War in the Desert - African campaign GB - 12/9/07 to 5/13/08

Calling my second build finished.  This is the 1/48 Hasegawa Hurricane Mk IIB of No. 274 Squadron, North Africa 1942. 

Apologize the pics aren't great, but I'm working on it.  Built a lightbox to diffuse the light, now just need better lighting. 

Anyway, AM accessories are Ultracast seat, Ultracast wheels, Ultracast exhausts, and Ultracast wheel wells.  I cheated and used Eduard camo and canopy masks.  Pollyscale acrylics primarily and Promodeller wash.  And no weathering as is my particular idiom (thank you Concord).

Two mistakes I'll point out, one my fault the other not.  Sharp-eyed members who know this particular aircraft will note I have the camo colors reversed .  The other is Hasegawa buggered the installation locations for the 2 extra machine guns on each wing.  They should be staggered reverse from what I currently have.  True to Murphy's Law, I stumbled across a reference pic after it was too late.

I'm happy with it as I've always wanted a Hurricane in desert colors on my shelf.  Thanks for looking!

Nicely done arki . Great looking Hurricane.

Refards,  Rick

Nice Hurricane, arki30!  Great job on painting it.  The pictures aren't bad, but as you mention just work a little on the lighting.  I don't take the best of pictures myself, since I don't have the best of cameras or lighting.  I try not worry about it.  After all, it's only a model!

Mark

Hey Arki - looks pretty snazzy to me!

I'm not as sharp-eyed as others when it comes to a/c so I wouldn't have noticed your "errors" if you hadn't pointed them out. When you say the camo was reversed, do you mean that Hurricanes were always painted in the same pattern?

Are you in the Hurricane GB as well?

Mark, thanks for the kind comments.  Yep, more lighting is definitely needed. 

dupes, thanks for the comments.  As far as RAF camo schemes, I'll dump what I know in a nutshell.  If someone is better versed at this, please correct me as needed or add to it. 

For Spitfires and Hurricanes the RAF had a Scheme A and B.  For each aircraft they are essentially the same scheme, except the colors are reversed.  Now if the schemes between Spitfire and Hurri's are exactly the same I don't know.  And I don't know if the Scheme A & B applied to other RAF aircraft, i.e. Mosquitos, Beaufighters, etc.  I blew it because I bought the wrong mask for the painting sequence.  Oops.

BTW, I built the lightbox using the link you've thrown around in other threads.  Cost me $0.  It works pretty good.

Rick - very nice build!

arki30 - Well, reversed or not, I like the camo :) Nice paint job.

Cheers

Thanks Jmart .

Regards,  Rick

Nice day here today so I took some pics outside of a second dio I just finished this weekend...ever seen the movie "Sahara?"  I call this one "Guns for Water"

Comments appreciated.

Rick: nice spit Rick, what version is it cause i noticed the clipped wingtips

Arki: nicely done hurricane, that camo looks fine to me.

Steve: Love the black and white pics

Well since i'm late to the game i should give you guys an update of where my sherman is. This Tamyia kit is just falling together. i still haven't decide which one i'm going to build, might just be a U.S. M4 and weather the daylights out of it. so heres some WIP pics

Steve:  Very cool dio.  The B&W pics look like clips from the movie.  Well done .

Cruzr:  Glad you like the Spit.  It's a Mk.VB with the wings clipped for improved low level performance.  Nice start on the Sherman BTW, a real classic kit.

Regards,  Rick

Another update for you guys. There were more parts for the interior of my dragon 251 then there was to put the entire sherman together. this thing was almost snap-tite fast. Nice molded detail but far to few parts. Mind you this is a kitbashers dream kit, so many options to super detail. But thats not my route or skill level yet. so before i attached the track and wheels i gave the kit a light dusting coat of Tamiya olive drab. The rubber on the wheels were done with a black sharpie marker, which works fine as long as you weather it because it does look to shiny. i built it hatches down because i didn't like the figures that came with the kit and there wasn't enough detail inside to leave the hatches open ( again perfect for a super detail job). so next up after it sits for a few days is a thicker coat of the base olive drab, then start weathering and adding all the small extra's

Cheers

Cliff

Steve - Really nice work! Love the pics...

Cruzr - nice start... Looking forward to the rest~!

Hermesminiatures - I will (if possible and allowed) change my build. No way I will have time to finish the Tamiya 1:48 Bf 109 E4/7 TROP properly. I did a lot of research for that a/c and wanted to do a good job (to the best of my meager abilities!). Darson posted a gorgeous example of that plane, wanted to get mine to look a quarter as good :)   I  decided to stick with a/c and switch to the 1:48 Hasegawa Hurricane Mk.II Trop "Croix De Lorraine", flown by Free French forces in Egypt, 1942. Less details and easier camo pattern. Will start in 2 weeks or so, once this drasted semester ends and the whinny students stop asking for my time and grades ;)

Brews wrote:

Applique' armour is a little out of place, isn't it? I didn't think that applique' was applied until Italy at least ... maybe France.

Brews: Thanks for pointing that out, i was just going by the kit instructions. I went over to afrikakorps.org and took a closer look at some of the pics and did notice that the applique armour was not there, so off it came ....

 of course now i have some filling to do thanks to the glue marks left behind. oh well i would rather have it correct for N.A.

Steve:  Nice job on the diorama!

Cliff:  The Sherman is really coming along.  Too bad about the armor, but I agree that in the long run you'll appreciate making it as realistic as possible.

Finally finished my Kittyhawk Mk.III, flown by Wing Commander "Stocky" Edwards of 260 Sqn.  FR350 was his assigned aircraft around January, 1943:

Mark

Very nice Mark.  Great work on the Warhawk .

Regards,  Rick

Nice job on the P-40 Mark!  Very well done! 

Thanks everyone for the kind comments on my Hurricane....er, Kittyhawk.

Jmart:  I initially preshaded the panel lines with White Ensign Models Tyre Black enamel, then applied a Burnt Umber oil wash after the colors were one.  By this time, however, some of the preshading wasn't too apparent so I went over all the panel lines with a thinned mixture of Tamiya Flat Black/Red Brown.  I picked this latter trick up from Brett Green of Hyperscale, and really like the look.

Mark

Arki, Steve Cruzr, Mark (did I miss anyone?)  I havn't been able to keep up with this group (and other) group builds so sorry I've missed commenting on so many great builds.  I just love those desert RAF colours which begs the question of why am I not building one.

What I did sign up for was an Italeri 1/72 scale Morris Quad and 25 pdr which I have finally started.  I have the 25 pdr assembled and parts of the ammo trailer.  I seem to be spending a lot of time cleaning up the parts as this is an old esci mold and there are many ejector pin marks and molding lines that need to be cleaned up.  Anyway, I intend to do a diorama with this kit and want to have some fun with it so I am not being too anal about the cleanup and accuracy.  I have found some errors since the gun was assembled (note to self, research first and then assemble ) so I will go back and fix those but for now here are some progress pics.

Looking good Dave.  Should be a cool piece in a diorama.

Regards,  Rick

Mark: love the preshading on the kittyhawk, it looks great. what color did you use for the pre shading anyway

Dave: looks good, what else is planned for the dio?

here's an update for you. the final basse coat is on.. I sprayed it with Tamiya Olive Drab first, then went over the top sides with Khaki drab, going for the sunbleached look ( i think). Next up is the acc and detail painting, then weathering

cheers

Cliff

Looking good Cliff.

Thought I'd share this with you guys.  I entered the Panzer III Ausf.N, that I built for this GB, in last weekends IPMS Region 4 Model Show.  Competition was pretty stiff, but I managed to eke out a second place in 1/48 AFV.

Thanks to all who offered helpful tips, advice & references.

Regards,  Rick

Congrats, rjkplascticmod!!!!!! Very cool!!!!! That's an awesome looking PzIII!!!!!!!!!

Also in the news: I've made some progress on my zugkraftwagen, and should have some good pics this week (I know I've said that before, but...) the zugkraftwagen is going into a dio, clanking past a burned-out 251 Ausf. C. Should turn out well.

~J