Editors Note: this is the second of three installments from Tom Cleaver on the building of three Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricanes. 

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Churchill immediately offered assistance to the Soviets, and directed British forces to provide military assistance as soon as possible. The RAF prepared to ship Hurricane Mk.IIb fighters to Murmansk for defense of the port that would be used for bringing in future supplies from Britain, and created 151 Wing, with 81 and 134 Squadrons, which would provide air defense of the port and train the Soviet Air Force pilots on the Hurricane. The unit departed by convoy for Murmansk in early August 1941, and was ready for operations outside Murmansk in early September. Between then and early December, 1941, the two squadrons flew fighter patrols along the Finnish border, and introduced Soviet pilots to the airplane. The Soviets were declared operational at the end of November, and 151 Wing returned to Britain.

Construction Notes:

The Hurricane IIb differs from the other versions in having an armament of 12 .303 caliber machine guns, with two extra guns in each outer wing section as compared with the original 8-gun wing. Hasegawa has created this with a leading edge panel that has gun ports which the modeler drills out the thin plastic, and the shell ejection ports in the lower wing, which also must be opened up with a craft knife. Past this, the kit is entirely similar to all the other Hurricanes, and there are no special construction notes for this type.

It is interesting to look at photos of the 151 Wing aircraft, all of which had tropical filters there in the Russian arctic! Fortunately, the kit provides the tropical filter. Aeromaster provides one of the 81 Squadron airplanes, Z4018, on their "Hurricane at War, Part III" sheet, with a combination of RAF squadron codes and Soviet-style individual aircraft number, over the standard dark earth/dark green/sky scheme.

Painting and Finishing:

I painted the airplane using Gunze-Sanyo H-72 "Dark Earth," H-73 "Dark Green," and Tamiya XF-21 "Sky." I used my drafting-tape-and-thread method to create the "hard edge" RAF camouflage, as described with the Hurricane I Trop.

Once the model was Futured, the Aeromaster decals went on with no problem. I shadow-shaded with the Tamiya "smoke" mixture, creating exhaust stains and gunfire stains, and also dry-brushed mud stains on the lower wing aft of the main wheels and on the lower rear fuselage aft of the tailwheel, since these airplanes operated from primitive Russian airfields. I then used my "Flat Future" finish, and attached the Squadron canopies.

Next, the Sea Hurricane IIc