For my second kit after returning to the modleing Hobby, I chose the Academy 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIc. I figured that if the Academy P-40N turned out to be a pleasent build, then why not another Academy kit?
I wasn’t disappointed, as it turned out to be a nice little kit, though I did have some minor disasters along the way. But they were my fault, not the kit’s.
I spent quite a bit of time detailing the very small cockpit. It was more of an experiment in what I could scratch build, and overall it didn’t turn out too bad. Out of the box it simply had a seat, stick and rudder pedals. I added some support braces, a trim wheel, an oxygen hose and a handle of some sort under the right edge of the seat. And I added seatbelts, made from pieces of masking tape painted tan. All the other pieces were built from sections of the plastic sprue that the parts come attached to. I had to stretch, sand, heat and generally coax shapes out of round plastics sticks. All are somewhat visible in this picture. It was quite a bit of work, especially since it was buried in the fuselage when I glued it up, but at least I know it’s there. And I’ve got the pictures to prove it.
From there, the kit went together nicely. I had a small problem with paint “piling” up when I masked it off for camouflage, which left some heavy lines in areas between the gray and green camo. I thought I’d sanded them down pretty well, until I added the decals. Those made them stick out pretty bad- but too late to do a whole lot about it without buying new decals. So I got lazy and left it like it was. And the decals gave me another scare- I sprayed on dull coat after applying them (a coating designed to make the finish appear flat versus glossy) and the decals blistered up horribly. I’d about given up on it as a lost cause. Next morning, they’d basically settled down, and unless you examine them close, it’s almost not noticeable.
The panel lines turned out fairly nice this time, though, compared to my P-40 of a few weeks back. I was really happy with that. I used a wash of black and gray acryl, with some water and dish soap added. I figured out the trick to getting the excess wash off was adding a bit more soap.
Overall, it’s nice progress, I think, for being back in building after so many years off. Sitting on the shelf, the Hurricane doesn’t look to bad, and I’m certainly not ashamed of it.