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Hawker Hurricane IIC
Night Fighter

By 

Graham Green

Here is Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Hurricane IIC built as a night fighter.

The only differences between this model and the South African Air Force Hurricane featured elsewhere on HyperScale, apart from the paint scheme, are the addition of long range fuel tanks from Airwaves (ED Models) and the antiglare plates on the side of the nose. Otherwise everything is the same.

The kit supplies exhaust glare shields, but these were a little thick. They were replaced using 5 thou plasticard using the kit parts as templates. If you cannot obtain 5 thou plasticard from your model shop then you migh use the lid off the butter/margarine/or whatever 'spread' you use on your bread, as these are about the correct thickness. But wait until the tub is empty or you might be in a bit of bother with your 'better half'!

Throughout the construction of the kit I fancied doing something different from the kit options (PZ865, 'The Last of The Many', and two aircraft of 3 Squadron, QO-Q and QO-R) so I chose a nightfighter aircraft from an AeroMaster sheet. The aircraft modelled is BE500, 'A' Apple of 87 Squadron, Charmy Down and St Mary's, flown by the Squadron commander, Sqn Ldr D.G. Smallwood. A presentation machine, 'United Provinces - Cownpore I' it was all-over black with a red spinner (although some pictures show it yellow).

It was built at Hawker's Langley plant and was used for night defence and intruder operations over Northern France in early 1942, often carrying 44 gallon drop tanks for the long operations. The model was painted with Humbrol gloss black overall and the decals, from the AeroMaster sheet, added.

A close up of the cockpit area shows a white rectangle, cut from a decal sheet, onto which is placed the S/Ldr's pennant, an omission by AeroMaster. This pennant is repeated on the starboard side of the aircraft.

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Text, Models and Images Copyright © 2000 by Graham Green
Page Created 28 February, 2001
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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