A tale of two Hurricanes

stona

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As the title suggests, I’m going to embark on a more or less simultaneous build of not one but two Hawker Hurricanes in 1/32 scale. The two kits are very different, and this is not intended as a ‘this kit is better than that kit’ kind of exercise, which would be like comparing apples to oranges. There's about a tenner difference in the price of the two kits, the Fly kit being slightly more expensive.

I’ll build both almost entirely out of the box, so at least we’ll know what’s possible without doubling the price of a kit with exotic extras. There’s nothing wrong with upgrading as much as you like, but it would rather defeat the object of this exercise.

So, the kits in no particular order (manufacturers’ designations)

First up, the Fly Hawker Hurricane Mk.II a

P1010682.JPG


You could call this a multimedia kit. It comes from Czech company Fly who whilst not exactly a man in a shed with his resin are not really a mass producer. The kit contains just five sprues (including clear parts) a bunch of resin parts and enough photo-etch to make me or any sane person nervous. There is, of course, a decal sheet with no fewer than four options, two for tropicalised aircraft. Also included are a fairly rudimentary set of instructions. I think that some knowledge of the subject is assumed.
I won’t overburden the thread with photos, the details should become evident as I progress, but these should give an idea. It all looks nice and comes in a relatively small box the artwork on which managed to get the serial number of the aircraft pictured wrong .

Plastic:

P1010684.JPG

mostly not plastic:

P1010685.JPG


Second offering, the newish Revell Hawker Hurricane Mk II b

P1010686.JPG


This is a much more standard plastic model kit. You get nine sprues of plastic with many more plastic parts than the Fly version, though Fly may have compensated for this with the P-E and resin. The decal sheet offers two options. There is a decent sized booklet for instructions which are quite explicit. It all looks perfectly nice and is typical of kits from this manufacturer.
This kit comes in a much bigger box and it’s one of those Revell boxes that opens at an end (which I dislike). Again, just a minimum of images to illustrate this one.

Definitely a big pile of plastic:

P1010687.JPG

Well, off we go. I might even make a start of sorts tomorrow, though there is an ominous looking list from the Fuhrerin on the kitchen notice board :smiling3:

We may be stopping and starting a bit because though I'm trying to wind back on work, this is a busy time of year.
 

langy71

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Gonna grab me a seat at the front for this Steve, you just gotta love a Hurricane... now if only @John Race would hurry up and bring the biscuit tin with a tray of brews we'll be golden...
 

Airborne01

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I'm in too - cheese scones please! Love Hurricanes, intensely under-modelled!
Steve
 

Tim Marlow

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Interesting idea, be good to see it develop.
 

The Smythe Meister

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I'm in too :smiling3:
Not built a Hurricane yet,though it's on my "Keeping a look out for" list.
Looking forward to seeing the builds.
(I can't stand the boxes that open at the ends either ;) )
 

stona

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Well, I'm glad this endeavour has met with approval.

The Hurricane is indeed under-modelled (is that a word?) particularly in larger scales. Just as in real life, it has suffered by comparisons to the far more glamorous Spitfire. I'd be surprised if everyone here who models aeroplanes hasn't built more Spitfires than Hurricanes. I know I have. Hopefully these two will go some small way towards redressing the balance :smiling3:

One thing's for sure, had we not had the Hurricane in time for WW2 we would have been up a particularly unpleasant creek with no means of propulsion!

Kick-off was delayed yesterday by the presence of small people and a bag of toys to be fixed, I still have to paint up the new tip on some sort of wizard's wand, clean up Sonic's re-attached head and work out why a dancing Xmas tree won't dance. An Xmas tree in April? Don't ask.
 

Gern

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Kick-off was delayed yesterday by the presence of small people and a bag of toys to be fixed, I still have to paint up the new tip on some sort of wizard's wand, clean up Sonic's re-attached head and work out why a dancing Xmas tree won't dance. An Xmas tree in April? Don't ask.
Come on Steve! You know that's what grandads are for!
 

stona

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I fixed the wand and made a start on the Fly kit...and was immediately reminded of what a lot of work it's going to be!

The first thing I liberated broke as I tried to clean up the substantial flash. Oh well...

Put a round file inside the control yoke to very gently clean up the flash on the inside of that and it broke too...Oh well...
 

KarlW

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Sounds like a great start for the fly kit.........
Going to stick my nose in from time to time as I've my eye on the Revell kit as my first foray into 1/32, and looking at my stash I have about 14 spits and only 3 Hurricanes, despite having met one of the BoB Hurricane pilots a few years ago.
 

stona

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Just to show I've started:

This is the product of about four or five hours of work, which gives an idea of how tricky the Fly kit can be. To clean up that side framing probably took a good half hour. If you like a challenge it's the one for you!

P1010688.JPG

I've decided that I'll complete the cockpit on this one, then do the same for the Revell kit, so that we can then have a look at the two side by side. It might be a while :smiling3:
 

adt70hk

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Thanks for doing this comparison Steve. Not familiar with Fly but seem to be quite a challenge.
 

stona

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Thanks for doing this comparison Steve. Not familiar with Fly but seem to be quite a challenge.
I once saw a film about palaeontologists in (I think) the British Museum, carefully liberating beautiful fossils from the surrounding rock. I know how they felt, as I've been liberating plastic parts from the surrounding plastic. Some have been short shot too, meaning I've had to fix them as best I can. I've even stolen a part from the spares box. I don't remember my previous Fly kits being this badly molded, maybe the molds are getting on a bit now.

On the bright side, the resin and P-E is good and there is a harness included. I'm not a huge fan of P-E harnesses but in the spirit of 'out of the boxedness' I'm going to use it.

Let's hope that both make good looking Hurricanes, I think I already know which will prove the more challenging build :smiling3:

In other news, I've ordered some masks for the Revell kit from...Australia. They are on their way, the 'Stralians have notified me of their despatch. No idea if they will arrive in time. I assume they will come in an aeroplane rather than a clipper ship, so I stand a chance.
 

stona

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I've got the Fly cockpit done as far as I can. It and the seat harness are primed and ready to paint tomorrow. The armour and instrument panel fit into the fuselage which means that I doubt that this and the Revell kit will be built exactly in parallel.

This has been, shall we say, a bit of a jostle.

Fly-Pit.jpg

The Fly instructions call for all this framing to be in Interior Green while Revell's go with aluminium. Despite Hawker's painting instructions both could be right, so I'm going with the respective instructions. It also gives a bit of variety :smiling3:
 

Neil Merryweather

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Ooh thanks for going the extra mile with this build, very informative as always with your threads
 

stona

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I mentioned Hawker's painting instructions. From the relevant Hurricane Mk I 'protective finishes' documents:

Cockpit interior - grey green; Tubular framework within cockpit - aluminium; Pilot seat - aluminium; Rudder pedal heel boards - black or plain aluminium.

Also, wheel wells - aluminium.

We know that, contrary to those instructions, the cockpit interior, including the seat, was sometimes painted in interior grey green. Whether that was done by different manufacturers or at different factories, different production batches or something else I don't know. Someone would have to tally the images of grey green cockpits with serial numbers/manufacturers. It's good for us though. If you don't have an image of the cockpit of your particular aircraft you can't be wrong (or necessarily right) :smiling3:
 

stona

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To keep the two kits vaguely in sync I have pressed on with the Fly Hurricane's cockpit. This is now pretty much done. There are a couple of almost microscopic P-E parts missing (one got blown off to heaven knows where by the airbrush!) but I'm absolutely not bovvered.

Fly Pit.jpg

That is the kit harness, P-E of which I'm not a fan, but it's okay and came in the box.
To be brutally honest, it's an awful lot of work for a limited return. Luckily, I hold the unpopular view that most of it's a waste of time as nobody but me will ever see most of it again :smiling3:

This will get left aside when I make a start on the Revell kit.
 

stona

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And we're off with the Revell kit:

Revell_1.jpg

This was very easy, childishly easy compared to the other kit.

First impressions are positive. There's a little bit of flash but the molding seems good, if a bit soft in places. More importantly, the pieces seem to fit together!
 
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