The early hurricanes and spitfires had a white sky type interior that wasn't very generously painted so they looked scratched with the aluminium showing through also a lot of engine dirt got in which made a black wash look. Later ones were a lighter interior duck egg green, the dark interior green was used more in bombers. I had an uncle in the R.A.F. who told me I had the interior color wrong on a larger Hurricane Mk1 1/24 scale model I made. Anyway it's a lovely job you made of it.
Thats very interesting Kevin. Can you point me to any pics of the earlier colour cockpit? I haven't seen one in the lighter colour before. I have a couple more Hurricanes in the stash, so that could be handy. Dan
I've also had a Positive experience with Alclad Products. I just built the 1/48 Model Svit P51 H, and I used Alclad Chrome over straight Mr. Color Gloss Black. The reflectivity for the polished aluminum look I was trying to achieve on fuselage and tail feathers is astounding! They say if using sealer over Metallizer, only go with water based, as Lacquer would eliminate reflective qualities almost completely. I used Alclad RAF High Speed Silver for the filled in and puttied wings. I may be buying the Airfix 1/24 Hellcat sooner than I thought. I am a huge fan of the Hellcat, and Airfix produced a "Gift of a Kit" , as they often do.
Hi Dan, that was a fantastic build of a almost forgotten hero of WWII, I hope you are keep safe and well in these crazy time we are all in, very best regards from a Kiwi living in Melbourne.
Hi Les, Thank you so much for the kinds words and thoughts. Hope you are keeping well too. :) The Airfix kit is a good one and I'm glad you enjoyed the build video. About to start another Hurricane, but this one has a twist. Its going to be a build of the old Matchbox 1:72 Hurricane, which is the first Matchbox kit I ever built. Should be fun!
When I think of some of the great kits of the 70's, The 1/48 Nichimo Oscar, 1/24 Airfix Hurricane, 1/24 Bandai Zero, 1/48 Fujimi Val and Zero come to mind. And also the 1/48 Monogram B-29. These mentioned kits each had milestone qualities of the day. I do have a fairly early release on the 1/24 Airfix Hurricane. I forgot how bad the decals probably are. I always wondered if the rivets suffered from a molding defect, in that some are raised, whilst some are recessed.(?) Some real aircraft use raised and flat rivets on same plane though. Airfix a great company, and I look forward to building this here 1/48 Hurricane, and the 1/48 Sea Fury this winter. The P40B I built last year, and is awesome kit. I will hope to do 1/24 Airfix F6F Hellcat also.
G'day Daniel (excellent name by the way). Sounds like you've got some of the better Airfix kits lined up on your bench. The Hellcat looks like a really nice 1:24 kit. It should be quite a bit easier to put together then the older Hurricane. Dan
Dan thank you for the info on the airfix kits I had to do some digging around on the web but I found some kits however the battle of britain kit has went out of production no matter the other releases have all the same spruce trees just need after market decals once again thank you for you time look forward to your next build Bruce
A very nice build Dan! I bought the Sea Hurricane (from which you can build te regular Mk.I or Mk.I trop version) in a sale from my LHS and I used build to "prepare" myself ;-).
Hi Bennett, Sorry for the late reply! I do check my comments form time to time, but its like sometimes they just don't show up. Yours just came up this morning. Anyway I hope you've got the Sea Hurricane underway now or maybe even finished! Let me know how its going. Dan
Nice build, one of the best paper mask soft edge camo edges I have seen. I think I will try this method next time. My blu tack method often comes out with edges that are harder edge than I probably prefer. Looks like great kit. Even has one piece molded prop. I can't stand Tamiya's individual prop blades on 1/48 p51 D and 1/48 Spitfire V. They result in so much miss alignment, and in scale, the vibration would tear the engine right from it's mount. I disagree about this 1/48 Airfix kit being better than the Airfix 1/24 Hurricane made in the 1970's. The 1/24 Hurricane is awesome, even by today's standards! Yes, engine /cowl fit is tricky. But the detail was awesome, and most of the parts fit and surface detail was great too.
Hi Daniel (great name). Thanks for the feedback. The paper mask works really well and I only just recently used it on a Tamiya FW-190A. Worked a treat on that kit too, so I do encourage you to try it as a technique for yourself. Re the Hurricane, I can certainly appreciate the Airfix 1:24 and for its time it had to be one of the best aircraft kits on the market. That said, time has moved on and perhaps it hasn't been all that kind to the molds. It would be interesting to get a hold of an early release as I suspect it would build much nicer. I recently got my hands on one of the Trumpeter 1:24 Hurricanes so that will no doubt feature at some point. Have to get some paint masks or decals first though, as the kit ones are awful. Dan
Hello Quinns Hobby and thanks. :) Watched the video on your channel and looks like a lovely store you have there. Wonderful to hear from a modeller on the other side of the world. All the best. Dan
Thanks Dan we have a surprising amount of young modellers around, even though our shop only opened last year. Airfix's quick builds which are really lego based have helped a lot. The kits that have everything in them sell well because our weather here is always shit and parents need something for their kids to do.
Interesting to know and glad you are getting some younger modellers in the making in. I was mad keen on lego as a kid and so was my kids, so the Airfix take on that would have found a home with me if it had been around. As for weather, yeah I can see why Tassie was picked as the place to put all those naughty Irish they sent out here back in the day, because it gets cold and rains enough to remind them of home. Maybe not as extreme, but one of the few places in Australia, where you can actually tell there are distinct seasons. Most of Australia its summer or winter and it pretty much changes from one to the other in a week.
Hello Dan saw your hurricane video and just subcibred question I am wanting to build a hurricane I've seen the itarlie and tamiya rebox not impressed with it last time I build one was the old monogram tank buster love those cannons anyway thank you for your input I think this will be the next build enjoyed watching the build a lot of tips very helpful one last thing what is the kit number ? Thanks for time Bruce
G’day Bruce, Thanks for the sub. My Hurricane is Airfix’s new tooling from 2015 and came from the Battle of Britain - Ready for Battle set, that included ground crewman and some vehicles. The set number is A50172 The other Hurricanes I know Airfix have released with the same tooling as you saw for my build are: A05127 Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 (Closest match in markings) A05129 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 Tropical A05134 Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk.1B Its a great kit and with some patience putting the cockpit together, the rest pretty much falls together. Check out scalemates.com and search on the kit numbers if you want to see the box art for each of these kits. That will give you an idea of the markings and colour schemes available and help make sure you pickup the right kit(s) with the new tooling for your next build. Regards, Dan
Nice work! Looks spectacular. I'm avoiding the Tamiya/Italeri kit and waiting to purchase the Airfix version of the Hurricane. I already have a Hasegawa tropical version of the Hurricane.
The Airfix kit is a beauty, so you'll enjoy the build. If you decide to video it, please put a link in the comments. I'll give it a plug on my next video. Dan
Hi Ken, I can't say I had any issues with that at all. It fit very well from memory. If you are having trouble with that, the only suggestion I have is something has to be out of alignment somewhere or glued in the wrong place. Sorry I can't be more help. Dan
Where is the problem? At the wing joint or trying to get the pilot and seat to go into the fuselage? I'd think the most likely problems would be the front instrument panel is in the wrong place or the framework around the seat is not aligned right or maybe flipped so its pointing the wrong way,.
Dan's Van Diemens Land Model Bench instrument panel is in the proper groove as per instructions, as well as the firewall. It almost seems like the instrument panel is trying to come down on the framework in the cockpit. Might have to try and remove it and see what happens.
Hmm. If the firewall and instrument panel are all ok, I would be betting something is wrong with the alignment or orientation of the tubing around the cockpit then. Have a look at the link below. Its a closeup of the CAD images Airfix did for the cockpit. Hopefully that might be a clue to whats wrong: www.sunwardhobbies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/p-33225-a05127-detail.jpg Dan
Yeah I probably should have given it a dusting before the photos. Put it alongside my Airfix Me-109E in my display cabinet. Bloody hell the 109 was a small plane. Even the Hurricane dwarfs it.
Thanks Steve. Yeah the Eduard sets look fantastic. I've got their Me109E Instrument panel kit and its about two thirds built. Actually the second model I started building after getting back in the hobby. Very high quality parts in the kit and really I do need to get a push on and finish it! Will have to get one of the Profi packs, but I have to mail order them as no one local to me stocks them. Their Me108 and Albatross are certainly calling me, problem is I just spent some money on the car, so have to keep the purchases down for a bit Look forward to seeing some builds of the Eduard kits on your channel though. :) Dan
Hi Dan, well if I can send you anything I really don't mind, I wouldn't want anything it's just so I can enjoy seeing you build them ! Lol . I have the luxury of living 5 miles or so from emodels so it's great. But please if I can let me know. I'll keep my eyes open for those two kits. Although I'm going to be selfish and say I'll try to get the me,as I'm not to much a ww1 fan !! Sorry very selfish I know !
Thanks Steve, that is a very generous offer! I should have enough kits to keep me going into the next world and beyond (kids inheritance), but I will pick up some Eduard kits next year, when work has settled down and build one. In the meantime I have a Batmobile on the bench right now and I'm tossing up on doing some German armour after that. Glad you enjoy the videos! :) Dan
G’day Ivan, Interesting that you picked up on that and it is true. My judgement on weathering tends to be coloured by my own experiences with machinery. My dad was in the Australian Army and as a young bloke I was exposed to a lot of military vehicles that had been used in conflict (Vietnam) and had returned and I saw them before they went in for an overhaul or were being worked hard in the range for training soldiers for Vietnam. While they faded and in some cases quite a bit, with mismatching paint from field repairs and sometimes crude unit markings or personal markings put on by their crews on the vehicles back from Vietnam, they never looked like what many modellers represent WW2 vehicles as. Chipping and extreme wear in particular was never everywhere as often shown on models, even though these vehicles had spent months in the bush and in combat. Later my first job out of school was working on the NSW railways where I saw large heavy machinery that was often not repainted for a decade or two or three and used very, very hard. Again the wear and grime just didn’t match up to what you see in models, including model railways, but I did learn about how wear affects painted metal surfaces and what is likely to wear first. I also noticed that no one in the modelling community seems to show vehicles that are repaired with mismatching paint jobs where new and old finishes sit side by side for example, although I’ve seen that on civilian and military vehicles. Also most military vehicles when new or fairly well maintained are not matte in finish, but have a distinct light sheen to them. As they do fade, this sheen is also apparent in how it fades, dependent on the amount of exposure the paint gets on certain parts of the vehicle. I’ve never seen that represented. Later as a civilian pilot I flew light aircraft out of a dirt strip. The planes showed wear, fade and stone chips, but they never were as dirty inside a cockpit as modellers show aircraft. That is the pilots office and whatever the case, it would at least have been swept out as best as it could be done on a daily basis and the glass would be spotless before a flight. Of course some wear would happen on metal surfaces, but the overall extreme grime look that some modellers love to use to represent a planes interior. If in real life it looked like that a pilot wouldn’t fly it. Whoever maintained the plane would get a good telling off by the pilot! So yeah. I tend to shy away from the really heavily weathered look and go for something that to my eye looks a bit more representative of the less extremely weathered examples. Worn but maintained would be the look I go for. Of course I also use photos where possible to help define my choices, but again I tend to stay clear of the extreme examples. The Hurricane model being a good example of the sort of thing I look for. I wanted to show a well maintained Hurricane, that was starting to show the stress of the Battle of Britain, but was still maintained by its ground crew as best they could and with the time they had. Of course modellers tend to go for the more distressed look as it is visually striking and you can always find an example image online of a badly beat up military vehicles, but I think weathering now has become more artistic and about the process and materials and less about authenticity or at least representing the majority of a particular vehicle class. Its the current in look in the hobby basically. Since this is a hobby I am fine with that and in the end it is each modellers interpretation of what is “normal” and what they think works well for scale effect. For me however like you picked up on, I think less is more. I am going to be doing a Panther model diorama this year and its going to be pushing this boundary quite a bit. I will be interested to see what you think of my approach to weathering that subject, when the video comes out! BTW as for weathering the Hurricane, it was all done post the painting of the plane. Some panels were lightened and a very thin mix brown/black paint, diluted with IPA was sprayed on the panel lines. A slightly stronger mix of that same paint was used for the exhaust stains. A thinned down enamel wash was used in some places on the panel lines too. Tamiya weathering powders were used for the exhausts and Vallejo silver was used with a sponge for the chipping. The model has about three different layers of varnish, but the final finish was Alcladd Matte, which still has a slight sheen to it. Happy modelling, Dan
Daniel Dacey Well yes, good thinking. What is completely sure that you will always have dirty wheels, sooth around exhaust or behind guns generated by heet spreaded by air,or greased parts arround exhaust, few holes from enemy fire, and dirty surfaces on the lower half of the wing,and around eilerons and rudder. And tail wheel.right?
Oh yes, i forgot to tell you about my grand father. He was a fighter pilot in Royal Serbian Airforce in ww2. He got his wings between two wars, but later he moved to fly medium bombers. He participated in great alied attack on Ploesti oil fields and industry. He flew Bristol Blenheim medium two motors bomber. Greetings from Belgrade and Serbia. Tally ho!
Are you building great war aircraft? I saw a lot of enthusiasts runing away from them, because of doing rigging... I am obsesed with great war era,because combat flying started there with everything connected to it. I used to build ww2 era planes, but without airbrush or todays merchandise like "rust set" etc. I didnt even know that there was something called silvering, or solvaset, or "personal weathering pack"... It was over 20 years ago. I built Spit, Schtuka, Messer and Huricane. They ware actualy nice in the end, and I did all of them using one thin brush for everything. Now I want to start hobby seriously, so give me sone tips on everything. I googled about everything, i know about majority of things theoreticaly, but I need practical advice. What you would do if you wanted to start hobby with a box with lockheed p38 1:72 by airfix. I have pack of nice brushes,all of them synthetic. Could anyone start the hobby using just brushes, or not. Yes, and choosing simplest colour patterns.
G’day again Ivan, No I haven’t built WW1 aircraft, although I’ve got a couple in my stash and the WingNut Wings kits are all universally gorgeous models. I do really want to tackle one of those one day, but I’m not yet confident enough to tackle one. I’ve only been back in the hobby about three years myself after a very long break, so I am still learning about all the new materials and techniques. You will hear me say “First time I’ve done x….” A lot on my videos! You will also notice I switch from one brand of product to another for no apparent reason between builds. That is inevitably me just trying out different products or using up my remaining stock of a product I purchased to evaluate. I think getting back into the hobby it can be overwhelming with the new techniques and the huge range of materials out there in the hobby and looking back I got a bit carried away and purchased to much to soon. My advice is keep it as simple as possible, buy only what you need and just slowly get comfortable with the materials you have, before moving on. Of course you can get back into the hobby with a pack of brushes and paint and why not! There are a few tools I would recommend if the budget allows though. So I will list them here: Tamiya Extra Thin Cement - this stuff is gorgeous and makes it so easy to get a nice join. Hold the two parts together and run it down the join. Done. Great for small fiddly bits or even running down the two fuselage halves. Revell Contact Cement. Comes in a blue bottle and is good for larger bits you need to glue together or at least temporarily bond together before finishing up with some of the Tamiya Extra Thin. This should replace the old tube cement in your toolbox. Tamiya Primer in a can. A bit expensive, but leaves a lovely surface to paint on and also shows any spots you need to touchup, like gaps before painting. Tamiya Putty Basic Type. This is the grey putty in a tube. There are lots of other ones on the market and some are quite handy, but the truth is this one will get the job done. Shrinks a bit, so you may need to apply two coats, but does a nice job in the end and will last you quite a few kits. To go with it of course you will need some wet and dry sandpaper or sanding sticks. Paint. Some paints work better with brushes then others. Although I love Tamiya paint for airbrushing, its not a great brush paint for example. LifeColor is great for brush work, but takes a certain technique to make it work, For example you have to apply several coats as its quite translucent when you brush paint with it. On the plus side it rarely shows any brush marks when its dried and you can wash out your brushes in water. If you can source it, I would buy one bottle of it and trial it first and see if you like it. It is a paint, modellers have a love/hate relationship with. With patience however you can get a lovely finish with it. That all said if I was still brush painting my models I would probably still be using quite a few enamel paints like Testors Model Master enamels (not their acrylics) and the Humbrol tinlets. Its not trendy to use enamel paints these days, since everyones switched to airbrushes, but they were popular for a reason back in the day and that was they brushed better. My biggest recommendation though is your choice of kit! If you want to have a stress free first build or two, I would recommend you start with a Tamiya vehicle instead of the plane, if you can afford it. The older or smaller Tamiya kits are quite cheap and they fall together, making them great fun to build. Pickup something like a Tamiya Willys jeep or similar and build that. www.scalemates.com/kits/122813-tamiya-35219-jeep-willys-mb You are far more likely to have a great result as the paint scheme is basic, there is a minimum of sanding required and you can do as much weathering or detailing as you like or none at all for that matter and the finished model will look great. More importantly you will have really enjoyed your build and be back in the swing of things to tackle your Airfix kit, that is going to need some more work to get a pleasing result. Of course whatever you do just have fun with it. Would be great if you share your experiences with video too! Hope this helps, Dan
BTW you might have inspired another video. Maybe I should do a small kit with just brushes for some fun! Hmm I have a few 1:76 Airfix tanks in the stash...
P.S. Check out this video advertising Humbrol flat brushes. It has some great advice about getting a nice finish on your plane with a brush. That said I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Humbrol Acrylic paint itself, as I have found it not that good. Vallejo, LifeColor or Mr Hobby Aqueous would be my acrylic paint choices. th-cam.com/video/w4CiGbHLTBg/w-d-xo.html
And a great site to look at for brush painting models on TH-cam is Quick Kits. You can pick up some great tips from there: th-cam.com/users/quickkits The more I have thought about this today, the more I am thinking I will do a kit build this year, using brushes just to see what can be done with the modern paints out there. Would be fun.
Dan's Van Diemens Land Model Bench Sory Dan, I didnt notice you already answered with advices, and I asked two times about the same thing. Sorry again and thank you for your help. Now I must ask you something... Lets say that usual thicknes of the rigging is 1cm on real,say,albatross, or pup. Now lets divide 1cm 72 times. you will have 0.013cm thick rigging... Would it be visible att all? I think not, but what do you think about this? After 3 years of modeling you are capable to build such nice model? Man, you are darn talented my friend. Realy talented. Yes I will participate, but with photos instead of video. I dont know how to make it. I dont know how to post photos using tube. I am gfx designer and musician, and I work in movie production as a armourer and military costume and uniform expert in costume department within Avala Studio in Belgrade. I use Cubase,F. Loops,Sound Forge,Corel draw and Photoshop. Editing videos is a mistery to me.
You know I am not even sure! Not home right now, but will run a tape measure over it for you when I can. The size was dictated by the need to fit one of my kits in there for the paint! Here is a link to the video where I did the modifications to it, in case you haven't seen it. That will give you some idea of scale: th-cam.com/users/edit?o=U&video_id=EclA3GMDrBA And here is the kit that dictated the update of the booth: th-cam.com/video/d2w-9Pl7cd8/w-d-xo.html Dan
Thanks for the sub mate, I have subbed you back for two reasons. 1) it would be rude not to :-), 2) you have done a lovely job of this build and I reckon going through your video catalogue I will find quite a few more gems! Very nice sir. Al
Thanks for the kind words. I have to say I really enjoyed your review of the old Airfix Dauntless. A nice kit, but one outside my pocket money range as a kid in the 70's. On the other hand I do remember the first time I saw the Matchbox kits! So much better kit in 1:72 scale then the old Airfix kits that were on blister packs. A REAL box with great artwork on the front and colour paint guide and see through panel on the back. Seperate instructions like the more expensive kits from other brands and two, yes count them, two different colours of plastic! All for just 50 cents more pocket money then the older and more tired Airfix kits. Absolutely loved the Matchbox kits and was thrilled to see your videos on them. I've actually got an old Matchbox Hawker Hurricane sitting in my stash that I paid a fortune for off ebay for a future build. I know its not the best kit from reading online, but it was one of the first Matchbox kits I built and it made such an impression on me with its two tone plastic, that I still remember building it some 40+ years later. Dan
Just had a thought, if you want to do a buddy build of an old Matchbox kit and record some video for your channel and mine, let me know. That could be really fun to do. :) Dan
Dan, I'm not sure what is going on, but I only received a notification of today that you had responded to this! I'd be more than happy to do a buddy build with you mate. Would we do teh same kit or would we do a 'Matchbox Buddy Build" where we did different kits that were Matchbox? Let me know. Take it steady sir.
The early hurricanes and spitfires had a white sky type interior that wasn't very generously painted so they looked scratched with the aluminium showing through also a lot of engine dirt got in which made a black wash look.
Later ones were a lighter interior duck egg green, the dark interior green was used more in bombers.
I had an uncle in the R.A.F. who told me I had the interior color wrong on a larger Hurricane Mk1 1/24 scale model I made.
Anyway it's a lovely job you made of it.
Thats very interesting Kevin. Can you point me to any pics of the earlier colour cockpit? I haven't seen one in the lighter colour before. I have a couple more Hurricanes in the stash, so that could be handy. Dan
I've also had a Positive experience with Alclad Products. I just built the 1/48 Model Svit P51 H, and I used Alclad Chrome over straight Mr. Color Gloss Black. The reflectivity for the polished aluminum look I was trying to achieve on fuselage and tail feathers is astounding! They say if using sealer over Metallizer, only go with water based, as Lacquer would eliminate reflective qualities almost completely. I used Alclad RAF High Speed Silver for the filled in and puttied wings. I may be buying the Airfix 1/24 Hellcat sooner than I thought. I am a huge fan of the Hellcat, and Airfix produced a "Gift of a Kit" , as they often do.
Yes I have a few Alclad paints myself and they work well. A little fragile when handling, but thats the same for all metal paints really.
Hi Dan, that was a fantastic build of a almost forgotten hero of WWII, I hope you are keep safe and well in these crazy time we are all in, very best regards from a Kiwi living in Melbourne.
Hi Les, Thank you so much for the kinds words and thoughts. Hope you are keeping well too. :) The Airfix kit is a good one and I'm glad you enjoyed the build video. About to start another Hurricane, but this one has a twist. Its going to be a build of the old Matchbox 1:72 Hurricane, which is the first Matchbox kit I ever built. Should be fun!
Love your builds and videos!!!
Thanks Michael and glad you enjoy them. :)
When I think of some of the great kits of the 70's, The 1/48 Nichimo Oscar, 1/24 Airfix Hurricane, 1/24 Bandai Zero, 1/48 Fujimi Val and Zero come to mind. And also the 1/48 Monogram B-29. These mentioned kits each had milestone qualities of the day. I do have a fairly early release on the 1/24 Airfix Hurricane. I forgot how bad the decals probably are. I always wondered if the rivets suffered from a molding defect, in that some are raised, whilst some are recessed.(?) Some real aircraft use raised and flat rivets on same plane though. Airfix a great company, and I look forward to building this here 1/48 Hurricane, and the 1/48 Sea Fury this winter. The P40B I built last year, and is awesome kit. I will hope to do 1/24 Airfix F6F Hellcat also.
G'day Daniel (excellent name by the way). Sounds like you've got some of the better Airfix kits lined up on your bench. The Hellcat looks like a really nice 1:24 kit. It should be quite a bit easier to put together then the older Hurricane. Dan
Really great video, Dan. Thank you. I’m working on this kit myself right now, so your comments are a big help.
Glad you enjoyed it Phil and have fun with your Hurricane build.
Dan thank you for the info on the airfix kits I had to do some digging around on the web but I found some kits however the battle of britain kit has went out of production no matter the other releases have all the same spruce trees just need after market decals once again thank you for you time look forward to your next build Bruce
A very nice build Dan! I bought the Sea Hurricane (from which you can build te regular Mk.I or Mk.I trop version) in a sale from my LHS and I used build to "prepare" myself ;-).
Hi Bennett, Sorry for the late reply! I do check my comments form time to time, but its like sometimes they just don't show up. Yours just came up this morning. Anyway I hope you've got the Sea Hurricane underway now or maybe even finished! Let me know how its going. Dan
Excellent production work. It was a pleasure to watch! Keep 'em coming!!!
Thanks Nikki and glad you enjoyed the video. In the process of moving and finding a new house, but will get some new videos up hopefully at Christmas.
Nice build, one of the best paper mask soft edge camo edges I have seen. I think I will try this method next time. My blu tack method often comes out with edges that are harder edge than I probably prefer. Looks like great kit. Even has one piece molded prop. I can't stand Tamiya's individual prop blades on 1/48 p51 D and 1/48 Spitfire V. They result in so much miss alignment, and in scale, the vibration would tear the engine right from it's mount. I disagree about this 1/48 Airfix kit being better than the Airfix 1/24 Hurricane made in the 1970's. The 1/24 Hurricane is awesome, even by today's standards! Yes, engine /cowl fit is tricky. But the detail was awesome, and most of the parts fit and surface detail was great too.
Hi Daniel (great name). Thanks for the feedback. The paper mask works really well and I only just recently used it on a Tamiya FW-190A. Worked a treat on that kit too, so I do encourage you to try it as a technique for yourself. Re the Hurricane, I can certainly appreciate the Airfix 1:24 and for its time it had to be one of the best aircraft kits on the market. That said, time has moved on and perhaps it hasn't been all that kind to the molds. It would be interesting to get a hold of an early release as I suspect it would build much nicer. I recently got my hands on one of the Trumpeter 1:24 Hurricanes so that will no doubt feature at some point. Have to get some paint masks or decals first though, as the kit ones are awful. Dan
Nicely done mate. I really appreciate the build comments at the end and the products you have used. Awesome model.
Cheers Michael, appreciate the feedback. I should have another video up next month, this time on a German half track. Dan
Nice video mate, enjoying watching you build this...
Thanks. :) It's a nice kit.
Good work on the Hurricane, Dan! I'm glad you get it finished after the "accident" and the result is impressive. Congrats! Gabriel.
Cheers Gabriel.
The grass stains are a very nice touch. Excellent job. Cheers
Thanks mate. Surprised someone noticed them. :)
Looks great! Cheers from a modeller and model shop owner in Co. Galway Ireland.
Hello Quinns Hobby and thanks. :) Watched the video on your channel and looks like a lovely store you have there. Wonderful to hear from a modeller on the other side of the world. All the best. Dan
P.S. Hope you are having some success in getting the young ones interested in the hobby. As a kid I would have really loved your store!
Thanks Dan we have a surprising amount of young modellers around, even though our shop only opened last year. Airfix's quick builds which are really lego based have helped a lot. The kits that have everything in them sell well because our weather here is always shit and parents need something for their kids to do.
Interesting to know and glad you are getting some younger modellers in the making in. I was mad keen on lego as a kid and so was my kids, so the Airfix take on that would have found a home with me if it had been around.
As for weather, yeah I can see why Tassie was picked as the place to put all those naughty Irish they sent out here back in the day, because it gets cold and rains enough to remind them of home. Maybe not as extreme, but one of the few places in Australia, where you can actually tell there are distinct seasons. Most of Australia its summer or winter and it pretty much changes from one to the other in a week.
Hello Dan saw your hurricane video and just subcibred question I am wanting to build a hurricane I've seen the itarlie and tamiya rebox not impressed with it last time I build one was the old monogram tank buster love those cannons anyway thank you for your input I think this will be the next build enjoyed watching the build a lot of tips very helpful one last thing what is the kit number ? Thanks for time Bruce
G’day Bruce,
Thanks for the sub. My Hurricane is Airfix’s new tooling from 2015 and came from the Battle of Britain - Ready for Battle set, that included ground crewman and some vehicles. The set number is A50172
The other Hurricanes I know Airfix have released with the same tooling as you saw for my build are:
A05127 Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 (Closest match in markings)
A05129 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 Tropical
A05134 Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk.1B
Its a great kit and with some patience putting the cockpit together, the rest pretty much falls together. Check out scalemates.com and search on the kit numbers if you want to see the box art for each of these kits. That will give you an idea of the markings and colour schemes available and help make sure you pickup the right kit(s) with the new tooling for your next build.
Regards,
Dan
Nice work! Looks spectacular. I'm avoiding the Tamiya/Italeri kit and waiting to purchase the Airfix version of the Hurricane. I already have a Hasegawa tropical version of the Hurricane.
The Airfix kit is a beauty, so you'll enjoy the build. If you decide to video it, please put a link in the comments. I'll give it a plug on my next video. Dan
Dan, having terrible issues getting the fuselage to fit as it should over the wing and cockpit. Did you have any issues like this?
Hi Ken, I can't say I had any issues with that at all. It fit very well from memory. If you are having trouble with that, the only suggestion I have is something has to be out of alignment somewhere or glued in the wrong place. Sorry I can't be more help. Dan
Dan's Van Diemens Land Model Bench I'm guessing something was out of alignment, I'm just not sure what it is. Thanks!
Where is the problem? At the wing joint or trying to get the pilot and seat to go into the fuselage? I'd think the most likely problems would be the front instrument panel is in the wrong place or the framework around the seat is not aligned right or maybe flipped so its pointing the wrong way,.
Dan's Van Diemens Land Model Bench instrument panel is in the proper groove as per instructions, as well as the firewall. It almost seems like the instrument panel is trying to come down on the framework in the cockpit. Might have to try and remove it and see what happens.
Hmm. If the firewall and instrument panel are all ok, I would be betting something is wrong with the alignment or orientation of the tubing around the cockpit then.
Have a look at the link below. Its a closeup of the CAD images Airfix did for the cockpit. Hopefully that might be a clue to whats wrong:
www.sunwardhobbies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/p-33225-a05127-detail.jpg
Dan
I just got this same kit, hopefully it will be fun!
It's a really nice kit Sam, just take your time with the fit of the cockpit framing and you'll be fine. :) Dan
Thanks!
Marvelous build. I love it. Dont worry about litle misfortune, it is great.
Nice work mate. Turned out really well
Yeah I probably should have given it a dusting before the photos. Put it alongside my Airfix Me-109E in my display cabinet. Bloody hell the 109 was a small plane. Even the Hurricane dwarfs it.
Looking fantastic Dan ! I'm just getting back into some aircraft these Eduard sets are great !! I have a few and some of their profi packs too !!
Thanks Steve. Yeah the Eduard sets look fantastic. I've got their Me109E Instrument panel kit and its about two thirds built. Actually the second model I started building after getting back in the hobby. Very high quality parts in the kit and really I do need to get a push on and finish it!
Will have to get one of the Profi packs, but I have to mail order them as no one local to me stocks them. Their Me108 and Albatross are certainly calling me, problem is I just spent some money on the car, so have to keep the purchases down for a bit Look forward to seeing some builds of the Eduard kits on your channel though.
:) Dan
Hi Dan, well if I can send you anything I really don't mind, I wouldn't want anything it's just so I can enjoy seeing you build them ! Lol . I have the luxury of living 5 miles or so from emodels so it's great. But please if I can let me know. I'll keep my eyes open for those two kits. Although I'm going to be selfish and say I'll try to get the me,as I'm not to much a ww1 fan !! Sorry very selfish I know !
Thanks Steve, that is a very generous offer! I should have enough kits to keep me going into the next world and beyond (kids inheritance), but I will pick up some Eduard kits next year, when work has settled down and build one. In the meantime I have a Batmobile on the bench right now and I'm tossing up on doing some German armour after that. Glad you enjoy the videos! :)
Dan
I like something about your model...You dont weather much, but your Hurricane is looking fierce! How do you do that??
Correct me if I am wrong.
G’day Ivan,
Interesting that you picked up on that and it is true. My judgement on weathering tends to be coloured by my own experiences with machinery. My dad was in the Australian Army and as a young bloke I was exposed to a lot of military vehicles that had been used in conflict (Vietnam) and had returned and I saw them before they went in for an overhaul or were being worked hard in the range for training soldiers for Vietnam. While they faded and in some cases quite a bit, with mismatching paint from field repairs and sometimes crude unit markings or personal markings put on by their crews on the vehicles back from Vietnam, they never looked like what many modellers represent WW2 vehicles as. Chipping and extreme wear in particular was never everywhere as often shown on models, even though these vehicles had spent months in the bush and in combat.
Later my first job out of school was working on the NSW railways where I saw large heavy machinery that was often not repainted for a decade or two or three and used very, very hard. Again the wear and grime just didn’t match up to what you see in models, including model railways, but I did learn about how wear affects painted metal surfaces and what is likely to wear first. I also noticed that no one in the modelling community seems to show vehicles that are repaired with mismatching paint jobs where new and old finishes sit side by side for example, although I’ve seen that on civilian and military vehicles. Also most military vehicles when new or fairly well maintained are not matte in finish, but have a distinct light sheen to them. As they do fade, this sheen is also apparent in how it fades, dependent on the amount of exposure the paint gets on certain parts of the vehicle. I’ve never seen that represented.
Later as a civilian pilot I flew light aircraft out of a dirt strip. The planes showed wear, fade and stone chips, but they never were as dirty inside a cockpit as modellers show aircraft. That is the pilots office and whatever the case, it would at least have been swept out as best as it could be done on a daily basis and the glass would be spotless before a flight. Of course some wear would happen on metal surfaces, but the overall extreme grime look that some modellers love to use to represent a planes interior. If in real life it looked like that a pilot wouldn’t fly it. Whoever maintained the plane would get a good telling off by the pilot!
So yeah. I tend to shy away from the really heavily weathered look and go for something that to my eye looks a bit more representative of the less extremely weathered examples. Worn but maintained would be the look I go for. Of course I also use photos where possible to help define my choices, but again I tend to stay clear of the extreme examples. The Hurricane model being a good example of the sort of thing I look for. I wanted to show a well maintained Hurricane, that was starting to show the stress of the Battle of Britain, but was still maintained by its ground crew as best they could and with the time they had.
Of course modellers tend to go for the more distressed look as it is visually striking and you can always find an example image online of a badly beat up military vehicles, but I think weathering now has become more artistic and about the process and materials and less about authenticity or at least representing the majority of a particular vehicle class. Its the current in look in the hobby basically. Since this is a hobby I am fine with that and in the end it is each modellers interpretation of what is “normal” and what they think works well for scale effect. For me however like you picked up on, I think less is more. I am going to be doing a Panther model diorama this year and its going to be pushing this boundary quite a bit. I will be interested to see what you think of my approach to weathering that subject, when the video comes out!
BTW as for weathering the Hurricane, it was all done post the painting of the plane. Some panels were lightened and a very thin mix brown/black paint, diluted with IPA was sprayed on the panel lines. A slightly stronger mix of that same paint was used for the exhaust stains. A thinned down enamel wash was used in some places on the panel lines too. Tamiya weathering powders were used for the exhausts and Vallejo silver was used with a sponge for the chipping. The model has about three different layers of varnish, but the final finish was Alcladd Matte, which still has a slight sheen to it.
Happy modelling,
Dan
Daniel Dacey Well yes, good thinking. What is completely sure that you will always have dirty wheels, sooth around exhaust or behind guns generated by heet spreaded by air,or greased parts arround exhaust, few holes from enemy fire, and dirty surfaces on the lower half of the wing,and around eilerons and rudder. And tail wheel.right?
Daniel Dacey Read again what I wrote in public comments, and give me some advices, please.
Oh yes, i forgot to tell you about my grand father. He was a fighter pilot in Royal Serbian Airforce in ww2. He got his wings between two wars, but later he moved to fly medium bombers. He participated in great alied attack on Ploesti oil fields and industry. He flew Bristol Blenheim medium two motors bomber.
Greetings from Belgrade and Serbia.
Tally ho!
Yeap. Normal wear in other words. How far you go from there is up to the modeller and the subject.
Thanks, nice work.
Cheers. I've got a couple of other Hurricanes in the stash, so I think with the next one I might play with some oils. Dan
Are you building great war aircraft? I saw a lot of enthusiasts runing away from them, because of doing rigging...
I am obsesed with great war era,because combat flying started there with everything connected to it.
I used to build ww2 era planes, but without airbrush or todays merchandise like "rust set" etc. I didnt even know that there was something called silvering, or solvaset, or "personal weathering pack"...
It was over 20 years ago. I built Spit, Schtuka, Messer and Huricane. They ware actualy nice in the end, and I did all of them using one thin brush for everything.
Now I want to start hobby seriously, so give me sone tips on everything.
I googled about everything, i know about majority of things theoreticaly, but I need practical advice.
What you would do if you wanted to start hobby with a box with lockheed p38 1:72 by airfix. I have pack of nice brushes,all of them synthetic.
Could anyone start the hobby using just brushes, or not. Yes, and choosing simplest colour patterns.
G’day again Ivan,
No I haven’t built WW1 aircraft, although I’ve got a couple in my stash and the WingNut Wings kits are all universally gorgeous models. I do really want to tackle one of those one day, but I’m not yet confident enough to tackle one. I’ve only been back in the hobby about three years myself after a very long break, so I am still learning about all the new materials and techniques. You will hear me say “First time I’ve done x….” A lot on my videos! You will also notice I switch from one brand of product to another for no apparent reason between builds. That is inevitably me just trying out different products or using up my remaining stock of a product I purchased to evaluate.
I think getting back into the hobby it can be overwhelming with the new techniques and the huge range of materials out there in the hobby and looking back I got a bit carried away and purchased to much to soon. My advice is keep it as simple as possible, buy only what you need and just slowly get comfortable with the materials you have, before moving on.
Of course you can get back into the hobby with a pack of brushes and paint and why not! There are a few tools I would recommend if the budget allows though. So I will list them here:
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement - this stuff is gorgeous and makes it so easy to get a nice join. Hold the two parts together and run it down the join. Done. Great for small fiddly bits or even running down the two fuselage halves.
Revell Contact Cement. Comes in a blue bottle and is good for larger bits you need to glue together or at least temporarily bond together before finishing up with some of the Tamiya Extra Thin. This should replace the old tube cement in your toolbox.
Tamiya Primer in a can. A bit expensive, but leaves a lovely surface to paint on and also shows any spots you need to touchup, like gaps before painting.
Tamiya Putty Basic Type. This is the grey putty in a tube. There are lots of other ones on the market and some are quite handy, but the truth is this one will get the job done. Shrinks a bit, so you may need to apply two coats, but does a nice job in the end and will last you quite a few kits. To go with it of course you will need some wet and dry sandpaper or sanding sticks.
Paint. Some paints work better with brushes then others. Although I love Tamiya paint for airbrushing, its not a great brush paint for example. LifeColor is great for brush work, but takes a certain technique to make it work, For example you have to apply several coats as its quite translucent when you brush paint with it. On the plus side it rarely shows any brush marks when its dried and you can wash out your brushes in water. If you can source it, I would buy one bottle of it and trial it first and see if you like it. It is a paint, modellers have a love/hate relationship with. With patience however you can get a lovely finish with it. That all said if I was still brush painting my models I would probably still be using quite a few enamel paints like Testors Model Master enamels (not their acrylics) and the Humbrol tinlets. Its not trendy to use enamel paints these days, since everyones switched to airbrushes, but they were popular for a reason back in the day and that was they brushed better.
My biggest recommendation though is your choice of kit! If you want to have a stress free first build or two, I would recommend you start with a Tamiya vehicle instead of the plane, if you can afford it. The older or smaller Tamiya kits are quite cheap and they fall together, making them great fun to build. Pickup something like a Tamiya Willys jeep or similar and build that.
www.scalemates.com/kits/122813-tamiya-35219-jeep-willys-mb
You are far more likely to have a great result as the paint scheme is basic, there is a minimum of sanding required and you can do as much weathering or detailing as you like or none at all for that matter and the finished model will look great. More importantly you will have really enjoyed your build and be back in the swing of things to tackle your Airfix kit, that is going to need some more work to get a pleasing result.
Of course whatever you do just have fun with it. Would be great if you share your experiences with video too!
Hope this helps,
Dan
BTW you might have inspired another video. Maybe I should do a small kit with just brushes for some fun! Hmm I have a few 1:76 Airfix tanks in the stash...
P.S. Check out this video advertising Humbrol flat brushes. It has some great advice about getting a nice finish on your plane with a brush. That said I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Humbrol Acrylic paint itself, as I have found it not that good. Vallejo, LifeColor or Mr Hobby Aqueous would be my acrylic paint choices.
th-cam.com/video/w4CiGbHLTBg/w-d-xo.html
And a great site to look at for brush painting models on TH-cam is Quick Kits. You can pick up some great tips from there:
th-cam.com/users/quickkits
The more I have thought about this today, the more I am thinking I will do a kit build this year, using brushes just to see what can be done with the modern paints out there. Would be fun.
Dan's Van Diemens Land Model Bench Sory Dan, I didnt notice you already answered with advices, and I asked two times about the same thing. Sorry again and thank you for your help.
Now I must ask you something...
Lets say that usual thicknes of the rigging is 1cm on real,say,albatross, or pup. Now lets divide 1cm 72 times. you will have 0.013cm thick rigging...
Would it be visible att all? I think not, but what do you think about this?
After 3 years of modeling you are capable to build such nice model?
Man, you are darn talented my friend. Realy talented.
Yes I will participate, but with photos instead of video. I dont know how to make it. I dont know how to post photos using tube.
I am gfx designer and musician, and I work in movie production as a armourer and military costume and uniform expert in costume department within Avala Studio in Belgrade.
I use Cubase,F. Loops,Sound Forge,Corel draw and Photoshop. Editing videos is a mistery to me.
How large is that spray booth you have ! ?
You know I am not even sure! Not home right now, but will run a tape measure over it for you when I can. The size was dictated by the need to fit one of my kits in there for the paint! Here is a link to the video where I did the modifications to it, in case you haven't seen it. That will give you some idea of scale:
th-cam.com/users/edit?o=U&video_id=EclA3GMDrBA
And here is the kit that dictated the update of the booth:
th-cam.com/video/d2w-9Pl7cd8/w-d-xo.html
Dan
Nice build it turned out great.
Thanks. Hopefully the German half track on the bench now turns out as well. Dan
I am sure it will you are an excellent modeler.
Thanks mate. Very kind of you. Happy New Year. Dan
Thanks for the sub mate, I have subbed you back for two reasons. 1) it would be rude not to :-), 2) you have done a lovely job of this build and I reckon going through your video catalogue I will find quite a few more gems! Very nice sir. Al
Thanks for the kind words. I have to say I really enjoyed your review of the old Airfix Dauntless. A nice kit, but one outside my pocket money range as a kid in the 70's. On the other hand I do remember the first time I saw the Matchbox kits! So much better kit in 1:72 scale then the old Airfix kits that were on blister packs. A REAL box with great artwork on the front and colour paint guide and see through panel on the back. Seperate instructions like the more expensive kits from other brands and two, yes count them, two different colours of plastic! All for just 50 cents more pocket money then the older and more tired Airfix kits. Absolutely loved the Matchbox kits and was thrilled to see your videos on them. I've actually got an old Matchbox Hawker Hurricane sitting in my stash that I paid a fortune for off ebay for a future build. I know its not the best kit from reading online, but it was one of the first Matchbox kits I built and it made such an impression on me with its two tone plastic, that I still remember building it some 40+ years later.
Dan
Just had a thought, if you want to do a buddy build of an old Matchbox kit and record some video for your channel and mine, let me know. That could be really fun to do. :) Dan
Dan, I'm not sure what is going on, but I only received a notification of today that you had responded to this! I'd be more than happy to do a buddy build with you mate. Would we do teh same kit or would we do a 'Matchbox Buddy Build" where we did different kits that were Matchbox? Let me know. Take it steady sir.