Mike Williams examines Revell's surprise 1/32 Hawker Hurricane Mk.llb, plus iManArmy’s painting masks for the newly tooled kit Storm U: its famous Bate — ‘of Britain counterpart, MODEL SPEC the Supermarine ewe Huricane Mi Us Hawker's By. Revel Hurricane does not seem to Stock Code: 04968 have got quite so much attention Seale: ¥32 from model kt companies until Pree: £4599 ‘aiabl from: wunuroveldelen relatively recently, By comparison, just a handful of “Hurt kits have been released over the years, especially in 132 scale ~ arguably the perfect size fora single-engined, single seat World War Two fighter. However, the trend seems to have “Revels cockpt lacked just seat harnesses. All components were pant and weathered before assembly note the lack olor ae the Humicane empoyed 3 16 Airfix Model Worts KeyModetiord.com‘announcing news of a brand-new Mk.tb tooling late in 2022 along with promising-tooking CAD renders was roundly applauded from most quarters. ‘An in-box perusal lft favourable first impressions, due toa neatly dotalled cockpit with accurate tubular assembly, options for ‘openiclosed canopy, flaps and retracted undercarriage if desire. The overall appearance was of 2 similar vein to Revel’ 32 Bf 1096 and P-S1 Mustang ‘amilies, in that featured a sensible parts breakdown and engineering, more than adequate detailing from the box but no gimmicks. However, it dd net include an abouttumned, with 148 and 0/72 engine or fully detailed interior products from the kes of Alix as compared to some V/32 scale and Arma Hobby. In /32, Fly and kits ~ as such, could i fulfil an Poxifle Cosst Models offerings important roe inthe Industry, are well documented as being offering a straightforward build for Iticky beasts to assemble; Revell a reasonable price? BASIC BUILD | Hawker Hurricane Mk.llo. “A Despite somewhat ambiguous instiuctions, he cockpit was constucted ‘oltvely easly. nsvument panel decals seed ito recesses well and 3 HGW PE seat hamess was empoyed to dress the seat. Tubular tub tubular metal framework bolted Hurricane cockpits had no floor to the fuselage, with e complex as such, essentially being @ ‘appearance. Revell had sought to suspended unit formed froma replicate it with slightly more “s A.complex undercarriage bay was nonetheless easy o put together ‘A The two man attame components were then offered up to see how good ‘theft was athe notorious wang reat to fselage jun = often the bane of many @ modelers if! Here, theft was good but alec by tape whe gle cued |The complete bay was fied toa central underwing section ~ sigifant housings and te upper wings could be ite, “Apert fting inset forthe ower fuselage fl along a natural pane ne ‘Akemative prt onthe runners were marke a not for ee But hikes at 8 KeyModeorid.com Airfix Mode! World 17“a Rucder an elevator surfaces were al separate, atlowing them to be porec “in sina von, lero comprise wo pats each ane could a0 be posed ~ a . tt ay d {he nose ng behing the sscrew wae an optional pat erect Mand well wer the investment than 20 parts; the instructions the components were identiied just a few parts picked out with was given a wash of diluted looked just as complex and fon their runners, removed, and Cockpit Green, which was also Payne's Grey oll paint to mute the benefited from a careful study had their attachment points used for the interior sidewalls. brightness of the base tones and tageta clearidea of what went carefully rimmed and sanded ‘Smaller fitings such as twottle tle everything together <> where as the execution was a before painting. The bulk ofthe handles and contol column were A setof seat restraints & litle ambiguous. To that end, al cockpit was airbrushed siver, with painted black and everything was conspicuous by its ‘absence, so Sutton harnesses were sourced from —— “The leaing-eage inset for he june needed care to agn anda ite Putty to ensure a good jin. Lancing ght were weated witha Moletow Chrome marker HW Models (wwa.hgwmodels. 2) technically, they were Spitfire betts, but they were the > Undetsdes and several other ftogs same as used on many types ‘wore painted with RAF Sky mae Including the Hurricane, The trom Mr Color C368 lightened with C1 muda the i a Wnte asthe former appesre to care parts took lite care and a lot straight tom the container (of patience to make them look 18 Airfix Model World KeyModelWorid.comBASIC BUILD | Hawker Hurricane Mk.lib 00d, especially threading each to glue to ensure clarity of what ofthe belts through the clips and went where. The fuselage had buckles. Utimately though, they the "knock out” escape pane! were worth the effortas they moulded as a separate part and looked fantastic once installed, _this was fixed on the starboard weathered and matt varnished. fuselage rather than being The whole cockpit 'tub' was omitted ~ it was not an access then assembled with a few dry door, which can be a common runs occurring before committing misconception. The instrument cock and undersiges Slimasted, Me Hotty H72 OnrkEarth wae panel was excellently moulded and was simply painted black before three decals, A were applied to represent the dal faces. t would ‘transpire these would be the only decals used on tis bul. ‘The completed cockpit was offered to the fuselage halves {and was found to ft correctly without any need for lue; it Would be trapped between the fuselage halves with notches on the cockpit and sockets on the body aligning perfectly. One word fof caution though: be very careful otto damage the gunsight assembly due to its proximity te the cockpit opening once Installed. The possiblity to omit itunti ater was examined, but It would have been impossible to instal once the fuselage had been closed. Its fragility was probably the reason Revell Instructs adging the one-piece closed canopy temporarily after tluing the fuselage together, to-avoid damage. The body ‘he painting ue, Tamiya XF- KeyModeWoridcom Airfix Mode! World 19BASIC BUILD {A 12 guns — the Mkbs famous armament were abrushed with XF7 Flat Red to represent the covering tape, Plenty of masking was needed as this hue ‘an be natrous for overspray. ‘was combined with the exhaust ‘mounts also assembled and ited with the upper cowling piece to complete the section joins. Once dry, the fuselage and wings were combined, after which things came together rather rapidly. The horizontal stabilisers, elevators, ailerons and rudder were all built and ited easily and cffortiessly ~ note al the control surfaces could be deflected as the modeller desire. ‘On the underside, there were ‘two inser forthe lower cowing and the rear fuselage, both of Which slotted into place with minimal effort and thei joins faling along panel lines. Of note Going under The undercariage bay was another complex sub-assembly tobe constructed before the ‘wings could be fixed, Formed from no fewer than 13 pars including a clear section forthe observation windows, al ited together perteciy with expt guidance from the instructions. The whole shebang wos sprayed sive before twas affixed tothe cente section ofthe lower fuselage assembly. Two outer lower wing sections then attached effortissly tothe central element via substantia notch and pin joins, then the leading-edge landing tghs were fited before the upper wing sections were alu into postion ~ this process occuring satistyinaly wel All seams were dealt with using mmedlumcoarse sanding sticks and any lot panel ines were te-scrlbed aretuly along the wore the alternative parts on the runners (blanked out on the runner guide) for a Vokes tropical ol fiter Under the engine and an Insert for an arrestor hook, ‘maybe hinting at further versions ‘of the Hurricane coming from Revell in the future? Leading-edge gun inserts were fitted next and most ‘edges needed a small amount of filler to smooth the seams ‘and joins. This was the work of ‘minutes with Vallejo putty (wwe creativemodets 20 Airfix Model World ‘Manarmy’ mask sete provides forall markings incusing the stencils {ound mound the name. Al'sch Rema wore places carol folowing the instructions co.uk) ~ this product can have ‘any excess removed with a ‘moistened cotton bud before it ‘ries, negating the need for a huge amount of sanding. Wingtip navigation lights were picked out with clear red and green paint, then had their covers installed ‘along with the transparencies for the wing-mounted landing lights, after these had been fited anc touched-in with a chrome pen. The windshield was masked and fitted, not forgetting to add the rearview mirorto the top; the cockpit opening could then be masked with tape and any edges sealed with masking flu The prominent ol cooler intake {and even further pronounced radiator housing wore assembled {and offered, the former being secured with glue and the latter being eft off until later to allow for painting and masking Avoiding the water slides Ina break fom the ol routine of dlecatng, all the markings were to be airbrushed on this model using a set of aser-cut precision mass from Beigian frm IManarmy (ovtmanarmy.be). This was something ofa new concept to this modeller, but one that would lend sel particularly wel 1 122 KeyModetWorid.com