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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Decals...

and difficulties. The end draws near, not, I hope in a Jim Morrison Doors' way, nor as in a Gotterdammerung type scenario, but, more prosaically,  the end of my Hawker Weather Build. But, true to form, little glitches set in today. Prior to applying the decals, the whole kit needed glossing, so I thought I would apply some acrylic gloss varnish. Lid off, good stir, brush in, splodge varnish on wing - aaaargh!! Silvery bits!! The varnish was contaminated. I suspect the dam' Fuzzy Wuzzies. Very rapid cleaning of wing, and recourse to 'Klear', which worked a treat. (Why didn't I just use 'Klear' in the first place!). While the shiny stuff was drying, I got out the very nice sheet of aftermarket decals by Sky:


I've used Sky decals before, and been very pleased with them. The Hurricane I've been aiming at was a 
Mk IIc Trop of 94 Squadron, RAF, Western Desert, late 1942, HL735, nicely illustrated in the Sky booklet that goes with the decal sheet. Er ... the sheet does not have the serial HL735. Uh? OK, no need to panic, the same squadron also included HL855 in the same finish, code O-P. So,  decided to go for that. The code  was on the sheet, although I'm not sure about the colour, but ... no HL855 !!! Dam' and blast! The annoying thing is that as far as I can tell all the other options are on the sheet, which is very full:


Note the nice US style wing and fuselage markings for Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Hurricanes in Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa). The idea there was that the French chappies wouldn't be so keen to shoot down US aircraft, as opposed to those of Perfidious Albion. That didn't really work (they might have used scent those blighters, but they weren't stupid), and FAA Hurricanes actually came off rather badly. 

Anyway, despite the difficulties, the Hurricane now looks like:


Tomorrow evening the weathering begins.

On the Cuban front, I'm hoping for a quick gluing session this evening, to turn the disjecta membra below


Into two mortar teams for the overmatched invasion force. Difficulties permitting.

8 comments:

  1. Splendid progress on all fronts Stephen. Shame about the decal series missing the serial numbers, a little odd?

    Email and complain.

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    Replies
    1. My thanks! Yes, I was a tad surprised, but, being a kit basher not too overwhelmed. Think I'll try the Operation Torch version, though.

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  2. Very nice indeed. Looks great, well done!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm looking forward to cracking on with the weathering bit of the job.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks - I think the finish really shows how elegant the Hurricane was.

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  4. That is looking good AL, I cant wait to see the weathering on it.

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  5. Your wish is my command ... see new post!

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