Inspired by today's success at IMSS show in Dublin, I'll be starting another project. Given the quality of the kit it's going to be long and painful process, but I'm hoping to get there eventually.

This is what's waiting for me in the next months:



I'll be usung bits from kits below to make the whole thing a little bit more presentable:


Wish me luck.
Eryk

---

No bother, better safe than sorry. There will be some extensive modifications to the kit. I just happened to have this one as my base pont. I'm hopping to build one of 12 Finnish Hurricanes used during Continuation war. I think I gathered enough photos and drawing to get the plane half right. It'll have 8 machine guns and Spitfire's Rotol propeller.

Greetings
Eryk

---

It would have seem that however primitive this model might be - the geometry is just spot on.


Greetings
Eryk

---

Nice job on the interior and the gear bays.
Airfix kits are bit basic, but the shape is generally very good and a lot of 'hitech' manufacturers of today should take a leaf out of the Airfix book.

---

Filip

I spent last week on rescribing all panels.
Everything is now primed with Surfacer and all inaccuracies are clearly visible. Sandpaper and putty time.

I know the lines appear pretty thick at this stage, but after little bit of sanding and polishing they will blend nicely (I hope so!).




Greetings
Eryk

---

I have to agree, the rescribing is fantastic.

Haven't been doing much for a while, but since there was some spare time around holidays, I managed to do a bit of work.

Bofors first.

Finnish Bofors seems to be tiny bit different to British one, so bits of customisation had to take place.




That;s the home kit for making seats. Kit ones were dreadful. Apart from that - Finnish one has 3 seats instead of 2 in Brit version.



Painted:



After wash. Pigments, matt varnish and final weathering will be done at later stage.


Back to Hurricane.

Bits and pieces. Propeller painted aluminium for hairpray technique tests.



Finished propeller. Finnish front warbirds didn't have easy life - hence battle worn look. Period photos seem to confirm that.



More sanding, surfacer, added lights and windscreen. All masked up and ready for painting.





This plane arrived to Finland in standard RAF camouflage with whit-black-silver undersurfaces. In 1941 yellow recognition stripes were added, and final Finnish green-black colour scheme was painted over in March 1943. After few months of combat service some of the paint got worn out and bits of original paint were visible.





I will try to get this battle worn effect using hairspray technique. Test with propeller were quite successful.
Whole model was sealed with Gunze's Mr. Super Clear varnish. This was airbrushed with layer of hairspray and top coat was final black and green Finnish camo. Interesting sheme this is - left side of blue and green border is different on left and right side of the plane and there is tgis tiny spike of blue paint visible just behind the yellow band on the fuselage.
Rudder is in RAF colours as in middle of 1943 this was replaced due to damage from different Hurricane still in RAF scheme.





Colurs are Vallejo 906 "Pale Blue" for undersides, Stripes Tamiya X-8 "Lemon Yellow" and top are Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green and mix of XF-69 "Nato Black" and XF-27 "Black Green". Original black has little of green hue in it hence a drop of "Black Green" to the mixture.

Greetings
Eryk

---

Filip

I can assure you - learning the hairpray method was very painful process for me. I tried endless combinations of varnishes and paints on scrap pieces of models. At some stage ended up stripping the Hurricane down to bare plastic and starting everything all over again... (see, how cleverly I avoided that part in my photo tutorial, thus making it look as easy build).

Anyway - there are few conclusions for you:

- the hairspray will react badly when brush applied over unsealed Tamiya paint
- so will painted over Humbrol varnish.
- base paint has to be sealed with lacquer based varnish.
- best to apply hairspray by airbrush
- top coat applied around 30 mins to allow hairspray dry completely.
- every paint will eventually surrender to this technique - even Gunze enamels. Easiest is with Vallejo as they're water based, so you can start scratching straight after wetting the surface, but the best and most controllable effect I can get from Tamiya flat paints. The trick is to physically scratch initially the surface, so water could get underneath the coat of paint making the whole thing easier as you go. For this I use Citadel's "Stippling Brush" as it seems to be made for scratching paint. Glossy surface is little bit harder work, as the paint doesn't hold water, but after few "scratch and moist" rounds it will give up.

Hope this helps a bit.

Regards
Eryk

---

Another week - another update. This time some work done on diorama itself.

Everyone knows how does the horse look like. Stolen from Revell's "Deutsche Artileria WWII" Sleigh scratch-built:



First attempts to space planning. Kingspan's insulation board used as a base. Nicked from constrution site I was passing by (with full permission of site foreman, of course):



Work in progress. Edges finished with cardboard, base glued to 6mm plywood, paper-mache and wall filler on top:



Lessons in advanced dendrology. Trees made from 0.15mm copper wire. Time consuming, really time consuming stuff. Covered with Gunze's dissolved putty and primed with Surfacer 500:



Ok. Back to main character.
Top layer of paint was scratched, then sealed with glossy varnish. Finnish hakaristi and serial numbers done using Techmod decals. Fin numbers hand painted.
Aileron and flap wash done with acrylis Citadel "Badaab Black" wash, rest using very diluted Abteilung 501 "Shadow Brown" oil. Bits of metal scratches done with fine sponge and Citadel's "Boltgun Metal".
Smoke trails on gun outlets, ejectors and exhaust done with Tamiya's X-19 "Smoke" plus a bit of gray overspray at exhausts. All finished up with "daler-Rowney" acrylic matt varnish. Still to be done - oil leaks and landing gear.

Enough talking - photos time:









Greetings
Eryk

---

Sure it does, Eryk, what goes up, must come down ;o)

Nice job on the base too

---

Filip