Hurricane Mk I, W9266, 274 Squadron, Gerawla, Egypt, 25 May 1941

This is a contentious scheme as no color photos exist (yet) and the descriptions of the “sand and spinach” leading edge and nose are inconsistent. They range from green and brown, green and yellow, to purple and aluminum. At the time of the build, in 2010, this was my interpretation.

The Subject

While the caption said Egypt this scheme was also on 274 aircraft fighting in Greece at the time. In all likelihood they were operating out of Egypt but fighting up in the Greek isles at forward operating bases. Online there has been some arguments for/against many different choices. There seem to be no agreement on why this camo was applied, and unfortunately we’ll probably never know.

This particular aircraft was flown by Dudley Honor who was a veteran of France and the Battle of Britain. During the invasion of Crete he was attacking transports (he shot down 2) but his aircraft was heavily damaged. He ditched about a half mile from the island, sank to about 40 feet before he got out of the aircraft (very lucky man). He then swam ashore and evaded the Germans for 6 days. He spotted a Sunderland evacuating senior personnel and after flashing an SOS he was flown back to Egypt where he rejoined 274 Squadron.

Dudley Honor survived the war and left the RAF as a Group Captain. He passed away at 94 in 2008.

The Model

This is another Airfix Mk I that is the older tooling. Certainly showing its age, but it’s the best out there and is actually very accurate in shape. I build this OOB, however as I review the photos I should go back and fix those wing tip lights. They look horrid!

I used an Airwaves tropical filter for Mk I. I’d like to find more of this as there are a few more Mk I’s I’d like to do with tropical filters. They are just a tad shorter than the ones used on the Mk II series, if I need I’ll modify one of those in the future.

Paint Humbrol Hu29 for the Dark Earth, Testors Model Master MM2052 for the Mid Stone and the Sky Blue is Pollyscale PS505248. The “spaghetti” pattern are Italian decals placed on a coat of Gunze H85. All this was was sealed under a coat of Future (Klear) before the decals went on.

Decals are by Model Allaince, sheet MA-72148. They went on without a hitch using the Microscale system of Set and Sol. A further coat of Future to seal it all in, then I tried my hand at weathering since this aircraft was hard used. I’ve a long way to go with weathering…’nuff said. I then sealed that all in with a coat of Future mixed with Testors Clear Flat.

Summary

I want to do this one over again but using the newer tool Airfix Mk I. Okay, it’s a rag wing, but with some effort it should look pretty good as a metal winged Hurricane Mk I. Plus, I want to try some of those other color options mentioned in the link above. So I’ll probably redo this one in multiple colors.

Thanks for looking…