Airfix Hawker Hurricane ragwing

I’m now ready to present the first aircraft to be completed since July of 2016. This should be the first of many, since I have lots that are approaching the final painting and decal stages. Hopefully April and May will turn out to be good months for productivity.

This is another Airfix ragwing Hurricane, this time in captured German markings.  According to the Kora decals information, the plane was captured in France (at the Merville airfield) and then taken to Rechlin for testing. It ended up at one of the fighter flight schools (I/JFS2) at the Anhalt airbase. As you can see, it was repainted in RLM paint, in this case RLM74/75 over RLM76 with grey mottles. I still am not satisfied with the mottling work on this model. I think this particular botched job came from the combination of having no pressure regulator on my compressor and mixing the paint too thin. But it is what it is. Next time I won’t mix the paint quite as thin, and I do have (distant) plans to pick up a new compressor, since mine was built alongside George Washington’s famous white carriage. But reality tends to intrude on my thoughts about capital spending – a new furnace, replacing a portion of the fence that has collapsed, upcoming car repairs, vacation, and even the new display case I have been eying.

The kit is the Airfix ragwing. I’ve built enough of them now that I know all the pitfalls, and to be honest there aren’t many. I still can’t see why Airfix hasn’t tooled new metal wings to turn this into a late mark 1, but then I’m not on the Airfix board of directors. I’ve probably guaranteed they are about to announce one since I recently ordered some Alley Cat resin wing conversions. Send your thanks, when it happens, to my Paypal account.

The decals were from Kora 72-188. All German captured machines, I chose the one I thought most interesting. Be aware that on this sheet at least, the carrier film is continuous, and not specfic to each decal. No need to ask how I know this now. Once I found out, it is easy enough to cut around each marking, though most are small and the sheet itself is tightly packed.

This is completed aircraft #468 (1 aircraft, 0 ordnance, 1 vehicle for the year 2017), finished in April of 2017.