Hasegawa 1/48 Hawker Hurricane MK.IIC 'Kings Cup Air Race'

I built this kit for a club display, which take place in November to celebrate the 80th Birthday of the Hawker Hurricane. As a consequence from start to finish it took me just 8 weeks to complete this model, which for me is a real achievement.

The only things I added were an Eduard interior etch set (FE536) - mainly for the seat belts as the interior is almost invisible through the closed canopy - and a set of Aires wheels. The kit went together without any problems and I only used a small amount of filler on the underside aft, wing to fuselage join. I also sanded back the fuselage fabric as I felt it was a little overdone and filled the panel line at the rear of the upper deck as the transition from the timber deck to the fabric fuselage should be a smooth one. 

The model was then masked and primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer and painted with Gunze H5 Blue, H9 Gold and Games Workshop Mithril Silver. The decals are the ones supplied in the kit and went on beautifully over a gloss coat of Future, which was also used to seal them in as well. However, the Future gloss coat was far to shiny and to tone it down I over sprayed it with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Gloss and Satin varnish, which gave it much more realistic scale sheen.

This was a really easy and enjoyable kit to build and a nice change from my usual fare of commission builds.

What you find when you least expect it.

On a recent day trip to Trentham, with the intention of visiting the well known waterfall, I somehow missed the signpost and consequently took a wrong turn and by the time I noticed it I'd ended up in the small town of Bullarto.

Pulling into a side road in an attempt to get a GPS fix I suddenly saw what appeared to be an old abandoned sawmill. Being the adventurous type that I am and with a camera to hand I decided to check it out and at first discovered an old Chevrolet Blitz parked under a tree partially covered in blackberries.

As I explored further it was obvious from the undergrowth that the sawmill has been abandoned for some time with a number of vehicles on site slowly succumbing to the forces of nature. However, being in such a remote location off the main road vandalism was noticeably minimal, making the old sawmill all the more interesting.

Having spent a good deal of time exploring the place and realising where I'd gone wrong, I was soon back on the road again in the right direction towards my intended destination, the Trentham Falls.