Hurricane Mk.I Eastern Front
Limited Edition

Arma Hobby, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

The Hawker Hurricane was Britain's first modern monoplane fighter aircraft, entering service in 1937.

Hawker's chief designer, Sidney Camm, designed the Hurricane around the new Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Although the British Air Ministry had not yet placed an order, Hawker nevertheless prepared for the production of 1,000 aircraft. This head start significantly expedited delivery once the order for 600 Hurricanes was received in June 1936.

In addition to the fabric covered rear fuselage, the earliest versions of the Hurricane featured fabric wings, reflecting the earlier production techniques of the Hawker Aircraft Company. These initial 600 aircraft were also fitted with a fixed pitch, two-bladed wooden Watts propeller, although these were quickly supplanted by de Havilland and Rotol three-bladed propeller assemblies that permitted pitch adjustment from the cockpit. The later improved aircraft also included windscreens with armoured glass. In time, the fabric wings of many of these early Hurricanes were replaced with metal wings.

Although the Hurricane could absorb an enormous amount of punishment and could out-turn the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (and even the Spitfire) it was a slower aircraft. In the air war over France, the Bf 109 E showed itself to be somewhat superior to the Hurricane, especially those fitted with the two-bladed Watts propeller, but the British fighter had the edge over the prestigious twin-engined Bf 110. During the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane’s main role was to engage Luftwaffe bombers, with Spitfires tackling the more nimble German fighters. Although the fabric wing was largely phased out by this time, there were still examples of the type in use over England in that fateful summer of 1940.

Less glamorous than its legendary stablemate, the Hawker Hurricane was nevertheless a key factor in the RAF's victory in the Battle of Britain.

The Hurricane also saw limited service on the Eastern Front with the Finnish and Romanian air forces.

Arma Hobby's 1/72 scale Hurricane Mk.I Eastern Front represents the later, all-metal wing version.

The kit comprises 50 parts in grey plastic, eight parts in clear plastic, two resin wheels and markings for four aircraft.

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The grey plastic parts are delivered on one large and one smaller sprue. Moulding quality is excellent, with no flash, flaws or visible moulding imperfections on my sample.

The larger parts are moulded with a satin finish. Surface textures are just gorgeous. Panel lines, raised fastener heads and other tructural details are very fine.

The fabric texture on the rear fuselage and tail surfaces are particularly subtle and impressive.

The fuselage is supplied as left and right halveswith the fin supplied as a separate part.

Some details are moulded directly to the inside of the fuselage. These are supplemented by a plastic framework, the "bottomless" floor with foot rests, rudder pedals, control column and more.

The decal sheet supplies harness straps and instrument dials for the cockpit.

The upper and lower wings are moulded as full span.

Wheel wells are nicely detailed.

The resin main wheels are beautifully detailed and subtly bulged. You won't need replacements here.

A de Havilland propeller and three styles of spinner are included.The canopy is quite clear and offers separate parts for the windscreen and the sliding section. Two sliding sections are included - one for the closed position and a wider one to display the canopy open and show off all that lovely detail.

Clear landing lights for the wing leading edges are included too.

Optional wing tip navigation lights are also suplied, but you'll have to cut out the solid plastic on the wing tips before fitting these.

Although self-adhesive masks are not included, Arma thoughtfully supplies a template for cutting your own masks for the canopies and the landing lights on the front page of the instructions.

Instructions are supplied in a eight page stapled A5-sized booklet. Assembly is described over 19 steps using clear diagrams.

The kit is packed into a side-opening cardboard box. I am not a fan of side-opening boxes - access to the parts is more difficult, loose parts can easily be lost while retrieving instructions or a larger sprue, and the format is less structurally rigid, inviting the contents to be crushed when the box is inevitably at the bottom of a pile of kits. I know it is a nit-pick but I would prefer to see future Arma Hobby releases in a lid-style of box.

Marking Options

Four varied marking options are offered - two Finnish and two Romanian.

Each of the four marking options gets a dedicated page with both side views plus upper and lower plan views.

Colour callouts are provided for FS numbers and Hataka Hobby model paint numbers. It might have been nice to have a few other widely available model paint brands too.

Decals are printed by Techmod. They are glossy, colours are well saturated and everything is in perfect register.

Arma Hobby's 1/72 scale Hurricane Mk.I is a gorgeous little kit - excellent surface texture, moulding quality, detail and inclusions.

Thanks to Arma Hobby for the sample

Review and Images Text Copyright © 2019 by Brett Green
Page Created 9 December, 2019
Last updated 11 December, 2019

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