I sat down at my workbench the other evening and started to clean up the parts for the first few assembly steps. Two and a half hours later, I’d got 90% of the bits I’ll use off the sprue, cleaned up ready to go, and had most of the cockpit assembled.
This kit is unusual in that the cockpit with all its myriad of tubes is built directly onto the two wing spars, and this presented a problem as my front spar was badly warped in seven different dimensions (no, really!) It didn’t affect the cockpit, but it made it touch and go as to whether it’d fit the lower wing half. In the end, brute force, righteous living and lots of clamps made it see the error of its ways…
My researches led me to the conclusion that most of the cockpit interior was natural metal, with the exception of the upper fuselage sides and the rear bulkhead which were Interior Green. I used AK Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium for the former and Gunze H312 acrylic for the latter. I also had to indulge in a little bit of scratch-building here, as on the Shuttleworth example there is a prominent head rest on the rear upper bulkhead, a la Spitfire, and no such part exists in the kit. Three bits of angled plastic card and an unidentified round thing from the spares box later, and there is a not-very-close-but-sort-of-similar-if-you-don’t-look-too-closely headrest nestling snugly behind the pilot’s bonce. Or would be if I’d added him. Which I didn’t. So it doesn’t. But you know what I mean.
The instrument panel was painted matt black with drops of Klear in the dials to simulate glass. I considered using the decal for the instruments, but they looked a bit cartoonish to me, so I decided against it. In real aircraft viewed from scale distance, virtually nothing is distinguishable on the dials anyway, so no loss.
A little bit of detail painting, a pastel wash, a coat of matt varnish on the green and a set of photo-etched seatbelts, and the cockpit assembly was ready to be forced against its will into position on the lower wing half. Once the wheel well has been painted, anyway. Damn, knew I’d forget something.
Good progress on the cockpit
By the six hour mark, the cockpit was complete and in position, the undercarriage was assembled, painted and weathered, the prop was satin black with yellow tips, and the radiator was assembled and painted. Time for the airframe to start coming together.
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Before that though, there is a notable omission on the instructions. The Sea Hurricane has two catapult spools, which look like castors off a bed, one either side of the radiator. The parts are on the sprue, there are a couple of flashed over holes in the lower wing to accommodate them, they appear as bright red on the final colour painting guide, but you will seek in vain for any mention of them in the assembly instructions! The two holes for their attachment need to be drilled out before the top wing halves go on, otherwise they will be invisible and you’ll have to break out the divining rods or use The Force to find them again. Out with the micro drills before I forget…
I got the top halves of the wings attached to the lower half, but it took a bit of clamping all round as the internal spars were trying to hold them apart. I usually like to attach the top halves of the wings to the fuselage at their roots BEFORE adding the lower halves, as you get a cleaner joint that way. Due to the way this kit builds up, that was not an option, so I had to fight against my modeller’s instinct and follow the instructions. The result looked for all the world like some Victorian flying machine – a tubular cockpit and a seat on top of a set of wings and nothing else. Otto Lilienthal would have felt at home there.
