1/144 Sweet Kit Hurricane Mk1 Tropical

by Bruce Scott

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This buildup is from the outstanding Hurricane Tropical kit from Sweet.  If you want to see state of the art in 1/144th models the Sweet kits are it.  About the only limitation with the kit is the lack of cockpit details, and aftermarket sets are non-existant, so I scratched an instrument panel, sidewall detail, control column and seat.  Unfortunately, you pretty much need a torch and a magnifying glass to see any of it and getting a photo was beyond my meagre skills.  To give the kit a little more life I also cut and repositioned the tail control surfaces and rudder.  Otherwise, apart from the heat n' smash canopy and aerial wire, it's straight out of the box.

I painted the kit with Polly Scale acrylics.  I cut the Middlestone and Azure Blue with about 20% light grey, and replaced the Dark Earth with Bruno Mimetico for scale effect.  I then used a burnt umber wash to darken panel lines and some pastels to lighten some panels.  I find you need to keep weathering pretty subtle in this scale, but most of the weathering disappeared with the final clear coat so I guess I was too subtle.

Decals are the beautifully printed, but somewhat thick, Cartograph ones from the kit.  I rearranged some of the kit serial numbers to represent an aircraft flown by 3 Squadron RAAF in North Africa.

Bruce

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Bruce Scott