My bubble top Hurricane - DONE!!!

[proditor]

That is one sexy beast.  I agree on the canopy, a bit "worker's paradise" looking.  And let me echo JHM's compliments on the compound cutting.  Just awe-inspiring.

[upnorth]

Thanks guys!

Honestly, the cutting wasn't too difficult once I got the cut lines determined and marked out. On the other hand, my grandfather was a carpenter, so maybe there's a genetic predisposition to this sort of approach to things.

I was working on a pair of underwing gunpods as I'm going for the ground attack version, however, I think mine ended up looking too modern so today I'll go out and try to find something a bit more period as well as try to find a few vac form canopy options.

Thanks again for the kind words. Hopefully more progress pics will be up before the week is out.

[Captain Canada]

Wow, did you ever nail that fuselage join....great job !

I have to agree with you on the canopy part, tho....way to Russian.

I posted this on you original thread, but I think that one went away before you had a chance to look at it. It's a pair I drew for Tophe waaay back when he was somewhere between half-true and completely bubble-top crazy !

[upnorth]

Thanks for both your comments on the model so far and for reposting the drawings.

I went to one of my two LHSs today but really found nothing in their dwindling stock of Pavla vac form canopies to inspire. Tomorrow I'll go to the other shop and see what they have in either vac form canopies (the carry some Squadron stuff) or cheap kits in the consignment section that I can cannibalize with no price related guilt. Right now they have a batch of old Matchbox, Airfix and Smer kits on consignment between 60 and 80 Czech Crowns a kit which is a damn sweet deal no matter what currency rides in your pocket.

Thanks again everyone for all your kind words and cutting comments (yeah, I'm getting my coat! )

[kitbasher]

Very nice.  As another commentator said, stil looks like a Hurricane, and like the Hurricane proper the bubbletop looks suitably 1930s in origin.  Have you tried adating a Typhoon 'car door' canopy as an alternative?  That would keep it firmly in the Hawker stable.
Looking forward to the next update. 

[upnorth]

Right now I'm trying to find a canopy in the vein of a later Typhoon or Tempest and modify it a bit to look blown, but slightly less blown then you might expect for the late 30s early 40s timeframe. That might simply mean adding a frame aft of the seat to represent a sliding central section with fixed windscreen and aft section.

[sotoolslinger]

Upnorth the Cann is looking sweet For your gun pods These are just droptanks with tubing

pretty simple and they look period
I basically just copied Stuka pods

[upnorth]

No pics tonight (camera bateries are charging) but I picked up a Smer Heller Tempest today on the cheap and the canopy looks much better than the Yak's did, I had to put a few shims around the cockpit opening, but it should fit quite nicely.

As for the guns, an idea hit me last night for a higher calibre armed air defence version. rather than big tank busting guns in pods, I'm going to try for a pair of 20mm guns in fairings built into the under side of the wings. Id have one 20mm and a couple of 50 calibre MGs on each wing.

Time to give the Tempest canopy a dip in Future.

[sotoolslinger]

Cool idea on the guns(i forget is this 1/72) if so you could scalorama the 50 cal pods off of an Airacobra in 1/48

[upnorth]

Cool idea on the guns(i forget is this 1/72) if so you could scalorama the 50 cal pods off of an Airacobra in 1/48

Yep, this is 1/72.

I've got a bit of unexpected time off tomorrow so I'll try to make some progress on the underwing 20mm fairings and get some pics up. The more I think about it, the more I like the heavy air defense idea over ground attack.

I've made a few adjustments to my backstory and so it will be reflected in the model.

As for the prop, she'll be staying as the three blade Hurricane one.

With any luck, I'll have photograph worthy progress to show sometime this week.

[SPINNERS]

Nice backstory and nice build so far. I agree on the three-bladed prop and I'm really looking forward to seeing this one finished.

[upnorth]

A couple of pics tonight showing the earlier mentioned 20mm underwing cannon fairings for the heavy air defence variant, there will be muzzles sticking out of those holes in front, but I'll probably wait until the very end to stick them in. I did some Milliput work today to fair them in a bit better and hopefully I can do some sanding tomorrow or Thursday. You might also be able to see some evidence of a small PSR session around the fuselage joint.

Also You can see how much better the Tempest canopy looked compared to the Yak's. I'm not entirely satisfied with the clarity of the canopy even after a dip in Pronto (the Future derivitive here). As we have a model show coming up towards the end of the month, I may try to find a vac formed one there. However, this one certainly serves the purpose for letting me know what it will look like in the end.

[kitnut617]

A-ha! that looks way better 

[Captain Canada]

Very much more Anglo with that bubble...love the little cannon blisters, neat idea !

[upnorth]

Thanks guys.

The bubble definitely gives it "the look" I'm after.

The cannon fairings were made out of left over bombs from a 1/72 Sukhoi SU-22 kit (one of the Bilek kits IIRC) I am quite happy with how they look even before sanding the putty.