So a year ago (seems longer than that) I participated in Paul Barbers 100 year RAF anniversary Group Build, and one of my contributions was the Eurofighter Typhoon. Wearing the markings of a WWII Hurricane Battle of Britain commemorative scheme. When the Typhoon wore this scheme during the Anniversary celebration by the UK in 2015. You see the Typhoon fly with Spitfires and other RAF war bird aircraft. No Hurricanes, so I assumed wrong that the scheme was of a Spit.
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As I was inspired to build a companion for the Tiffie turns out the scheme is from a Hurricane during the BoB. So I looked for awhile to see if I can find any markings for that particular Hurricane. You can't believe the number of schemes and markings that are available for the Hurricane all variants. But not this one, then a relatively unknown to me yet well know to researchers of Avieology. They had GiNA in their amazing Hurricane set. Trust me it was hard to find. So finally after a great motivating build that Dale Travis posted earlier this week of his fantastic Finnish Hurricane. Time to finally build my very first new mold Airfix kit, and it is the Hurricane. So lets take a peek inside, I love the smell of new plastic in the morning when you pop the lid and then take a sip of joe. (Coffee)
The kit is actually the Tropical Hurricane which has all the parts to build the basic land based variant without the naval gear. Couldn't find the regular Hurricane boxing anywhere.
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The Avieology decal set, the Vital Storm pt2 series that contains the markings for GN A. The original set of markings does not have the badge on the LH side of the nose. A supplement was later released that has this marking. Avieology does admit they have yet to find photos or images of this Hurricane with these markings but it did exist according to RAF records, and the markings are based off of photos of other aircraft with the squadron markings in this period of time.
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The instruction sheet is the new style and very comprehensive yet really easy to follow, still lots of parts involved, take your time. Each step is simple and involves only a few parts in each one. So normally a kit will have all the cockpit components that are involved usually done in the first two steps.
Airfix approach is for instance the seat has 3 parts to assemble and that is all for step one. And that how it goes the rest of the way.
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The decal sheet has markings for 2 aircraft one in the MTO trop scheme and another in an interesting overall silver scheme
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The kit is molded in a soft Lt grey plastic, a satin sheen overall. The details are amazing. The new style of mold from Airfix is much different than the Airfix of old. So this being my very first attempt on one of these new wunderkind kit is something to look forward to. The first sprue the lower wing, the wing spars, internal braces, gear doors, forward bulkhead and the main wheels.
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The next sprue contains most of the cockpit braces, both type of prop spinners. The gun bay detail parts as well as the guns if you wish to display the gun bays open. You will know delicate the braces and other smaller interior parts look and in scale that is not resin. Yet being careful they are not difficult to remove from the sprue. Just be careful with the nipper or knife when you remove the parts. For a single engine WWII fighter, the parts count is high. Lots of parts but not over engineered. Just a well laid out plan by Airfix in getting this together.
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The exhaust manifolds look good just may need to drill out the exhaust ports. 4 spoke wheels are in the kit, though my scheme may use the 5 spoke wheels, will check for that. The landing gear main struts are well done. The optional open gun bay doors are provided which is a nice touch as there are a set molded on the wings. The IP is well defined and uses the decals provided for the gauges and dials.
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The wing sprue is next for the upper wing panels. The horizontal tail and seat armored bulkhead. The upper wing panel has the ailerons as separate parts. The armored bulkhead and the center wheel bay roof again fine details.
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The final sprue contains the fuselage halves, the side cockpit braces and the 2 type of props.
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The fuselage has details on the inner cockpit side walls. PE will help define this area a little better.
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2 propeller type are also provided.
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And the 2 side braces which is the key to this kit. Get this first part of build correct, it is the foundation in how it all goes together at the very start. It is quite flimsy so be careful in handling it.
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Finally the clear parts look good and yay you can display the cockpit open, unlike the Hase Hurricane which has this as one piece.
And it has only been that Hase Hurricane Mk.IIIC that I built when it first came out in the late 90's. The fan fare that kit received when it came on the scene. Now looks like this Airfix is going to surpass it. Though it is a good kit. Next up lets do some prepainting...more to follow.
