HASEGAWA 1:72 HAWKER HURRICANE MK.1
(Douglas Bader)

 

Reviewer: John F Kelley  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  April 2001

Aircraft:
 The Hawker Hurricane probably needs no introduction to most of you reading this.  It flew for the first time in November of 1935 and was the RAF’s first operational monoplane and its first fighter to exceed 300 mph in level flight.  Very rugged and reliable, it fought in every combat theater throughout World War II.  Although somewhat overshadowed by the Supermarine Spitfire, during the Battle of Britain, it was the Hurricane that was responsible for the most Luftwaffe aircraft shot down.

The version represented in this kit is a late production Mk.I.  The main differences from the early Mk.I being an all metal wing, three bladed Rotol or DeHavilland propeller and the so-called type II exhaust stacks.

The Kit:
 This is a fairly recent offering from Hasegawa, the instructions dated 1998.  As with most current kits from this manufacturer, you get crisp moldings, finely scribed panel lines, good detail and engineering, and little or no flash.   Enclosed you’ll find 8 sprues molded in light grey and one sprue of clear parts, which if my memory serves, was not bagged separately.  You also get a sprue containing four little polycap grommet-type things for the propeller.  Only one is needed, however.  The clear parts are the canopy (one piece) and the landing light lenses.  The canopy is thin and clear.  This particular kit’s canopy was slightly malformed in one window pane so I cannibalised one from a Mk.II kit I plan to build in the future.  I will eventually write Hasegawa for a replacement.  Two spinners are provided, a DeHavilland and a Rotol, but only the Rotol is to be used as only Rotol props are included.  All other included parts are for use.  The engine cowling is molded separately from the main fuselage since it was a bit shorter in the early versions of the Hurricane than in later Marks.

Instructions:
 Typical Hasegawa four-fold type with an introduction in Japanese and English.  Construction is shown in 7 steps and offers no surprises to anyone who’s built a 1/72 single engine WWII fighter.  Painting instructions use the Gunze-Sangyo and Mr. Color references like most Hasegawa kits.

This kit had special markings for Douglas Bader’s aircraft during the Battle of Britain.  An extra Marking and Painting sheet was included with the kit for this.

Construction:
 Construction starts with the interior.  Quite Spartan as usual with Hasegawa, just a floorboard with rudder pedals, control stick, instrument panel with decal for detail, no sidewall detail and a seat with an ejector pin hole right in the middle.  I elected to fill this with gap-filling super glue and sand it down a bit.  The only detailing I did in the interior was to make seatbelts/shoulder harnesses out of masking tape.  This helped cover up the seat bottom after the filling/sanding.  I painted the interior with Model Master RAF interior green, assembled it and glued it to one side of the fuselage.  Then I glued the fuselage halves together and sanded the seams.  Fit was good.  The tailwheel that comes molded on the fuselage needs to be cut off as it represents a Mk.II or later.  A separate tailwheel on its own sprue is provided.  I elected to paint this separately and add it towards the end.  Looking back on it, I should have fitted it early, filled and/or sanded as necessary and painted later.  Towards the end of the model I was a little lazy and was satisfied with a less than perfect fit.

During the wing assembly one has to drill out the holes for the eight machine guns.  After joining the wings to the fuselage it’s time to assemble the separate engine cowling.  This comes in 3 parts, left, right and bottom.  The fit wasn’t perfect and it needed a bit of shaping/sanding.  Also when gluing to the fuselage, a bit more shaping/sanding was needed.  Tailplanes then came next and then it was time for painting.  I used MM enamels and painted a scheme of Dark Earth, Dark Green over Sky.  After a couple of coats of Future I was ready for the decals.  The decals I used were Aeromaster, from their Battle of Britain set.  I chose an aircraft flown by P/O V Ortmans, a Belgian with 7  victories during the BoB.  I was a bit disappointed with these as they were slightly out of register in places.  Other then that, they went on fine with Micro Set and Micro Sol.  After a coat of matte clear, I finished up all the details such as landing gear, prop, antenna (which I had managed to break off, naturally), and unmasking of the canopy.  I am very satisfied with Tamiya masking tape, by the way, having used it for my last three canopies.  For the landing lights, I painted the area black and then glued in a disc of  aluminium foil to represent the lens.  After attaching the clear landing light cover, I was pleased with the overall look.

Options:
The kit actually provides for no options, as it’s exclusively Douglas Bader’s aircraft.  You end up with a DeHavilland spinner for your parts box, but that’s about all.  If you use the provided polycaps, you’ll have a movable and removable prop/spinner.  I, of course forgot to use one and just glued the spinner on.

Versions & Decals:
Like I said just above, only one version is provided for.  The instructions show two other versions but since this was a special release, Hasegawa just used the original instructions and threw in another sheet of paper showing marking and painting of Bader’s aircraft.  The decals look like typical Hasegawa, in register, a bit thick but will probably go on just fine with some setting/solvent solutions.


Photo Credit: J.Kelley - of completed model

Accuracy:
While I don’t get out the micrometer and check for accuracy, to me it looks great.  I’ve read some reviews about this particular mold that bemoan the heavy handedness of the rear fuselage skinning.  After comparing the model to pictures I would have to agree that it is overdone, quite a bit too deep actually.  But all in all, I think it captures the essence of the Hurricane very nicely and I can certainly live with the overdone skinning.  One other inaccuracy I noted was the lack of a small actuating strut on each of the main landing gear.  These are clearly visible in pictures and should be represented even in 1/72 scale.

Overall:
I think this was an enjoyable model that just about anyone could build with no problems.  Detailers would certainly go after the interior and the above-mentioned strut additions.  Beginners would have no real problem with this kit and I’d certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a Battle of Britain era Hurricane.

 

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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