Thanks, Iffy. The two Spitfires are both 1/72. the one on the left, with the silver underside, is the Tamiya kit, with a 2-bladed prop from the old Hasegawa kit. The one on the right is the Airfix Spit Ia, with decals from the Encore re-boxing of the Heller Spit Ia/II.
References for underside colours, in particular, of RAF day fighters in the first year f the war are indeed difficult to find. there was a lot of variation. and Air Ministry orders were not infrequently ignored, or at least give a low priority, at squadron level. From May 1940, they had more important things to worry about. The only really relaible way is to find photos of the actual aircraft you're modelling.
As to the Hurricane, the panel that looks like a door on the starboard side of the cockpit isn't actually a door, in the same way that the similar panel on the port side of the Spitfire's cockpit is. It's a knock-out panel, for emergency use, when the pilot needs to get out of the plane quickly, taking his parachute with him. I'd have to check my references, but I don't think it had any door detail as such.
With very few exceptions, the best-known of which is probably the F-104, you get into a fighter aircraft's cockpit from the port side, because that's the way that a cavalryman mounts his horse.
Also, if you ever wanted to do a fabric wing Hurricane again, you might find life easier if you started with the Airfix kit, or Revell Gemany re-boxing (cheaper, better decals) of the Hasegawa kit, and used the Heritage Aviation
http://www.heritageaviationmodelsltd.com/
resin fabric wing. They also do a white metal 2-bladed prop, as do Aeroclub, in resin. Specially since the CA kit seems to be OOP at the moment ![Smile [:)]](/emoticons/icon_smile.gif)
.
Cheers,
Chris.
Cute and cuddly, boys, cute and cuddly!