Pre-War Hurricanes - 1:72 Iliad Design

[Paul A H]

Pre-War Hurricanes

1:72 Iliad Designs

Although somewhat less glamorous than the Supermarine Spitfire, it was the Hawker Hurricane that formed the backbone of the UK's air defences during the summer of 1940. Designed in 1935, the Hurricane was a relatively advanced aircraft, featuring a fully enclosed cockpit, retractable undercarriage, 8 x .303 inch machine guns, a powerful liquid-cooled V12 engine and, most importantly, a single cantilever wing as opposed to a biplane configuration. Despite its modern appearance, the design and manufacturing techniques were thoroughly conventional, which proved useful when it came to production, maintenance and repair. Early Mk.Is had fabric wings, but as this feature limited dive speeds, they were replaced with metal skinned versions later on.

Iliad Design is a producer of decals, colour charts and books, hailing from Canada's capital city Ottawa. Rather than focussing on Canadian subjects, however, their decal sheets feature all sorts of enticing and exotic subjects such as Nieuports used in the Russian Civil War, Gladiators used in North Africa and Asian MiG-19s. Their latest 1:72 scale sheet is dedicated to pre-war Hurricanes and would therefore seem to be the perfect companion to Airfix's latest kit. The seven aircraft featured on the sheet are L1934 of No. 3 Sqn,. L1568 of No. 73 Sqn., L1643 of No. 85 Sqn., L1975 of No. 17 Sqn, L1990 of No. 56 Sqn., 315 of No. 1 Sqn RCAF and L1606 in its civilian demonstrator guise (G-AFKX). All bar one of the aircraft feature fabric wings, which makes the Airfix kit the obvious choice as a starting point, but watch out for subtle variations in the windscreen, exhausts, propeller, fuselage venturi and ventral fairing. The decals themselves are neatly printed and colours appear to be very accurate. The decals are accompanied by comprehensive instructions which include colour diagrams and useful notes about each aircraft.

Conclusion

This interesting sheet is nicely printed, with crisp, clear details and bold colours. If you have the superb Airfix Hurricane (or the slightly older Sword/AZ Model kit) waiting for you to build it, then this sheet will enable you to produce a range of aircraft with interesting variation is camouflage and markings. A bonus point is awarded for including full set of roundels for each aircraft too. Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[rio]

Need to get a set of these.

[sroubos]

Nice set, is there any aftermarket parts available to make these versions? I have the new Airfix Mk1 kit, does that contain everything required?

[johnd]

Nice set, is there any aftermarket parts available to make these versions? I have the new Airfix Mk1 kit, does that contain everything required?

As long as you have the boxing with the two decal options ( A02067). That one has all the bits you'd need.

John.