discussion Brace of Mk.I Hurricanes - 1/72 Airfix & AZ Model

[Steve-the-Duck]

Here's a pair of fabric-wing Mk.I Hurricanes

On the right, an ex-Yugoslav export, war prize re-paint by the Regia Aeronautica, as seen at Guidonia Airfield in summer, 1941. AZ Model injection and resin kit
On the left, one of the initial batch to enter service with 111 Squadron, Northolt, December 1937. New Airfix 'bitsa' with back-dated markings.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Br.2337 was a licence-built Mk.I for the Royal Yugoslav Airforce. Seeing some action during the German Invasion, this 'plane was later part of a batch of 118 aircraft 'gifted' to the italians, and flown extensively at the Regia Aeronautica airbase at Guidonia, after being repainted in a standard RA scheme, with a yellow nose for air-to-air recognition. The Camouflage was later extended over the nose for a starring role in the movie 'Un Pilota Retorna' ('A Pilot Returns'), as the enemy aircraft that shoots down the hero's Cant Z.1007 over Greece. The film is available on Youtube, and worth watching for the interior views of the Z.1007, and the deeply odd method the Regia Aeronautica used for operational formation flying!

The kit is a fairly old / early AZ Model, injection but with rather nice resin wheel well and cockpit parts (the kit had two sets of each, for some reason I'm not knocking, some of which went into my 'Last of the Many' racer a while back) but not the correct five-spoke wheels. It needed a little work to put together, and as you can see, the extremely fine surface detail tends to disappesr under the paint. It only took me about ten years to finish this thing, including five attempts at the camo!

 

[Jim R]

A great looking pair. Love the camo pattern.

 

[PaulTRose]

That looks so interesting in that camo

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

The new Airfix kits are often so good they practically fall together, or in this case, a short sharp push to get a feed pipe to click into place in the u/c bay. This was a 'bitsa' build, as we ended up with leftover parts from three-and-a-half Mk.Is someone was 'spares and repairs' selling on eBay. Having done the prototype, K.5083, out of one, I thought why not do one of the first in service. Airfix actually did a release in 111 Sqn markings, but that was a scheme adopted, I believe, around the time of Munich. L1548 was actually the first Hurricane to be lost in operational service
I managed not to have a close-up of the squadron badge, which is a minor repaint
As you can see, the wing didn't quite fit properly, but that's only visible from this angle!

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

That looks so interesting in that camo

A great looking pair. Love the camo pattern.

Soon as I saw the scheme in my RA War Prizes book I had to do one. I mean, it really does look very different to most other Hurris

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Finally, here's a compare and contrast, with two contemporary Hawker designs, both entering service in 1937; the Hector light bomber and the Hurricane