Revell 1/32 Hurricane Ib trop

Dudley Sandry Garton Honor was born in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province (just a few kilometers away from the City of Buenos Aires) Argentina on September 5 1913. As his name clearly shows his parents were British. He was educated in Quilmes and his Spanish not surprisingly was better than his English (like Ian Nana Adamson who flew in 136 Sqn in the Far East). When he was 23 years old he joined the RAF on a short service commission. His initial training took place at 8 E&RFTS Woodley. On September 5th 1937 he became an Acting Pilot Officer on probation. On September 18th he was posted to 6 FTS Netheravon and then joined 88 Sqn at Boscombe Down on March 7th 1938. On July 12th he became a Pilot Officer.

88 Sqn fought valiantly during the Battle of France (see https://modelingmadness.com/review/allies/gb/bombers/calbat.htm). The last 3 surviving Battles of the squadron returned to England on June 14th. Honor was one of the 3 piloting them. His great friend and of later fame James MacLachlan lead them to beat up of his old school at Monkton before landing at RAF Driffield. Mac went on to fly in fighters in Malta, lose his arm and return to combat in fighters with an artificial arm. A couple of years later Mac was shot down and killed during Rhubarb that he had undertaken along with the also famous Geoffrey Page (Tale of a Guinea Pig). Honor received a DFC in November for his actions during the Battle of France. Honor and Mac volunteered to join Fighter Command. They were posted away (Honor on August 14th) and skipped the OTU due to their experience in Battles.

Honor joined 145 Sqn B Flight on August 19th. This squadron was resting in Scotland and the time. On August 21st he was doing his first flying in a Hurricane with them. Here he met some other pilots of later immortal fame like the Australian Robert Bungey and the Belgian P/O J H M “Pyker” Offenberg The following days were spent training on formation, attack and aerobatics. Just a few days later on August 30th he took part in his two sorties with Offenberg and Storrar without contacting the Germans. Flying was intensive and as an example on September 2nd he flew 6 times including training and sorties. On the 24th Bungey became B Flight’s leader. After these days of “rest” 145 Sqn was moved from Scotland (Dyce and area) to the red hot 11 Group base of Tangmere.

One day in September, after being away on leave, Offenberg returned to Tangmere. There he found Honor dressed in far from regulation kit sitting on the Squadron Leader Boyd’s desk and singing an Argentine song. When Pyker entered the room Honor stopped singing and greeted his friend: “Hullo, Pyker. Back at last, eh? Go hide your head. We’ve been in a murky scrap with fifty Jerries over Plymouth and you weren’t in the party”- “You had a scrap?” answered the Belgian. “Sure. A pretty scrap, and I nearly got shot out of the sky. I am sorry you weren’t with us” said the Argentine. “So am I, Dudley. You can be quite sure about that” finalized the Offenberg who loved the brotherhood of pilots now that he was so far away from his country and his family.

On October 12th 1940 Honor scrambled with Sqn Ldr Boyd at 17.25. They intercepted what they identified as an Ar196 floatplane 12 miles south of St Catherine’s point. They shot it down and returned to base at 18.15. 145 Sqn flew at least 2 sorties per day but mostly they were unsuccessful in terms of contact with the enemy. During one of these Honor made a forced-landing at Hollington, near St. Leonards on the 27th in his usual Hurricane (P - V 7422) which was a written off. Along with Flt Sgt Sykes they had run out of fuel. Some sources claim that this happened after an air combat (Offenberg’s bio) with Bf109s but Form540 shows that it was an uneventful sortie and the actual combat took place in the afternoon. Honor did not take part in the afternoon mission when the 109s were engaged as he had crashed landed earlier that day.

On November 1st there was an air combat during which Offenberg shot down a 109. The following day in the morning “Dudley Honor, the Anglo-Argentinian who speaks better Spanish than English” (sic – Offenberg) drove the Belgian to the place where the 109 had crash landed in the former’s old Austin. Apparently the Austin was in such a bad shape that Pyker wondered by Honor had not taken the car to the scrap heap. During the trip Honor confessed he had brought his camera because he wanted to take a picture of the Belgian (the victor) along his vanquished (the 109). Honor took the “historic photo” that shows Pyker along the 109 (the image is found in Offenberg’s book).

Three days later Honor, de Hemptinne and Offenberg took off to intercept a bandit. They found a 109 playing hide and seek among the clouds and the German managed to evade them. Toward the end of November Honor along with Pyker and a new pilot flew their Hurricanes to the coast of Brittany without making contact with the Germans.

On December 2nd Honor was posted to 85 Squadron at Debden in the night-fighting role. On 29th January 1941 he was posted to the Middle East, destined for 274 Squadron in the Western Desert as a Flight Commander. He embarked on HMS Furious, flew off at Takoradi in a Hurricane and arrived in Egypt after hopping across Africa.

Having been transferred to the Middle East and while spending some time off in Egypt MacLahlan learnt that his old friend Dudley was at the Continental hotel. Mac and a couple of friends made a “calamity drunk” outside Honor’s room. He immediately opened the door and greeted his friend with a loud “Hey, Hey!”:. Mac sat on Honor’s bed and they talked about their old good times before the war in 88 Sqn. Finally shortly after midnight Mac left.

Honor joined 274 at Amriya two days later on April 6th. On the 10th Honor was already flying interception missions (near Alexandria). The squadron moved to the Western Desert on the 16th and two days later they were operational. On the following days 274 Sqn flew over Torburk, Bardia. On the 30th Honor participated in the destruction of several enemy vehicles near Gambut.

On May 1st during a patrol over Torburk 6 Hurricanes found 4 dive bombing Bf110s. The Hurricanes dove on them but then tangled with the 7 escorting Bf109s. In the ensuing combat 274 Sqn claimed 3 x 109s shot down (one awarded to Honor) while losing one in flames and two Hurricanes so badly damaged that they were forced to land at El Gubbi. On the 12th a column of enemy vehicles was totally destroyed by 5 Hurricanes led by Honor. One British plane was shot down. The following day Honor flew a successful Tac/Rec flight.

Covering their own troops a section of 3 Hurricanes led by Honor encountered German bombers escorted by 109s on May 15th. In a brief battle Honor shot down another Messerschmitt and participated in damaging two more. In the afternoon Honor was part of another mission that attacked and destroyed yet another column of enemy vehicles.

His next victories came on the 20th when on a long range Tac/Rec mission flown by two Hurricanes he shot down a Bf110 that was taking off from Mechili. In the same mission he shot down a Ju52 and destroyed several vehicles on the ground.

With things going bad in Crete the RAF turned some of her resources to support the Allies fighting there. Thus a mission to attack Maleme airdrome was dispatched on the 23rd but when the bombers experienced engine trouble the escorting 274 Sqn Hurricanes (including Honor in W9266) returned to base.

The same mission was tried on the 25th. Bad weather prevented Honor and his wingman from reaching Crete in the morning. In the afternoon in his W9266 and along with another Hurricane and a Maryland Honor took off for Maleme. The two Hurricanes did not return… The next day a larger mission to Maleme was carried out by 274. While losing 3 more Hurricanes they destroyed several enemy aircraft. This was the last try to support the troops in Crete.

F/Lt. Honor’s adventures started during an attack on Maleme aerodrome. The RAF formation had been engaged by enemy aircraft and he had shot down a Ju 52 and a SM 79 and then he himself was attacked from below. “Two cannon shells hit my Hurricane” said the pilot, “and the elevator aileron control went. I continued to take what evasive action I could then a Messerschmitt 109 attacked me close to the cliffs of the bay. To get away from his stern attacks I planed down and hit the water.

“With the aircraft hood closed and not even a window open, I plunged about 40 feet below the surface. I got the hood open, scrambled out and pulled the handle of my Mae West. It inflated at once and brought me to the top again. The waves were battering me about a bit and my clothes were hampering me, so I struggled out my trousers and started making for the shore.

“It took me three hours to get within twenty yards of it and then I almost despaired, for it took me another hour or more to do the last lap. Eventually I floated into a cave and pulled myself astride a stalagmite and sat on it like a hobby horse.

“As I tried to ring out my soaking clothes, phosphorescent waves washed me over me and, having no trousers, I endeavoured to keep my legs warm by wrapping my clammy shorts around them. The nine hours I spend that night in the freezing came were the worst and longest of my life.

“In the morning after two tries to climb the cliffs, I swam to a little headland and dried my clothes in the sun, then I wondered about until I found a goatherd’s empty hut and sat there waiting for something to turn up. An incessant whirring noise overhead made me look up to find a pair of eagles wheeling round watching me.

“That night I found a disused church and in it a few matches, an incense burner and a stagnant well. I had a long drink. Next day I found some lentils in another hut and had my first meal. On the following day, as I climbed an ascending valley, I came on a sight for sore eyes….a little patchwork of green and golden fields, set round a cluster of small white houses.

“It took me four hours to reach the village. Boys came running out to meet me and took me to the church, where the padre gave me water, goat’s milk, cheese and rye bread. Here I was told another RAF pilot had been shot down. Amazingly it turned out to be a sergeant in my own flight. The padre gave me trousers and the sergeant and I stayed the night.

“The next day there was a friendly discussion as to whether or not the villages would turn us over to the enemy. They were all around us and six of the villagers had already been shot by the Germans for alleged withholding of information. I realised that, from their point of view, it would be better for the poor devils to surrender us, but eventually they decided to help us to make a break for it.

“A great officer who with the padre had helped us greatly wanted desperately to come with us. He was a wizard bloke and pathetically kissed us before we left. We were given clothing, food, water and a guide…the mayor of the village, whom we had christened George.

“No drama can be made of our crossing of the island and through the German lines. At night we saw a M.E.109 straffing a nearby aerodrome. Then, the sergeant pilot’s feet, which were cut to ribbons on the rocky beach, gave out and he insisted on our going on without him. Not long afterwards in the darkness, we heard an aircraft approaching the island. We thought it was German until we saw the dim shape and realised it was a Sunderland.

“We started signalling frantically with pocket torches. I sent out in morse….RAF here….RAF here….and the Sunderland which was looking for a previously arranged party, inflated its dinghy and took us safely abroad. It was my torchlight SOS which saved us and in the words of the Sunderland pilot, “It was a million to one chance”.

During his adventures Honor had walked across the island from North to South thru hills and valley. His hands had been badly torn. Honor went immediately back to duty when he returned to his squadron and declined to take the sick leave offered to him by the medical officer. His energy and initiative were swiftly recognised with the bar to his DFC.

London Gazette on June 10 read the following: “Flight Lieutenant Dudley Sandry Garton HONOR, D.F.C. (40113), No. 274 Squadron. This officer has displayed great skill in action against the enemy especially during recent operations over Maleme where he destroyed two enemy aircraft. Though subsequently forced to alight on the sea he succeeded in evading the enemy and at the end of six days rejoined his unit after a perilous journey. He has destroyed a total of nine enemy aircraft”

Back in combat Honor damaged a Bf109 on the 17th. His bearded image leaning on a 274 Sqn Hurricane wearing a German pilot tunic was posted in the cover of a magazine. The title was “What our boys are doing for us” The author for the article was Mary Bentley who was working for the Egyptian State Radio and member of the editorial staff of the magazine. Two weeks later Honor walked into her office and the rest is history as they say…

Honor took command of 274 Sqn in August and led them till November 12th when he was promoted to Acting Wing Commander to lead 258 Wing. While being Winco he destroyed a Mc202 eight miles from Tobruk for his last victory. On March 1, 1942 Honor was promoted to Sqn Ldr (temporary) and May 4th he was confirmed in his rank.

The next pilot that Honor got well acquainted with was the famous Neville Duke. On June 30 1942 Duke flew Honor (his WingCo) to Cairo. Duke was being rested as Instructor at the time. Trying to get back to combat Duke chased Honor to get the approval. Instead Duke was sent back to METS.

By December 1942 Honor was commanding 17 Sector, Benghazi having taking over from yet another famous pilot: the Canadian Johnny Kent who had led the Poles of 303 Sqn during the Battle of Britain.

Duke mentions Honor again in Egypt in October 1943 when Brian Kingcome (who had flown with Duke in 92 Sqn) was trying to pull some strings to get him back to 92. It turns out that Kingcome had been in a car accident along with Honor a few days earlier and had some injuries in his face.

Honor followed the advance of the Allies and served in Malta and Italy (Sicily and mainland). Finally he returned to the UK in 1944. He was appointed Wing Commander Training at HQ 14 Group. At the end of the year he was posted as Air Attaché to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

On September 24, 1945 he was promoted to Wing Commander and in 1947 to Group Captain when released from the RAF.

In 1951 he became Director for Latin America for the Bristol Aeroplane Company. In 1960 he was made Director for Canadair for Latin America and later on he became Manager of Air Canada, South America. He flew most of South America along with his wife in a Dove aircraft that his companies had given him.

Honor became a Canadian citizen and lived in Canada for a while. Then he moved to Andalusia, Spain, where he had a lettuce farm, introducing new varieties in the country. Finally the Honors moved to England and settled in Devon. He was an avid golfer.

Dudley Honor died on December 26, 2007 being survived by his first wife (Jill) and their daughter and Mary, his second wife.

Honor’s final tally was 9 shot down (some sources claim 7 ½ …I agree with the latter based on my research), 4 damaged and 1 destroyed on the ground. Thus he was the top scoring Argentina born pilot of World War 2.

The venerable 1/32 Revell Hurricane MkIa was released in 1969. It had many simplifications and errors even for the time. These I will list below during the description of the process to improve the kit.
In 1986 it suffered (that’s the accurate word) the modification to a MkIIc (with terrible cannons, wrong spinner and blades, a mix match of panel lines on the wings where the original machine gun doors are still present and the bulges for the 20 mm cannons were added…and many other details per below). Decals are bad with the roundels on the wings having a wrong red/blue ratio. They are not even worth sending to the spares box.

So with new and better 1/32 Hurricanes in the market why would I tackle this kit? First the Hurricane is my favourite British WWI fighter (the underdog overshadowed by the immortal Spitfire). Then I had decided to finish building Hurricanes (around 9 in my shelves) and wanted to put my efforts on a good tribute to the plane. Then I had to finish Dudley’s Honor write up for Modeling Madness. And finally my friend Kelly Breen had acquired a couple of these when a local hobby shop closed doors in Ontario and he sold me one of these for only CAD25. Four very good reasons. Stars were aligned.

I had read a bit about how inaccurate the kit is. Being such a large model it requires a lot of detailed work. Otherwise the glaring mistakes are too evident. For CAD25…it was a too good opportunity to miss and promised a lot of fun.

Wheel bay:

This area is totally incorrect: the walls follow the contour of the opening and the internal details are just inventions. Using the 1/48 Hasegawa kit as a reference I cut out the walls and roof and obtained an open hole. Using plasticard I made a new roof, the walls with the correct shape and depth including a box for the tank located on the front wall. The tank was made with a 1/48 bomb from the spares slightly modified and aluminum foil made the brackets holding it in place. Other details on the wall were made with Evergeen. The radiator pipe going along the center of the bay was recreated using a chunk of sprue from another kit and carefully bended as needed. The horizontal hydraulic actuator came for the kit but heavily modified. The structure around the catch for the gear was made with Evergreen. The windows for the pilot to check the positon of the landing gear were cut out and then covered with clear plastic. Then the roof was glued on place on top of the walls and the wheel bay was completed.

Everything was painted Interior Green (Vallejo) except for the tank (cream), the radiator pipe (rust), and actuators in Aluminum.

Cockpit:

First I cut out the emergency exit door. I scratchbuilt the map holder and using pictures from the net made my decals for the different plaques located on the door.

The walls are separate parts that are supposed to be glued on the fuselage halves. Details are very sparse and underdone. I decided get rid of these and cut out some of the levers, the trim wheel to use them on my new cockpit. Using Evergreen rods I created the new tubular structure (taking the Hase parts and increasing them by 50%). Then the trim wheel, handles and levers were added to the tubular structure and other details (cockpit light, etc) were scratchbuilt and added to the fuselage walls.

The back of the seat is too tall and I cut it to the correct height and glued back the rounded top. I scratchbuilt the levers on the sides of the seat pan. The armour plate is wrong. A new one was made and I cut out the hole for the harness. A special support to put the seat on the correct angle to the plate had to be made (again copying the Hasegawa parts).

The instrument panel has very subtle raised details. I sanded them off and added a rectangle of Evergreen in the center. I kept the compass only. The panel was painted black and then I attached a decal I made using a picture of an actual instrument panel. More realistic…impossible!

I threw away the floor. Not even close to the actual one. More Evergreen flat and rods and the Hase original parts as a template were used to create this part. The only original ones were the pedals and the support for the control column! I even engraved the lines on the two divergent foot supports.

Everything was sprayed Interior Green (Vallejo) with levers, throttle and others in black. Drybrushing aluminum highlighted the details.

Fuselage:

I sanded out all the raised panel lines and engraved them. I also removed all the “rivets” and drilled the new fasteners in engine panel/covers. I also re did the upper hand hold in the closed position. I scratch built the openings near the cockpit that are present in the Tropical versions.

I made a new air intake scoop on the lower left side of the nose and scratchbuilt the two outlets for the engine generator. Next I drilled a hole in the bottom fuselage to add the ID light that was made with a large chunk of clear plastic tree.

The two opened small blisters in front of the nose located in the lower portion were made with the nose of some bombs that came from the spares, I had to use some putty for the union but also sand the added part to improve the profile.

The oil collector ring was made with thin Evergreen and attached to the top half of the nose behind the place the spinner will be located.

Fuselage assembly:

One thing I had to do was cut out sections of the internal structure of the wing root as these now interfered with my new wheel bay. Some testing and extra cutting took care of this problem. Then I basically followed the Hasegawa instructions and added the instrument panel to the tubular structure that had already been attached to the seat/back panel/floor. I glued the two fuselage halves and made sure that the union of these was smooth. The stub of clear plastic for the ID light was sanded flush. Finally the cockpit structure was inserted thru the opening at the bottom of the fuselage halves.

I was forgetting…before this I had to make the seat harness. Following an instructional on line and using masking tape (painted in light beige) and pieces of thin wire I obtained some very realistic parts. It was not hard to do and the end results were quite impressive in my opinion.

I scratch built the fairing for the rudder control cables and the mass balance horns for the trim tab on the rudder. There were no issues with the horizontal tail surfaces. Runners for the canopy were made with strips of thin Evergreen glued at 90 degrees and extended past canopy. This finished this sub assembly.

Wings:

After sanding off all the raised details including the 20 mm blisters I rescribed all the panel lines. Then I cut out the flaps from the lower half of the wings. I also opened up the area for the landing lights to create a more accurate representation. I removed a square section under each wing to replace them with a couple of matching areas made with Evergreen. Using Richard Caruana’s scale plan in The Hawker Hurricane (SAM Publications) as a reference I drew and cut out the ejector chutes for the 8 machine guns on those Evergreen sections. Then I thinned out the edge of the areas in the wings, making it deep enough for the Evergreen to be flush to the surface. Needless to say there were gaps that had to be filled and fixed with several boring sessions of Putty and sandpaper.

I made a support for the landing lights which were made with clear plastic tree from the spares that I had sanded to shape and then painted the back with Aluminum. These were put in place and the lights covers from the kit were glued. Fasteners for the machine gun access doors were recreated using a small drill bit. I drilled the holes for the 8 machine guns. Landing gear doors are fine except for the portion that covers the back of the bays. These I modified and extended using plasticard.

Flaps:

Using the scale plans mentioned above and with Evergreen I made the flap sections, including the ribs. Hinges were made using Evergreen plastic rods. Then I left them aside. Navigation lights were made with a bit of plastic, painted in silver and then the corresponding colours (clear red and green). Then the kit’s clear parts were added and some putty was required to have a flush union.

The fairing that covers the union of the fuselage portion of the wings to the actual wings was made with plasticard. The access door for the adjustment of the flight control surfaces cables in the wings was made with a rectangle of plastic sheet and a flat round piece of plastic. The cap for the oil tank came from a round piece from the spares to which I have engraved the profile. The 5 reinforcements (“stiches”) on top of the left wing close to the oil tank were made with little pieces of rectangular thin plastic.

Wings to fuselage:

With both sub-assemblies ready these were put together. It left a gap on the top wing roots that I had to cover with sheets of thin Evergreen. Putty and sandpaper made this part smooth but I had to re scribe some panel lines. Needless to say there are gaps between top and bottom wing halves due to the flaps being removed. I covered the gaps with thin plastic to box the flaps.

The radiator is fine. I removed the raised details and engraved them. I also added the actuator for the flap (drilling the holes on the lower fuselage to get these run thru. I made the support in the center front opening using a piece of wire.

The Vokes air filter in the kit has the wrong profile being too shallow and too short. To fix it I made a cut along the intake to open up the distance between the fuselage and the bottom of the filter. Then this gap was filled with pieces of plastic and putty. To make it longer cut the end part, glued it in place and with more plastic and putty covered the gap between the main part of the filter and the end. While this was being worked on I also scratchbuilt the two small blister under the nose that are partially covered by the filter.

This part of the project took several nights of work as I had to ensure the correct length and depth (using Caruana’s drawings as a reference again)

Propeller:

The one in the kit is supposed to be a Rotol one for the MkII but it falls short in terms of length. Anyways I did not need the hub so I cut the blades and shaped them based on Caruana’s drawing. As they are too short I had to add extensions that would go inside the hub.

The propeller hub came from the spares. I believe it is a Typhoon one in 1/48 that I had to profile sanding it a lot. The back plate was the kit’s. Everything was glued together with Caruana’s drawing as a reference in terms of position of the blades. Putty was used in some spots to fill some gaps. Tissue paper was used in the landing gear well and cockpit.

Exhausts in the kit are terrible. Hollow in the bottom and with a profile that matches no real type used in a Hurricane. They are also too short. A lot of scratchbuild took place, starting by filling the openings at the bottom with pieces of plastic. With thick plasticard I made the first 2 exhausts. With thin plasticard bent in a semicircle and glued to a flat piece I made the openings for these exhausts. And with hollow round small pipes I made the last one on each side. It was a real challenge. They were airbrushed in Vallejo Rust and then drybrushed with Bronze. Then I let them aside.

Landing gear is pretty decent. I did some detailing in terms of linkages. The wheels were glued together and I scratchbuild the hooks in the middle of the hubs. The kits tail wheel is horrible. I found one in the spares that had a very good shape, size, level of detail and depth. It was attached to the kit’s tail leg.

At this point I was able to start painting the kit.

The windshield and canopy were primed in black after they had been masked. I applied a coat of Vallejo light grey primer. Because I was going to paint the markings (first time ever and thanks to the tips by my friend Duncan McIntosh from our IMPS in London, Ontario) I used white in some areas of the tail, fuselage and under the wings.

On my cutting board I laid strips of Tamiya tape large enough to be able to draw the roundels and using a compass that has a blade instead of a pencil. The concentric circles were cut this way but keeping the integrity of the overall circles. I placed them on the fuselage, wings and tail. I took Arma Hobby’s profile and brought it to scale to have a template for the lightning that goes across the fuselage roundel.

The border of attack was painted Vallejo Aluminum. This is following the good research made by the guys at Arma Hobby who say that the spaghetti cammo on 274 was not light sand but most likely unpainted aluminum based on how light is reflected and testimony of one of the pilots that said that the base colour was grey. I masked the border of attack and made the edge to the cammo using strips of rolled blue tac. I painted the undersides with Vallejo Azure Blue. Then I masked this area and painted the top with Vallejo Middle Stone and finally this one was also masked before applying Vallejo’s Dark Brown.

Now it was time for the markings. I started to remove the corresponding circles, rectangles (tail) or lightning and apply the colours with the airbrush. Going from lighter to darker (i.e. azure for lightning, yellow, red and finally blue).

Needless to say there were some touch ups to be made (lightning area and fuselage roundel) but mostly everything went much better than I thought. When using the blue or red I also then painted free hand the spaghettis on the aluminum border of attack. Propellers were painted with yellow tips and overall in black. Canopy rails were painted aluminum with a brush.

Some dry black pastel was sanded and applied with a brush as exhaust stains on the fuselage per the images of the actual plane flown by Honor. I attached the landing gear (minus wheels) that I had previously painted in Aluminum (Vallejo). Several light coats of Future prepared the kit for the few decals.

The only decals I used were those for the serial number that came from Carpena’s black RAF letters and numbers. And from the spares I took some large rectangles of red brown to make the fabric covers on top of the machine guns. Set and Sol were used to improve the adhesion.

I sprayed a coat of Model Master Flat Clear Varnish. I attached the scratchbuilt gunsight (all parts from the spares shaped as needed), the windshield with the also scratchbuild rear mirror (black front, silver back).

The exhausts fit perfect in place. Attached all the wheels and wheels doors. I made the break lines using thin wire. I also glued the pitot and the rudder light was made with a rounded piece of clear plastic. The retracting footstep under the fuselage was made with plastic pieces and a bent thin wire.

Carefully I attached the flaps (interior face had been previously painted Interior green like the insides of the radiator). From the spares I also made the formation light on the spine before the antenna mast. Handles were scratchbuilt for the canopy that then was fixed open. The bead came from the spares and glued on the engine cover. The antenna was made with stainless aluminum wire, and finally the propeller was glued in place.

This is one of the kits that took me the longest to build at 6 months. But I am very proud of the outcome knowing how much I had to transform the original kit. It is a nice way to finish my 10-plane tribute to the Hurricane and her pilots...and at that flown by the top Argentina-born ace of WWII…with a Canadian connection!

Pablo Calcaterra

8 June 2023