AZ Model 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Early) by Peter Buckingham

AZ Model 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (Early)

On opening the box there is a clear plastic envelope containing a shiny grey sprue holding some 35 separate items plus a smaller clear plastic envelope containing the canopy and seven finely detailed ivory coloured, resin cockpit and wheel well pieces. The resin seat/base assembly has moulded on seat belts. An ‘in register’ decal sheet is included with markings for four representations which are also shown on the rear of the box in artwork depicting the painting and camouflage details. The folded sheet of A4 instructions are printed in English. Unfortunately the white on ‘tone’ (which I would hazard a guess at 10% of black) letters in square boxes to indicate their colour code of various parts, are so feint as to be indistinguishable.

Having been spoilt by the excellence of Tamiya, Hasegawa and Eduard, suffice for me to say that this kit is probably best for modellers who like to ‘model’. Every sprue item had to be operated on for the removal of flash and two large ‘sink’ indentations on both tailplane parts needed careful filling and improvement. More serious were what I believe to be ejector pin marks on the ‘fabric’ covered rear fuselage which required even more careful doctoring.

I began the build as per the instructions with the cockpit, seat assembly and cockpit walls. The seat actually looks very good and it is such a shame that when the model is complete, that the interior cannot be seen! I painted the interior with Xtracrylix ‘Interior Aircraft Green’ and also used this colour on the wheel well assembly. When dry, I washed these areas with diluted black oil paint and later dry brushed some silver to bring out the details.

The fuselage went together without too much trouble using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement as did the wing assembly with just a small amount of filler necessary. The latter is the usual three piece wing set with the undersides in one piece and the wheel well box being sandwiched in the middle. Where I did have to spend some considerable time however was on the fit of the canopy. It is far too thick and a very poor fit. Much reduction of thickness plus an adjustment of the fuselage to match the rear canopy profile also required use of the sanding sticks. When the fit was the best I could achieve, the canopy was polished using ‘Mer’ car polish to get rid of the sanding marks and, after washing, was dipped in ‘Klear’ and put aside to dry. The following evening I masked the canopy frames with Tamiya tape, always a very fiddly job, and then carefully glued the canopy to the fuselage with ‘Micro Kristal Klear’. Once correctly positioned, Tamiya tape was used to secure it to the fuselage while the glue was drying.

All remaining parts such as the fin, tailplanes and tail wheel went together without problem. I did discard the kit aerial though, earmarking a suitable length of brass rod as it’s replacement because the kit part was of such poor quality.

The model I had chosen to depict from the four available, was that of NO.R of 85 Squadron, Debden, 1939, which had the two bladed prop and no fin markings. This aircraft had an aluminium finish on it’s undersides with a ‘standard’ camouflage pattern on the upper surfaces.

I also chose to show this model ‘wheels up’, so the undercarriage legs with wheels and wheel fairings were glued together in the ‘up’ position in the wings and good old Tamiya tape used to protect the remaining sections of wheel well and the exposed parts of the tyres.

The model was now ready for the painting process which I commenced after washing all surfaces with soapy water, rinsing, and after drying, wiping the same surfaces with Ronson lighter fuel to effectively get rid of any remaining greasy handling marks, sanding dust and other detritus. As an aside, I heard the other day that Ronson lighter fuel mixed with any gloss enamel as a thinner will result in a matt finish!

Using my single action Badger 200, I airbrushed Alclad grey primer/micro filler over the entire structure and after 24 hours drying time, used Micro Mesh to carefully sand the surfaces.

I continued with Alclad and sprayed their White Aluminium on the under surfaces together with patches of Magnesium for some variation. I left the Alclad to dry for a couple of days before spraying the upper surfaces with Humbrol enamel Dark Earth, and then after leaving this to dry for a further 24 hours, the top surface was masked before spraying Humbrol Dark Green. The whole structure was put away for a couple of days and then a couple of coats of Klear were brushed on before applying the decals. These went on very easily, settled beautifully with no hint of silvering and I was pleased with this part of the finishing procedure. After another 24 hour break, the prop assembly was glued into position followed by the brass rod replacement aerial and the removal of the canopy masking tape.

For the base, I went to my local DIY shop which has a wood cutting section. I found a six inch square scrap piece of NDF which the man kindly chamfered for me. I next went to the cycle shop nearby and bought a small single spoke. I then drilled a small hole in the bottom of the fuselage which I filed to suit the O/D of a suitable piece of brass tube which was superglued into position to await the cut down cycle spoke support. The base was drilled for the spoke which was epoxied into position and the whole assembly was finished matt black acrylic from a Humbrol spray can.

A tad of thinned black oil paint wash was given to the whole model removing any excess by ‘dry’ brush blotting action. To give the Hurricane a semi matt finish, I followed ace modeller Ted Taylor’s advice by using four parts Klear to one part Tamiya Flat Base which was sprayed on.

The model was now finished apart from the Lycra elastic thread aerial ‘wire’ which was superglued to one position first, letting it settle and dry for a short while and then stretching it to the opposite point and super gluing as before. I used a black felt tip pen to darken the thread.

Conclusion:

As mentioned in my opening remarks, this is one for the experienced builder or anyone who likes a challenging model. Once finished, it looks quite a nice example for your 1/72 collection. The ‘fabric’ of this early mark of the Hurricane is fairly represented and I found the decals very good indeed. Unfortunately, the quality of some of the plastic parts leaves much to be desired, although the resin seat module looks very good when painted and washed. However, there must be something about the kit as it was one of Hannants best sellers when it was first released. It must be me!