THE real defensive weapon of the Battle of Britain was the Hurricane. You can wax poetically about the Spitfire all you want, but the Hurricane was available in larger numbers, was flown by more squadrons and, more importantly, shot down more German bombers and fighters than did the Spit. It was the weight of armament and the ruggedness of construction that made the Hurricane the plane to use against the Luftwaffe bomber force. Though it was outclassed by the Bf-109E models, it was also able to hold its own against them, thanks as much to the greater maneuverability of the Hawker product as anything else.

Even after they had become somewhat obsolescent, they were used and front line equipment in those theaters of war where the opposition wasn't quite so stout. This includes North Africa, the Balkans and India, where it was probably more important to have a reliable airframe as anything else. Equipped later in the war with heavy armament and bomb racks, the 'Hurri-bomber' became a potent ground attack weapon.

By this time, you've probably read all of Tom Cleaver's reviews on the many different variants of the Hurricane as I do believe he has covered just about all of them! However, there has not been a preview where one gets to peek into the box to see what is available.

It is in all respects a modern, multi-variant, Japanese engineered kit. There are the plethora of different sprues, each used by Hasegawa to do a specific version. Probably the only parts that are the same in all the kits are the ones for the wings, fuselage, undercarriage/cockpit and wheels. The others can be swapped around to conform to the different types as need be. Well, this type is the 'late' Mk I with the eight gun wing. It also has the Rotol prop and the blunt spinner. If you want more information on the various subtypes, I'd recommend visiting the Kit Research page as Tony Hodun is doing a remarkable job of cataloguing the differences.

This is obviously a real winner when it comes to the 1/48 Hurricane. The Airfix version is over a generation older and so not really up to the detail level of the Hase kit. However, it is also a lot less expensive and if you want a shelf kit, it is one you may want to think about. Contest builders will choose this one.