Hawker Hurricane Mk.I

Trumpeter, 1/24 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

Trumpeter's 1/24 scale Hurricane Mk.I will be available online from Squadron.com

Trumpeter's new 1/24 scale Hurricane Mk.I comprises 260 injection molded parts in grey plastic and clear styrene (including clear side engine covers), vinyl tyres and ignition harness, a photo-etched fret with cockpit details and a Sutton Harness, and an acetate sheet with printed instruments.

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The parts are perfectly moulded.

The most obvious surface feature on a Hurricane is the fabric texture on the rear fuselage, and this is done extremely well. The fabric is depicted in all the appropriate places, supplemented with recessed panel lines, selected rivet lines and fasteners as required. In my opinion, the fuselage looks excellent.

The wings get a more intense rivet treatment, but these are largely a substitute for panel lines. In fact, there are only a handful of recessed panel lines on each wing. The rivets are smaller and sharper than on any of the earlier Trumpeter 1/24 scale kits, and I think that the wings and other riveted surfaces should look fine under a coat of paint. If they are not to your taste, they are small enough that a coat of Mr Surfacer and some sanding should subdue the effect. Ejector pin marks are, for the most place, not placed in visible locations except for a few inside the wing machine gun bays.

Fabric surface detail on the rudder and elevators is even more subtle that the fuselage. This restrained approach is a major change for Trumpeter.

Soft vinyl parts are supplied for the tyres and ignition harness.

The clear parts are remarkably thin and flexible.

All control surfaces, including the flaps, are separate but simply glue together - no fiddling with metal hinges and workable parts.

Cockpit and engine detail is quite good. The engine includes flexible ignition leads. The cockpit, however, will benefit from additional work as a few details are missing. The instrument panel is supplied as a clear part with acetate instruments. It is pleasing to see that the instrument lenses moulded in place in clear plastic, not hollow as in many previous releases. The inclusion of the photo-etched Sutton Harness is very welcome too.

Detail extends into the wing, where the gun access panels may be left open to display the .303 Browning machine guns.

The decals are nicely printed. However, the red is too bright and the codes are supplied in white, not Medium Sea Grey as they should be.

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Accuracy

The model represents a late Hurricane Mk.I with metal wings, Rotol "blunt" spinner and (I assume) a De Havilland 10' 8" three-bladed variable pitch metal propeller assembly.

I compared the fuselage, wings and tailplanes to enlarged scale drawings from SAM Publications' Modeler's Datafile 2 - Hawker Hurricane.

The plastic parts conformed almost perfectly to the outlines of the plans.

The only question is the shape of the kit's propeller blades, which do not really look like any Hurricane blades that I can find.