Hurricane Mk.IIc "Jubilee"

Arma Hobby, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

The Hawker Hurricane was Britain's first modern monoplane fighter aircraft, entering service in 1937.

Hawker's chief designer, Sidney Camm, designed the Hurricane around the new Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Although the British Air Ministry had not yet placed an order, Hawker nevertheless prepared for the production of 1,000 aircraft. This head start significantly expedited delivery once the order for 600 Hurricanes was received in June 1936.

In addition to the fabric covered rear fuselage, the earliest versions of the Hurricane featured fabric wings, reflecting the earlier production techniques of the Hawker Aircraft Company. These initial 600 aircraft were also fitted with a fixed pitch, two-bladed wooden Watts propeller, although these were quickly supplanted by de Havilland and Rotol three-bladed propeller assemblies that permitted pitch adjustment from the cockpit. The later improved aircraft also included windscreens with armoured glass. In time, the fabric wings of many of these early Hurricanes were replaced with metal wings.

The Hurricane Mk.II was powered by the improved Merlin XX engine with two-speed supercharger. The new engine was longer than the earlier Merlin and so the Hurricane gained a 4.5 in "plug" in front of the cockpit, which made the aircraft slightly more stable due to the slight forward shift in centre of gravity.

The Hurricane Mk.IIc was equipped with a new and slightly longer propeller spinner, and fully replaced the machine-gun armament with four 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk II cannons, two per side.

A newly designed wing included a hardpoint for a 500 or 250 lb (230 or 110 kg) bomb and, later in 1941, fuel tanks.

By then, performance was inferior to the latest German fighters, and the Hurricane changed to the ground-attack role, sometimes referred to as the Hurribomber.

The mark also served as a night fighter and intruder with about three quarters converted to fighter bombers.

There were 4,711 Hurricane Mk.IIcs built by Hawker between February 1941 and July 1944.

Operation Jubilee

Operation Jubilee or the Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) was an Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in northern France, during the Second World War. Over 6,050 infantry, predominantly Canadian, supported by a regiment of tanks, were put ashore from a naval force operating under protection of Royal Air Force (RAF) fighters.

The port was to be captured and held for a short period, to test the feasibility of a landing and to gather intelligence. German coastal defences, port structures and important buildings were to be demolished. The raid was intended to boost Allied morale, demonstrate the commitment of the United Kingdom to re-open the Western Front and support the Soviet Union, fighting on the Eastern Front.

Aerial and naval support was insufficient to enable the ground forces to achieve their objectives; the tanks were trapped on the beach and the infantry was largely prevented from entering the town by obstacles and German fire. After less than six hours, mounting casualties forced a retreat. The operation was a fiasco in which only one landing force achieved its objective and some intelligence was gathered (including electronic intelligence).

Within ten hours, 3,623 of the 6,086 men who landed had been killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. The Luftwaffe made a maximum effort against the landing as the RAF had expected, but the RAF lost 106 aircraft (at least 32 to anti-aircraft fire or accidents) against 48 German losses. The Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and a destroyer.

Both sides learned important lessons regarding coastal assaults. The Allies learned lessons that influenced the success of the D-Day landings. Artificial harbours were declared crucial, tanks were adapted specifically for beaches, a new integrated tactical air force strengthened ground support, and capturing a major port at the outset was no longer seen as a priority. Churchill and Mountbatten both claimed that these lessons had outweighed the cost. The Germans also believed that Dieppe was a learning experience and made a considerable effort to improve the way they defended the occupied coastlines of Europe.

Arma Hobby launched a 1/48 scale Hurricane family. in July 2023. Their debut offering was a1/48 scale Hurricane Mk.IIc, quickly followed by a Mk.IIc Trop. Most recently they expanded their Hurricane family with a 1/48 scale Mk.IIb.

Arma Hobby has now added a Hurricane Mk.IIc with three aircraft that participated in Operation Jubilee.

The kit comprises 120 parts in grey plastic, 13 parts in clear plastic, self-adhesive canopy masks and markings for three aircraft.

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Apart from the three new marking options, this boxing also includes eleven lovely 3d resin parts.

The plastic parts are identical to the Mk.IIc and Mk.IIc Trop kits

The grey plastic parts are delivered on three sprues. Moulding quality is excellent, with no flash, flaws or visible moulding imperfections on my sample.

The parts are moulded with a satin finish. Surface textures are just gorgeous. Arma Hobby has mixed an impressive combination of recesed panel lines, super-subtle recessed rivets, raised fastener heads and other structural details. These are all subtle and consistent. The overall effect is crisp and varied.

The interior of the major fuselage and wing parts are festooned with circles of raised ejector pins but they do not interfere with fit, nor do they intrude in any way on the outside surfaces of the parts.

The fabric texture on the rear fuselage and tail surfaces are particularly subtle and impressive.

The fuselage is supplied as left and right halves with the fin and the lower rear fuselage supplied as separate parts.

Some details are moulded directly to the inside of the fuselage and onto the wing. These are supplemented by a plastic framework, the "bottomless" floor with foot rests, rudder pedals, control column and more.

The decal sheet supplies harness straps and instrument dials for the cockpit.

The instrument panel is moulded with raised and recessed detail. It looks great. I think I'll be carefully painting and dry-brushing mine with individual dials inside the bezels.

For those who don't like detail painting, Arma has also provided a decal overlay for the instrument panel. Decals for the cockpit sidewall, compass and a few individual dials are also included.

The upper and lower wings are both moulded as full span.

Wheel wells are highly detailed including raised lettering. Main wheels are two pieces each in injection moulded plastic. Wheels are flattened and subtly bulged.

A Rotol propeller assembly and spinner are included.

The radiator faces feature super fine mesh detail moulded onto the plastic parts.

Two different styles of cannon barrels are included, as is an optional Vokes tropical filter, wing-mounted drop tanks, alternative styles of exhaust, lower fuselage inserts, spinners and more.

Arma Hobby has also included eleven 3d printed resin parts as part of their 10th Anniversary celebrations.

These include two styles of cannon barrels, a set of exhausts and a really nice pilot's seat.

The seat is cast with harness straps in place.

The drape and detail is convincing.

The cannon barrels are hollow at the end.

The canopy is quite clear and offers separate parts for the windscreen and the sliding section. Two sliding sections are included - one for the closed position and a wider one to display the canopy open and show off all that lovely detail.

Clear landing lights for the wing leading edges are included too.

Wing tip navigation lights are also supplied.

Self-adhesive masks for the canopy and the wheels are included,

Instructions are supplied in a 12 page stapled A4-sized booklet. Assembly is described over 37 steps using clear diagrams. An errata sheet is also supplied.

The kit is packed into a stout brown carboard box with a thinner cardboard lid featuring attractive box art. This is a big improvement over earlier releases with flimsy side-opening boxes.

Thanks Arma!

Marking Options

Three marking options are included. Each of the marking options gets a dedicated page with both side views plus upper and lower plan views.

Colour callouts are provided for FS numbers and a good selection of model paint numbers including Hakata, AK, Lifecolor, AMMO, Humbrol, Vallejo and Tamiya.

The marking options are:

1. Hurricane Mk.IIc BE500/LK-A. No. 87 Squadron RAF. Tangmere airfield. Three missions in operation “Jubilee”. Pilots: S/Ldr D.G. Smallwood i F/L A.H. Thom.

2. Hurricane Mk.IIc Z3081/FT-V “Baron Dhanis”. No. 43 Squadron RAF. Tangmere airfield. Three missions in operation “Jubilee”. Pilot S/Ldr D.A.R.G. Le Roy du Vivier (Belgium).

3. Hurricane Mk.IIC BD867/QO-Y, No. 3 Squadron RAF, Hunsdon airfield, Autumn 1941. This aeroplane was shot down during the “Jubilee” operation, pilot Sgt. Stirling David Banks (RCAF) died. The appearance and marking of this plane on 19th August 1942 is unknown.

Decals are printed by Techmod. They are glossy, colours are well saturated and everything is in perfect register.

Arma Hobby's 1/48 scale Hurricane Mk.IIc is gorgeous kit - excellent surface textures, moulding quality, detail and inclusions.

The inclusion of the bonus 3d printed details is even more good news!

I look forward to hearing about Arma's next steps in 1/48 scale too.

*Historical text adapted froim Wikipedia

Thanks to Arma Hobby for the sample

Review and Images Text Copyright © 2023 by Brett Green
Page Created 11 January, 2024
Last updated 11 January, 2024

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