Douglas Bader's Hurricane, 1/48 Hasegawa

Hi guys , I ll be building Douglas Bader's Hurricane for the Battle of Britain GB.
I believe the markings are correct though I 'm not sure.
The kit is a Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane Mk1 , the decals are from Sky Models.
This is a beautiful kit as you will see in the pictures , fit is good but there are some
tricky areas like under the fuselage.Another con is the canopy is one piece meaning
you will need to cut it to pose it open.

Some history on Sir Douglas first, copied from wiki

Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader ( /ˈbɑːdər/) CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAeS, DL (21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 20 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.[1][2]

Bader joined the RAF in 1928, and was commissioned in 1930. In December 1931, while attempting some aerobatics, he crashed and lost both his legs. Having been on the brink of death, he recovered, retook flight training, passed his check flights and then requested reactivation as a pilot. Although there were no regulations applicable to his situation, he was retired on medical grounds.[3] After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, however, Bader returned to the RAF and was accepted as a pilot. He scored his first victories over Dunkirk during the Battle of France in 1940. He then took part in the Battle of Britain and became a friend and supporter of Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and his "Big Wing" experiments.

In August 1941, Bader bailed out over German-occupied France and was captured. Soon afterward, he met and befriended Adolf Galland, a prominent German fighter ace.[4] The circumstances surrounding how Bader was shot down in 1941 are controversial. Recent research strongly suggests he was a victim of friendly fire. Despite his disability, Bader made a number of escape attempts and was eventually sent to the POW camp at Colditz Castle. He remained there until the camp was liberated by the First United States Army in April 1945.

Bader left the RAF permanently in February 1946 and later worked in the oil industry. During the 1950s, a book and a film, Reach for the Sky, chronicled his life and RAF career to the end of the Second World War. Bader campaigned for the disabled – for which he was knighted in 1976 – and continued to fly until ill health forced him to stop in 1979. He died three years later, on 5 September 1982, from a sudden heart attack.

Great start on the cockpit! I presume you did a light wash and the belts are Eduard?

Cheers

Hi an dy , yup I did a light raw umber watercolor wash and the belts
are from Lion Roar. They are not bad hopefully Fine Molds will do an
injection RAF seat belt set like they have done for German n IJA WW2
1/48 planes

Speaking of FineMolds, they also do a 1/48 figure of Douglas Bader but Legend Productions version is a more likely candidate.

Hi Chow , yup I ordered the Legend 1/48 Douglas Bader.
The Fine Molds one is actually in 1/32. Also I have Hase's 1/48
Adolf Galand figure so the 2 friends can be together :-D no joke.

Good combination of fighter aces.

Like the seat belts and interior. So I guess no pint Hurrying you as you complete stuff in a Hurried manner so to speak.

When you mean your roster is clear you mean not much flying time? Lucky you...more building time then.

I think the Hurry's going to be a cracker with Bader standing on the wing.

Cheers,
Richard

Dunno if can pose him on the wing Rocco.
To do that I would need to:-
1) repose his left arm
2) cut open the canopy

Maybe I should just get the Italeri / Tamiya kit since its canopy is in
2 pieces.
Also the Legend Douglas Bader has a brow like a Cro-Magnon

Hmmm...., we know that English officers have a stiff upper lip, but not heard anything about a stiff upper brow.

Wonder if the master crafter was thinking about the GEICO caveman when he was working on this.

GEICO Caveman

Capt,

Any pictures of Legend Bader? Link? Then I can comment on the pose.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks to Jason for the "low brow" link.

Rocco Here is da caveman

Eng Hui,

I can see the cave man brow. If you're up to it, sanding down the forehead and brow should do the trick.

It's his square jaw that they didn't capture. Very hard to modify unless you cut his head in half at the nose/lip and extend slightly and sanding both the sides of his upper jaw/cheeks.

His pose is already classic where he has his hands in the pockets to steady the braces for his legs. So he should be standing beside his plane. Up to you where you want to put him.

It would be great to have a figure of Cyril for my tribute build just like you have for Bader.

Cheers,
Richard

Looks like they got his face too "squashed" - should be "longer" if u know what i mean. But then, Im no expert on figures

hi , I finally got the actual figure , actually in 1/48 it's not that bad.Maybe no need shave the brow also.

Ribbing detail was lost during sanding so I had to rebuild using plastic strip.


after sanding it to be more flush


nose cowl fattened up cos I cut too much away.


canopy masked and surfacer on



landing gear detail is awesome, I just added some brake lines


camo on

Nice work...!

Very neat surface detail repair job.

I'm sure Sir Douglas Bader would have given his right (or left) leg for this.

Looking good, shame about the nose profile though