Hawker Hurricane by John Timmis

[John Timmis]

Hi all,

Thanks Barry, glad you like it.

Posts have slowed down a bit recently for several reasons. 1) it's been cold in the workshop, 2) Christmas. 3) the blog has just about caught up with the build. The next big job is covering but that will have to wait until it gets a bit warmer. Meanwhile ther are lots of detail jobs to be done. I have been attempting to put a bit of detail into the cockpit; not too much, just enough to give the impression that something is happening in there. I might try to give the pilot some legs, I'm thinking of litho for the cockpit framing.

Cheers John. Happy Christmas

[Colin Leighfield]

Congratulations John, wonderful build. Happy Christmas to you.

[John Timmis]

Hi All,

Happy New Year to everyone.

Not a great deal to show for the last couple of weeks. I think that I must stop messing about in the cockpit now.

Giving the pilot some legs turned out to be a step too far. He did, however, gain some arms that were donated by an action man figure. After some surgery the arms were screwed to a ply base. The sleeves are from kitchen roll.covered in PVA.then doped & finished off with acrylic.

Once the pilot is fixed in place I can glue on the fuselage top decking & then start thinking about fixing the cowling & finishing off the nose area.

There are still a few small jobs to do on the wing but it's getting there.

Soon be time for covering.

Cheers John

[Shane Sunday]

Beautifully built John. it was a pleasure reading through this thread. I may never get around to building one but I do love the look of a Huricane.

[John Timmis]

Hi folks

The fuselage is just about finished now. I had one last go at the cockpit before gluing on the top decking. The pilot is now a happy bunny because he now has some legs even if they don't quite reach the rudder pedals.

There is lots of space in the battery bay. The floor has been left off for the time being.

Eventually the cowling will be glued in place but for the moment it has been fixed with 4 screws. The battery hatch was cut out with a junior hacksaw blade on the scale panel lines. A 0.4mm ply tongue locates the front of the cowl while the rear is securely held by magnets, two on each rear corner. There is also a lot of space in the bottom of the cowl that could accommodate a sound system speaker. A similar hatch could be cut out in the base of the cowl.

The exhausts. Each manifold is slightly different in shape & of course there has to be a LH set & a RH set. The manifolds are shaped from 'Jelutong" which is a very easy to work wood, easy to carve & with no difficult grain. I often use it for nose blocks cockpit patterns etc.

A blank was prepared for each side, grooved on the inside to take a wooden locating spline & then bevelled on the top surface. Individual manifolds are sawn off & shaped with the disc sander & sanding blocks.

The exhaust pipes were rolled from strips of litho plate, like a Swiss roll, round a dowel. Double sided tape is the jam.

The manifolds can be assembled onto the spline & later will be glued onto the fuselage sides.

Just now I'm finishing off a few small jobs on the wing. Next thing will be to assemble it all for a CG check.

A picture is worth 10,000 words.

Cheers John.

[Colin Leighfield]

That's a work of art John, it would be nice to see it paired up with Danny's when you have finished it.

[John Timmis]

CThanks Colin. I always appreciate your comments.

Talking to Danny at Greenacres & seeing his Hurricane was the inspiration for this build. I'm quite pleased with the way it's turning out. It's a step up for me in many ways but it's not quite in Danny's class. It would be nice to see them side by side. Perhaps if we all manage a Chippie fly in we could include the Hurricanes?

Time has been short this week but I have managed to mold the covers for the wingtip nav lights & cut out the LE for the landing lights. Also fitted the ally spinner to the prop.

I cobbled together ( is this the same as a bodge) a rig to check the CG position. With all batteries etc in place this showed the CG to be about 1" too far back. Airframe is complete but uncovered. Weight is 10lb. Am I still in the right ballpark?

Cheers John

[Simon Feather]

Hi John, this is looking great. I've just ordered the BT hurricane set from traplet and really looking forward to getting stuck in. Got a 50th anniversary kwik fli 3 tribute and the mass build to finish first though. And I have a chippie in the queue too...

[John Timmis]

Hi all

Hi Simon, glad you like it. The Hurricane is a great build, it's a real builders model. I've been at it for about 13 months now. The Chippie is also good & flies well.

I've been back to the wing finishing off a few outstanding jobs. Adjusting the flaps & linkages. I found a way to fit the flaps from the underside of the wing. This will simplify things a bit when it comes to covering & finishing. Also have made some doors for the under carriage. The doors fit well in both the open & closed positions, very pleasing. Also made the radiator housing & the carb intake. The inlet rims are laminated from 0.4mm ply.

So, just have to finish off the skin on the top surface & the construction will be complete.

There is quite a lot of work in this area of the model.

Getting there now.

Cheers John.

[John Timmis]

Hi all,

Well at last the construction is finished & its ready for covering. This will be dope & nylon on the fuselage , glass & epoxy on the wings.

I assembled it all for a photo session. I've been a bit self indulgent with the number of pictures but I hope you like it.

Cheers John.

[Simon Feather]

Very nice! my set arrived a couple of weeks ago, but I doubt I'll be starting it until the Autumn (other builds to finish first), and I expect it to take a while. All I've done so far is open the box and drool a bit over the plans!

Simon

[Dwain Dibley.]

Lovin' it...

D.D.

[Colin Leighfield]

No self-indulgence with those photos John, it looks brilliant. A lot of scale Hurricanes I've seen don't look quite right, but this one is spot on.

[Danny Fenton]

That looks fabulous John, well done. Not many get to end of a Taylor Hurricane so you are among the elite

Still you are only half way finished if Dave Platt is to be believed

Cheers

Danny

[Concorde Speedbird]

That is lovely, what a gorgeous structure.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[John Timmis]

Hi all

Back again. Not very much has happened since last time. I decided to give myself a change of pace & started to build a thermal soarer that I could fly with my grandson. So the Huricane has been on the back burner for a while.

Also a holiday, 2 family visits from the USA complete with grandchildren & a 3 week dose of food poisoning.

Anyway, back on the job now. Last week I splashed out on a couple of 6s lipos. So a battery installation has been sorted, it looks as if it will work out ok. There is lots of room under the battery plate for ballast or perhaps a sound system?

It had to be tried out . On a freshly charged lipo with a 15 /8 prop fitted the watt meter showed almost 1,1/2 Kw. That should get it up ok.

Cheers John

[John Timmis]

Hi all

Managed to get a bit more done. The fuselage & tail surfaces have bee covered in nylon. Everything feel very stron g & stiff now. One piece of nylon covered the top & sides as far forward as the windscreen, another piece for the lower fuselage plus a few smaller pieces for the rest.

Today I've been tidying up the wing root junction withe the fuselage. Next job is to glass epoxy the wing.

I quite fancy replicating the forward fuselage panels with litho.I've not tried this before but it doesn't look to difficult as there isn't much curvature in the panels. If anyone has done this before , tips would be appreciated.

Cheers John

[Danny Fenton]

I used lith panels on my BT Hurricane John, as you say not much curvature to have to work into the metal.

Cheers

Danny

[John Timmis]

Hi all

Here are my first attempts at litho bashing. I decided to experiment first of all with the tailplane fairing.

I enjoy experimenting with new materials so this was quite interesting for me. There was lots of trial error cutting card templates, probably more error than trial actually. Anyway here are the results of the first attempt. Not quite 100% but not too bad for a first try . Still got lots to learn. Now need to make a matching pair.

Danny, thanks for the photos, just the effect I would like to create. Two questions , if I can pick your brain again.

What sort of glue do you use to stick down the litho ( por, canopy glue , spray mount?) . Does the Litho have any screening effect on the radio signal?

Cheers John.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi John, your lith work is really excellent, that area was a real challenge to do in lith, I struggled that is for sure!!

Some of my modelling chums in Aus use a contact adhesive for the lith, I get on quite well with medium or thin CA, but each to their own. I have not encountered any screening issues with the lith but my aerial wires feed back into the fuselage where there is no lith plating obscuring the signal.

Cheers

Danny

[Chris Freeman 3]

Hi John

That airframe is just beautiful, I love the Hurricane airframe with all the stringers. The bad part of your build is I have a DB kit that I want to build but I need to finish some of my other projects and these pictures make it harder to resist starting building. I am getting some great ideas from your build and will use them when resistance fails.

[John Timmis]

HI all

Danny, thanks for the advice. I'll move the reciever to the back of the wing bay.

Chris, thanks for the comments, glad you like it. It's always nice to get some feedback. It's a very rewarding build, I'm sure you will enjoy yours when you get started. Everyone love a Hurricane.

Here are the photo's of my second attempt at the tail fairing. It's quite a steep learning curve but I think the results don't look too shabby.

What have I learned? Take your time, scrap anything your not happy with, any mistake you make will help you make a better piece next time anneal the metal frequently

Next time it's the fuselage panels.

Cheers John

[John Timmis]

Hi all

Well, apart from some framing around the cockpit, that's the litho done. ' jobs a good un"

Definitely not a job to be rushed, & still lots to be learned. Flat or single plane curves are dead simple. Panels with compound curves are much more work. I started with the top panel. This took quite a bit of working to achieve the amount of 'belly' in the panel. There was lots of annealing , I found the most useful tool was a desert spoon worked on a fairly hard foam surface. If the belly in the lith doesn't match the fuselage you will never get it to lay down neatly. The forward side panels looked quite easy, not so, took longer than expected. The rest were easy. To simulate the panel fasteners i made a punch tool which was simply a washer glued onto the shank of an old drill with c/a.

Finally . I know it's not modelling or litho, but I have recently watched, on utube, some very informative video on panel working. Try entering ' English wheeling machine' if your interested.

Cheers John

[Dwain Dibley.]

Well Done John,

It's well worth the effort, as we can all see.

D.D.