HASEGAWA 1:48 HURRICANE MK.I

 

Reviewer: Peter Volkers  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  14 October 2002

Aircraft History:

The Hurricane was Great Britain's first 'modern' fighter of the 1930's, and introduced to British service features such as the low-wing monoplane layout, retractable landing gear, and an armament of eight machine guns in the wings to fire outside the disc swept by the propeller.  A less advanced feature was the steel-tube primary structure covered in fabric, but this feature eased construction and facilitated repair.  The Hurricane flew in prototype form during November 1935, and soon received large production orders for a service debut in December 1937.

By the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, some 497 Hurricane Mk.Is had been built as equipment of 18 British Squadrons, and some exports had been made.  Production continued to accelerate, and despite the more publicised role played by the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, it was the Hurricane that played the more decisive part, concentrating its efforts on the German bombers and downing more aircraft than the rest of the defences combined.  Production eventually totalled 14,232 including large numbers of later models used increasingly for the ground-attack role.

The Kit:

Having wanting to build a Quarter-Scale Hurricane for sometime it was with a measure of glee that I picked this kit up recently from a swap meet, to add to a previously purchased Hurricane Mk.IIc that I haven't built yet. So, this is second hand but for a pittance I wasn't complaining, unless of course there were parts missing.  

Some small sub-assemblies had begun, courtesy of the previous owner and many parts had already been taken off the sprues.  But with relief everything appeared present and accounted for.  So I won't delve into what the kit offers as I am sure you can find an INBOX preview somewhere, but needless to say it is moulded in a medium grey brittle plastic with well defined surface detail but slightly overdone fuselage fabric lines.  The wheel wells also contain a reasonable amount of detail with rivets, panel doors and hydraulic plumbing all defined.

Instructions:

In spite of a few handy marks and notes from the former owner, the slightly larger than A5 folded booklet is standard Hasegawa.  Shots of the completed model and brief history grace the front page, followed by sprue diagrams, assembly steps, Gunze Sangyo paint range quotations and then the colour and markings information for the two versions provided for by the kit.

Construction:

As already mentioned the former owner of this kit had already made a start on this kit and one of the places he (or indeed she) had done some work was the cockpit.  However, I suspect he may not have been into detailing cockpits because it had largely been left unpainted!

So, I went to work to improve things a bit and adding my own touch to the already assembled cockpit area.  The control column and instrument panel were painted black.  What the kit supplies looks good with most modellers likely to be satisfied.  Parts include main instrument panel (with raised gauge detail), sidewall detail, seat, control column, floor, rudder pedals and the framework to glue it all into before installing into the fuselage halves.  The cockpit was given an Interior Green wash and the instrument panel picked out by dry brush painting.  Everything appears to fit well because there no obvious gaps or errors on the completed assembly.

The main fuselage halves only run from the front of the cockpit to the tail fin.  The front nose section is separate (and already sub assembled!), and thankfully they had installed the propeller shaft!  The cockpit was left until the whole fuselage had been placed together and installed through the belly.  The main halves go together well and benefit from rubber band clamps and the like.  I didn't wait for it to dry fully before adding the front fuselage nose section and this turned to be 20/20 foresight!  The cockpit front is narrower than the nose section so would have been a bitch to fit afterward.  So make sure you do both these sections at the same time or sub assemble nose section first and install into rear fuselage assembly while it is still flexible.  Seam lines need smoothing and be careful not to remove the delicate detail on the fuselage.

The main wing assembly has a single under piece and two upper halves.  The first step as outlined and in the instructions is to remove the details not applicable to a Hurricane Mk.I.  The wings are obviously the same ones supplied in other Mark kits.  Be very careful, follow the directions and mask off areas you do not wish to sand or damage.

The main wheel bays were installed and painted aluminium with dry brushing and pen marking to pick out the detail.  The two wing sections (upper and lower) were brought together and left to dry with the aid of wooden pegs and rubber bands placed appropriately.  Afterward the carbie intake was added onto the underwing in the belly section and the wings were fitted to the fuselage.  There was a small gap at the roots but otherwise fit was very good.  There was however a small step in height right at the root.  In hindsight, inserting some plasticard in the wing interior to prop it up would have worked, otherwise you have to do as I did and blend in the join via sanding.

The exhaust stacks are separate and can be painted in rust as I did but I left them off til after painting the rest of the model.  Alignment tabs help installation and these fit very well.  I also left the prop and spinner sub assembly (courtesy of previous owner again!) til after painting also.  You can also drill a hole in lower wing for the pilot step and use the engraved detail for handhold on the fuselage, but I decided to leave these as is.  The canopy is a good fit and the rear view mirror on top of the windscreen frame is a nice touch.  This was of course immediately masked for painting.

The undersides were sprayed first in sky blue then masked around the edges to prepare the upper surface.  This was sprayed in Dark Earth and left to dry.  The camouflage pattern was first marked in pencil then masked off using a combination of masking tape and thinly rolled blu-tak snakes to keep the demarcation outlines soft.  Then Dark Green was sprayed, all paints from the Humbrol range.  I weathered the model later to reflect oil and mud stains but right now it was time to varnish the model in Gloss and apply the decals.

Versions/Decals:

The kit decal sheet is nice and typically well printed as you would expect from Hasegawa.  There is a choice of two Mk.I examples; LK+A and GZ+V fuselage codes.  Both wear the same camouflage scheme with the three types of roundels (that is; "normal" red/white/blue style under the wings; "red/blue" on the upper wings and the "yellow ring surround" style fuselage roundels) which are probably type B and C but I can never remember them by name exactly, as most of them wore, plus early style fin flash where the red part extends over the leading edge of the tail fin.  Needless to say, I had no problems applying the decals and an adequate array of stencilling is provided.

Overall:

An excellent kit that provides enough detail for most to be completely satisfied with, combined with Hasegawa's usual excellent engineering of parts.  If there is a downside it would have to be that the same moulds are presumably recycled in the Mk.II kit (verified on my Mk.IIC kit)  so some extra work is needed, and instructed, to modify it back to a Mk.I.  However, modellers with intermediate skills who know how to mask, sand and in some parts scribe, should have no real difficulties.  To sum up, a great kit of a great aircraft!

 

Note: the following related reviews links have not been updated since early 2000's - more kit reviews of this aircraft may now be on SMAKR, not reflected below.  Refer to the Index for other kits of this type.

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