The Hurricane has always been in the shade of its more popular brethren, the Spitfire, but it no less accomplished work that helped turn the tide of the war, let it be over England in 1940 or the Desert afterwards.

 A many young pilots flew the tough Hawker fighter before climbing in the cockpits of more advanced fighters, and although not combat worthy, the plane still gave sterling services to the war effort.

THE KIT

I was lucky enough to get my hands on this kit, as it used to be quite available in Montréal, up to the time I actually needed one!  It was obtained through a trade for a Tamiya Zero.  When it arrived home, I was pleased to see that it was the first boxing of the kit, still in its original shrink wrap, a collector’s piece indeed!

 For a look in the box, check Scott’s preview. 

CONSTRUCTION

I started with the cockpit, which forms the ceiling of the wheel wells.  It was painted RAF Interior Green, along with the cockpit sidewalls.  The instrument panel was painted Flat Black with the dials dry brushed with Aluminium.  The control column was detailed with those last two colours.  The assembled parts go on top of the bottom wing part, and the dash is installed in a fuselage half.  It is then time to glue everything together, but do not forget to insert the propeller shaft at this point or you won’t be able to have a moveable propeller on your model. 

 Everything fits OK, but filler is needed at all the seams.  The wheel wells were painted Aluminium along with the inside of the gear doors and the landing gears themselves.  I assembled the radiator, dispatched the seams and glued it in place.  The propeller was built up too, but I discovered that the De Havilland metal one was not right for McKnight’s aircraft, the subject of this project.  It was thus relegated to the spares box and the Rotol unit built and prepared in its place. 

 With the transparencies masked, the aircraft was ready for the paint shop.

COLORS & MARKINGS

Painting

 McKnight’s aircraft featured a black underside on the port wing, while the rest of the aircraft’s under was RAF Sky.  The spinner was also the same shade.  After the lighter colour had been applied from a Gunze jar, I masked the pattern and used Gunze Black to do the trick.  The whole underside was then masked and the top colours of RAF Dark Earth and Dark Green, both paints coming from the Gunze range.  After the plane was unmasked, I realized I had missed the RAF Sky fuselage ID band, so I carefully masked around and painted that up.

 Construction continues

 All the various bits were attached to the aircraft, and those included the undercarriage, the exhausts (painted Model Master Jet Exhaust) and the antenna.  I also took the time to paint the machine gun ports a crimson red to simulate the fabric usually found there.  The landing light wells were painted Flat Black with Model Master Chrome Silver being used to replicate the lenses.

 Decals

 After the mandatory coat of Future floor polish had dried, I went on to put the decals.  They were printed by Mike Belcher, and are extremely thin.  You must be careful to put them at the right spot, for my fuselage code letters are a bit off, giving the aircraft a strange look.  However, they settle nicely in all the recesses!  For the roundels, I used an Aeromaster sheet (48-423, RAF Spitfire & Hurricane Roundels), and those transfers gave me no trouble.

 Poly Scale Flat was used to seal the finish and the transparencies were unmasked.

CONCLUSIONS

 This kit strangely reminds me of the Hobbycraft Hurricane II, and I suspect that the later is a copy of the old Airfix offering, with modifications to represent the later mark.  However, it builds itself into a very nice model, and the road is free of any major pitfalls.  It’s a nice alternative to the costlier Hasegawa kit.

July 2004