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Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC Night fighter
This second model on the road back from model building
oblivion was a much easier build than the ME-109E that I did a few
months back. Even though this kit was similar to the 109 in that the
cockpit had very little detail and like the 109, and was more toy than
model, I did have a much better time
 Opening up the box, one will find a pretty good molding, again with all
the raised panel and rivets that was in vogue 1n 1974. This time around
however, I noticed that the wing assembly, as well as the fuselage, was
much better and thicker plastic than the 109. Since a person can
theoretically build more than one version of the Hurricane, there are a
number of different armament accessory's. These are all molded in black
plastic, as is the propeller and small parts like the pitot tube and
cockpit backplate. A person can basically build just about all the Mk II
versions, as well as the Mk IV versions. After everything was looked
over, construction began.
As always, construction began with the cockpit area. This model was
another one of those Monogram kits that was meant to be played with,
more than an actual model, because all that is in the cockpit is a pilot
that is integrated with the seat, which is attached to a plate which is
the back wall of the cockpit. As with the 109 kit, the landing gear can
go up and down, and the wheels can be "flared" with a hot knife so the
wheels could roll. You also get a decal sheet for cockpit instruments,
with no floor, stick, or side panel details. The difference in this area
was in the landing gear. If you were going to put the landing gear in
the down position, the instructions indicated that you has to glue a
cross member type piece to both main landing gear. Whether this is just
to keep the struts from falling down or if this was part of the linkage
form the real aircraft, I do not know.
I installed the cockpit back plate, and brush painted the interior Polly
Scale British Interior Green. After the cockpit was done, I dry fitted
the major fuselage and wing assemblies and sanded down the high spots to
help with the seam filling later on. As this kit was a reissue, I was
quite surprised at the ruggedness of the plastic. I cemented the
fuselage halves together, then I painted a section of the top half of
the wing that also acts as the floor section of the cockpit. After this
was dry, I cemented the wing assemblies together, then I cemented the
wings and fuselage. Then the stabilizers went on.
After the wing assemblies were glued, and the two fuselage halves were
together, the seam filling began. I again utilized the automotive body
putty and nail polish remover method for seam filling. The filling went
a lot better this time around because of two factors. (1) I have more
experience with this type of putting now, and (2) I prepared the mating
surfaces much better than before. Even so, I did notice the one seam
that I really wanted to look good, the top fuselage seam right down the
center on the nose, did not come out all that well.
The wing roots where they meet the fuselage, and the top and bottom of
the main fuselage all needed filling, as well as the stabilizers, and
this was done via the above method. I also had a few sink holes that
needed filling as well. After doing this for a week or so, I dusted a
light coat of Testors Flat Light Aircraft Grey on the seams from a spray
can to check them out. Everything looked pretty good .
After all the filling was done, I cleaned the whole model under cool
running water to remove any dust and putty particles, let it dry, then
gave the whole kit another light coat of the Testors Flat Aircraft Grey
out of the can. After letting the primer coat dry for 2-3 days, I
proceeded to the paint stage.
 I had decided that I was going to make this aircraft the Hurricane MKIIC
Night Fighter, which would also be the first night fighter model I have
ever made. After making sure that there was as little dust as possible,
I proceeded to paint my night fighter using the Q Tip method I used on
the ME-109. Except this time, the aircraft was overall flat black. I
used the Pollyscale line of Night Black, RLM 22. Since this aircraft was
all one color, the painting was much faster than usual, and it took only
two (2) coats. I thought that flat black would hide any potential errors
that I had made on the model, but not as much as I had hoped, but
overall, it came out really nice.
After the final paint coat was on, I brushed on Future floor wax with a
sponge brush to seal in the paint, and let the Future dry for a few
hours. After this, I began to put on the decals. I usually use the
Aeromaster aftermarket decals, when I can get them, however I could not
find any Aeromaster decals for this particular type of aircraft, so I
used the Eagle Strike Night Hurricanes, PT II . The decals went down
fairly well, and I only had a one decal that silvered a little bit.
After I let the decals set, I applied the Microscale Decal setting
solution to help the decals snuggle down and look more painted on. I let
the setting solution do it's magic, and checked the decals the next day.
These decals gave me a little trouble in that I was not used to the
British Letter systems that Identifies squadron and aircraft. The decals
curled over on themselves, and there was more silvering that I
anticipated. I fixed the silvering problem by sponging on another coat
of floor wax on the decals that silvered (usually the area between the
squadron letters on the fuselage sides), then I dry brushed the aircraft
color over the silvered area, in this case flat black. After this was
done, I then put a final coat of floor wax over all decals to seal them
in.
My reference material on this aircraft shows that the paint seemed to
weather to a somewhat chalky appearance. Because of this observation, I
used very thinned Pollyscale RLM 22 White to fade the black paint just a
little bit to give it that chalky appearance. On my first attempt, this
worked out well. The right side of the aircraft (the right side being
for the perspective of a pilot sitting in the aircraft) came out
beautifully, but the left side was a different story. I had put way to
much wash on the brush for the left hand side, and you could see the
brush strokes. After letting it dry for a day, I did a light wash of the
base color over the bad areas, and paint job came out much better. I
also added paint chipping to wing, tail, and propeller leading edges.
Fuel stains were added to drop tanks and aircraft fuel filler caps. Mud
was added to tires, and underside of the aircraft near the tail.
It was at this point that I also did the small parts painting, as well
as the canopy panel lines. The canopy lines were also done via the Qtip
method, as described in the ME-109E review.
After the weathering was complete, I put on the pitot tube, landing gear
wheel covers, and other small miscellaneous parts on the model. After
these parts were good and dry, I did a coat of Testors Dullcoat on the
whole model. I had to dullcoat this model a few times, especially where
I had used future for the decals over the black paint. That is the first
time that has ever happened to me. When this was dry (a day or so), I
painted the oleos on the landing gear with bright silver paint, and
installed the canopy.
Some of the problems I ran into with this model were the usual, quite a
bit of seam filling because the molds are so old, and mold lines on
small parts. But that was about it. Any other problems were my own
doing.
This model was much easier to build, and it felt quite solid when it was
done. Because you can build up to 5 different types of this aircraft, I
have quite a few more to build, and I had to hit both the local hobby
shop and Ebay for the other types and marks of this aircraft.
Until next time...
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