REVELL 1:72 HAWKER HURRICANE IIC TROP
Yugoslav Colours

 

Reviewer: Hrvoje Šafhauzer (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted:  15 March 2009

Kit Details:

Aircraft History:

Hurricane development and history is so well known that it would be pointless to repeat it here.

351st (Yugoslav) Fighter-Bomber Squadron (2nd NOVJ squadron)

After negotiations between Yugoslav Partisan leaders and Allies, establishing of two NOVJ (People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia) squadrons was approved. First one (352nd Squadron) was established in April 1944, and the second one (351st Squadron) at 1st July 1944 at Benina Airfield in Libya. While most experienced pilots were assigned to 352nd Squadron, it was not the case with the second one. Most of the pilots had very small or practically no flying experience, some of them completing their pilot training immediately before 1941 April war and some of them previously flying obsolete aircraft only. Consequently, their combat training program had to be different than the one used for 352nd. The first stage was training in a basic trainer, N.A. Harvard, with timeframe depending on the individual pilot capability and expertise. Second stage was flight training in Hurricane IIs, with more than 90 flying hours per pilot. Training was concluded successfully with a 10-day long rocket-firing course in the Suez-channel area on 22nd September 1944. Altogether, 23 pilots and 205 other specialists were trained. There were no fatalities during training, with only one accident. Subsequently, the squadron was reequipped with tropical filter-furnished Hurricane RP IVs, transferred to Kana airfield in Italy, and joined the Balkan Air Force. Their extended training period served them well, enhancing survivability in forthcoming ground attack operations.

During training, Yugoslav pilots flew Vokes tropical filter furnished IIc Hurribombers, some of them with reduced or omitted cannon armament, and painted in both RAF European temperate and Desert camouflage schemes.

The Kit:

This kit was released in 2004, and its only difference comparing with the Revell's Sea Hurricane IIc kit is the lack of A-frame arrestor gear and applicable underfuselage fairing. The kit is thoroughly described in Kevin Ronayne's comparison article here on SMAKR, and elsewhere on the web. Being obvious retooling of an earlier Hurricane IIb kit, my only concern is that maybe the IIb would not be available. Parts had some minimal flash, easily cured with several sweeps of the modeling knife.

Instructions are typical Revell fare, upward spreading, and printed at decent grade paper. Color codes are provided for Revell paints only, with mixing ratios for shades not being available in their paint range. Construction is described by 16 easy to follow steps, and these should not present trouble even for the beginners.

Two marking options are provided, both tropical aircraft. First is dark green/dark earth/light gray machine from 28th (Army Cooperation) Squadron, SEAC Command, India 1944, and other dark earth/middle stone/azure blue machine from 336th (Greek) Squadron, DAF. It is stated for being from Landing Ground 8, Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 1944, but since a box art is showing it dispatching an Italian MC-202 over desert battlefield, I think timeframe should be very late 1942, or early 1943. Decals are printed in Italy and there are no troubles with them.

Construction:

I decided this should be OOB built as much as possible, as a warming up for the pending Hurricane IV RP conversion of the same kit, so I mostly followed the building sequence from the instructions. After prepainting cockpit interior and components, including the radiator bath interior, with mixture of Revell 48 lake green and yellow, seat cushion and head rest in Revell 84 leather brown, I also did the same with the landing gear parts, propeller blade roots, and the well with Humbrol 11 silver, to be followed by painting tires and propeller blades in Revell 9 anthracite, with yellow propeller tips. The only departure made here was that I slightly trimmed the blade trailing edges close to the root, to enhance the appearance slightly. Exhausts were painted in a mixture of Revell's 84 and 91 steel, and I did it for all four exhaust sets standard and fishtail ones. Cannon barrels, and radiator were painted in Humbrol 53 gunmetal, and after several days of drying it was time to start work. Since I intended to include a pilot, one was sourced and painted, using Revell's 35 flesh for face, 84 for helmet and gloves, and satin 314 beige for uniform, and 9 for goggles.

Construction actually started with assembling the radiator, bombs, and Vokes filter, and attaching a rear underfuselage fairing to the starboard fuselage side. I mostly used Revell Contacta glue from a tube, only occasionally using Contacta liquid Professional with needle applicator where required. Since bomb fin cylinder stabilizer fairing is molded in 1/1 scale (trust me I have a free access to FAB 100 and FAB 250 aircraft bombs in my company's exhibition room) I thinned the trailing edge interior as much as possible. Then, I assembled cockpit components together, leaving a pilot to be attached very late in the process. A few days later the cockpit was fixed into the fuselage side, both fuselage sides joined together and secured by rubber bands, followed by several days of drying. In fact the complete build took some 15 days of an hour or two work on odd evenings. In the meantime I drilled holes in the wing lower halves, and attached bomb shackle fairings. Naturally the fairing pin positions did not match either hole locations or size, so I trimmed the pins, and positioned fairings using existing holes as guides. After cleaning the fuselage seams with sharp knife and fine file, a centerplane was attached, followed by horizontal tail surfaces. No problems here, I have only checked centerplane's position by using a wing upper half. For assembling the wings, I slightly departed from instructions for gluing wing parts together and simultaneously attaching this to the fuselage, achieving better mating to wing roots. After drying and cleaning the seams, undernose filter, landing lights, landing gear with fairings, and cannons were added.

Before inserting a pilot and attaching two-piece canopy one needs to decide about the preferred camouflage scheme to use. I opted for a Lift Here decal sheet option, so fuselage parts to be covered by canopy were painted in Revell 82 dark earth. Only thing that I added here besides the pilot was a reflector gun sight fashioned from a piece of clear acetate, Revell providing only the sight body molded in two parts together with fuselage parts. After inserting the pilot, a movable canopy part was placed in closed position using white glue, followed by windscreen. Selected plane had fishtail exhausts, like most of the Yugoslav Hurricanes judging from the available photos, so these were placed. Strangely, while the instructions state at the beginning that these are not to be used assembling sequences are clearly showing fishtail exhausts. Finally, after adding a pitot-probe and an IFF underfuselage antenna made of stretched sprue, plane was ready for painting.


© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009

Painting & Decaling:

I decided to do a 4 cannon and bombs armed plane, serial LD116, "white A". Both the decal instructions and Yugoslav magazines indicate it was in desert colors, and I started with painting undersurfaces with gloss Humbrol 47 sea blue. I was not willing to make azure blue mixture of Revell paints, and Propagteam-printed decals are calling for gloss surfaces as a must for their application anyhow. With the not so nice experiences I had with their decals for a SMER/Heller kit I wisely considered to go with the recommendations. Revell 59 sky was used for propeller spinner, and 9 used for touching up the propeller blades. Next came Revell 85 brown (buff) for middle stone, followed with 82 dark earth. Of course, at least 24 hours were left between painting major colors for proper drying. All paints were applied with a wider brush, with a thinner pointed one used for canopy frames. I made some paint worn-outs using clean brush, but this and similar weathering shall not be overdone – Yugoslav maintenance personnel kept their aircraft in good condition, tidying them regularly and proving themselves and little showing around. Bombs were painted in Humbrol 149 dark green overall. Clear gloss alkyd paint was applied over all upper surfaces as preparation for decaling.


© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009

I applied the stencils from the Revell-supplied decal sheet first, al of them, followed by applicable Yugoslav markings. Lift Here decals went on with no fuss, only a general complaint could be that their white is too bright, and looking almost unreal for a plane exposed to a hot African sun. Quite a few Yugoslav aircraft from both squadrons had their fin flash in reversed colors, i.e. with dark blue close to the fin leading edge, and this particular one was such case with significantly wider white field. So studying available photographs of subject aircraft would be required.

At the end, Revell 02 matt clear was used for sealing the decals and covering all previously gloss surfaces, with final touch-ups where required. Finally, aerial wire made of stretched pale gray sprue was attached, being one of rare add-ons to this build. And bombs were placed in their positions, but left unglued, because of the tight fit of their locating pins in the holes.


© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009

Conclusions:

This kit is a nice one with traits and fits described in other articles previously. I used no putty, but some would be sorely needed at radiator joint and for rear underfuselage fairing.

In fact, tropical Hurricanes should have a deeper radiator bath to cope with the required increased flow of cooling air. Yugoslav authors are suggesting to fake this in 1/72 scale by adding a 1 mm thick styrene shim at the bath bottom, for a Heller kit, but real thing had deeper front opening also and this would be hard to achieve without major surgery and scratchbuilding. Or resorting to an aftermarket item. As for myself I would probably add a shim in next build, since I am planning to make another 351st's tropical Hurricane IIc, with reduced number of guns and in ETO camouflage scheme.

Other kit issue is the cockpit canopy, which cannot be positioned open, and being a short and not going beyond headrest. In future builds, I think I am to address that by heat-smashing a new one from clear acetate using Airfix Hurricane I canopy as a male mold. 

I would recommend it for a beginner surely, especially since it is affordable. Parts marked not for use could be used in making an UK-based aircraft, including a cats-eye nightfighter and it would be a matter of sourcing the required decals and schemes only.

Review courtesy of my valet, as usual.


© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009

References:


© Hrvoje Šafhauzer2009

 

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