Revell Hurricane Mark IIb 1/32 scale-Jungle Fighter

Much was expected of them. 51 brand new crated Hawker Hurricane Mark IIb's had arrived by convoy at Fortress Singapore. The Brewster Buffalo fighters that had been attempting to defend Malaya and Singapore had been very roughly handled by the Japanese Army and Navy fighters in their attempts to stop the incessant bombing attacks on Commonwealth troops, airfields, ships and Singapore City itself. Now 21 of the Hurricanes, the victors of the Battle of Britain, were assembled, tested and ready for operations under the banner of No.232 Squadron, provisional. These "Hurris" would slam into the Japanese attackers and show them a thing or two.

They did not have long to wait, as a large force of raiders came in on the morning of January 20, 1942. There were 80 total bombers, Army and Navy in two formations. Squadron leader L Landels led his 12 Hurris in a diving attack on the Army Ki-21 bombers. Immediately the 64th Sentai Ki-43 equipped escort was upon them, shooting down and killing Landels. His victor was quickly shot down by Landel's wingman, but altogether 3 Hurris were downed in this very unfortunate beginning to another segment of the doomed Singapore defence. The story of the Hurricanes in the totally disorganized and confused early fighting in Malaya Sumatra and Java is a sad one. But all Allied combatants at this time had very little time to draw a breath during the well run Japanese offensives, always kept back on their heels and on the defensive.

The Mark II version of the reliable Hurricane Had an uprated Merlin engine in a slightly longer nose. Most thought the 8 Browning Machine Guns in the Mk I were a lot, but the Mark IIb that went to the far East had a whopping 12 of these weapons, pretty heavy armament for anything but against the lightly built Japanese aircraft, kind of overkill. Sometimes the 4 extra guns were removed, although the original battery was extremely effective in a ground strafing role, as would be seen. Other complaints were about the large tropical filters under the nose which cut speed, and the old style unreliable radios that were fitted. At any rate more IIb's were on the way, 48 more were launched from the Carrier HMS Indomitable, these comprising the original 232 squadron (Now there were TWO 232's, remember that confusion?) and 258. Parts of 258 were sent to Singapore, the rest to Sumatra to the Palembang area, where the Dutch had major oil refineries the Japanese coveted.

One of the pilots in No.258 was an American, Pilot Officer J.A. Campbell. He launched from Indomitable and was one of those sent to Singapore, where he managed to shoot down one of the "little chubby fellows with a great big radial engine" (his description). The Hurricane squadrons were soon chased out of Singapore when the Japanese went ashore and they ended up in Sumatra, at airfield P.1. Here "Red" Campbell bagged another Ki-43 during an attack, but 2 days later swarms of Japanese paratroops descended on P1 and the nearby refineries. During this fracas Campbell was shot down by the numerous escort fighters, later evacuated to Java, to join a reformed squadron No.605. Here on Feb. 24 he claimed a fighter shot down, and next day, an A6M Zero, but here his luck, and that of Hurricane BE332, ran out. Shot down by his victim's wingman, he parachuted but was badly injured after landing in a rice paddy. Ending up in Hospital, he became a POW, but survived the experience.

The Hurricane squadrons were simply ground down, through constant combat, accidents, and being up against over whelming numbers. They had some success, including almost stopping the landing at Palembang through sheer strafing power, causing the Japanese in landing craft horrific casualties. For those interested in this area of the WW2 story, I highly recommend Christopher Shore's "Bloody Shambles" Volumes One and Two. The amount of detail, names places combats dates, etc. is simply amazing. All the events are followed on a day-to-day basis for December 8th,1941 on. From the RAF perspective, Vol. One covers the travails of the Buffalo units, Vol. 2, the Hurricanes, as well as all the other combatants.

Phew (wipes brow). Well on to the model. Revell's Hurricane IIb is a new tool release in 1/32 scale. This scale has not been popular for Hurricanes, having only the ancient 1970's Revell, and Pacific Coast's (very good) limited run offering.

This is a new tool proper Mark IIb with the correct wing machine gun mounts and gun door scribing. The surface detailing is kind of like a Hasegawa, not overly rivetted, missing some raised detail but the Dzus fasteners around the metal panels are done well. The interior is fairly well represented, if a bit fiddly to assemble, and fits well in the fuselage, only the front needs a bit of trimming. There is no seat harness provided, I purchased an aftermarket paper set. The wheel wells feature decent detail. Some of the large parts fit beautifully, others are weird. The wing assembly has pins to try and line everything up, but if you try and use them you will split the loops the pins go into. I cut the pins off. I had to do quite a bit of trimming to get the wing assembly on. Stuff like flaps, ailerons, rudder, stabilizers...perfect. Another oddity is the cockpit opening is tapered. So is the canopy hood. On a real Hurri, the hood would not slide, the rails are supposed to be parallel. Look from above to see what I mean. Anyway it's only noticeable from above. Not a deal breaker, just weird.

Of course, I wanted to do a Sumatra defender, and specifically "Red" Campbell's. There is a pic in Osprey's Hurricane Aces 1941-45, and a profile, that identifies Hurricane IIb serial BE332 as flown by Campell in 258 AND 605 squadron. Remember that confusion? These folks never even had time to put squadron codes on these things (or couldn't figure out which squadron they belonged to), so all I needed was a proper serial number. Scrounging through the decal dungeon, and some cut and paste (Don't look at the "B"'s too hard) yielded what I wanted. Also essential was that Revell has included a tropical filter in the box. As well as a tailhook, fuselage fairing, etc. for a Sea Hurricane, for thems as cares.

For paint, I used the last bottles of Model Master Dark Green and Dark Earth, sprayed freehand with my newly beloved Iwata HP. Got this thing DOWN. Unders were a mix of Tamiya lacquers. The kit decals turned out surprisingly well, only had to use a light coat of Solvaset and they laid down nicely. BE332 had a service life of only a month, so I dirtied it up only to look rid hard and put away wet, pics showed some degree of grunge on Singapore Hurris. As the final touch, I took a handsome fella out of ICM's Gladiator with RAF pilots in tropical kit and painted him up with a technique I got off that "Nightshift" guy on the Innertube, "glazing" with acrylics. He even looks a bit like "Red".

Well, another Pacific warrior for a shelf I don't have. Got 'em in my dresser drawers now. Wait till she gets wind of this.

Now back to my poor Wingnut Wings Dolphin. Wonder where those struts are?

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.