ACADEMY 1:72 HURRICANE MK.IIC
Reviewer: Myself (braithy@bigpond.com)
If you don't know what a Hawker Hurricane is, you should try modelling cars :) The famous WW2 aircraft whose claim to glory can be traced to the Battle of Britain - where many traditionalists believe it was much superior than the Spitfire. The aircraft was an inter-war years fighter and was getting obsolete even when war broke out. Nonetheless, and with a lack of a truly superior alternative, the Hurricane underwent numerous modifications and upgrades to keep on the frontline. One of the versions produced was the Mk.IIc which for some reason is considered a favourite amongst enthusiasts of the Hurricane, including modellers. Relegated mainly to ground attack role, it features heavy armament in the form of two Hispano 20-mm cannon mounted on each wing.
I should say from the outset that with all the numerous kits on the market of the Hurricane, let alone upgrades and updates, and discounting variations in different version types, it amazes me that the simple fact of capturing the outline accurately can be so elusive. As you will see from the following review, the kit is excellent in terms of fit and construction but is severely flawed in fuselage and wing shape.
The Academy kit comes packaged in a medium sized box contains 3 sprues of 37 light grey and 4 clear injected mold parts in one cellophane bag. Instructions are neat, easy to follow and for once provide colour details on individual parts. FS numbers where appropriate are provided for the external colour scheme.
As soon as one starts to handle the parts one gets the immediate impression that you can just about shake the box and the kit will fall out completed, and you are not let down. The external detail consists of engraved lines and rivets and is really superb. Internal detail is not too bad either.
The cockpit constructs easily and consists of some sidewall detail along with stick, molded-on rudder pedals, instrument panel and seat. I found that one needs to take immense care in separating the pieces from the sprue, that is use nippers wherever possible because they feel, look and are easy to ruin.
Assembly of all the parts is a complete delight, everything fits pretty well perfectly, better than a jigsaw! Very slight sanding was needed around the wing roots as a small step revealed itself that shouldn't be there. The panel underneath the engine/nose needed some coaxing to fit properly. Gear doors were also a bit of a problematic fit, but only if you are doing wheels up. The undercarriage fits easily and looks to assemble quite well.
I decided to do wheels up configuration and the real problem was doing the main gear doors. Half of each wheel is exposed underneath and the wheel well is not deep enough to allow one to put the door over the top. You will need to slice the wheel in half 'lengthwise' - very tricky - to achieve a realistic result or for a little more tacky but okay approach you could cut the wheel itself in half - but the half-wheel sticks out of the well just a fraction and a trained eye can spot it's unrealist profile. I did something different. I cut the wheel in half (well actually just over to be precise) then sliced lengthwise and this achieved as realistic finish as I could get it.
Two versions are offered by the kit, both in apparently overall Ocean Grey and Dark Green upper camouflage (one can only guess this with one example because there is no english!) and they are differed by respective surface grey and black undersides. The decals supplied are not of particularly great quality, the register is quite good but they have a hard time conforming to the model surface using Decalfix. One of the fin flashes also disintegrated, although I managed to patch it up to a point where only the really trained eye can notice the difference, the duck egg blue (read aqua) fuselage bands were particularly difficult. Though once set and given another coat of gloss cote over the top, they look very nice on the completed model. A small bleed through on a couple of parts and the yellow on the fuselage roundel was well less than perfect. I'd give the decals 6/10 on a rating.
I generally hold Academy kits in high esteem so it is with considerable disappointment that I discovered this kit was not up to scratch, accuracy wise. While a margin for error is acceptible for lesser known types, I think that companies nowadays, with the range of technology at their finger tips, should be admonished for producing a flawed kit, even if it is fairly minimal. In the Hurricane's case the kit is a touch undersized to scale and will miss out on a foot for span and just under same for length when converting to full size. The tailplanes are an interesting shape and do not match up to reference material, likewise the wing is also a bit narrow and slightly out of shape. The fuselage looks far too narrow, and reminds me of looking at a Huey Cobra front on! (those are skinny choppers!) I have a more accurate Hasagawan Hurricane on hand and overlayed the two with each to confirm the flaws. This is not to say the Hasegawa copy was perfect, but to say that the Academy fell down in these areas considerably.
So the upshot of it all is that if you are looking for an accurate Hurricane then look elsewhere. But if you can handle the inaccuracies and simply want a kit that falls together almost by itself then this is a great kit.
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