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Bob Torres
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Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.I. in Finnish Air Force markings.

July 27, 2022 · in Aviation · · 20 · 1.1K

This is an old kit released by in 1972, it can be made as a Mk.I or a Mk.II. For this build I chose to build it as a Mk.I.

I added some details for the cockpit, scratch built the wheel well, replaced the propeller with a resin De Havilland propeller set from Palva, replaced the wheels with a 5 spoke resin set from S.D.S.

My original decal source was from an old IPMS- Finland sheet that I picked up back in the 80's, for the most part this was not used. But I did used both of the #5 decals.

For the rest I used an S.B.S. decal sheet #72011. Both sheets has the same aircraft HC452, the S.B.S. sheet has a tail #2 instead of a #5. This aircraft probably received some tail damage or was removed for another to keep in service and had the rudder replaced from another Hurricane. The museum in Finland shows this aircraft with #5.

This was an enjoyable build, 40 years ago I built the same kit but as a Mk.IIb. The last photo shows the two builds together.

Reader reactions:
8  Awesome

27 additional images. Click to enlarge.


20 responses

  1. A wonderful model, Bob! What a great way to build/upgrade an old kit!

  2. Very nice work on this old one, Bob @v1pro
    You did great by adding those scratch build parts.
    Nice tool to mount the propellor blades to the spinner.

    • Thank you John @johnb, this is what I used a:
      Quickboost 72132 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk II Propeller w/Jig Tool for Hasegawa

      It worked okay but not exact because my resin parts were made by Pavla. Still it did the job. To be honest, I enjoyed scratch building the wheel well the most.

      1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  3. Very good build! Nice uprgrade sets!

  4. Your extra effort scratch building added a lot of visual interest to this kit, Bob @v1pro. The Hurricane turned out very nice.

  5. Great kit build Bob. The background photo documentation and scratch build photos are very informative. Thanks for showing how to do this.

  6. Very nice! I like the unusual markings. I just came across a decal sheet for a Hurricane captured by the Japanese and used by them - gonna HAVE to build that one!

    • Thank you Greg @gkittinger, this was my first Hurricane with foreign markings. There are a lot more to go on this aircraft. This past May I ordered this decal set with foreign markings. Somewhere in my decal stash I might have a captured Hurricane with Japanese markings. That would be a very different Hurricane build.

      4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

  7. Nice work, Bob (@v1pro). These old Airfix kits can be tough, especially the canopies, but you have truly made this one shine. I just bought one of the newer Mk.1's, and it looks like a really sweet kit. Well done on a paint scheme you don't normally see.

  8. Great job on this old timer!

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