Arma Hobby Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop (40005) 1:48

[Mike]

Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop (40005)

1:48 Arma Hobby

 

 

The Hawker Hurricane was one of Britain's foremost fighters of WWII, and although overshadowed by the more graceful and slender Spitfire during the Battle of Britain, it was a capable aircraft that was available in large numbers, and achieved more than its fair share of kills during the conflict, usually from going after the bombers while the Spits kept the fight cover busy.  It went on to see service to the end of the war, but was relegated to less onerous tasks as technology leapt forward resulting in faster, more agile aircraft that came on stream on both sides of the conflict.  The type originated in the early 30s and first took to the sky in 1935, despite the Air Ministry’s tepid reaction to monoplanes at the time, and it was eventually an aircraft that set standards for fighters that followed it, being a monoplane with a predominantly metal airframe, retractable landing gear, an enclosed cockpit and of course the delightfully powerful and throaty Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.  Compared to the Spitfire it was a little old-fashioned, starting out with a fabric-covered ‘rag’ wing that was eventually replaced by an all-metal aerofoil, and it was less aerodynamically streamlined, with a thicker wing and overall chunkier, blunt appearance.  Although the wing was replaced by a metal aerofoil later, it retained the fabric rear fuselage and as such was able to have minor damage there repaired quickly and easily, compared to the Spitfire that would have to go back to a repair facility for structurally insignificant through-and-through bullet damage.  A fabric patch followed by a few coats of dope, and the Hurri would be back to the fray, which endeared it both to its pilots and ground crew alike.

 

By the time the improvements to the airframe resulted in the Mk.IIC, it was tasked with ground attack, hunting German tanks, which weren’t as easy to crack as first expected, because 20mm cannon shells would often ricochet off the frontal and side armour, and bombing a relatively small target such as a tank was a matter of pure luck, all while the enemy poured rounds in your general direction.  It was withdrawn from front-line fighter service at this stage of the war, as by then the enemy aircraft outclassed it in most respects, but it carried on in ground-attack, night fighter and intruder roles where it excelled, without unnecessary exposure to enemy fighters where top speed might be a disadvantage.  It was succeeded by the D that mounted a pair of 40mm cannon in gondolas under the wings, increasing its offensive power appreciably, at which point it acquired the nickname ‘The Flying Can Opener’, adding additional frontal armour to the airframe that was exposed during dangerous low-level attacks.  They carried on in that role until the Typhoon came into service, which carried out the job faster and more efficiently without having to worry about being bounced by enemy fighters, partly because their numbers were dwindling due to attrition, but also because the Typhoon had additional power that allowed it to hold its own.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of a brand-new tooling from Arma Hobby that many 1:48 modellers were waiting for, as their 1:72 kits have a reputation for excellent detail, with the inference being that in a larger scale the detail would be even better.  It came as no surprise that it is, and this new boxing reinforces that.  The kit arrives in an end-opening box with a sturdy tray inside that prevents the box being crushed  in the stash.  The painting of a cannon armed Hurricane dropping bombs from its wing stations while firing its cannons, and like the initial boxing, it is dramatic and well-executed, with the side profiles of the decal options on the rear of the box. The package has the same design cues and layout as the 1:72 boxes, which makes it feel larger than it really is when handling it.  Inside the box is the tray that contains three sprues of grey styrene, a clear sprue, a sheet of pre-cut kabuki-tape masks (not pictured because it’s pointless – just imagine a featureless yellow square), instruction booklet that is printed on glossy paper in colour, with each decal option getting a full page of colour profiles at the rear of the booklet.

 

Detail is everything we have come to expect from Arma, with crisp engraved panel lines, fine raised rivets, restrained fabric scalloping effect on the fuselage rear, and plenty of raised and recessed features that should result in a superb model if care is taken during building and painting.  If this is your first Arma kit, you should know that they have a technique of adding stiffening ribs and stringers inside their kits, and they hide away their ejector-pins in places that won’t be seen, usually with a circle of tiny turrets around them.  They are usually positioned so that they can be left intact without affecting assembly, but if they do need to be removed, you’ll be told in the instructions.  Their instruction booklets are incredibly well detailed, and will help immensely, so take note of the minutiae and add your own remarks to help you remember if you need to – I know I do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the lower wing for a change, drilling out holes applicable to whether you intend to fit bombs or drop-tanks under the wings of your model.  The holes are marked in red for tanks, and blue for bombs, which is helpful, and the diagrams are accompanied by a little explanatory text that advises that the tanks can be used in the third decal options of this boxing.  The gear bay is created from a well-detailed section of spar that has a pair of retraction jacks and a pressurised cylinder applied to it, then it has the remaining walls and their ribs mated to it and is covered by the bay roof, feeding a brass-painted hose through the bay once completed.  Attention then shifts to the cockpit for a moment, building the seat from four parts, which is supplied with decal seatbelts and is glued to the rear bulkhead after painting for later installation in the cockpit.  We return to the wing again, removing the drop-tank location points for one decal option, and cutting a new rectangular hole nearby, filling in the original with a piece of scrap styrene or filler whilst you are there.  The gear bay assembly is glued into the full-span upper wing along with another short spar section to the rear, then joining them together after removing a short portion of the stiffener behind the landing light bays to achieve a better fit for their inserts, finally covering the lower wing with the two uppers.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we learn why we didn’t start with the cockpit, as it is built in the space between the wings once they are completed, starting with the control linkage and frame under the pilot’s legs, with the foot rests/trays over the top, and a small lever glued to a cross-member on the left.  The sidewall frames are painted and added to the sides, locating in slots in the wing centre, and these are joined by the rudder pedals on a central mount, and a V-frame that stiffens the assembly at the rear.  The control column is built from three parts and includes the linkages that lead under the pilot’s seat, which is inserted last over the V-braces at the rear, locating on more slots in the wing centre.  Flipping the wing over, a pair of rods are inserted into the bays, their location shown by another drawing that highlights them in blue, although these might be best done before starting to add parts to the cockpit to avoid breaking the parts.  The instrument panel is next, with raised details depicting the instrument bezels, plus other switches and controls, with a decal included for it and the compass that fits between two brackets under the panel.  It is glued into the starboard fuselage half with a pair of small pieces of equipment, with four more in the port side, and the option to pose the foot step on the exterior skin pushed inward, which is a nice touch.  There is also a decal for a pair of dials moulded into the fuselage sidewall.  With that, the fuselage halves can be brought together, seams dealt with, and then carefully mated with the wings, taking care not to damage the lovely detail in the cockpit.  If you are closing the canopy, it could be best to remove the rails on which it slides before you start assembling the cockpit within to avoid damage.

 

The underside of the fuselage has an insert with the tail-wheel fairing moulded-in, which will be useful for the Sea Hurricanes that are being released in the future.  The central radiator housing has its core made from front and rear sections with the matrix texture moulded-in, and a circular insert with hosing, all of which is glued to the underside of the fuselage and covered by the cowling that is made from body, intake lip and cooling flap at the rear, locating in a shallow recess in the lower wing that has a horseshoe flange with fasteners to add to the detail.  You have a choice of painting the tail wheel strut silver or azure blue depending on your decal choice, inserting it in the recess under the tail, which is made next from a two-part full-span elevator panel with separate flying surfaces that fills the depression in the rear of the fuselage, adding the two-part fin to a step in the fairing and fixing the rudder to the rear, allowing all the tail surfaces to be posed deflected if you wish.  The main gear legs are made from the strut with a lateral retraction jack moulded-in, and another added to the rear, plus a captive bay door that fits on the outboard side, and a two-part wheel on the inward-facing axles.  There is a choice of two styles of gun camera fairings in the starboard wing leading edge using two different parts, two options must be sanded back flush with the surface of the wing.  There are clear lenses for the gunsight on the coaming in the cockpit, and more clear parts to cover the landing lights.  Helpfully, the clear wingtip lights have a recess in their mating surface that you can add some green or red paint to depict the bulb before you glue them in position.  There is also a choice of one or two cannon barrels per wing, and you guessed it, it depends on which decal option you are building, so the outer holes will need filling and sanding back flush for one decal option.  While the model is inverted, a pitot probe and crew step are added to the port underside, and a clear recognition light is inserted just behind the radiator, painting it a clear amber.

 

The rest of the work on the airframe is done with the model resting on its wheels (if you’ve fitted them yet), installing the fishtail exhausts and blister fairings in the nose, and an aerial mast in the spine behind the cockpit, cutting off the little spur near the top for all options, and removing the short post on the tail fin.  The tropical filter is made from two halves, and is glued together first, fixing it under the nose once the glue has cured and seam has been dealt with to your satisfaction.  The windscreen is glued in place with a square rear-view mirror added to the apex of the part.  To close the canopy, part T2 is used, but if you intend to leave the canopy pushed back, a slightly wider part is supplied, marked T3, with pre-cut masks supplied for all options, as well as the wheel hubs and landing lights.  Two styles of prop spinner are included for the different decal options that use the same blades, but substituting different front and back spinner parts, plus a washer that can be glued carefully to allow the prop to remain mobile after building.

 

Drop-tanks are built from two halves that trap the linked location pegs between them, and there is a small stencil for one side, only to be used for one decal option.  The bombs are built up from four parts each, along with their pylons, but you can only fit bombs or tanks, as this isn’t an F-16!

 

 

Markings

There are three interesting options on the decal sheet, each having a full page of colour profiles at the back of the instruction booklet, with letter codes corresponding to a table on the front page that gives codes for Hataka, AK RealColor, LifeColor, AMMO, Humbrol, Vallejo and Tamiya ranges, which should be sufficient for most of us.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Mk.IIc Trop ‘Hurribomber’, LB792/C, 34 Sqn., RAF/SEAC, Dergaon (Assam) I Imphal (Manipur), Spring 1944 – Pilot: S/Ldr C P N Newman
• Mk.IIc Trop, HL885/AX-Z, 1 Sqn. SAAF, Egypt, September 1942 – Pilot: Lt. Stewart ‘Bomb’ Finney
• Mk.IIc Trop, HL851/GO-P, ‘The MacRobert Fighter, Sir Iain’, 94 Sqn., RAF El Gamil Airfield, Egypt, 1942-3

 

 

 

Decals are by Techmod, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

I’d been waiting for this new tool Hurricane for a while since it was announced, and was not disappointed.  It’s a fabulously well detailed model that shows amazing attention to detail, and deserves to be the new de facto standard in this scale.  The tropic fittings give it a different look that is accentuated by the desert and pacific colour schemes.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of