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DB Hurricane paint and finish.


Jon H
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I have a few 'scale' paint brushes to hand an was intending to use one of those to get the right looking strokes. I just have to decide on the exact colour.

The black paint on the leading edge is likely to have worn off as they used 'night' paint for that and while very dark it was also hopelessly fragile and would wear off very quickly. They developed 'special night' to replace it and this was more hard wearing. To simulate the worn paint i was going to scuff it up with some 400 wet n dry as i have done this in the past and it work a treat.

I did have a quick stab at some photoshop work and came up with the following. All i did was slap some light grey over the green with the opacity set low. The idea was to then turn it black and white to see if i was in the right ball park for a real colour. Clearly this is very basic but its pointing me the right direction should i decide to go with this paint job

hurricane_gb_87_sqngrey.jpg

hurricane_gb_87_sqn.jpg

In the case that the model is very hard to orientate in low light i was considering slapping some period appropriate roundels under the wings. They shouldnt be there really, but if it make the thing easier to fly then its always an option and i suspect that only the real rivet counters will notice its wrong.

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oh and i found this photo of another aircraft in the squadron. From this image it seems clear that the grey has been slapped on top of the green. around the fin and rudder as well as under the tail. But, clearly the green has also been painted on in a fairly slapdash manor as well as the R of the sqn code and the roundel both show mistakes where they have been over painted.

 

If i do finally go with this paint job i can also fit those long range fuel tanks for something a bit different

Edited By Jon - Laser Engines on 23/12/2019 16:20:35

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especially as thy were flying them at night. I spoke to a hurricane night fighter pilot once and his description of how dark it was would get me banned from the forum as it was far from politically correct.

But we got the message and he even went so far as to say that firing the guns was like turning on a strobe at a nightclub and could very disorientating so you had to pick your shots carefully. The little vanes on the nose between the cockpit and cowl are also there as glare guards so the exhausts didnt distract the pilot.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its been a little while since i posted an update as not a great deal has been going on, at least, not visibly.

Its all been boring stuff like final fitting of fuel tanks, fuel proofing the tank bay and general tidying up of all the construction as well as the usual rinse and repeat of filling and sanding, priming and sanding etc.

Now all of that stuff is out of the way i have been able to add the litho panels to the fuselage side and modified the hatch cover to meet the cowling. The cowl itself has had the exhaust slots cut to allow me to stretch it slightly for a perfect fit.

The wing has been sanded to within an inch of its life and i then couldnt resist shooting it with a can of black spray paint i had on the shelf just to see how it would look. I kinda like it, but i also kinda like the natural aluminium finish i ended up with on the flaps after i finished them with aluminium tape. A polished aluminium Hurricane is really tempting but i dont think its worth it on this model as there is too much to put right on the overall surface finish so i am leaning back towards the idea of a night fighter.

hurri 15.jpg

hurri 14.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure how much interest there is since we stopped arguing about swastika's but the Hurricane is still moving along.

Most of the work has been fiddly and there is not much to show but a few milestones have been reached with the ailerons and flaps installed temporarily. The ailerons have been held up as i apparently lost their hinges but i had enough to install them and set up the servos.

The flaps have been installed using screws as i intend to make them removable in case the get damaged in a belly landing for example. I need to get their servos and linkages installed then then are more or less done.

I have also added some minor scale detail to the top wing surface. I am not going mad so there are just a few bits to break up the smooth surface.

I have also had another go at colouring in a black and white photo. Using colours lifted from a moderns photo of a hurricane i did some stuff in photoshop and came up with the following. Its not 100% by any means, but it gives me something to aim for

hurricaneiic_87sqncolour.jpg

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Posted by Don Fry on 19/01/2020 17:36:49:

That point in a build where there is a months worth of bits to do. Nothing much to show. I am amused when someone is selling a bare airframe, not fitted together, no bits done, and the say 80% complete. That is still a nice colour scheme.

yep. Whenever a model gets the point where i think i have a handful of 10 minute jobs to finish i know its about 2 months away!

Chris, i will keep going and i have a MkII version of my colourised photo as i think the grey was too blue last time.

hurricaneiic_87sqncolour.jpg

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I have given up with all black aeroplanes. I find them a nightmare to try and sort out their orientation.

We used to colour Free Flight contest models all black - especially the undersides, Black maintains its colour 'depth' or density at a distance and in the murk. However - try and find an all black model on the ground after its blown over...

Martyn

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Posted by Don Fry on 19/01/2020 17:36:49:

That point in a build where there is a months worth of bits to do. Nothing much to show. I am amused when someone is selling a bare airframe, not fitted together, no bits done, and the say 80% complete. That is still a nice colour scheme.

To be fair (and I have kept some fairly OCD logs to back this up), if I have a bare airframe, ready to cover, I'm about three quarters done.

Note, my 'ready to cover' also means I have installed (and removed) all the electrical and motive power already. Other definitions of 'ready to cover' are possible!

The above may apply very badly to scale masterpieces with a fistful of finishing work and detail stuff.

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But "problems" can be solved.

My current build, not complicated, has transparent covering. So thicko here, did not anticipate that the wires have to look better than an installation by a blind man, using his feet, Jon's phrase.

The solution, 2 servos in the tail, wires through the rear fusalage, transparent covering, afterfit, is a job in progress.

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Another rubbish weekend for weather meant another weekend in the building shed!

Considering the amount of time spent in there i dont have a great deal to show but that was down to a good bit of head scratching along the way.

My mission for the weekend was to open up the front of the cowl for the cooling, sort out the elevator linkage, paint/install the pilot and get going on the fin/rudder.

The cowl went well although i did make a mistake on one part so now its not straight. As it will only be obvious from one angle i couldnt be bothered to fix it.

The elevator came next and i wanted to remove the existing joiner and replace it as the one that was in there cut through the ply spar in the tail and that seemed daft.

hurri 18.jpg

Once i wrestled it out i was really glad i decided to change it as the control arm was made from warm chocolate, or at least something with that level of strength. As you can see my its being bent!

hurri 17.jpg

After some faffing around with a design i came up with a much stronger new one

hurri 19.jpg

hurri 20.jpg

hurri 21.jpg

Once all that was out of the way i finished off and covered the fin/rudder, then got started painting my pilot. i still have 3 colours to go but he was making himself at home anyway

hurri 22.jpg

 

 

Edited By Jon - Laser Engines on 27/01/2020 08:58:43

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It will be interesting to see the cover plates you will be using on the cylinder head vents . It might be useful to form them from thin aluminium sheet with a slight scoop shape to grab air so it can be rammed through the fins. Without some sort of small scoop it looks like airflow inward won’t be nearly as strong with the highly profiled hurricane cowl... ...however from the photo it’s hard to get an idea of depth! 

Edited By Tim Flyer on 29/01/2020 08:26:37

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Posted by Chris Freeman 3 on 29/01/2020 07:02:47:

Very nice Jon, I am trying not to look too much as I need to keep focussed on what I am building at the moment. That airframe has too be one of the nicest with all the stringers.

What are you working on?

Tim, the engine is a 240v. It took me ages (10 years) to finally make up my mind what to use. I wanted to use the 300 for the power, but it would have made a right mess of the cowling and i decided to go with the 240 as it fits so neatly. I think its going to be ok as the 240 is comparable to the zenoah 38 the model was designed for and the hurricane is no rocketship.

I have been wondering what to do with the cylinder head openings and they are likely to stay as they are. I have another air intake under the spinner and once baffled i think it will be ok

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Sure are. I have gone super tight with the cooling in an effort to keep the lines of the cowl as clean as i can. As you can see in the photo below there is only the small amount that the heads get to see and the little smile under the spinner. It might not look like much but once its doing 50mph it will be pretty draughty in the cowling. Once the baffles are in the cowl i think it will be fine, and i may also try and set up some ducting so that the carbies ingest cold air and not hot. This will bring the temperature inside the engine down as well as give more power

hurri23.jpghurri24.jpg

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Another weekend of bad weather means more Hurricane work.

I finished up the covering work on the control surfaces and tail before getting the epoxy out and attaching all the flappy bits. In between all that i finished off painting my fearless pilot and got him installed. He even has some nice dials sohe can see what on earth is happening to him.

I also set about finalising the paint job and this was a bit of a challenge as the full size i am modelling does not follow standard camo patterns and seems to be something they just made up. Anyway as i only have photos from the left side of the plane i had to create something plausible for the other side. Following a few hours messing about in paintshop i think it has worked out ok.

hurri 25.jpg

hurri 27.jpg

hurri 26.jpg87sqn camo.jpg

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