Revell 1/32 Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc
By Darren McGuinness
Here is my Revell/Monogram 1/32 Hurricane Mk.IIc. I have wanted a Hurricane in 1/32 for a long time but never came across one for a "good price".
Eventually I saw this kit on an auction site and despite the vendor stating that a "few" parts had been glued together I thought I would bid a low price on it and see what happened.
What arrived on my workbench was as described, plus all the flying surfaces had been removed. Badly. After some bad language...and a cup of tea...I thought "Nothing ventured-nothing gained". So I played the cards I'd been dealt and set to work!
This kit can easily be built OOB, but it screams for some more detail to be added! To this end, I re-scribed the airframe (not too well, but never mind!), modified the cannon barrels and the exhaust stubs. I purchased the Grey Matter resin cockpit which for me, was a real faff to put together as my right hand was not too well at the time (it's on the mend now!) It was very frustrating, but all of my red faced huffing and puffing gave way to a half decent office!
With the cockpit out of the way, I made repairs to the moving surfaces and it was necessary to modify them slightly in order to get a good fit to the airframe. This is not museum quality work here, just good enough to please my own eye!
Building was much easier after all that! Soon came the painting and I used Mr. Hobby RAF Dark Earth/RAF Middle Stone for the upper surface with my own mix of Tamiya Azure Blue on the lower surface. The kit decals despite their age, did appear to be usable but I did not want to risk it so I bought an aftermarket sheet made by Techmod. The scheme I chose was that of Hurricane BP588 from 33 Sqn. RAF, based in Libya during November 1942. It was the mount of Squadron Leader S.C Norris.
Once all the markings were sealed, it was the fun bit-weathering! I used my own panel line wash and let it dry. Next step was to add some paint chipping with some Prismacolour pencils, first time I used this product, I need more practice but I like the results I ended up with. Last step was to spray my own mix of dust over the entire model to bring a uniform finish to the airframe. The display base was my usual home-made fare.
And there we have it, a 1/32 Hurricane built on a budget!
© Darren McGuinness 2015
This article was published on Thursday, September 03 2015; Last modified on Tuesday, April 12 2016