History

The Hurricane instantly upon its entry into RAF service became a landmark in aviation history as the RAF’s first monoplane fighter and its first fighter to exceed 300 MPH in level flight. Also although seldom given the credit the Hurricane was the major factor in the epic victory over the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940.

The Battle of Britain i.e. the period of July through August 1940 saw Hurricanes in 29 squadrons fight in combat over England - more than all the other RAF fighter types put together. During this conflict the Hurricane, not the Spitfire, accounted for nearly 80% of aerial victories.

The Kit

The parts arrive in an end opening box and are contained in a plastic sealed bag. A feature of most Sweet kits is the comic style box art, but this time we have a more serious painting on the box top.

The kit consists of twenty eight parts in grey plastic and the same again in clear plastic for each aircraft, now three of the parts on the clear sprue are for use on the grey plastic kit as these are the landing lights and canopy, all of which are included on the grey sprue if you don’t want to have clear lights and canopy. Like most of the Sweet range you may have gathered that you get two kits in the box. One part you will not need is the Volks filter which is a carry on form this kit also being packaged as a ‘Tropical’ version. You also get three types of aerial mast and two types of spinner.

The clear parts are in the same bag as the rest but do not appear to have suffered for it. The parts are nicely moulded and are quite thin where required. Very fine panel lines, rivet detail and the doped linen do not appear to be overdone. When built the parts fit is an example of how it should be done, no filler is required anywhere.

The cockpit is bare but once the canopy has been fitted not much will be visible through the green house framing any way.

The Instructions

These consist of a single double sided glossy A4 sheet with the guide well laid over three steps. The instructions are in Japanese with English call outs only on the painting guide. On the reverse side of the sheet are the marking options in full colour with a very useful opposite profile of each aircraft on the reverse of the box.

Markings

There are five options in this set all for aces during the Battle of Britain. Colours are listed by name and FS numbers of some use is a paint chip for the camouflage colours printed on the side of the box.

Option 1) No.1 squadron JX-B (P3395) Wittering Summer 1940, Flt Off Arther Clowes
Option 2) No.32 squadron GZ-L (P2921) Biggin Hill / Hawkings July 1940, Flt Lt P.M. Brothers
Option 3) No.17 squadron YB-J (N2359) Debden Summer 1940, Plt Off L.W. Stevens
Option 4) No.257 squadron DT-A (V6555) North Weald October 1940, Sqn Ldr R.R.S. Tuck
Option 5) No.87 squadron LK-A (P2798) Exeter September 1940, Flt Lt Ian R. Gleed “A” Flight Commander (Good Old A)

The last photo shows what I did with this kit the first time round several years ago - now to try again!

In Conclusion

A pleasure to build that goes together like a dream and with a choice of five different marking options.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.