The Hurricane was the backbone of RAF Fighter Command during WWII but often goes without the praise it certainly deserves.

From the Battle of Britain to the deserts of the Libya , this great British warbird has written itself into the pages of history with distinction.

I have built plenty of 1/48 Hurricane’s in the past but I have always wanted one in 1/32 scale. There are two kits available in this scale, the very old and quite basic Revell/Monogram kit originally produced in the 1970’s or the more recent and advanced Pacific Coast Models offering. What I wanted was a cannon armed Mk.IIc in desert camouflage.

After many, many months of searching eventually something good turned up in my inbox-a 1/32 Revell Hurricane Mk.IIc in “used” condition. I purchased it from the vendor who had kindly informed me that he had “done a little work ” to the model already. That did not bother me too much, it was just an engine block that had been assembled………

When this kit landed on my workshop bench it had more work done to it than I had bargained for……..(don’t you just hate it when that happens!)

All the flying surfaces had been hacked off!! So repairs were required even before assembly began………

This kit can easily be built OOB, but it screams for some more detail to be added! To this end, I re-scribed the airframe (not too well, but never mind!), modified the cannon barrels and the exhaust stubs. I purchased the Grey Matter resin cockpit which for me, was a real faff to put together as my right hand was not too well at the time. (its on the mend now!) It was very frustrating, but all of my red faced huffing and puffing gave way to a half decent office!

With the cockpit out of the way, I made repairs to the moving surfaces and it was necessary to modify them slightly in order to get a good fit to the airframe. This is not museum quality work here, just good enough to please my own eye!

Building was much easier after all that! Soon came the painting and I used Mr. Hobby RAF Dark Earth/RAF Middle Stone for the upper surface with my own mix of Tamiya Azure Blue on the lower surface. The kit decals despite their age, did appear to be usable but I did not want to risk it so I bought an aftermarket sheet made by Techmod. The scheme I chose was that of Hurricane BP588 from 33 Sqn. RAF, based in Libya during November 1942. It was the mount of Squadron Leader S.C Norris.

Once all the markings were sealed, it was the fun bit-weathering! I used my own panel line wash and let it dry. Next step was to add some paint chipping with some Prismacolour pencils, first time I used this product, I need more practice but I like the results I ended up with. Last step was to spray my own mix of dust over the entire model to bring a uniform finish to the airframe. The display base was my usual home-made fare to give the finished piece a desert feel.

Happy Modelling!

Darren.