What is in the Box

• 3 gray injection molded plastic sprues
• 1 clear sprue
• 1 set of pre-cut masks
• 1 decal sheet with 3 markings options
• 1 instruction book

Construction

The Arma 1/48 Hurricane IIC starts with an unconventional build sequence, wings first, which was like their 1/72 kit. The parts are cleanly molded with crisp detail and accurate scribing. There was no flash, the parts are molded with no sink marks, and what few ejector pin marks I did see were all in areas that were not visible on the model. There is an errata in the kit to change the fit of the wing. It is minor but something to be aware of. Also, there is an error on the ejector ports for the 20mm cannons. One must be filled while another has to move in the same area. This is up to the individual modeler to make an absolutely accurate Hurricane. I don’t think I will make the correction since it involves sanding down and this may lose some lovely detail. This is by no means a deal breaker, since this kit is probably the best rendition of the Hawker Hurricane in 1/48. The IIC Hispano-Suizo 20mm canon armed Hurricane is my favourite!

This is the second Arma hobby Hurricane I am reviewing, and I have to say they really have the shape of the airframe down in both scales! It seems the first run orders had FREE 3D printed exhausts during preorders! My review copy does NOT have the 3D printed exhausts. I am reviewing the raw kit. The two areas that may need improvement are the Hispano canons, which would benefit from hollowed out resin ones or brass tube replacements. The Arma website even has an option to order the kit with Master brass gun barrels and 3D resin exhausts! The other would be the exhaust, but the kit injected ones are good, and the 3D printed ones probably address that.

The seatbelts are provided with a decal which is ok, but some may want either etched brass or 3D printed decal replacements. I have a technique that I gloss coat lead foil and then apply the decal to the lead foil and carefully cut it out and then flat coat the seatbelts. This works pretty well. I drilled out the oblong shape on the exhausts, not the easiest task but improves the looks!

The build follows a typical sequence after the initial wing assembly. The model goes together rather well. The cockpit and wing assembly are constructed together, and the fuselage is assembled and cemented on top. The fit is good but I suggest careful dry fitting before committing to glue. The details in the cockpit area are excellent for out-of-box and surpasses the two previous kits of this type in 1/48; Hasegawa and Italeri, which have some minor problems. The detail on this newer tooled kit is crisper and nicer in this scale and reflects some of the advances in injection molded technology since 1997 for the Hasegawa kit & 2011 for the Italeri kit. The detail on the tires is excellent, even has the Dunlop raised lettering like the 1/72 brethren. The fabric look of the fuselage is not overdone, which is common of this type from earlier tooling of Hasegawa and Italeri. The fit is exemplary and if you follow the instructions should have little trouble. One area to be aware of during construction is that the injector ports are on mating surfaces and it is easy to over sand and create a gap in major mating surfaces, such as wings and fuselages. I recommend you cut the parts from the sprue with a little left over and then go in and cut the sprue port as close and level to the surface as possible to avoid assembly gaps.

Painting and Weathering

The kit provides three [3] markings options: one night fighter version [overall night black] one RAF Coltishall 1941 [RAF Dk.Green/Dk. Earth over Sky Blue] and one later war 1944 309 Polish Squadron RAF camouflage [Ocean Gray/Dk. Green over Med. Sea Gray]. I chose option 2, Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck’s bird, which depicts an aircraft of RAF Coltishall in May 1941. This is the European early RAF scheme of Dark Earth and Dark Green over Sky type ‘S’. The camouflage pattern was painted with Model Master [hereafter MM] enamel paints thinned with Mr. Color Leveling thinner. My supply of MM enamels is quickly dwindling so I may have to find an alternative colour match! I employed the salt chipping method for the prop and spinner, which was Tamiya spray [TS-30] Lacquer Silver Leaf under Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Blue FS35622 [H-314]. This was a close match for RAF Sky blue and Gunze Sangyo Aqueous flat black for the prop.

The canopy masks were provided with the kit and worked well as they are Tamiya style tape and are very much similar to Eduard canopy mask sets. On the subject of the canopy masks, the instructions do not provide any placement instructions for the masks, most are obvious BUT the two different canopies provided closed and open may cause some confusion. It takes a bit of eyeballing and measuring to see what masks fit what canopy. The second one down from the top is the open canopy and the top one is the closed canopy. This would be good to point out in the instructions especially for novice builders. I then sealed the kit in with Gunze Gloss to start the decaling. The decals went on without a hitch and are of high quality. They responded well to Micro-Set/Sol system of decal solutions. The larger area decals were put one with Decal Fixer from Green Stuff which really works nice to draw down the decal over compound surfaces. A final coat of Gunze Dullcote was applied to seal in everything. The weathering was achieved with a combination of water-based Flory washes, Tamiya enamel washes and pastels.

Conclusion

I feel that this is now the superlative 1/48 Hawker Hurricane . I am sure Arma will be doing other marks in the future, especially a Mark I Battle of Britain version! Future releases of the many versions of the Hawker Hurricane will be represented in 1/48. We can hope that the new 1/32 Hurricane IIB by Revell will follow Arma hobby and release other variants of the Hurricane in 1/32! It seems we really have a nice representation of the Hurricane in All scales; 1/144 Sweet; 1/72 & 1/48 Arma Hobby; 1/32 Revell Hurricane and the large 1/24 Trumpeter or Airfix kit! I was able to finish it in just over two weeks. I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Arma Hobbies for the review sample and to IPMS for the opportunity to review this kit.