This is the Academy 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc, kit number 2129. I built this to try out a new technique for RAF camouflage. I tried to use rolls of Play-Doh to outline the areas to be masked, using rubber cement to make the Play-doh stay put. (In my experience, Play-Doh does not stick to matte surfaces very well.) That technique didn't work well at all, so I went back to just cutting Scotch green masking tape to the appropriate shape. That did work well.

primed with Krylon Ruddy Brown primer, which I've found works well. It sticks to the plastic and provides a smooth surface. I sprayed the yellow bands on the front of the wings first, masked them, and then sprayed the rest. The yellow was Floquil Reefer Yellow. I used the new Tamiya RAF colors for the rest. The Sea Grey Medium on the bottom went on rather rough, as Tamiya often does for me. However, I tried thinning it much more than I usually do for the top colors, and they went on very well. I used to thin about 1:1 paint to thinner, but got much better results using two or three parts thinner to one part paint. I used plain 91% rubbing alcohol as a thinner, and was pleased with the results.

I think this is the first plane that I've painted the wing tip lights, and painted the landing lights. I just used silver for the landing lights.

have learned from experience that Academy decals leave something to be desired, to put it mildly. I used Techmod decals 72073M. I had to use hot water, and leave the decal in the water for twenty seconds or so to get them to come off the backing paper. I found they moved very well once on the model, so I didn't use any setting solution. That was a mistake, as they silvered very badly. They were also impervious to solvent, as even Solvaset did not soften them up.

I masked the canopy in several steps, painting the vertical frames first, and then the horizontal frames. The windscreen took four steps. It was laborious, and doing it this way makes putting a flat coat on the canopy frames impossible, which is why the frames are a little darker then the rest of the plane. However, the paint job itself came out well.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.