The Polish kit manufacturer has extended its 1/72 Hawker Hurricane family further still, with a new cannon-armed Mk.IID.
Arma Hobby has made good use of its splendid Hurricane moulds to offer various Mk.I and Mk.II variants in different colour schemes. ‘Hurri’ fans should be delighted with the firm’s latest 1/72 boxing (70062) too. Via basic surgery, a hint of re-scribing (aided by supplied templates) and new 3D-printed resin parts, you can build a Mk.IID armed with underwing 40mm Vickers S guns, fitted for the anti-tank role. The aircraft retained one .303 machine-gun in each wing for sighting purposes, using tracer rounds. Resin exhausts are provided here, too.
Above: The small cache of 3D-printed resin includes the under-wing gun pods/barrels, exhausts and scribing templates.
Cool liveries
Arma’s kit also comes with a splendid new decal sheet, carrying markings for five different RAF airframes. Pleasingly, just two machines share the same camouflage, so there’s plenty of variety… and you can also represent four Tropical versions through the inclusion of a Vokes filter. The liveries are:
• BP158/JV-I, 6 Squadron, Shandur and LG.89, Egypt, autumn 1942 (Dark Earth/Middle Stone/Azure Blue)
• KX229/H Cheeta, 20 Squadron, Nidania, Burma, February 1944 Dark Green/Dark Earth/Sky Blue)
• HW271/BR-J, Sqn Ldr Jack Rose, 184 Squadron, Colerne, spring 1943 (Dark Green/Ocean Grey/Medium Sea Grey)
• KW704/R Christine, Flg Off A H M Clarke, 6 Squadron, Gabes, Tunisia, April 1943 Dark Earth/Middle Stone/Azure Blue)
• HW784/X, 20 Squadron, Monywa, Burma, spring 1945
The decal sheet has excellent register, with thin, gloss carrier film and rich colour hues. It also offers stencilling, instrument panel and seatbelt decals. Another bonus is that of paint masks, which cater for the glazing and wheels.
This is a well-considered and useful re-working of Arma’s original, high-quality tooling and it costs €27.25 direct from Arma Hobby – but Hannants in the UK also offers it for £29.99.
