1:24 H.Hurricane Mk.Ic

The Hawker Hurricane with the newcomers of 1940

While the more famous Polish squadrons were already collecting victories in the fall of 1940, further units were only being formed. Among them was the squadron whose machine is the subject of this sheet: it was put on its feet in the second half of 1940 and its pilots had to wait for their first action. The aircraft it received were Hurricanes, that is the type on which most of the new arrivals in British service were trained.

One aircraft, one code

The set is deliberately narrow and concentrates on a single machine with a specific fuselage marking of the unit mentioned. Anyone building a model of a particular machine who wants certainty that the code and its position are right will value this precision more than a sheet with five options of which only one will be used anyway. Scale 1:24 means the letters and numerals will be clearly legible on the model and any inaccuracy would be visible at first glance.

The character of the type

In 1940 the Hurricane was more numerous than its more famous colleague and it was credited with the larger share of kills. It owed that to its simplicity: a tubular frame covered in fabric was repaired in field conditions faster than an all metal shell, and the machine took damage after which another aircraft would not have made it home. Its wide landing gear also forgave rougher landings on grass airfields. In a large scale this structural logic is readable on a model and it is worth not hiding it during the build under an excessively smooth surface.

A small piece of advice

Before applying the large letters, mark their position on the fuselage in pencil. In a large scale even a slight rotation of the code is noticeable and once dry it can no longer be corrected.