HASEGAWA 1:48 HURRICANE MK.IID

 

Reviewer: Peter Volers  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  18 January 2003

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, nearly 500 first generation Hurricanes had been built and equipped RAF Squadrons and some foreign countries also.  After the Battle of Britain newer and improved variants emerged, including those with metal propellers.  Later models such as the Hurricane Mk.IIc and IId were used in the North African campaign in the ground-attack role.  The IId was fitted with 50 calibre guns which tore Rommel's tanks to pieces. 

The Kit:

Having built Quarter Scale Hurricanes before I knew pretty well what to expect when I opened the box since the basic moulded sprues are common to all the Hurricane kits in this scale, and this one effectively being a revised IIc tooling with the inclusion of a couple of parts specific for the D, which are essentially restricted to the gun gondola and tropical intake additions.  To refresh you, inside the box there are a number of sprues containing very nicely moulded light grey plastic parts totalling about 75 which includes 8 clear parts making up the canopy, landing and navigation lights.  The surface detail is superb and the quality is typical Hasegawa.

Instructions:

These follow the usual Hasegawan style of a fold out strip with all the information to assemble the kit in clear to follow construction steps, which total nine, plus clear four view diagrams for colour markings and decal placement.  Additional information includes painting information for individual components and external scheme from the Gunze Sangyo and Mr Color ranges, sprue diagram and brief history.

Construction:

This really follows the same construction sequence as my previous Hasegawa Hurricane kits and you can refer to the Hawker Hurricane Mk.I review and in-the-box Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc to get some additional information.  

But to summarise, the cockpit is tackled first and this is very nicely detailed in kit form with framework to put all the cockpit components into, with rudder pedals, stick, seat and sidewall detail all provided.  The instrument panel features excellent raised detail but a decal is also supplied.  The wheel bays also feature excellent detail.

The nose section is separate, and can be a bit of a pain to join, but I had no problems putting it on and the tropical filter also a nice extra feature of the kit too.  All the major components fit quite well although some attention is needed at the rear wing root to blend it in nicely, with a small dab of filler needed.  Holes in the wings must be opened for installation of the gun gondolas later.  The tailplanes fit very nicely and need little effort from the modeller to dry at the correct angle.

The gun gondolas fit very well onto the wing undersurfaces providing the holes are opened up earlier, and are the correct size.  My holes were a touch over sized so I needed to be careful about the exact positioning and placement of my gondolas.  

The undercarriage and propeller assemblies are the final areas to be constructed and as is my usual choice I left these off until after painting and decaling, and fixed these up as separate sub assemblies.

Versions/Decals:

Because Hasegawa recycle their moulds and try and get the most buck for their plastic the options to choose from are restricted to the standard two.  Both are from 6 Sqn and are finished in the same desert camouflage scheme of Dark Earth, Mid Stone over Azure Blue with red spinner.  One is serialed BP188 with JV-Z fuselage code and the other is serialed HV663 with U as fuselage code.  The decals include an array of stencilling and lovely colour depth and there was no problems in adhering these to the model surface.

Accuracy:

The model is dimensionally accurate and has all the curves of the Hurricane in a convincing fashion.  I am not a rivet counter, but I think this model is pretty close in every department if there is any flaw!

Conclusion:

Following on from my Hasegawa Hurricane kit built before, this is almost identical in every respect of the project apart from different decals and the additional different parts for this version.  It is a relatively simple kit to build and can be highly recommended to all modellers out there.

 

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.

Related Reviews:-  

Related INBOX reviews:-  

SMAKR Home  |  What's New  |  Submissions  | Information Requests |  News  |  Links  |  Reference Corner  |  Site Info 
1/72 Reviews  |  1/48 Reviews  |  INBOX Reviews  


Hasegawa publicity shot of their completed model