Airfix keeps expanding their 1/72 scale airplane line up and their latest release is the Hawker Hurricane “Fabric Wings” model. It is nicely molded, with no signs of flash and clean recessed lines together with raised detail to simulating the fabric wings ribs.

Construction starts with the wheel bay. At that point make sure you have parts A05 and A06 properly lined up, or you will struggle when installing the landing gear later. From there it moves to the cockpit which goes together very well. There are no issues to report there. The fit is positive all around and make a credible rendition of a front office for the scale.

Closing the fuselage was simple however I had a small step on the nose which required some filler and sanding. Attaching the wings to the fuselage was very easy and I had a gap-free wing root. Same applies to the tail horizontal surfaces, rudder and lower back fuselage. I did have a small gap in the radiator, but I suspect that was my own fault, as during dry fitting I did not have any problem.

Painting was accomplished with enamels and decals behaved well on top of a Future coat. There was no need for setting solution; the decals snuggle down very well on their how. Light weathering was accomplished via a wash, to highlight recessed detail.

Going back to the landing gear and the wheel well, probably that is the most difficult part of the whole kit. Now, consider “difficult” to be a relative term, as everything else went together very easily. Again if you lined up the parts properly in Step 1, then it will be easy to get the landing gear struts in place, as you have to “thread” them through the parts A05 and A06.

This model is a joy to build. I only wish they were to offer it with more decal markings options and maybe in a “combo” package, as they are very fun to build. At the same time, with such an affordable price you could buy a bunch and get some aftermarket decal sets.

You might have noticed that during construction the model had masts for the antenna and the finished model lacks them. That was due to an unexpected “inverted landing” of the model in my bench during the installation of the landing lights covers. I will scratchbuilt antennas at a later date, but I did not want to delay any further the submission of this review.

Highly recommended to modelers of all skill levels.

I would like to thank Airfix, Hornby America and IPMS/USA for the review sample.