Hurricane MK IIc Trop
Arma Hobby is a new company to me, so I jumped at the chance to build and review one of their new Hurricanes, the MKIIc. In the box you get 4 plastic sprues (one clear), canopy masks and a decal sheet.
Construction starts with the wheel well and continues with the cockpit seat. Then you are guided to kind of cram the wheel well between the upper and lower wing parts and to assemble the rest of the cockpit. There are little slots for the wheel well to kinda slide the part on top, be sure you get that part aligned just right, or you will have trouble with the cockpit and closing the fuselage halves later.
While the construction order is different from most other airplane kits, it is neither hard nor difficult. The only part that was a bit tricky was figuring out where the control stick and seat are positioned relative to each other. The bottom of piece A17 (control stick linkage) goes below the seat through a small slot of part A23 (armor plate), just like in the actual airplane!
I used the provided decals, which are techmod btw, for the seat belts on aluminum foil so they would have a more realistic look and not just sit flush on the seat. After using Tamiya NATO black, I used the instrument panel. Following the instructions for trimming the IP decal for a better fit does not disappoint as it allows you to ensure your decals instrument gauges fit over the raised bezel perfectly.
The next step is when I would suggest being a rebel and not following instructions. Instead of gluing both fuselage sides to each other and to glue the assembled fuselage to the wings coming “from the top” of the cockpit area, it was easier for me to present each fuselage side (one at the time) to the wing/fuselage assembly, ensure the armor plate has the proper angle to fit through the cockpit opening and then glue both fuselage sides and wing assembly together.
The back bottom-fuselage is a separate piece that splits along a natural panel line, a seam line across the fabric-covered section of the fuselage.
I did have to work a bit to get the horizontal tail surface piece to sit properly on the back fuselage. Nothing that a bit of work with a file couldn’t take care of. I just had to thin the part a bit for a good fit.
You are provided with masks for the canopy (with different sets for the open or closed part) which helped not only in painting but also, the replacement part, seeing as my canopy for the open position met the bottom of my foot during a cleaning session. (BTW Arma Hobby is very generous and sent me a replacement ASAP).
After priming, using Mr. Surfacer 1500, I painted the model using SMS Lacquers. They spray straight out of the bottle beautifully and dry fast. This was my first time using them, and they made a customer out of me. For the Dessert camo, I used Ammo by Mig Camo putty and the following SMS Paints for the camo: PL74- Azure Blue, PL85- Dark Earth, PL75- Middlestone
After spraying a gloss coat (Alclad Aqua Gloss on the model, I applied the decals. I built the fighter of Sir Lain “The MacRobert”. They responded well to the Tamiya Markfit/Mark Strong set. After the decals and stencils all dried, I sealed them with testors dullcoat
I was now moving towards the final steps, installing the landing gear and landing lights and bombs (mine didn’t call for bombs, but I wanted them anyway).
This kit is not for beginners, but it is not a hard kit to assemble either. Dry fitting is your best friend due to its tight alignments and if one sub assembly is not correct it will be a challenge for the rest of the build.
Very highly recommended and look forward to more Arma Hobby kits.
I would like to thank Arma Hobby and IPMS/USA for the review model.

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