Hurricane IIb Armament Question

[Grizly]

I'm working on Revell's Hurricane IIb with the object of replicating one of 402 Squadron's aircraft with the underwing bomb pylons. Given the installation of the bomb carriers, one Browning had to be eliminated in each wing. Regarding the two outboard Brownings, in the one image below, the two guns can be clearly seen. In the other (from Robertson and Scarborough's  book on the Hurricane), there is no evidence of the outboard guns. My question being, were the outboard guns (generally) removed???

 

[Graham Boak]

Speaking for the other squadron's point of view (607) and other photos from elsewhere, it was not normal for the outer guns to be removed.  It was however fairly normal for them to be removed from Mk.IIb fighters overseas, so I can see why it could have been considered and even tried on the FB units.

[Troy Smith]

15 hours ago, Grizly said:

In the other (from Robertson and Scarborough's  book on the Hurricane), there is no evidence of the outboard guns.

 

There is, look closer.  The muzzles have patches over them.

 

this is BE485 from the famous air to air series

 

and visible below

 

this is the other side, the patches are clearly visible, by this stage rolls of self adhesive patches were available,  the type seen on Spitfires.

see film here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235029913-spitfire-rearming-and-gun-muzzle-patch-application-films/

 

 

 

and another shot of AE-K,  the patches well seen here

 

 

15 hours ago, Grizly said:

My question being, were the outboard guns (generally) removed???

AFAIK,  no. they were not.

They were more often removed in SEAC, as they did make the Hurricane heavy.  They were also time consuming to service, as they have to be removed via the port in the wing leading edge.

 

HTH

[gingerbob]

Weren't there a few IIA bombers, too? Not at my resources right now.

 

Edited March 12 by gingerbob

[Graham Boak]

No.  The strengthened wing was on the Mk.IIB bombers: Geoffrey Sinclair states they are recorded as Mk.IIBB.

[gingerbob]

Yeah, I believe that I was thinking of ORB comments when squadrons were starting to get IIBs to add to their IIAs (non bombers)- there were a number of comments about 8-gun aircraft.  I just mixed up two different "events".

[Troy Smith]

On 11/03/2025 at 14:10, gingerbob said:

Weren't there a few IIA bombers, too?

Given that the IIB lost a gun due to the fixing for the bomb carrier, this would make a 6 gun Hurricane, so AFAIK no.