Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop

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.

The Hurricane Mk.II was powered by the improved Merlin XX engine with two-speed supercharger. The new engine was longer than the earlier Merlin and so the Hurricane gained a 4.5 in "plug" in front of the cockpit, which made the aircraft slightly more stable due to the slight forward shift in centre of gravity.

The Hurricane Mk.IIc was equipped with a new and slightly longer propeller spinner, and fully replaced the machine-gun armament with four 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk II cannons, two per side.

A newly designed wing included a hardpoint for a 500 or 250 lb (230 or 110 kg) bomb and, later in 1941, fuel tanks.

By then, performance was inferior to the latest German fighters, and the Hurricane changed to the ground-attack role, sometimes referred to as the Hurribomber.

The mark also served as a night fighter and intruder with about three quarters converted to fighter bombers.

There were 4,711 Hurricane Mk.IIcs built by Hawker between February 1941 and July 1944.

Arma Hobby's 1/72 scale Hurricane Mk.IIc is the second boxing of this variant. This is the standard kit so it does not include resin, photo-etch or canopy masks.

The kit comprises 52 parts in grey plastic, eight parts in clear plastic and markings for two aircraft.

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The grey plastic parts are delivered on one large and one smaller sprue. As fr as I can tell they are identical to the Hurricane Mk.IIc reviewed on HyperScale last week.

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 structural 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 and onto the wing. 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. Main wheels are one piece each in injection moulded plastic.

A Rotol propeller assembly and spinner are included.

Two different styles of cannon barrels are included, as is an optional Vokes tropical filter.

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 supplied, 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

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

The first option is a 1 Sqn SAAF Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop in Egypt n September 1942. It is finished in the Tropical scheme of Middle Stone and Dark Earth over Azure Blue lower surfaces. The code letter font is quite unique.

The second option is an SEAC Hurricane in service in Burma. It is finished in Dark Earth and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey lower surfaces.

Colour callouts are provided for FS numbers and a good selection of model paint numbers including Hakata, AK, Lifecolor, AMMO, Humbrol, Vallejo and Tamiya.

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

There is a small supplemental sheet with the code letter for the SEAC option.

In common with the rest of their Hurricane family, Arma Hobby's 1/72 scale Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop 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 © 2020 by Brett Green
Page Created 1o June, 2020
Last updated 10 June, 2020

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