I’m going to take the easy way out again and refer you to this web site, here you will find out everything you need to know about RAF Hurricanes in Russia http://airforce.users.ru/lend-lease/english/articles/sheppard/hurricanes/

THE KIT

The Revell series of Hurricanes have to rate as some of the nicest models in this scale, as kits they are as good as anything that comes out of the Tamiya stable and are a third of the price. Detail consists of finely recessed panel lines and subdued rivet detail. Hell, compared to the Merlins, Airfix and Starfix kits I normally model, this is the modelling equivalent of the Star of Africa. Love em or hate em the instructions are the now standard Revell offering that offers 47different language warnings on how not to cut your finger or sniff the glue. Pictorial instructions and three view plans for the painting and decals.

 Decals are well printed but are the dead matt type that can be a bear to lay down without slivering but as I had picked up this kit from a model club buddy in view to doing a little conversion and I wasn’t planning on using the decals this time anyway. A couple of months ago at one of our local club meets a mate bought along an old book on the Hurricane consisting of lots of Black and White photos, line drawings and a large section on modelling the 1/24^th scale Airfix Hurricane, what grabbed my attention was a line drawing of a Mk II C that had been field modified into a two seat trainer by the Russians, perfect for my next project!

CONSTRUCTION

The side view line drawings in the book were 1/72^nd scale so it was an easy matter to photocopy the page and lay the fuselage over the copies to mark were the cutting needed to be done for the second cockpit. This field modification had two separate open cockpits, the original unchanged one and a slightly smaller one cut into the rear fuselage.

 With the marks transferred onto the plastic it was a simple job to cut away the rear fuselage with a razor saw. With the cockpit cut out and cleaned up with needle files it was time to start on the cockpit detail, the original floor, bulkhead and seat were used with plastic card added to the back of the bulkhead to extend the floor for the second cockpit. A spare seat from the spares box was added and sidewall detailed added from my home cast generic cockpit sidewalls.

 With the cockpit installed and painted the fuselage was then closed up and left to dry, fit was so good that no filler is needed and only a light scrape was needed to remove the join line. A new canopy deck needs to be scratch-built between the cockpits and this was built up using 30 thou plastic card and superglue until the correct shape was obtained.

 As the Russian trainers were unarmed once I had assembled the wings I filled the 20 mm cannon holes with plastic sprue and sanded it to shape to seal the rather large holes there. The wings fit the fuselage so well that no filler was needed and in fact you could almost get away with not gluing the main wings on the fit is that good, a far cry from my normal Merlin diet.

 For the rest of the assembly just insert your favourite modelling saying here “shake and bake” “fell together” etc as the fit of these Revell kits is excellent.

COLORS & MARKINGS

This particular Hurricane was an ex RAF one that had been passed over to the Russians under the lend-lease agreement and had been modified basically straight off the boat, The Russians obviously decided it was a waste of paint to repaint the existing RAF colour and instead just touched up around the cockpit conversion and painted out the RAF roundels with a local green.

So the first order of the day was to paint the Hurricane in the standard RAF green/brown/sky colours and leave to dry.

  Once dry I weathered the plane using a watercolour wash and pastels, I have been experimenting with watercolour washes over the last few months as an alternative to oil washes, as a wash the watercolour has one great feature, if you put to much on or don’t like the end result it comes right off with a little water and doesn’t damage or stain the paintwork and is very forgiving, far more forgiving than the ink or oil washes I have tried in the past.

 With the weathering done I cut circles out of masking tape the same diameter as the original RAF roundels and placed them in the appropriate positions on the fuselage and wings, these were painted a slightly different shade of green to simulate the field over painting of the original markings. The same green was sprayed around the second cockpit and on the RAF fin flashes on the tail. With the RAF marking now painted out it was time to add the Red stars from the spares box, a drop of my home made decal solution bedded them down nicely, the only other markings carried by this plane was a small white ‘5’ on the rudder, again these came from my ever diminishing supply  of spare decals.

 For some reason this particular aircraft had a small grey primer patch under the tail pane that was probably a field patch of the fabric after a students heavy landing, this was added using a piece of neutral grey painted decal. With the addition of a couple of scratchbuilt canopies out of some clear plastic off a blister packet and gluing on the propeller my Russian two seat trainer was finished.  

CONCLUSIONS

 For me the Revell R.O.G range of kits are as good as It gets in terms of value for money, crisp, well moulded and well fitting pieces make for a nice break from my usual diet of Airfix, Merlin and of late Starfix kits.

For someone wanting to try their hand at a simple conversion I would recommend something like this trainer, this simple and effective conversion adds an interesting looking variant of the Hurricane to your collection.

 This conversion wouldn’t be difficult in 1/48^th   or 1/32^nd scale and I vaguely remember Tom Cleaver doing a 1/48^th scale one sometime ago it certainly makes for and interesting version of the Hurricane.

REFERENCES

If anyone wants a copy of the scanned side profiles for their own conversion email me and I will fire off a copy to you.