Hawker Hurricane Mk.I 501 Sqn

This was the first time I made proper use of aftermarket items having used the Eduard PE set, wing flaps, attempted to use HGW belts (but it didn't work out with this one unfortunately!) as well as resin wheels and exhausts. It was also the first time I used the Rosie the Reiveter tool to create rivet lines - something that I think really adds interest to the finish model

The was a slight turning point for me, as the plane looked something like what I was hoping at the end and there were also a few things that dawned on me that I had been doing wrong.

The main one is that I was using the wrong varnishes - and that's why some of the weathering products were damaging the varnish and paint underneath. I also realised that I really didn't like the finish of decals - they really stood out so I made the decision on future builds to try painting them on. I also learnt to never to put masking tape directly on decals - you can see the damage on the horizontal stabilisers

I also wasn't happy with the propeller on this one - its looks much cleaner than the rest of the model so that was something I wanted to work on with future builds

As I used aftermarket in this build I decided to keep the canopy and one gun compartment open. I was really happy with the finish in the cockpit - although one irritating ejector pin market is visible. I wasn't as happy with the gun bay, although I did treat it as a learning curve on how to paint these on later builds.

One thing I didn't read afterwards was that RAF planes did not normally have their flaps down and although I can't guarentee this is true, I am certainly treating it as such as they were really fiddly to build and I would prefer to avoid doing so in future