Canadian-Built Hurricane Mk.XII RCAF Serial Number 5418

These photos have been provided by IPMS Edmonton member Vic Scheuerman as an addendum to his Hurricane XII modelling article which appears in RT 28/6 (Available as a back issue).  Vic provided the following notes to go with the photo series:

"The photos of this refurbished Hurricane were taken at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin in the spring of 2003. Before going to the photos I must say how cooperative the museum staff is. On the day of the shoot I arrived and introduced myself to the interpreter, Jackie Holm. I went over what photos that I would like to take (behind the barriers) and showed her some of my work that had been published. She then phoned her boss, Dan Bodie the curator, who quickly gave the go-ahead. Then Jackie gave a hand - what more can I say? National Air Museum, take note!"

	This photo captures all the details of the early Canadian Mk XII (based on the Mk.IIB). Note that it has the early exhaust arrangement, exhaust glare shield, lack of spinner and early tailwheel. A snippet here is that the exhaust glare shield is mounted horizontal, not upturned. According to F.K. Mason in his excellent book; The Hawker Hurricane, Canadian-built Hurricanes had the shields angled upwards (page 105). A look through my reference could only produce one photo of this arrangement – in Mason’s book!
	Hurricane 5418 has the flash hiders in place. However, all photos of war-time Hurricanes that I have seen show these items were not attached and the muzzle covered with protective doped cloth (do not be fooled by photos of the preserved example in Ottawa being mislabeled as an operational war-time example). While 5418 has been nicely refurbished, I must confess to not finding any reference to support the camouflage colours used on this aircraft. That also applies to the yellow on the leading edges.
	Added to the Hurricane this year was the 135 Squadron ‘Bulldog’ character. This is well done and follows the photo of an original on page 148 of The Hurricane at War by Chaz Bower. A snippet here is that allegedly the shorts were done in flight colours. Note the early exhaust arrangement.
	This photo was enclosed to show the gap between the fabric and metal covered areas on the bottom fuselage.
	Frontal view of 5418 with Jackie supplying a scale reference! Note the busy appearance of the exposed front of the engine and all photos that I have seen show a bare-metal propeller housing – i.e., not painted black.
	Detail of the back of the propeller. I am not sure of this location for the small yellow horizontal line as it is too small to show up in photos. However, there is a similar marking (about twice as deep) on the front of some propellers. Its location varies but is closer to the lower section of the blade.
	A shot of the front of the propeller profile. Again, I could only find one photo that showed the Hamilton Standard logo and none with the stenciling. But then again, the stenciling would be difficult to pick out in a secondary source.
	A closer view of that busy cowling opening. As can be seen here, to be totally accurate a new insert would have to be made to reflect the proper configuration – but the tweaked kit part does in a pinch! The bottom detail that sticks out is the airscrew constant speed unit.
	Port side view of the opening. Note that join seam of the housing that traps the propeller blades. Leave the seam on the Monogram blade as it is accurate.
	A closer look at the propeller details. The Monogram blades do have the proper number of attachment bolts in the proper location.
	Front view of the Packard Merlin 29 that was used in not only the Canadian Hurricane XII, but also in the Mustang and some variants of the Spitfire, Mosquito and Lancaster.
	Upper port view of the same engine.
	Upper starboard view of same engine. This engine is displayed alongside 5418 at Wetaskiwin.

Steve Sauvé, Website Custodian for IPMS Canada