Classic Airframes' 1/48 scale
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I

by John Valo
 

  

Classic Airframes' 1/48 Fabric Wing Hurricane Mk.I is available online from Squadron.com

For a detailed examination of the kit contents, see Steven "Modeldad" Eisenman's in-box review here on HyperScale.

Classic Airframes has recently released a new 'Battle of Britain' boxing of their excellent fabric-wing Hurricane Mk.I kit.

The kit provides decals for an extremely interesting RAF bird with 'not-really-standard' markings, as well as an equally interesting test aircraft that is finished in Silver dope over the fabric areas, with all of the metal panels being highly polished, similar to the prototype Hurricane.

The original release of this kit was one of the first of CA's 'improved tooling' releases, and the kit features very crisp panel lines and very convincing 'fabric-over-structure' effect for the wing.

The cockpit is nicely detailed and convincingly busy.

The resin wheel well part is very nicely detailed and fits well after the usual removal of the pour stub. A nice touch is that this release includes parts for a Watts propeller as well as kidney exhausts, although not used for the kit's subjects.

Fit is overall quite excellent, provided you take a few moments to dry-fit and clean up parts before committing to glue.

The Battle of Britain subject aircraft is US/T, of 56 Squadron, RAF. This aircraft was one of the last Hurricane Mk.Is fitted with fabric wings, and saw service over Dunkirk before participating in the Battle.

The period of 1938-40 saw a number of changes in the painting and marking of RAF fighters, with the expected confusion of 'standard' as well as the inevitable time lag for all Squadrons to catch up with the latest RAF signals. Such is our subject, with a large Type A fuselage roundel with a thin Yellow surround, and oversize fuselage codes, both sides reading US/T. One of my references showed the port 'S' slightly forward of the roundel, another showed the code overlapping the Yellow ring slightly, which was my choice of application.

The thin, full-height fin flash, and Sky undersurfaces with Type A roundels in place hint at this aircraft exhibiting a nice mix of transitional markings.

The kit decals are printed by Microscale, and feature a number of tiny, legible stencils. The decals went on perfectly over the PollyScale paint finish.

If you choose to open the vacuformed canopy, you must trim the lower edge slightly (very slightly!) oversize so the bottoms of the 'frame' will align with the fuselage canopy slide tracks with the canopy open.

Classic Airframes' 1/48 scale Hurricane has made a welcome return with this latest release. If you haven't tried one yet, now is your opportunity to enjoy!

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images: 

Hurricane Aces 1941-1945 Aircraft of the Aces 57 Author: Andrew Thomas Illustrator: John Weal US Price: $19.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  November 21, 2003 Details: 96 pages; ISBN: 1841766100 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2005 by John Valo
Page Created 26 September, 2005
Last Updated 25 September, 2005

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