Hurricane MkI, V7474/A, 261 Sqn, Luqa, Malta, November 1940.

This aircraft was another that arrived in Malta from HMS Argus on 17th November 1940. It was flown by Flt Lt J.A.F MacLachlan, who lost his left arm in the fighting over Malta in January 1941. Fitted with an artificial arm, he was flying again in November 1941. He died of wounds later in the war flying from Great Britain. This aircraft wears the Temperate Land Scheme of Dark Earth, Dark Green and Sky* rather than the Desert Scheme of Dark Earth, Mid Stone and Azure Blue - the early deliveries of Hurricanes to Malta were despatched from where they could be found which probably explains the variety of types and finishes on display until regular deliveries could be arranged. Only the individual aircraft letter is displayed rather than the full squadron code, and the fuselage carries the early oversized roundel.

*well, it's grey but it's supposed to be Sky, a pale beige-green colour. The EAW palette doesn't cater for such a scheme... 

Changes to this model: Pilot repositioned (more or less to where he was originally), gunports moved to correct part of wing, landing lights added (non-functional ;)), skin re-touched here and there, new cockpit wingview, new gunsight lens and repositioned mounting. A new Hurr.flt file has the respositioned muzzle flashes for the corrected gun mountings with EAW standard gun values, or an alternative with Emil's modified gun data.

Credits:

3DZ Model:

This model has now passed through so many hands that crediting is difficult; if you had any part in it and I have not mentioned you, please forgive me. The known contributors are Paulo Morais, Captain Kurt, Claudio Wilches and myself.

Skin:

Again, a bit of a mish-mash, but primarily Flying Sheep for the main skin (with bits from Captain Kurt, Stanley 99 and myself) and Claudio Wilches for the cockpit set which includes Migge's tex and instruments, plus a new wingview and correct round-lensed gunsight by myself.

References:

I am hugely indebted to Maltese Aviation Historian Richard Caruana, whose feature "Defenders of the George Cross Island" in Scale Aviation Modeller (vol.8 iss.4, April 02) provided both the information and colour plates that made it possible for me to present this aircraft. 

Caveat:

The .3dz files as well as the .tpc files are not interchangable with all Hurricane skins. To install, drop the .3dz and .tpc files into your EAW directory, to uninstall delete the files. If you are using Dom's Skin randomiser, drop the files into the relevant sub-folder in the "Hurr" folder in the "Skins" directory.

I hope that you find a good use for this skin. Comments, queries, recriminations etc. welcomed via the SimHQ forum.

Cheers

Stew aka GhostBoy

April 02

 

