The Sea Hurricane Mk IIC was a Hurricane Mk IIC version equipped with catapult spools, an arrester hook and full naval avionics; 400 aircraft were converted and used on fleet and escort carriers. The Merlin XX engine on the Sea Hurricane generated 1,460 hp at 6,250 ft (1,900 m) and 1,435 hp at 11,000 ft (3,400 m). Top speed was 322 mph (518 km/h) at 13,500 ft (4,100 m) and 342 mph (550 km/h) at 22,000 ft (6,700 m). While not as fast as the Seafire, the Sea Hurricane was a lot more rugged and not prone to shedding landing gear upon arrested landings. When available, these were replaced by US naval aircraft such as the Wildcat, Hellcat and Corsair, which were much more suited for the task.

THE KIT

For many years the Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane was the best around. Even with the release of the recent Airfix kit, many prefer the Hasegawa kit. To help bring it up to current specs, there are aftermarket upgrade bits available, the areas that need the additional detail being the gear well and the cockpit.

While the cockpit in the kit is quite well done with nicely done frame side panels, it could really benefit from a seat harness. The resin conversion parts require some cutting as the entire lower aft fuselage needs removed and replaced with the resin insert. You'll also need to open holes in the upper wing for the canon bulges. To enable various marks of Hurricane, the nose is separate so that needs to be attached to the fuselage halves prior to trapping the interior between them.

With the wings assembled, those, the tailplanes, and lower cowling are attached to the fuselage halves. At this time the oil and coolant radiators are attached. The instructions would have you attach the landing gear parts and doors, but wise modelers will leave these off until after painting. Also to allow multiple variants with the same wing, there is an insert for the guns. In this case, two 20mm canon per wing. You are provided the option of long or short recoil spring barrels to fit into these.

The final steps are resin catapult spools, exhaust, the prop assembly and the one-piece transparency along with various antennas and probes. 

Instructions are standard fare with a 'road map' fold out that provides Gunze paint references. Both options are overall white planes from 835 NAS. On both the nose anti-glare panel is extra dark sea grey and light slate grey. Decals are nicely done with the wing bands included on the sheet.

CONCLUSIONS

This is a very nice kit, and is one of the few Sea Hurricane offerings in this scale. About the only 'fiddly' part of the kit are the various inserts. The detail level is enough to please most and so if you find one, pick it up and build it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane_variants

December 2022

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