Model Building Build Log - 1:48, Airfix, A05129, Hawker Hurricane Mk.I Tropical

[Andrew Godden 934]

Summary

• Description and Catalogue Number: Airfix, Hawker Hurricane Mk.I Tropical, A05129
• Scale: 1:48
• Contents: Four sprues, 116 parts in light grey plastic; one sprue, 11 parts in clear plastic; markings for two aircraft.
• Comments: Good detail and simple to build. Various build options, including the option to build and display the internal detail of the gun bays with removable gun bay panels. Not all parts are used and some parts are common across other kits.

Introduction

Along with the Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane has been a staple model kit for Airfix for many decades. Different kits have been produced across various variants over the years with the detail and quality of the kits improving as injection moulding techniques and quality has improved. As work was progressing on my builds of the Bf 109 and Spitfire, it was fitting that I should start a build on this third iconic fighter of World War II.

The Build

The detail and quality of the parts looked good and the sprues were clean, consistent with what I had experienced with the other Airfix kits. The ubiquitous cockpit build is the first stage, as expected, albeit with a difference due to the design and construction of the Hurricane. A design feature of many Hawker aircraft of the era was the cockpit being built around a tubular framework resulting in a relatively simple construction and ease of manufacture which was significantly cheaper and involved less labour hours than the Spitfire. This design feature carried over from the the Hawker Fury and continued through until the last variants of the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest. This is nicely represented by Airfix in this model as can be seen from the photos.

  

The cockpit is then assembled onto the base of the wing, as opposed to the fuselage. There is also less detail in the general cockpit area than on other similar models, however, the cockpit opening on the Hurricane is also narrower and so any of this detail would be mostly obscured from view. The two gun bays to house the eight Browning 0.303 machine guns can be seen on the wing base. Also note the forward centre section of the wing base. This section had to be cut out to accommodate the under fuselage parts specific to the Mk.I Tropical variant.

  

To be continued.....

Cheers
Andrew

[mutley 4,487]

OOk, you have whetted my appetite Andrew 

Superb build quality, thanks for the background, I am sure it will tempt others into building.