Props to My Homies: Hurricane Part 2

Now that I’m fully wired up and have access to a “Bat Computer” level of electronic data, I find that building some models takes on an entirely inappropriate level of persnickety-ness. In this case, I’ve found a bunch of models and paintings and illustrations showing the Hurricane of Douglas Bader (pronounced “bah-der,” not bade-ur) which show the type of propeller and spinner that resembles the one in the Hasegawa kit. Then I’ve found a lot of photos showing Bader and an actual Hurricane and the Hurricane never has a prop that looks like the Hasegawa kit’s prop.

All of this is extremely tedious. I just wanted to build the Hurricane of the immensely famous and disagreeable Sir Douglas, and I get lost in nit-picky land. Perhaps if I stare at this drawing long enough, I’ll become enlightened.

Because I’ve been at this a while (even if we only count my later, twenty-year period of modeling and not my entire fifty year odyssey) I have a spare parts stash and a kit stash. Somewhere in all that there is an old Revell Spitfire Mk. II prop, an old Revell Hurricane Mk. I prop, a newer Revell Sea Hurricane prop, and, of course, the Hasegawa prop included in the kit.

This is the old, old Revell Hurricane prop, and it’s the one that looks the most like the photos.

I read a very tedious treatise on Hurricane props over at Britmodeller that was enough to put me off plastic kits for a long while (if I had read the whole thing). It wasn’t just jam-packed with facts, figures, serial numbers and other flotsam, it was poorly written. Somewhere within the heart of every Englishman seems to lurk a desire to torture students. Baffling, if true.

Anyway, I gathered from it that Hurricanes had a whole lotta’ different propellers.

Well pitch my props and call me a Hamilton Standard!

I’ll get back to you when I have this “sorted.” Hopefully, I’ll have Bader’s Hurricane up and running before any Jerry cabbage crates come over the briney.