1-32 Australian infantry - this will be great for the bush hat and open shirt torso. Next is the 1:32 Aber hand tools set - you'll have seen the 1:48 version of this in my Mohawk build, I suspect that this set will be easier to put together - not so eye-straining! Finally, I will toss in the 1:32 resin accumulator trolly from Iconair. Now I think this will need to have a compressor motor scratch built on the top, but lets cross that bridge when we come to it!
So let us begin with the build. One of the first things I noticed was the elevators are cast as one complete piece. Well thats no good if I'm build a parked up machine undergoing maintenance! So I assembled them and then the razor saw came out and they were cut up. The notch that exposes the hinge was cut in and some plastic rod added. Two brackets were also added in the appropriate places to provide the attachment points for later.
I also started opening up the fuselage to expose the electrics that my dad would have been working on:
which also shows the elevators in an earlier stage of construction. Since the plastic of the fuselage is quite thick I chamfered the edges to thin the visible skin:
I've been researching the internal layout of the fuselage so I can scratch build what will be visible behind these panels. Follow this link to the IWM collections to see the sort of thing I will be aiming to achieve, although not with the wellies! I'm still doing the research to get the internals as correct as possible - I'll start building the cockpit next as this will provide the basics from which I can build further back into the fuselage to provide the framework for the electrics I will be displaying.
