Hawker Hurricane mk1 airfix model aircraft kit in 1/48th scale

The Hurricane's wing is made up from a one piece lower half moulding, the cockpit/wheel bay centre assembly and two upper wing surface halves. The cockpit section was joined to the lower wing moulding previously making sure the alignment of the seat rest was correct. Now the two upper wing mouldings can be glued on. These fit quite well, some pressure being require at the inboard trailing edge on one wing half. Some misalignment is evident with the detail markings on one half but it's not too bad. When dry the result is a pleasing Hurricane wing which requires only minor tidying.
The wing can now be glued to the fuselage. Fit on my example of the model kit for this major join was good, a little plastic was removed from the fuselage before gluing the wing on. Some slight use of filler is called for around this join at the back and front to blend in the lines of the aircraft.

The tailplane (horizontal stabiliser) is made from four mouldings these are joined together and then glued into their slots. They need to be kept an eye on while setting as gremlins move them around behind your back given half a chance, little blighters.
The radiator and oil cooler are then glued in place underneath the aircraft.
That just leaves minor filling and some sanding in preparation for the main paint job, which comes next (I leave off the fine detail until after the major work is done to avoid everything breaking off).

Light grey matt enamel was applied first as a base coat, the whole aircraft being sprayed with this paint. When dry and lightly sanded the top coat painting was tackled. Colours used on this Mk1 Hurricane are dark earth and dark green upperside camouflage with a sky underside, this being typical of RAF aircraft of the period. The underside was painted first with the trusty Badger airbrush followed by masking and then spraying the entire upper surface dark earth. The model was then masked for the camouflage pattern and sprayed dark green, completing the main scheme.

Satin varnish was applied before starting the decal application process. There are some large transfers which have to be put on this Hurricane model. Particularly big are the rear side mounted transfers which are just begging to suffer from silvering and trapped air bubbles. Tackling these with some care I managed to get a respectable result although after they had dried I did notice a little silvering. To remedy this I applied some more satin varnish and rubbed it into the decal with a finger taking care not to over do it and rip it from the surface which is easily done.
Most modellers will use a special decal adhesive for the Hurricanes markings, this I well recommend as the best way of tackling the job.
After all the decals were applied a further spray of satin varnish was applied.
The decals are generally good but there is some register error in the roundels as can be picked up in the photos (white outline).

Next all the other detail parts so far left off the model were stuck on. The undercarriage was fixed in the retracted position ready for stand mounting and the conopy stuck down with PVA.

Last job was an application of Humbrol matt coat thinned with white spirit to the model (canopy masked).

In conclusion this Airfix 1/48 Hurricane builds into a very nice model straight out of the box with little effort required from the builder. The super detail modellers out there could surely turn this kit into a fabulous study of the Hurricane.
Hurricane mk1 kit part 1

Hurricane mk1 kit part 2