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Quick and dirty Hurricane build coming up! I've been meaning to get this one done since the Malta GB in 2012. Hobbycraft's old IIc is, I think I'm right in saying, based on the old tool Airfix Mk.I and for the purist it does neither one thing or the other. It looks like a Hurricane, however, and I still think that the old Airfix is the nicest 1/48 Hurricane out there for shape. Keep the cockpit closed and nobody will mind too much about the lack of detail. The subject is to be that old favourite, BE402, which was photographed with 242 Squadron markings LE-S after nosing over on the Island. Mostly people paint her up in Desert colours but I think that's a bit of a wrong turn. 242 Squadron arrived in Malta on 12 November 1941 in Operation PERPETUAL, flying 18 Hurricanes off HMS Argus under the command of Sqn Ldr W.G. Wells. As with most 1941 deliveries, the Hurricanes are pictured in Temperate Land Scheme. There is some confusion about 242 Squadron in this period because the ground crews were sent onward to the Far East, so for a short period at the end of 1941 there were two 242 Squadrons! Ground crew from 605 and 249 Squadrons was seconded to 242 in Malta. 242 is listed in the order of battle in Malta from November 1941 to March 17 1942 when the few surviving aircraft and men were absorbed into 126 Squadron. Here is the famous upturned full-size example: And here is the kit. I shan't be adding any extra details unless I find the tail wheel that I was very kindly sent in 2012 - if I recall the kit item is from the Mk.I and the replacement is a Mk.II from a Hasegawa kit. I'm not going to do too much in the way of weathering. November 1941 on Malta was what Gandalf would describe as the deep breath before the plunge. The Luftwaffe was returning to Sicily and preparing to unleash its full force upon the Island but it had been a relatively quiet summer and autumn in which the Italians had seldom pressed home their attacks with any great vigour. By December the world would be a good deal less pleasant. Onward, to Malta!
