Arma Hobby has produced this kit for its tenth anniversary. Following the successes of its previous 1/48 scale Hurricanes (Mk IIc, Mk IIb, and now a Sea Hurricane Mk IIc), this “Anniversary Special Edition” Mk IIc comes with new parts. The Hurricane Mk IIc differs from the Mk IIb with the armament being four 20mm Hispano cannons instead of twelve .303 Browning machine guns.

From the Arma Hobby Website:

At the beginning of November, Arma Hobby celebrates its 10th anniversary! On this occasion, for modelers, we have prepared a special, jam-packed anniversary model kit - Hurricane IIC "Jubilee" in 1/48 scale.

This is a set with marking schemes from Operation "Jubilee" - the Allied Dieppe landing, with a box filled with a full set of 3D-printed resin accessories. This unique kit is released in a small, limited series for the 10th anniversary of Arma Hobby and will not be reissued!

So far, the accessories included in this kit have only been available in our store during promotional pre-sales, never with a single model, we added them as a bonus to larger bundles of 2-4 kits.

In the anniversary 1/48 Hurricane IIC “Jubilee” box you will find:

• plastic 1/48 Hurricane IIC sprues (2023 moulds)

• decals for 3 markings from Operation “Jubilee”

• self-adhesive ‘kabuki’” painting masks for canopy and wheels

• 3D-printed resin accessories: two seats with seatbelts, two variants of exhausts, two variants of cannons. Just enough for two Hurricanes Mk IIc, early and late version.

Kit marking schemes:

• Hurricane Mk.IIc BE500/LK-A. No. 87 Squadron RAF. Tangmere airfield. Three missions in operation “Jubilee”. Pilots: S/Ldr D.G. Smallwood i F/L A.H. Thom.

• Hurricane Mk.IIc Z3081/FT-V “Baron Dhanis”. No. 43 Squadron RAF. Tangmere airfield. Three missions in operation “Jubilee”. Pilot S/Ldr D.A.R.G. Le Roy du Vivier (Belgium).

• Hurricane Mk.IIC BD867/QO-Y, No. 3 Squadron RAF, Hunsdon airfield, Autumn 1941. This aeroplane was shot down during the “Jubilee” operation, pilot Sgt. Stirling David Banks (RCAF) died. The appearance and marking of this plane on 19th August 1942 is unknown.

Operation Jubilee was the codename for British raid at Dieppe on the French coast on 19 August 1942. The unsuccessful raid resulted in about 50% of the landing force being killed, wounded, or captured. The Royal Air Force (RAF) lost 106 aircraft, the Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and a destroyer. Lots of lessons were learned by both the Allied and German forces. The RAF Fighter Command’s contribution included 48 Spitfire squadrons, three Hawker Typhoon squadrons, RAF Army Cooperation Command (four squadrons of Mustang Is), and eight squadrons of Hawker Hurricanes (three squadrons of which have an aircraft each represented).

Arma Hobby is known for their attention to detail, fine molding, and engineering. Upon opening the side box flap and pulling out the sturdy tray, there were three light gray sprues, a clear sprue with two canopies (one open, one closed), masks for windows, a Techmod decal sheet for the three marking schemes, and 3D printed parts for two types of exhausts (another type also in plastic), 20mm cannons (also presented in resin (two sets) and on the sprue), and two seats (also a set on the plastic sprue). There are a lot of choices in the box: early and late model, day, and night fighter, etc.There are a lot of options for a Hurricane modeler and the detail is exquisite.

Construction is straight forward laid out on 37 steps over 12 pages, and the choices start before the first step with the choice of clean, auxiliary tanks or bombs. As the Operation Jubilee Hurricanes presented in this kit did not carry bombs, that option is easy to discard. The choice comes down to auxiliary tanks or not, and the instructions call out for which holes to drill on the lower wing. The instructions were followed throughout, with the following notes:

Step 5: Assembly of the pilot seat (can use the 3D printed part and skip)

Step 7: Choice of variants require possible cannon shell ejection port move for auxiliary drop tanks

Steps 16 and 17: Beautiful detail utilizing decals for instrument panel and fuselage panel details – too bad they mostly hard to see once the aircraft is buttoned up. If the model is to have a closed canopy, see Step 20 below.

Step 20: Fuselage rail area is marked in red for removal if canopy is to be closed. It is easier to do this step before detail is added in Step 17

Step 21: Part B6 does not have a number on the sprue, but it is obviously the second half of the oil cooler

Step 23: Great engineering with rear bottom fuselage being one piece eliminating need for seam clean up

Step 27: The tire halves are well detailed and have “Dunlop 8-00-1/4” imprinted on them and the tires are weighted. If the Hurricane is to be displayed with the tires retracted, don’t assemble the halves together as they will be too wide to fit in the wheel wells.

Step 32: - Choice of 20mm cannons: 3D, resin, or plastic. Be careful with the sanding the wing tip light areas (Step 9) as the wing tip lights (T6 (port) and T7 (starboard) fit well, and excessive sanding may result in the clear light extending past the wing tip.Hurricanes had a single-color bulb for the directional light, not a covered case.

Step 33:

• Choice of exhausts: resin, plastic, older or newer variant
• Choice of propeller and hub assembly
• Removal of nub on antenna mount for all options
• Parts A59 and A60 don’t have locator positions and must be eyeballed from box art
• Forward top fuselage would benefit from engineering displayed in Step 23 to avoid the inevitable seam in front of the cockpit

Step 34:

• Choice of canopies T2 or T3 not identified as closed (T2) or open (T3).
• Found out the hard way that clear plastic is very thin and easy to break test fitting.
• Removal of antenna nub on tail

Step 36: Bomb assembly for spares box as none of the aircraft presented carried bombs during this operation

As a first-time Arma Hobby builder, I am very impressed with the construction of this kit. It is logical, builds up beautifully and is soon ready for paint. The painting details are crisp, but no decals are available for the fuselage band or yellow leading edge wing markings on the RAF No. 3 Squadron Hurricane Mk IIc. As such, I had to choose this option, and didn’t have any problems masking and painting those markings. Most of the decals laid down well, but the top wing roundels took more Micro set to settle down nicely.

I am one of the weird modelers that likes to display aircraft in flight. My only niggle is that this kit is designed to be parked as it requires cutting to remove the canopy rails for a closed canopy and the wheels are beautifully weighted.For an inflight aircraft, the wheels up require plastic surgery for the gear doors to be closed (the kit parts were used as templates, along with reference photos, to get the newly constructed gear doors to fit. Another disappointment is that kit manufacturers don’t include pilots (seated or standing), so a seated RAF pilot was sourced so it wasn’t a phantom flying aircraft.

This is a gorgeous model aircraft kit that turns out beautifully. It may be my first Arma Hobby kit, but it will not be my last.

Profuse thanks to Arma Hobby and IPMS/USA for providing the review sample.