Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb
Fly 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb reviewed by Peter Ibes
HAWKER HURRICANE MK.IIB
MANUFACTURER: Fly
SCALE: 1/72
KIT TYPE: Re-box with additional resin
parts and a masking set
KIT NUMBER: 72044W
hen Fly models
announced a new 1/72
scale Hawker Hurricane
Mk. II I was quite eager to lay my
hands on one. So, when the editor
ofered one for review, I was
quick to seize the opportunity.
On opening the (rather large) box
the plastic looked kind of familiar
and on closer inspection revealed
its Hasegawa origins. That isn’t a
bad thing, as Hasegawa kits are
usually easy to build and it well,
even though some modellers
may ind the rib detail a bit too
pronounced. And the big plus,
ten resin bits that promise to
correct some of the glitches that
Hasegawa made with the original
kit, two sets of main wheels, a
propeller hub and blades of the
correct shape, a new seat with
belts moulded on and a separate
tail wheel, complemented with a
small masking set. Happy days!CONSTRUCTION
I started the construction
not with the cockpit, but by
separating all resin parts from
their pouring lugs with a razor
saw. After inal clean up I washed
them in soapy water to get rid
of any mould release agent and
resin dust and set them apart
to dry. I then began with gluing
the separate nose pieces to their
respective fuselage half, as I
wanted to be sure they lined up
well, but when I test itted the
fuselage, I discovered that one of
the fuselage halves was actually
short shot. However, after an
e-mail request to Fly, a new spruearrived from the Czech Republic
in just a few days. Well done Fly!
I then began in earnest, itting
the nose pieces to the respective
fuselage halves and adding the
resin seat and the control stick
to the cockpit loor. I found the
cockpit a bit too barren, so in
addition to the instrument panel
I added a few bits and pieces
from stretched sprue and the
spares box. The cockpit was
then sprayed cockpit green
and the details picked out
in various colours with a
ine brush. For the instrument
panel there is no decal included
on the sheet; Fly suggests you
use the one printed on the
instruction sheet. Although this
looks quite nice, I opted for a
left-over instrument panel decal
from the decal dungeon. After a
wash with diluted black-brown
enamels to highlight the details,
the fuselage was closed up and
the tail plane added, as well as a
small triangle of plastic sheet to
the antennae mast. The exhausts
were left of for the time being,
for easier painting later on.
Unfortunately, the upper
wings had some sink marks over
the outer guns, but a smear of
Tamiya putty took care of that.
The wings were then assembled
as per the instructions, followed
by drilling the holes for the wing
guns. The clear landing light
covers were left of for the time
being, again for ease of painting.
The navigation light covers are
moulded integral with the wings,
with a next build I may cut them
out and replace them with a bit
of clear sprue, cut and sanded to
shape. After smoothing things
out, the wings where ofered up
to the fuselage, quickly followed
by the radiator. As I planned to
build the Free French version,
I then added the Vokes tropical
ilter, but that somehow refused
to sit as it should, so took a lot
of efort to obtain a reasonable
it. The various seams
were then addressed
using Tamiya
putty, especially at
the wing root and
around the lower
nose around the Vokes ilter. Next
up was the resin propeller hub,
in which I drilled holes for the
prop shaft and for the resin
prop blades. When measuring
up the hub to the fuselage,
to check if I had drilled deep
enough, it turned out thediameter of the thing was
1.5 mm too small for this kit,
measuring 7mm instead of 8.5.
What to do? The kit’s injected
long-chord propeller hub looks
completely of, so when I read
that sometimes the ‘old’ DH and
Rotol propellers were used on
Mk.IIs, I assembled the propeller
using the alternative short
hub from the kit. The cockpit
canopy was then masked and
attached to the fuselage with
some and with that the kit was
ready for paint. I thought.A TOUCH OF COLOUR
Following a discussion on the
internet, I decided to do some
extra homework and try to ind
as much images a possible of
the Hurricanes used by the Free
French. As it turned out they were
all pretty much painted standard
RAF desert camoulage, with
maybe a bit of repaint to obscure
the previous RAF markings, so
that is what I choose instead of
the tricolour scheme. I started
with spraying the prop blades
yellow, and after masking the
propellers were painted gloss
black. The wheel wells and
gear covers were then sprayed
aluminium, and after drying,
these were masked, and the
underside sprayed Azure Blue.
After masking the underside, the
top was sprayed Mid-Stone. I used
a masking set from Top Notch
for the camoulage, suitably
altered where needed, in order
to reproduce the painted-out
RAF markings of the real thing
and sprayed on the Dark Earth.
The masking then came of, the
remaining details brush painted
and the whole model glossed
in preparation for decals. The
larger decals behaved perfectly,
although I’m not sure about the
red rim on the Lorraine cross
roundel for the fuselage and
the small size of the aircraftnumber. The decal sheet comes
with a great number of stencils,
but these at irst kind of refused
to come of the backing sheet
and when they did, had a
strong tendency to curl up on
themselves. However, if I left
them soaking in water for a bit
longer, they would uncurl and
when placed on the model stuck
on with no silvering at all. The
model was then glossed again
to seal in the decals. Next all the
remaining details were added;
propeller, exhausts, landing gear
(with the great resin replacement
wheels) and pitot tube. A matt
coat was then sprayed on from
a Tamiya rattle can and after
that had dried, I used diluted
Humbrol enamels for a pin-wash
to accentuate the hinge lines and
some panel lines. The landings
light were then added, and an
aerial from Ushi Van Der Rosten
elastic thread for a inal touch.CONCLUSION
I think it is a great idea from
Fly to reissue the Hasegawa
Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb, and
to complement the kit with
some extra goodies. Too bad
the replacement prop hub is
too small; however, the other
bits are great. The replacement
wheels are very welcome as the
ones from the kit have ejector
marks on them that are hard to
eradicate, while the resin seat is a
great improvement over the too
small kit part. Also great to have
a canopy masking set included.
The sink marks on the wings and
the bad itting Vokes ilter can
be overcome with some care and
patience. Regarding the colour
schemes maybe Fly should have
done their homework a bit better
and use photographs instead of
proiles as a basis. Would I buy
another one? Deinitely, although
I would spend a little extra on
an aftermarket decal sheet.58 SEPTEMBER 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
KIT REVIEWS