Johnny Red's Ghost Hurricane

[McGreig]

This is the third of the relatively simple builds that I'm using to get back into modelling. It's probably the simplest and may be finished first, but work is still progressing on the Twin P-40 and cut-down MiG-21, just nothing worth posting yet.

For those who've never come across it, "Johnny Red" was a strip which ran in the British "Battle" comic from 1977 to 1987. It followed the career of John Redburn - Johnny Red - a British pilot who spent the duration of World War Two fighting with the Soviet "Falcon" Squadron in Northern Russia.

Most of the strips are available on the Falcon squadron web site www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk

While it's true that the strip shows the losses of a hard-fought and under resourced campaign and is not afraid to show Johnny's friends being killed in action, it has to be said that the plot lines generally fall into the range between improbable and completely mad. And as for the aircraft - there are Focke Wulf Condors that handle like fighters, a Hurricane with Vickers S guns that dogfights with the best of them and a Mk-1 Hurricane that shoots down a couple of Me-262s in the final battle over Germany.

Still, it's an interesting source of whiffs, including this one.

Briefly, Johnny is presumed drowned after being shot down into the sea. However, he survives, keeps his escape secret, persuades an RAF Hurricat maintenance unit conveniently based in North Russia to paint one of their catapult Hurricanes blood red and returns to action to get his revenge on the Condor pilot who shot him down, partly by making him think that he's being pursued by a ghost aircraft and pilot. (well, I did warn you about the plot lines - - - ) If you want to see the original story it ran from 16 August 1980 to 18 October 1980 and can be seen on the Falcon Squadron web site.

[McGreig]

The model is the 1/72 Airfix Hurricane Mk-II. While this is certainly not the most accurate Hurricane on the market - fuselage too shallow, nose a bit too sleek, rear decking behind cockpit starts to slope too soon and the wings are covered in rivets - I've got quite a few in the stash and I'm quite fond of it, despite its faults.

This shows how far I've got to date - the next stage will be to undercoat the whole aircraft light grey and then apply the red. The skull on the fuselage will come from a Games Workshop decal sheet. The markings will be slightly different from those in the comic, but more on that in the next update.

[cthulhu77]

Grinning from ear to ear over hear in Arizona !!!   

[pyro-manic]

Cooooooooool.

[BlackOps]

This falls into the too freakin' fun category!

[The Rat]

A winner from the get-go! Can't wait, can't wait! (Jumping up and down while crossing legs) 

[sotoolslinger]

ME TOO 

[McGreig]

The undercoat and the first coat of red are now done.

And this is where the colour scheme problems start. The art in the "Johnny Red" strip covers the entire spectrum between bad and appalling and it's difficult to see exactly what the colours and markings on the ghost Hurricane are.

The text suggests that the entire aircraft is red, but most of the drawings appear to show light coloured undersides, particularly under the nose. The skull on the fuselage shifts in shape and position from frame to frame (Mind you, so does the shape of the Hurricane itself  ) and , while the text suggests that skulls are also painted above and below the wings, these aren't always shown in the drawings.

Given all this, I've decided to go for a compromise colour scheme that keeps the main Johnny Red motifs from the story but is also an identifiably Soviet aircraft. It will have red upper surfaces over standard light grey under surfaces. There will be a skull on the fuselage as per the comic strip drawings, but there will be red stars under the wings and on the fin and, following standard Soviet practice at the time, no markings on the wing upper surfaces (although I am slightly tempted by skulls on the wing upper surface  ).

[sotoolslinger]

MMMMMMM Scary

[Radish]

Nice one.

I also feel like a Johnny Red aircraft build at some time, perhaps his MiG-3?

[Mossie]

Ahh, Johnny Red, used to nick my brothers Battle comics when he wasn't looking!  I like this a lot!

Johnny flew quite a few aircraft, many of them just for a single story.  I've looked through that site recentley myself & noted an I-16 & LaGG-5, as well as several Hurricanes of course.  The Falcon Squadron as well flew just about every Soviet fighter type there was & some others too.  The Falcon Squadron emblem adorned the sides of most of their aircraft, I guess you could take the image off that site & print it onto decal paper.  Would make a nice 'theme'!?!?!

[Nick]

I clearly remember the Flying Gun. Take a B-25 Mitchell and stick 8 50cal machine guns in the nose plus 2 more on each side, not forgetting the 3 turrets. Remove all unnecessary weight and add on as much armour as possible while leaving space for the crew and one VIP.

Then take a one way trip across Nazi occupied Europe to deliver said VIP and documents to London. No mention of Johnny Red getting any training in how to fly the plane either!