1:32 Sea Hurricane Mk.IIc SPACE for Revell

The Hurricane that learned to take off from a deck

When the Royal Navy needed to close the gap between a convoy and a hostile long-range reconnaissance aircraft quickly, it reached for a machine whose robust structure stood up to rough handling. The Sea Hurricane Mk.IIc came about by converting the land fighter: an arrestor hook was added, along with catapult fittings and naval equipment, and the armament consisted of four 20 mm cannons in the wing. The fuselage kept the form given it by its creator Sydney Camm, that is a tube-frame structure with fabric covering behind the cockpit, which paradoxically made repairs at sea easier. Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm escorted convoys with it from escort ships and smaller escort carriers, where a short takeoff run counted for more than maximum speed.

An interior as printing in relief

This set replaces classic decals with layered printing which creates real relief on the backing decal paper. The instruments, control panels and small placards thus have thickness, edges and shadows. The elements have no adhesive layer of their own: only the backing paper is moistened with a sponge and dish soap, the part is lifted off with tweezers and fixed with PVA glue (white glue). At the large 1:32 scale that shows most strongly, because the cockpit stays clearly visible once the build is finished.

Working with the set

The surface an element goes onto has to be clean and smooth; a bump under it will show at once. The maker does not recommend super glue, and do not use a decal softener or a decal setting solution, as the chemicals would attack the printed resin. Naval Hurricanes also made their name with takeoffs from ships whose deck the machine could no longer return to. The parts are picked up with pointed tweezers and pressed down with a wooden stick, not with a fingernail.