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Hi Folks! After I bought this kit I realized the tons of info and reviews written about the legendary Hurricane on 1/48 scale (thanks Troy!). However, I decided to give it full throttle to the Italeri kit, as a challenge for my amateur skills. And boy the beginning was tough! Cockpit assembly (with the add of a spare Tamiya pilot) was a violent skirmish, but the Force prevailed. Thanks Obi-Wan! Fuselage and wings needed a generous amount of putty... but after that, everything went very smooth. And -the most important thing- I ended up quite happy with the results. Well, enough talking. Here are the photos of the Hurricane P 2923, No. 85th Squadron, VY R, September 1940. PS: Oh, I know the spinner colour was black and the edge of the wings were painted Sky... but I gave to myself some historical permissions. Hope nobody gets annoyed. Cheers and happy modelling, Cris.

Hello Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk.I 1:48 P3700 of No. 303 Squadron, Northolt, September 1940. Some photos of my Airfix Hurricane done for the BoB Group Build back in 2015. It never made it into the RFI section until now. I have used a canopy from Hasegawa ( i messed up the kit canopy and Hasegawa slides over the spine !) and decals from Techmod. My first attempt to do chipping with salt which went on not too perfectly but i hope you like it anyway. Paints are Humbrol. Thanks for looking !

Hello A couple of photos with one of my my latest kit. Arma Hobby 1/72nd Hawker Hurricane Mk.Ia - Eastern Front limited edition. Almost OOB. Painted old roundels under the decal crosses (as on the real machines) and painted tactical numbers. Vallejo Model Air paints. Comments are welcome 210 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 209 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 208 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 207 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 206 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 205 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 204 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 203 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 202 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr 201 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr

The venerable Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane in 601 Squadron markings via Xtradecal.

Hello all, let me present a recent builds of Arma Hobby´s Hurricanes. The first one is a Hurricane in Portugal colours and it was really a pleasant OOB build. The second one is a most successful Hurricane of 310 Czechoslovak squadron during the BoB with 6 kills claimed by several pilots. The kit is also a part of small group build with my friends dedicated to Bob adversary. I hope you like it. addition of example picture due to the some troubles

Bit of a low mojo year for me. My Hobby Room is now my office, so spending leisure time in there is not high on my agenda (first world problems hey?). Only four completed this year. A Hurricane and a Skua waiting to be sprayed but hopefully they will be in 2021 year book. Here is what was finished though. Hope you enjoy them. Hawker Hurricane I (Trop.) W9327 OL*W 806 NAS Royal Navy Fighter Squadron, 269 Wing RAF. Sidi Haneish, Egypt. 20.11.41 3 x Ju87 Destroyed. Hawker Hurricane I (Trop.) W9327 OL*W 20.11.41 Shot down by a 'friendly' tomahawk, later awarded DFC by RAF. Lt Philip Charlton Airfix 1/48 Hurricane MkI Trop. Boxing Xtracrylics / Tamiya paint. Mix of box, generic and hand painted markings. Fairey Fulmar MkI Serial unknown /6A. 806 NAS HMS Illustrious Mediterranean Sep-1940 10.01.41. Ju87 Destroyed, 2xJu87 Damaged, 100m w. Malta. Fairey Fulmar Unknown/6A Lt William (Bill) Barnes. Special Hobby Multi Media kit. Xtracrylics / Tamiya paint. Mix of box, generic and hand painted markings. Supermarine Seafire III NN341 possibly ‘3A’. 886 Naval Air Squadron, Lee-on-the-Solent. D-Day Fleet fire spotter pool 07.06.44 1735 Destroyed Bf109, 15 miles SW Caen / 5m S Evrecy. Lt RM (Mike) Crosley. Special Hobby Supermarine Seafire III ‘Eyes of the Fleet’ boxing Xtracrylics / Tamiya paint. Mix of box and generic. Vickers Supermarine Seafire III LR866/S121 887 NAS 24th NFW HMS IndefatigableJapan Aug-1945 15.08.45 2 x Mitsubishi A6M Zero Destroyed, 0.5 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Shared Destroyed. SLt Victor (Vic) Lowden Special Hobby Supermarine Seafire III ‘Last fight over the Pacific’ boxing Xtracrylics / Tamiya paint. Mix of box and generic.

Hurricane Wing Armaments (8 guns) Set 1:72 CMK by Special Hobby for Arma Hobby kit While the new Arma Hobbies Hurricanes are great kits they dont give you the option to open the wing gunbays. This new set from CMK gives us the gun bays for the 8 gun metal wing aircraft.As well as the main bays eight 303 machine guns are included with PE feed trays. PE is also provided for part of the internal structures in the wing, The last items in the box are new covers for the gun bays. All the parts are very well cast. with no issues visible at all. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I started these two when they were re-released last year during the first lockdown and have now completed them. They are both really nice kits to build and look just right when completed - in particular, the Spit is the most Spitfirey Spitfire I've made. They are from the box except for tape harnesses and stretched sprue aerials and are brushed with Humbrol enamel. The only issue was with the decals. At least these stuck down (unlike the Spit XIV and Hunter) but they needed very varying amounts of soaking to release them and silvered even on a Kleer base. I'm going to finally give in and buy some decal solutions before attempting any more. Apart from that, well done Airfix!

Hello Everyone, The Tamiya Hawker Hurricane Mk.I is a Superb kit, although its an Italeri rebox. The kit is a simple straight forward build and its a New tooling for the Hurricane in 1/48 scale. The detail is great out of the box for this scale and the panel lines are not overdone. The overall fit is great too. Decals provided are great with lots of options, a bit thick IMHO. I really liked the Finnish AF colors. The kit is built OOB and no mods are done. The paints used are locally available Acrylics and are airbrushed. For the chipping I used a sponge and for the Weathering I used a Dark Brown watercolor wash alongwith Oil Pastel Powder for the staining. Overall a Enjoyable build. Hope you like the Pictures and the Wip Video. Best Adi

Hawker Hurricane Mk.I 1:48 Airfix A05127A If one was to asked to give the name of a British fighter that took part in the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire would undoubtedly be the most common answer. However, the aircraft that provided the backbone of the defence in that infamous battle was the Hawker Hurricane. Designed in 1935, it was quite a step forwards to the existing front line RAF fighters of that era, key features being a fully enclosed cockpit, retractable undercarriage, 8 guns, powerful V12 engine and most notably, a single cantilever wing as opposed to a biplane configuration. Despite its revolutionary look though, the design and manufacturing techniques were old school, a steel frame with fabric skinning so in reality, it was very much a progressive rather than evolutionary design. This however was to provide useful in manufacturing and in the face of battle. The Hurricane was easy to produce, repair and maintain. This is in comparison to the birth of the Spitfire which used completely new manufacturing techniques which whilst offering performance, hindered early production. Early Hurricane Mk.I’s went through a series of design enhancements. Initial aircraft had fabric wings which limited the dive speed whilst the spin characteristics were a concern for test pilots. This was remedied by the addition of a strake below the rudder that became a key characteristic of the Hurricane. The fabric wings were also changed by 1940 for new metal skinned ones which increased the dive speed by some 80mph. Other notable improvements on the Mk.I were the addition of 70lb of armour plate for the pilot, self sealing fuel tanks and a 3 blade constant speed propeller. The availability of 100 octane fuel early in 1940 gave the Merlin an additional 30% boost power available compared to the power available on 87 Octane which was a significant when one needed to open the taps as wide as they would go!. With aircraft entering service in 1938 with the RAF and a few exports, the first blood was achieved on 21st October 1939 when a squadron of Heinkel He115’s were bounced by 46 Sqn looking for ships in the North Sea. The engagement resulted in 4 aircraft downed with more being claimed by 72 Sqn Spitfires. France was to prove more challenging for the Hurricanes as opposition was encountered by the more lethal BF109E’s. What became the Battle of France was to prove a bloody battle as a result of what the Luftwaffe were able to put up. With the German forces pushing forwards, the RAF and ground forces were forced to retreat to UK soil which paved the way for the Battle of Britain where the Hurricane achieved its legendary status alongside the Spitfire. Of the 2700 victories claimed during this battle by the RAF, nearly 1600 ware at the guns of the hurricane. Whilst the Hurricane soon became outdated a front line day fighter in Europe, it went on to see considerable success in other campaigns throughout the war. With the addition of bombs and cannon, it became an effective ground attack aircraft. It has its history firmly rooted in the battles of the Mediterranean, Russia and the Pacific, not to mention early night fighting over Europe where many aces earned their status. The Kit This is a re-release of Airfix's new tool from 2015. This is a good new tool kit featuring fine panel lines and subtle fabric effects though to this reviewers eyes maybe a little too subtle? The Sprues give a wide variety of parts including the fuselage insert for the Sea Hurricane, normal and tropical air filters; and both de Havilland & Rotol props. Full gunbays are provided for the wings but to make use of these the modeller will have to cut the wing access panels off. Another potential downside is the moulding of the machine gun ports into the wing rather than using an insert. Construction starts with the cockpit which is of a tubular design like the real thing. First up the seat is assembled and set to one side. The left frame fits onto the parts which will form the inside of the main wheel well. The boards for the rudder controls fit to this .Additional tube parts then fit in along with the main control column. The right side frame then fits in and the seat can be attached. A pilot figure is included if the modeller wishes to use it. On the underside the of cockpit a few parts for the wheel well go in. Work then continues on this area but now on the main single part lower wing with additional structures for the wheel well going in. The landing light then goes in also. This whole structure can now fit onto the main single part lower wing. If the modeller does not want to install the internal gun bays then the next nine steps of the instructions can be skipped as these deal with the bays. 4 machine guns, their ammunition boxes, and feed trays are provided for each side along with the internal structure you will see here. Once all of this is in (or not) the left and right upper wings can go on. Inside the fuselage the instrument panel and engine firewall go in. The fuselage can then be closed up and fitted to the complete wing sub-assembly. The front and rear under fuselage sections can then be added. On the main wings separate ailerons are provided. Under the main fuselage the prominent central radiator is built up and installed. To the rear the vertical tail, tail planes and rudder all go on. The rudder and elevators being separate parts. The tail wheel is also added at this stage. Airfix as seems to be normal for them now offer separate parts for retracted and lowered undercarriage. If lowering this then two parts legs with separate retraction struts are offered with three part wheels here the hubs are a separate part. We are now in the finishing stages of the model. At the front the exhaust go on, followed by the propeller assembly. To the instrument panel the gun sight is fitted and then the canopies can go on. If the modeller wished to open the main canopy then a second bigger part is provided to sit over the fuselage, Last up the landing light covers, nav lights and aerial mast go on. Decals The decal sheet is from Cartograf so should post no issues, it has two options; V6665, RF-J. 303 (Polish) Sqn, RAF Northolt September 1940 - Aircraft flown by Sgt. Tadeusz Andruszkow. LK-1, No.87 Sqn, RAF Exeter, August 1940. Flown by Flt Lt Ian Gleed. Research has indicated this aircraft might have had brighter red areas on the tail and roundels and these are provided. Conclusion This is a welcome re-release from Airfix. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I have been eagerly anticipating the Arma Hobby Hurricane since it was announced and have done a combined order with a friend of mine to get an expert kit and some overtrees. I also stocked up on Hurricne I decals as now this kit has been released, I can now do all the Hurricanes I ever wanted to. Unfortunately the Hurricanes were delivered to my friends house the day after I went up to see him and haven’t had the chance to revisit him so I did the only logical thing. I ordered another one! This arrived on Monday and it went straight to the top of the stack. Hopefully I can get it built for the Huddersfield Halifax show next month. I’ll be painting it up as P3119 which is an all black Hurricane serving with 87 Sqn with the code VY X at Gravesend late 1940 and will be using the excellent Aviaeology decals from the Vital Storm Early Hurricanes collection part 1. Lets take a look at what’s in the box. Box Art. Main sprue. Small Sprue Clear Sprue Decals, Etch and Masks I’m really impressed by this kit and think it must be the best 1:72 metal wing Hurricane I out there. Time to offload my Alleycat Metal Wing Hurricane conversion for the Airfix kit as I won’t need it....... It has some lovely detail. Correct shape wheel wells and a decently shaped canopy and windscreen. Probably the best available in this scale so far. There are also plenty of options as well with this kit. Choices of prop and spinner as well as a tropical filter. I can’t wait to get started.....

Trying something new here. "Here we will stand and fight; there will be no further withdrawal. I have ordered that all plans and instructions dealing with further withdrawal are to be burnt, and at once. We will stand and fight here. "If we can’t stay here alive, then let us stay here dead." -- Lieutenant General Bernard Law Montgomery, GOC 8th Army, 13 August 1942 As I said above, I'm building two Arma Hurricanes; the "old" MkI kit, and their new MkIIc, which is supposed to be excellent. The latter aircraft was the mount of Canadian ace Bert Houle, and the MkI was a tropical filter-equipped aircraft of the land-based Royal Navy Fighter Squadron, an amalgamation of Nos 803, 805, and 806 squadrons, with 803 and 806 flying Hurricanes, and 805 flying some leftover Martlets intended for Greece; both 803 and 806 would eventually trade in their Hurricanes for Fulmar IIs in Ceylon, to their intense dismay. I wanted to build the Arma kits to do my own small bit to remind people they exist, since right now Poland is more or less cut off from the rest of the world with the suspension of overseas deliveries by Polish Post. I note Arma are offering a gift card equal to 10% of your purchase towards a future purchase if you order from them, and they'll deliver as soon as human civilization returns to orderly functioning. I personally derive no benefit from this, I hasten to add, aside from the ability to continue buying Arma kits if we keep them afloat through this miserable garbage fire that's engulfed the world. So keep our friends in Poland in mind! Anyway, I got a quick start today (after noticing that Winston had left my scalpel embedded in the armrest of my grotto chair when he'd been wrecking the Lysander...may have to neuter him to see if it cuts down on this sort of thing), by washing the sprues and then spraying some AK Extreme Metal Dull Aluminium on some of the relevant bits: It was nice to see that the clear parts sprue seems to be identical in both kits -- no need to change what works. So here we go again.

Hi everyone. A miserable year in other respects, but quite an enjoyable one hobby-wise. One big project (Ark Royal) completed after a year of construction, another fairly big one (Airfix's Ready for Battle set) plus a few cleared from the shelf of doom. Ark Royal: More photos in the RFI thread here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235076648-ark-royal-circa-1587-finished-model/ Next up was Airfix's "Ready for Battle" set that I built in my first ever Group Build, this one being the Battle of Britain one..... More photos in the RFI thread here.... https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235076813-ready-for-battle-airfix-148-hurricane-refueller-truck-and-ground-crew/ Some Sea Fury's were completed from the shelf of doom. I had been building three at the same time until things went wrong so I put them to one side..... The largest one is Airfix's 1/48 kit finished in markings of my father-in-law's squadron 1832 NAS in the 1950's. This one being VX620/151/CH of RNAS Culham. A super kit by Airfix which looks really good when completed and well worth being done properly rather than in a rush to finish!.... The folded wing model is Trumpeter's 1/72 kit finished as VW697/102/R of 804 NAS, HMS Glory (R62). A lovely little kit as well, although those more knowledgeable of the aircraft have criticized it. The last of the Sea Fury's is my "paint mule". It is the PM Models kit. Looks okay until you compare it to the others! I used the decals from the Trumpeter kit for WJ232/114/O piloted by Lt "Hoagy" Carmichael of 802 NAS, HMS Ocean 8/1952. Another 'paint mule" that turned out quite well was the Airfix Spitfire that I built when constructing the Ready for Battle diorama.... My last one is a quick build to restore some lost modelling mojo. This is the venerable Hasegawa 1/72 Skyhawk A-4E/F finished in decals from the box. I really didn't like the raised panel lines! That's it for the year. Many thanks for stopping by to look. Best wishes to you all for a happy modelling 2021! Cheers, Pat

Good evening! My latest model and the first in a series of three Hurricanes: a IIc of 213 squadron in the Western Desert. As you can see, the a/c carries just two cannons. This seems to have been almost a standard configuration for the Hurricane IIc in the Mediterranean. As long as they were still used in the daytime air-to-air role, agility was more of a concern for the Hurricane than firepower. I used the Revell kit and Tamiya paint. This is not the best kit I have seen so far, but with some work it turned out ok. Thanks for looking and every comment welcome! Brothers in arms. Which one would you have preferred as a pilot? (Yes, I know - a Spitfire, please...)

Just finished this for the MTO GB, it is build out of the box, just corected a little on the decals. Brush painted with Humbrol, clear and satin with airbrush. Corrected wing Roundels Cheers Jes

I would like to enter this one, it will be rocket armed operation out of Yugoslavia 1945. Cheers Jes

Hello, and welcome to my first WIP on Britmodeller! No exotic plastic here I'm afraid, just the newish Airfix 1/72 Hurricane which I'm sure is familiar to most readers. The obligatory box and sprue shot: This was an impulse buy. I saw it sitting on the shelf of my LMS, thought "I fancy making a Hurricane with a two bladed prop", and picked it up. Naturally, it turned out that this was not a boxing which included the two bladed prop option (I could maybe have guessed this from the box art) and that furthermore that I already had these exact same sprues in the form of a starter set I picked up a while ago but what the heck, I can learn from the mistakes I make building this one and make a proper job of the starter set. I'm not the sort to lie awake at night worrying about misplaced rivets (I have plenty of other stuff to worry about) so my intention was to build this totally OOB ignoring the myriad faults that make this kit practically unbuildable such as mis-sized main wheels with the wrong number of spokes, missing metal panels behind the gun access hatches, trailing edges a scale 7ft thick and incorrect framing on the cockpit canopy. My only aims were the usual ones of getting engrossed for a few hours in creating something, and producing a finished model which would not be mistaken for the work of an unusually clumsy 5 year old. Alas for my intentions! Britmodeller contains much dangerously seductive information and having read somewhere that adding photo-etch harnesses to a cockpit would increase its attractiveness by at least 1000% (I may be paraphrasing slightly), I resolved to give this a try. With the etch ordered, the first task on hand was to open up the holes in the seat and back armour to allow the harnesses to pass through: This was accomplished without destroying the parts being worked on or running the drill into my finger. This is going well! More soon. Craig.

Here's my latest completion, Douglas Bader's mount from the end of the BoB. Almost from the box, I only added Xtradecals decals (DB's aircraft wasn't in the kit and my Italeri kit only had McKnight's aeroplane), Aviology stencils, seatbelts and mirror from Airwaves and rigging wire. I also made the footstep-operating handhold cover from a piece of etched brass. All paints are Model Master enamels. Build is at: Just realised looking at the photos that the mirror's disappeared - I'll have to find that or replace it. The exhaust staining isn't as pronounced as I'd intended but I'm reasonably happy with this overall. Bader apparently said the Hitler boot logo was on both sides of his aircraft but there's no photos of that side and I was unable to get another decal, anyway. Comments and critique welcome.

These are some pics of the Airfix Hurricane Mk.I Trop. I built this one together with my daughter, whose favourite WW2 fighter is the Hurricane, since we visited Old Warden in May 2019.. I think the Hurricane looks more impressive with 4 cannon, so I bought some Master cannon to make it look like a MK.IIC. Actually, the topside of the wing would have to be changed as well, but I decided to let that be... The markings are form Xtradecal set X48149, a Hurricane MK.IIC of 1 sqn, SAAF, September 1942. For painting I used Vallejo Acrylics, mainly dark earth, middle stone and azure blue. Hope you like the pics. Gerben

My next project is the new mould Airfix Hurricane Mk.I, the subject of a number of builds here already. I'll be building mine with Xtradecals markings for Douglas Bader's 242SQN mount out of Duxford during the Battle of Britain. It'll be pretty much out of the box (if I can restrain myself...) The seat and floor are done. Slight weathering of the floor and I've cut the locating lugs off the seat armour so I can fit the seat to the fuselage first, as reviews suggest that's an easier way to go. I've also elected to clamp the spars in place on the lower wing now and will use the unused gun truss frames to build up the area around the landing lights as they don't look like basic way Airfix has modelled them and I won't be opening up the gun panels. I will use some stashed etched seat belts as I just can't leave the seats without belts!

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" As today marks the last day of what was the official period of the Battle of Britain my contribution over from the Group build. These are the latest boxings from Airfix, built straight from the box with the kit's markings . May add a little more weathering but a bit of a rush at the end to finish them today.

My next build is the 1/48 Airfix Hurricane Mk1. I have some P Maks and decals for serial/Sqn Codes to model 249 Sqn Hurricane P3616 GN-F I read the book 'Gun Button to Fire' by Tom 'Ginger' Neil, who was a Pilot Officer and flew with 249 Sqn during the battle. He loved his Hurricane, P3616 coded GN-F. Whilst on a days leave, it was flown by another pilot, Pilot Officer Martyn Aurel King. Sadly he was shot down and killed, having bailed out but suffering a collapsed parachute. PO Martyn Aurel King He is buried in All Saints' churchyard, Fawley, Hampshire For his actions during this engagement in which PO King was KIA, Fl Lt Nicholson of 249 Sqn was to be gazetted for the only VC awarded to aircrew for actions in the battle. http://ww2today.com/16th-august-1940-flight-lieutenant-nicolson-wins-v-c Fl Lt Nicholson VC So I looked into the history, to find an interesting link. PO King was born in West Mersea, 15 minutes down the road from where I live in Colchester. Looking further into it, it became apparent that it is likely that PO King was the youngest serving RAF pilot in the battle and almost certainly the youngest to lose his life. It appears an admin error recorded him as being 19, but his birth certificate would show him to in fact be 18. The CWGC looked into this and apparently agreed to change the record on his grave stone. I is still generally reported that Geoffrey Wellum was the youngest RAF pilot in the battle - interestingly I saw a post on here about a spitfire build, describing him as the youngest spitfire pilot, rather than youngest. Some articles if interested: http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/KingMA.htm https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/16884592.youngest-of-the-few-was-an-18-year-old-from-mersea-island/ https://249squadron.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/in-memory-of-pilot-officer-m-a-king-249-squadron/ https://www.essexlifemag.co.uk/people/youngest-battle-of-britain-pilot-1-6086942 So I thought I would model Neil's beloved P3616/GN-F, but reflecting on the young man who gave his life flying the that Hurricane fighting for his country.... I joined the Army at the age of 16 1/2, joined a frontline unit at 17 1/2 (I would not have been allowed to deploy on operations until I was 18, which I did. This was a throwback to 2 young soldiers from my unit who were KIA at the age of 17 along with another who died on his 18th birthday during the Falklands war....the rules then said they could not deploy to Northern Ireland, but did not count outside that theatre). I also commanded young 18 year old soldiers on operations; so I do feel I have an understanding as to what things were like for these young men, serving at a young age. However, they were forced into the ultimate battle, where losing would mean the end for Britain as they knew its amazing how quickly these airmen became Sqn Leaders and Wing Comds at such young ages.... Our armed forces still deploy young men and women, willing to put their young lives on the line, firstly for their mates, then for their nation..... Pte Damian Jackson, KIA, Helmand Afghanistan, 5th July 2006, aged 19. I must admit I did have misgivings looking at my younger soldiers at the start of that tour in 2006, thinking 'bloody Playstation generation', will they up to it, etc - but they all stood up to the plate and performed.... I just felt the local link, youngest RAF pilot in the battle deserved to be a subject in this GB...... P3616 'GN-F', Hurricane I, 249 Squadron, RAF Boscombe Down. The Hawker Hurricane was the primary air defence fighter of the Battle of Britain and was flown by Pilot Officer Tom 'Ginger' Neil of No 249 Squadron based at RAF Boscombe Down, part of No 10 Group. Hurricane Mk I, P3616 was his preferred mount but on 16 August 1940, when he was on a well-earned 24 hours leave, it was allocated to Pilot Officer Martyn King. That day, Flight Lieutenant James (Nick) Nicolson was leading Red Section, which consisted of P/O King in 'F for Freddie' and the supernumerary Squadron Leader Eric King (no relation). The Section was ordered to a patrol-line Salisbury to Ringwood but it was not long before it was vectored to a raid attacking Lee-on-Solent. During the engagement with Messerschmitt Bf 110 escorts, P/O King was shot down and died when his parachute collapsed and Sqn Ldr King was so badly shot up that he barely limped back to Boscombe Down. The leader, Flt Lt Nicolson was severely wounded in the side and leg, and was about to abandon his burning Hurricane when the attacking Messerschmitt overshot, at which point Nicolson gallantly returned to his controls and shot down his attacker. Badly burnt, he finally took to his parachute but shot on the way down by a watching British Army NCO. For this action, Nicolson was awarded the Victoria Cross the following November. Pilot Officer Neil returned from leave to find his beloved P3616 had been destroyed but when No 249 moved to RAF North Weald on 1 September, he arranged for its replacement, V7313 to be marked 'F for Freddie'. During the continuing Battle, Neil flew 62 times in V7313 before it too was lost on 10 October, and a total of 141 times against the Luftwaffe, by which time he had been credited with 13 confirmed victories. A replica of Hurricane V7313 now stands as 'Gate Guardian' at North Weald airfield. Words © Paul Beaver. Thanks for looking.

Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (A01010A) Airfix 1:72 If one was to asked to give the name of a British fighter that took part in the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire would undoubtedly be the most common answer. However, the aircraft that provided the backbone of the defence in that infamous battle was the Hawker Hurricane. Designed in 1935, it was quite a step forwards to the existing front line RAF fighters of that era, key features being a fully enclosed cockpit, retractable undercarriage, 8 guns, powerful V12 engine and most notably, a single cantilever wing as opposed to a biplane configuration. Despite its revolutionary look though, the design and manufacturing techniques were old school, a steel frame with fabric skinning so in reality, it was very much a progressive rather than evolutionary design. This however was to provide useful in manufacturing and in the face of battle. The Hurricane was easy to produce, repair and maintain. This is in comparison to the birth of the Spitfire which used completely new manufacturing techniques which whilst offering performance, hindered early production. Early Hurricane Mk.I’s went through a series of design enhancements. Initial aircraft had fabric wings which limited the dive speed whilst the spin characteristics were a concern for test pilots. This was remedied by the addition of a strake below the rudder that became a key characteristic of the Hurricane. The fabric wings were also changed by 1940 for new metal skinned ones which increased the dive speed by some 80mph. Other notable improvements on the Mk.I were the addition of 70lb of armour plate for the pilot, self sealing fuel tanks and a 3 blade constant speed propeller. The availability of 100 octane fuel early in 1940 gave the Merlin an additional 30% boost power available compared to the power available on 87 Octane which was a significant when one needed to open the taps as wide as they would go!. With aircraft entering service in 1938 with the RAF and a few exports, the first blood was achieved on 21st October 1939 when a squadron of Heinkel He115’s were bounced by 46 Sqn looking for ships in the North Sea. The engagement resulted in 4 aircraft downed with more being claimed by 72 Sqn Spitfires. France was to prove more challenging for the Hurricanes as opposition was encountered by the more lethal BF109E’s. What became the Battle of France was to prove a bloody battle as a result of what the Luftwaffe were able to put up. With the German forces pushing forwards, the RAF and ground forces were forced to retreat to UK soil which paved the way for the Battle of Britain where the Hurricane achieved its legendary status alongside the Spitfire. Of the 2700 victories claimed during this battle by the RAF, nearly 1600 ware at the guns of the hurricane. Whilst the Hurricane soon became outdated a front line day fighter in Europe, it went on to see considerable success in other campaigns throughout the war. With the addition of bombs and cannon, it became an effective ground attack aircraft. It has its history firmly rooted in the battles of the Mediterranean, Russia and the Pacific, not to mention early night fighting over Europe where many aces earned their status. The kit This is a welcome re-release from Airfix of a great little kit. There are 5 grey sprues, a clear one, decal sheet, two colour instructions and a colour painting guide, this is great value for money. Moulding quality is excellent with virtually no flash or sink marks present. The surface detailing on the fuselage and wings is beautifully done with realistic looking fabric areas. Shape wise, it looks very good too. The wing has the slight kink noticeable on the inner section. Construction starts with the wings. A detailed main gear bay is first constructed before joining the top and bottom wings up, a straight forwards affair. The cockpit is then built and assembled into one of the fuselage halves with the rudder pedals and column being fitted to the wing centre section. Two rear bulkheads are supplied in the kit, one armoured, the other not. The instructions show only the non-armoured unit being used, however if you are going to use aftermarket decals, you may want to research your aircraft before selecting the correct one. Detail for the cockpit is only provided in decal form which for some will be well received. I would have preferred some surface detail, so you may want to use an aftermarket etch set if this is an issue to you. With the fuselage quickly assembled, two rear lower fuselages are supplied. The first is the early one without a strake, the second having the more typical and charismatic spin recovery strake. As the base of the rudder is different for each, two rudders are also supplied. Again, check your references before being rushing in with the glue! If one is to be critical on the fuselage, the fabric effect on the access panels below the cockpit fade out on the panel edges. Following a some discussion about the two ‘bumps in the nose immediately behind the propeller at the 4 & 8 o’clock positions. It appears that very early variants didn’t have these. If this is the case on your aircraft, they can simply be sanded off if this detail is important to you. The rudder and tailplanes have the same quality of moulding as the main fabric areas. I’m particularly impressed with the elevator moulding. The Carburettor intake under the nose is a good example of how Airfix have moved on. The intake is recessed giving good scale representation, not simply a blob of plastic as you would get on 20th century kits leaving you to drill the intake out. Two options are provided for gear position. If you prefer to have your gear raised, the parts are superbly produced with wheels & doors moulded as one. This not only looks effective, but keeps it simple for novice builders. If you want to have the gear lowered, separate legs and doors are provided with accurately shaped inner door profiles and two part legs for each side. A noticeable error is the 4 spoke wheels. Typically, the early Hurricanes had 5 spoke wheels so correcting this will need aftermarket wheels. The radiator is another key feature on the hurricane and this is well represented. Both front and rear radiator faces are provided and nicely detailed and the variable flap is moulded in a slightly open position with a very thin edge as not to look toy like. As mentioned previously, both a two speed Watts fixed pitch prop and a 3 blade DH constant speed unit are provided giving more options as to the time period of your build. There are supported by the early slotted and subsequent triple ejector type exhausts. As I suspect that these revolutions happened across various time periods, using reference material for any specific aircraft will be critical if you desire an accurate build. A pleasing feature is the inclusion of a separate canopy enabling you to have it in the open position. This is quite thin and free from distortion. Two windscreens are provided, one of which has an armoured panel protruding out. Other minor features to be aware of in determining your build is things like the venture on the side of the cockpit. At some point, these were phased out with the introduction of a vacuum pump to provide vacuum for the instruments. Decals The decals look very nice. Very sharp print quality with a matt finish and excellent register are evident, only one option is supplied; L1679 of No.1 Sqn in Northern France 1939 Conclusion Although there's an obvious error in the kit, notably the 4 spoke wheels, and a decision not to include surface detail to represent cockpit instrumentation, this kit is a welcome along side other Hurricane models now appearing. . The quality of the moulding and accuracy is reflective of the recent progress Airfix have made and as such offers great value for money. Both experienced and Novice builders alike will enjoy building this kit , I only recently built another boxing and really enjoyed it. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Going through the stash the other week I came across an oddment of kits that I do not normally build, but I have acquired over the past year or so. First up is the Spitfire that was given away by the Daily Mail one week, second is a Hurricane that I bought for some reason or other and the last is a Defiant that was won by SWMBO at a show tombola. So I am going to try this as a triple build, but if required I will put them into separate entries. I do know that the Hurricane has the wrong markings for the BoB, so I have been looking at either a Czech or Polish one, but the only decal sheet I can find of these is rather expensive for many a version that I will not build. I am also looking at the BoB sheet by Xtradecal, but I am unsure of its accuracy. So here are the pictures of the kits. The Spitfire. The Hurricane. The Defiant.

Hello, I had a long journey with that kit - it's easier than mk.I, however my low skills caused several problems on various steps. I cannot wait for 1/48 kit which should look as 1/24 in the box. 😀