Hurricane IIc | Esquadrilha VX, Aeronáutica Militar Portuguesa

Gary Kitchen
Good luck Rui. Following.

Rui
Thanks Gary. I'm well into the project and encountering problems so luck may play a big part in turning out something that looks decent.

Łukasz Gliński
Following.

Rui
Upload the initial work. All cockpit assembly, painting, and weathering. Looks ok but I should have painted part separately and then assembled because it was difficult working in the tight space. ?

Rui
Finished the dashboard instrument cluster and I think it look pretty good for straight paint and no pe or decals. ?

Gary Kitchen
Rui. Panel looks great as does the prop. Cat hair gets everywhere. 👍

Robert Podkoński
Following as well 😉

Łukasz Gliński
Dog's too 😄

Mark
👀

Rui
Added this morning work to the photo album. My favourite part of the project so far is the instrument panel which turned out well, but as I suspected, i will never see it again ?

Guy Rump
Looking good Rui, watching 👍

Rui
I started the painting lasted night and uploaded a couple of pics. The first coat covered up the terrible presaging job but I may have gone a little thick for a first coat ?

Łukasz Gliński
It's better than you describe it 😉
I'm having the same problems with preshading and decided to use it only on a single-colour kits (e.g. my Tomcat).
For the multi-colour camo I do the following:
- spray particular colour +20% white
- postshade the panel lines (and other details) using same colour thinned to being almost transparent (sometimes adding 10% of black).
Examples: Wildcat, Swift and Canberra. Maybe that would suit you too, who knows?

Mark
Looking good. 👍

Gary Kitchen
Agree with Mark. The grey and green look great tonally. Good stuff Rui 👍

Rui
Thanks Lukasz. I've been toying with the idea of trying post shading in that manner.

Rui
Thank Guys, I think the colour did turn out well. It's a mystery why the green patch on that wing tip has a bit of a sheen on it. Paint may have settle in the airbrush I guess.

Łukasz Gliński
Just found out - you did it freehand, didn't you? 😮

Rui
Yes…freehand airbrushed the camouflage pattern. Did it in two coats. The first was a little rough and uneven but it defined pattern. The second evened it out and allowed me to tweak the edges. I found my super-cheap knock-off airbrush that came with my compressor to be good at freehand airbrushing because it's ridiculously small 0.2 mm needle.

John
Very interesting markings - good job.

Rui
Thanks John
Just an FYI for everyone - I have been referencing a mix of historical photos, museum displays, and a few other modellers builds, so my build is not exact to one specific historical example but more of a general representation of history. Also, I claim artistic prerogative and made a significant deviation in the markings by adding the national flag's astrolabe coat of arms to the fuselage sides just forward of the cockpit. There are no indications this was ever done but that area of the model was relatively devoid of markings and I thought it would look great.

John
Rui, You bring up a good point about the hobby. I think that most modelers (at least here on SCM) attempt varying degrees of historical accuracy, as I think that partially draws us into the hobby. I do believe that there is a strong amount of artistry involved in the hobby, and as an artist, we are afforded an artistic license. So if one wants to paint a Mustang black with golden lighting bolts, then why not? It would probably look nice, and be fun for us to watch. Your Hurricane looks nice and would be proud to display on anyone's shelf or cabinet.

Moreno Baruffini
Really a great job, both from a technical point of view and from an artistic point of view!!!

...E poi le insegne portoghesi sono fantastiche!!!

Gary Kitchen
Hi Rui. Great finish and excellent markings and scheme. If mine comes out anywhere near this good I'll be a happy chap 👍

Rui
Thanks guys. I started the weathering last night and hopefully not muck it up too much. I mean I want to muck it up and give it some wear and tear but not like my fist kit which ended up looking like it belonged in an aircraft graveyard ?

Gary Kitchen
Weathering looks great Rui. You're almost done.

Rui
Yup… almost done. Finished adding all the bits today and painting the canopy frame. She should be ready for some a glamour photo shoot soon ?

Mark K
Beautiful!

Rui
Thank you everyone for the praise and words of encouragement 😃

After a two month hiatus I am back and the project is completed. That pesky thing called work got in the way of finishing the Hurricane.

I spent the last few days putting finishing touch in my Força Aérea Portuguesa Hawker Hurricane. It was a lot of fun doing the research into the history behind the Portuguese acquisition of the Hurricane and the squadron livery but at times frustrating because of the limited amount of literature and pictures available. I think I got a reasonably good rendition of the Hurricane in Portuguese service but will admit I took some artistic license with the placement of the national flag's crest forward of the canopy.

Guy Rump
Lovely build Rui 👍

Gary Kitchen
Great Finish Rui 👍. I'm not far behind hoping to get mine done this week.

Rui
I'm doing the research for my next build (FAP Thunderbolt or Spitfire) and I came across some FAP Hurricanes builds I had not seen before. They were painted with the familiar RAF leading edge yellow visibility strips on each wing. I built my kit based on a handful of photos from a static display somewhere in Portugal (I assume) and that airframe didn't have the visibility strips...?

I finished the project but it would be easy enough to paint them on, but I'm wondering if the state display of the actual aircraft maybe is representative of a later livery or maybe even not correct...? Maybe the FAP operated them with the standard RAF paint scheme and the visibility markings? Maybe the other model builders had better reference material than I did and their sources had the stripes...?

Lots of speculation and questions I know, but maybe someone on here can clear this up...?

Cheers!

Rui
I just realized I'm not finished! I need to da the aerial wire. I've never done one before. Anyone have any advice? Please.

Guy Rump
I use
Ammo by Mig - .03mm Fine Rigging # MIG-8018
It's elasticated and I attach it with super glue.
👍

Moreno Baruffini
Sorry for the delay...I agree with Guy, I have a similar product and I use it too 👍🏻

Michael Kohl
Those Portuguese insignia add a nice touch to this well known plane.

Rui
Thanks for the lead on the rigging; didn't know that type of accessory even existed. I like the idea of it having elastic properties because I'm sure it does make a convincing appearance of a taunt cable. I found it online but I think I'll checkout my LHS first to see if they carry it.

Rui
@Michael - my plan was to build all the duplicates in my stash, but when I was inspecting the three A-7 Corsair II kits in my stash, I discovered one came with Portuguese decals. So, I got curious and looked into Portugal's modest yet very interesting aviation history (some of the airframe acquisitions are suspect 😄). That's when I decided to switch plans and try to build examples of Portuguese warbirds from my stash, instead.

Good comprehensive references and decals are the hardest thing to find, but things are falling into place now. In the Hurricane and the current project I may have one or two historical discrepancies but generally it's about having fun producing a reasonable facsimile of the original. Example, the P-47 Thunderbolt I'm working on now, will not have the aerodynamic dorsal strip forward of the rudder. The kit does not have it and I don't have that mastery of the plastic to scratch build, yet. Maybe I will paint that area zinc chromate primer and the story is that the strip was removed for servicing.

Anyway, I hope to build a small Air force representative of about a hundred years of Portugal's aviation history. I'm a proud Canadian having severed in our armed forces, but I'm also Portuguese and very much interested her rich history. So, the Canadian warbirds I have planned will wait a bit.

Michael Kohl
Nice development. As a Canadian this might interest you: Canadian Leopard 2A6M with slat armor and barracuda mats | Album by panorama (1:72)
A canadian Starfighter is on my bucket list too.

Happy modeling!

Rui
Thanks Michael… I checked out the Leo build. Awesome for a 1:72 scale. Looking forward to the whole diorama 👍

Alec K
Very nicely done mate 👍

Buzz Fly
Bem feito!