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Okay, with the Hurricane now occupying a space of honor on the shelf, it's back to Phoenix! Following the instructions, we next darken the openings for the gratings. Exciting stuff, right?

Then it's time to start applying finish planking. Yay! The process starts at the stern. Before I started gluing anything, I cut out the relevant parts and did some dry fitting. That's when I noticed that the sternpost fascia pieces are not wide enough to cover the width of the post.

I went back and read through the instructions again. Sure enough, it looks like I overlooked some tapering that needs to be done. I will check some build logs to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure I have some more chisel & sandpaper work in my immediate future.

Cheers!

Wow! That is a fantastic model and display! The awards are well-deserved. Congratulations!

48 minutes ago, Egilman said:

It's interesting to see these painted in RAF desert scheme sporting the Stars and Bars...

 I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

Hey, G.L., what became of this fine build? It was so close to being finished!

37 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

Do you take requests? 😆 P-40

I do have a P-40 in my stash (another Halinski kit), and, interestingly, its basic brown and green colors are nearly identical to the Hurricane's. But I'm not in any hurry to get to it, so you may have to wait. 😉

Welcome aboard, Pete! What sort of ship do you think you might work on? So many choices out there -- kinda like aircraft!

P.S. Check out our Non-Ship Builds sub-forum to see what our members dabble in when they're not busy building ships!

I agree with the previous comments -- she looks quite sharp!

1 hour ago, realworkingsailor said:

Are you sure you want to park it next to your Bf109?

Ha! Maybe I should have painted a tiny Bf-109 in the rear-view mirror.

3 hours ago, CraigVT said:

Does anyone know of any model kits for this ship?

Various companies have produced kits in plastic or card. An internet search will turn up quite a few examples, e.g., Revell, Glencoe, JSC (card). The Revell 1/600 kit should still be available new, and the 1/400 JSC kit is still in print.

The Big Reveal!

This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!

I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

Cheers!

Always sad to a grand old ship neglected and in decline, but I can understand why. They are expensive to fix and expensive to maintain, and there's a lot of resources locked up in all that metal.

Welcome aboard! Your model looks great!

Aaaand . . . done. I will post the Big Reveal tomorrow. Time for bed now!

And one more shot of the one-time adversaries together.

G'nite!

1 hour ago, Danstream said:

I should not feel compelled to paint them with the exact same color

Oh, I don't! I just don't think there should be a glaring contrast. Which, BTW, there won't be, cuz I painted the blades already. 😉

27 minutes ago, Andre1967 said:

I can supply photos

Yes, please supply photos and location.

5 hours ago, rcweir said:

Rats,  I put this in the wrong section.   Which makes me cross, of course!   I hope a friendly admin can move it to the 1501-1750 kit section!

Done!

Interestingly, the Polikarpov Po-2, the most-produced biplane in history, was powered by a five-cylinder radial.

Okay, the canopy is all done and mounted. Here's a couple of in-progress shots.

I got the canopy freed from its mold without too much difficulty. I did, though, in my efforts to clean the thing up accidentally scuff the interior glazing with my emery board. Oops! I also mounted and painted the interior grab handles, as well as the frame for the armored glass. I didn't actually add the armored glass, because a. it is a pain, and b. you can't really see it inside the closed cockpit. Apart from the scuffing, this is actually one of the better canopies I have done.

While bits of the cockpit were drying here and there, I finished up the propeller hub and blades. To try and make a cleaner, neater hub, I did a little sanding and filling of the basic assembly.

I then sprayed the hub with satin-finish spray paint. Unfortunately, it's the kind that takes a looooong time to dry, so I will probably have to wait until tomorrow for the final assembly. The black of the hub and blades is now quite different shades, so I may end up painting the blades a darker black as well.

And that's all for now!

Next up: canopy. Bleah!! Canopies are one of my weaknesses. Nevertheless, I'm happy with how this one is going -- so far. I have glued on the frames for the sliding portion, tacked them down with low-tack tape (have never tried this before), and will let the glue cure for 24 hours before messing any further with this part. I intend to try something else different as well: I'm going to display the model with the canopy closed. Because of this, I will not be adding the internal printed frames. I never manage to get the inner and outer frames to match up well anyways. As you can see, the inside of the outer frames are painted interior green. As long as no one looks to closely, it's hard to tell that the interior frames are only paint. The proof of the pudding will be getting the molded canopy and frames cut out without having the frames peel up -- but that's a task for tomorrow.

There are few things prettier than a brightly colored biplane.

The argument about whether this fighter or that fighter was the 'best' is fun for us to debate years later, but it was largely mooted by strategic considerations, though folks were less aware of it at the time. In order to have any real chance of winning, the Germans (and indeed all the Axis powers) needed to negate the combined industrial advantage of the Allies. German, Italian, and Japanese fighters didn't just need to be equal to their Allied counterparts -- they needed to shoot down their enemies in numbers that far exceeded their own losses. They never accomplished this, even during the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe had a considerable numerical advantage. The fact that the P-40 gave at least as good as it got was seriously bad news for the Axis powers -- if both sides lost resources (planes, pilots) at an equal pace, there was never a question of who would run out of them first.

Moved to proper sub-forum.

Mick, whatever became of this build?

Alex, did you ever finish this wonderful model?

Researching family military history in the various records can be very rewarding. When I began doing genealogy work years ago, no one in my immediate family had any knowledge of our family's service prior to WW2. Through unit roll calls and a variety of other sources, I was able to piece together my 2x-great grandfather's service in the Palmetto Sharpshooters during the 'Late Unpleasantness'. I was very surprised to learn that the PSS were a highly regarded unit within the Confederate armed forces and fought in many of its bloodiest engagements, including Second Manassas, the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, and The Wilderness. I'm sure my ancestor could have recounted many harrowing tales, but sadly I have no evidence suggesting he ever left any written accounts.

Good luck on both your projects!