Hurricane Mk I, L1766/P, 73 Squadron, F/O Edgar James “Cobber” Kain, France, April 1940
Another of my Hurricane Season batch build; this choice being special in that Cobber Kain was a famous pilot in the early war years, especially during the Battle of France and generally a household name.
The Subject
L1766 represents a transitional point for fighter camouflage as well as the configuration of the Hurricane Mk I. With the former, this aircraft still sports the White/Night wings, however experience was to show that the French rudder stripes were easily recognizable, therefore something similar was tried on allied aircraft in theatre. She still has the yellow surrounds to the wing roundels, but these would soon be removed; the yellow surrounds have already been removed from the fuselage roundels but of course these would be reinstated shortly.
The configuration is that of a late Mk I fabric winged Hurricane, however the 2 blade Watts wooden prop has not yet been replaced with a 3 blade DH or Rotol, so subsequently the armor has not been added. These would start to show up soon.
Cobber Kain flew operationally with 73 Squadron, he scored the unit’s first kill in November 1930, had his 5th kill in March 1940, being the first to earn the DFC. Once the Battle for France was on his skills were demonstrated by quickly dispatching 12 more enemy aircraft in just 17 days.
On 7 June he was ordered back to the UK for rest, and on his departure he decided to do some aerobatics. Unfortunately he crashed at high speed and died instantly.
The Model
This is yet another Airfix Hurricane, built out of the box, except for spare decals from Model Alliance sheet 72147.
Construction is straightforward, I did use the Freightdog update wheels, and enhanced the cockpit with Tamiya tape seat belts. I cut off the wing tip lights and replaced them with clear sprue.
Painting is the standard pattern of Dark Earth and Dark Green. I used my preferred acrylics for these two colors of Vallejo 70.921 and Tamiya XF-81. For the underside Aluminum, I used Tamiya XF-16, Night is Tamiya’s NATO Black XF-69 and White is Tamiya’s XF-2. I painted the rudder stripes using Tamiya XF-7 and XF-8 over white. The entire model was then coated with a few coats of Future (Klear) to create a smooth surface for decals.
As noted above, the Paddy III decals came from Model Alliance, however the roundels are from my spares box, and are Techmod. They went on well, however the Model Alliance decals have some silvering that just would not go away. I used DACO medium setting solution and even tried using Tamiya X-20A thinner. According to a modeling colleague it makes a great setting solution if used properly. I do know that DACO’s strong solution is too much for Model Alliance, experience has shown me it’ll just melt them.
Summary
I truly enjoy building this kit. And I’m almost complete with my fabric wing Hurricanes.
Thanks for looking…
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