Zvezda Hurricane

In our recent Arras game Tim helpfully pointed out the shortcomings of my available early war Allied air support (late model Spitfires etc). Although 1940 France isn't one of my major periods, it is an interesting side project and for the British at least, the gap is relatively easy to fill as Zevzda do a surprisingly extensive range of early war British planes.

First up is their 1/144th scale Hurricane B.

This was a very simple kit to assemble with most parts being single piece mouldings, and which avoid unsightly join lines which need sanding down. This one went together very cleanly with almost no flash and has the rather solid and business-like look of the original.

As usual I went with a wheels up and no prop blades configuration. Retracted undercart parts are provided with the kit but I had to lop the propellor blades off and smooth down the spinner.

The wings and tail and very finely moulded and avoid some of the excessive thickness of two part aerofoil surfaces. Although it isn't obvious in the photos, the wood formers under the cloth fuselage covering  are subtly moulded and quite visible to the naked eye. Really lovely detail which has been a bit lost in my flat paint scheme.

I painted this in one of the standardised RAF camo schemes shown in 'British Aircraft of WW2'. I was tempted to go with the jazzy half black/half white underside scheme but in the end just went with sky blue. The basecoat is my very old pot of Humbrol Brown Earth and the Camo green is VJ Camo Green 894 (which I usually use on Russian tanks!).

The canopy was well engraved and it was relatively easy to paint on the glazing supports which give it that distinctive Hurricane 'look'. 

Markings as supplied, although the paper seemed very thick so it took 45 seconds to soak each one so I didn't put all the fuselage letters on as they were provided as single letters. I realised afterwards that I've manged to reverse them on each side. Oh well, too late now.

The model manages to capture the slightly drooping nose very well, and its biplane heritage is easy to see.

Here it is chasing off that pesky Zvezda Ju 88 I painted recently. The Ju 88 is smaller because it is further away, or something.

I've got a couple more 1940 scenarios in mind so I expect this will appear in a game at some point. I've also got a cannon armed Hurricane, so with two of them that is almost a whole Squadron!