SPA Modeler

Nice work!!

Thanks, John and Mike.

I got some Humbrol 81 enamel in from Sprue Bros, so there is some progress on the Albion refueler that came with the Hurricane Ready for Battle set. I have the closed door option white glued to mask for painting, but I will put the open doors on it for display as there is some nice detail in that compartment. There is a lot of drive train detail, all of which Airfix says to paint black, except for the differential and rear axle. I suppose I can leave the engine hood loose to show the engine, but it also comes with two hoods, one of which has the left side hinged up. This is a nice kit.

More progress on the Albion fuel tru, er, lorry. That bumper on the front was very fiddley, and I need to work a little more on the fit of the left hood side panel. The hood is just sitting there loose and the left door is stuck on with a little white glue to aid in masking for painting. Three or four parts all have to go together at once on the front of the "vehicle".

Actually, I do believe that the term used by the RAF for such a machine was “bowser”.

You're quite right, Carlos. I did get the hood sorted out OK tonight, and the fuel booms and hoses installed.

You mean the bonnet on the bowser?

Got me again

Now that I'm over the headache from that headslap I gave myself earlier here's some pictures of the completed Albion fueler. This thing has a very large cab, I think you could have a party in there.

Airfix provided both closed and open doors for the fuel compartment and the left, OK, off side cab door. I decided to have the cab door open and to leave off the fuel compartment door because of the picture I posted earlier. As Carlos noted that was a colourised picture, but the color inside the fuel compartment look authentic to me, an ivory color that may have started out white. I mixed a little yellow with flat white for that effect. The decals for the gauges really worked well. I did try to give it a bit of a faded and dusty look.

The fuel booms can be posed in alternate positions, but they would not be movable given the way the parts are designed. I think they could be movable if some drilling and pinning of the connecting hoses was done, or if flexible hoses were used from the boom into the fuel compartment. Probably would be easier if you could get more booms from Airfix and use alternates for the display you want to set up.

John, that is just plain ol’ we’ll done! I really like your work. There was an Air Warriorsepisode on the Hurricane recently. Quite a history.