Hawker Hurricane Mk.I
Fabric Wing

by John Valo

Both of Classic Airframes' 1/48 scale Hurricane Mk.I kits are available online from Squadron

Classic Airframes' latest release is the Hurricane Mk.I with the early fabric wings. CA has released the kit in two variations, one with British markings and one with Yugoslav, Belgian, Italian and Finnish markings.

As most of you have no doubt read by now, this is one of CA's highest quality efforts, with excellent scribing and very convincing 'fabric' detail. Being a limited-run kit, the plastic is rather soft, and requires more cleanup time than your average mainstream kit. The resin parts are very well done; the only challenge is removing the rather substantial pour stub on the wheel well. However, five minutes with a razor saw isn't the end of the world, either.

Optional parts provided include three variations of propellers, kidney and ejector exhausts, and two types of canopies, early and late production. Short and long rudders are also provided.

Assembly is smooth sailing for the most part.

I found that assembling the cockpit parts as a unit and inserting them into the assembled fuselage worked out better than building them up on one half of the fuselage as suggested in the instructions.

I tweaked the wing roots with a sanding stick to tighten things up, but the rest of the building was problem free.

The canopies have a scribe line to trim them out, but keep in mind that if you plan to open the canopy, leave a bit more 'frame' on the bottom, or else the canopy will come up short when perched on the fuselage spine.

I elected to use the replacement gun ports on the Belgian plane; these resin inserts more accurately capture the offset-from-centerline location of the ports on the leading edge of the wings.

I took the easy way out on the British plane by using the decal patches to cover the gun ports.

The landing lights were a bit fiddly, but look very convincing. I added wingtip navigation lights made from a toothbrush handle.

The models were finished with PollyScale acrylics on top, and SNJ spray aluminum on the bottoms.

Both releases feature superb decal sheets. Hats off to Microscale for these print jobs - my sheets were in perfect register, and the lettering on the tiny squadron badges was for the most part readable with a magnifying glass!

 

Overall, Classic Airframes' new 1/48 scale fabric wing Hurricane is a very pleasing kit. In hypothetical comparison to a Hasegawa release, I would say the only advantages for Hasegawa would be less cleanup and the provision of locating pins. The CA kits' good detail and fit, excellent decals and number of marking options more than balance that out, in my opinion.

Highly recommended!

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by John C. Valo
Page Created 28 April, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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