August 2014
Hawker Sea Hurricane
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH
Selected WW2 70th Anniversaries this month:
Between 2009 and 2015, I have set myself a general modelling theme based on selected 70th Anniversaries from WW2.
In France, the Allies continue their advance inland, although there are strong pockets of Nazi resistance, especially along the coastal Festungs.
Nevertheless, progress is better than hoped, allowing a second front to be opened by large scale amphibious landings on French the Mediterranean coast
1 Aug 1944 – The Warsaw Uprising starts.
4 Aug -
12 Aug – In one of the greatest ever feats of military engineering, the first PLUTO
(Pipe-
15 Aug – Operation Dragoon -
25 Aug – Allied forces commanded by Free French General LeClerc enter Paris. Nazi commander von Choltitz, faced with unsurmountable odds, surrenders the city without a fight.
Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk.IIc
835 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, HMS NAIRANA, Bay of Biscay, July 1944
Airfix 1/72
835 Squadron in HMS NAIRANA were the last Fleet Air Arm squadron to use the Sea Hurricane in front line service. NAIRANA was a small escort carrier, equipped with a composite squadron of Swordfish, Sea Hurricanes and (later on) Wildcats. She served mainly on escort duties between the UK and Gibraltar, and the UK and Murmansk.
NAIRANA’s Hurricanes were painted in an overall white scheme as an extension of the
anti-
The subject of this kit was an aircraft named “Nicki”. Flown by several of 835’s
pilots, she is best known for shooting down a Ju-
This is the relatively recent Airfix Hurricane kit, which comes with 3 decal options, including two RAF aircraft, one UK based and the other from India, as well as the Sea Hurricane “Nicki”. For this last option, you need to cut out part of the lower fuselage and insert a replacement section that includes the hook mechanism; this is not as difficult as it sounds, but did need a little filler (I used Tippex) to complete.
The kit is very nicely moulded, with slightly overdone engraved details, but excellent fit throughout, allowing an good looking model to be built by all levels of modelling experience. The kit’s undercarriage is particularly well done, robust enough to hold the kit’s weight, but with very positive engagement points and very fine, but easily fitted operating struts.
Have a look at my "RN Props" pages for details of my other WW1 Naval aircraft models
Aircraft Carrier Alliance -
Last month saw the naming of the Royal Navy’s new Aircraft Carrier, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH,
at Rosyth Dockyard in Fife Scotland. The ship was subsequently floated out of her
building dock and into Rosyth’s non-
At 280m long, 70m wide and displacing 65,000 tonnes, she is the largest vessel ever
built for the RN. Designed to carry a task-
The Queen Elizabeth Class’ twin island design is a world first ; providing an excellent forward view for ship control and an optimised view of the flight deck and approaches for aircraft control they avoid one of the major compromises facing other modern carriers and typify the innovative design of these radical new ships.
This is one of the reasons my modelling has been limited this month. There are many
better pictures of the ship’s naming and float -
Meanwhile, the tiny little “lego-
Not sure about the scale, but you get the idea! Now how do we convince Airfix to do a bigger one?
….. And here she is in the amazing video below:
When it was first issued, this kit saw some criticism for its deep panel lines (judge
for yourself -
The propeller is genuinely an issue; its blades are clearly too small and if I had been able to find where I put my propeller spares box (somewhere safe, I’m sure!) then I definitely would have replaced it. Apart from this (small and fixable) point I really liked this simple and enjoyable little kit.
The fuselage codes are also open to some discussion; several other kits (from respected manufacturers) show Nicki as 7@N, or even 7@T. Not impossible that there was more than one Nicki, or that the codes changed, but Airfix have chosen 7@K, a code apparently backed up by SubLt Burgham’s own flying log.
HMS NAIRANA with her white Sea Hurricanes ranged on deck© IWM (FL 12664)
NAIRANA’s Sea Hurricanes were originally painted with full D-
www.gengriz.co.uk
Background Image: A rather sad looking Jet Provost sits forlorn in a field near Bristol Airport