Review: iModeler Review โ Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Presenting the "new" 1/72 Airfix (early) Mk 1 Hurricane. This is an upgraded release of the first mark 1 that was made available at the end of 2013. The main difference with this release is you have the dehaviland 3 blade prop instead of the Watts 2 blade wooden prop.
I was a bit surprised to see that this kit was depicted as a fabric covered wing model rather than the metal covered version (more to differentiate it from the original release). Decal option is for 85 Squadron RAF of the AASF based in France in May/June 1940, and you may choose ID letter "G" or "C" or buy two and do them both! Accordingly you get the half black/white underside recognition depicted rather than the sky surfaces for later that year (1940).
Hopefully my pictures demonstrate that this kit is up to the new standards Airfix have set themselves with more internal detail than usual for a series 1 kit in this scale. Surface and panel line details are nicely done but may not be to everyones tastes as they appear a bit deep in places (see photos). The wheel wells and cockpit are especially worthy of mention in this kit as they portray more detail in a kit of this scale than i've ever seen from any manufacturer of the Hurricane. Again i hope my pictures do these areas justice.
Construction starts with the wheel wells by adding the "walls" and ancillary detail, which give this area of the kit a very busy appearance. Above the wheel well is installed the yoke, rudder pedals and the foot braces to create a cockpit "floor". Sadly most of this nice detail will largely dissapear when the fuselage is added over it. The interior of the fuselage and cockpit is well done - again giving a busy appearance with nicely formed pilot's seat and rear armour plate. The instrument panel is a decal which will not suit all but again will mostly be unseen when the fuselage halves are joined.
Engineering fit of parts works well and I have taped up the main components in my pictures to demonstrate this. All in all I foresee no real problems assembling this little beauty in jig time! As a result I am pushing this to the top of my build list and hope to commence construction shortly.
To recap then this is a very nice example of a Early Mk 1 Hurri in 1/72 scale with a lot of good detail worthy of a larger scale kit. Therefor I can totally reccommend it to one and all! Happy modelling ๐
Airfix have pushed the boat out now with their re-tooling of kits, which i nice to see.
Hopefully these kits will intice newcomers especially the younger ones to keep with the hobby, some of the older Airfix kits were to say the least poor,.
Nice review there Gregor.
Hope your going to do that black/white colour scheme, very cool.Thanks for doing the review.
N.
Well, color me confused...
Even though the boxart of this kit seemed to portray fabric wings I was pretty sure this release would feature the later metal wing. Not so.
So all in all I guess the styrene contents of this kit is identical to the earlier release (as the threebladed prop is already included there).
Starting to wonder why I ordered this kit as it doesn't seem to be much different than the first fabric wing release.
Guess I can always build a Finnish Hurricane later... ๐
Thanks for posting the review!
I do not do 1/72 aircraft, but I have to say that I am impressed by how well this kit has been engineered. The cockpit and wheel well alone are a hell of a lot more than you get with most 1/72 kits. Airfix is really stepping things up.
As soon as my LHS or favorite internet store have them 1 or 2 will be going into the stash.
Thanks for the comments folks, glad you like it. I've started work on this and will try and get something posted up over the next couple of days in the WIP group.
Good review, Gregor, it gives us all the information required, is clearly written, and well photographed (and well done Airfix).
...better late than never. Found your great review, while surfing through
your blog. I purchased this kit a few days ago and i agree with your review
it s a great little kit. I am not a RAF expert and i asked myself about the true
color of these squadron codes, is this grey correct for this aircraft and this scale ?