Reviews : HobbyBoss British Hurricane MK.IIC

The Hobby Boss 1/48 Hurricane Mk. IIC, Kit #81778 was released in 2023 according to the Scale Mates website. The kit has excellent box art, which inspired me to build the kit in the same paint scheme as shown on the box. For its reasonable price point, the model builder will receive a quality model kit with excellent fine rivet and recessed panel line detail. Due to this fine exterior surface detail, I decided not to primer the fuselage and main wing assemblies in order to reduce the number of paint layers applied to these parts, as excessive paint, Future Floor Wax and acrylic matte coat layers could possibly obscure these surface details. What made this a high value kit for me was that the kit included a set of canopy and navigation light paint masks and a photo etch fret that included the seat belt/harness parts. Unfortunately, the precut masks were not of high quality, as some of the masks did not have adequate adhesive to make them stick to the clear parts. Therefore, I had to apply some Micro Krystal Klear to some of these masks to enhance the adhesive properties of the mask to get them to stay in place. Although the majority of the parts fit together precisely, some parts required clean up and dry fitting to obtain an acceptable fit. I also experienced some difficulty getting the canopy parts to seat properly in place in order to position them in the closed position. Installation of the main landing gear assemblies was somewhat fiddley although their placement was straight forward. The instructions were in a booklet format with easy-to-follow step by step instructions. The second page of the instructions included a parts map which was very helpful for locating the parts during construction. The decals included in the kit were thin, in register and of high quality. The use of Micro Set was helpful here. One criticism of the decals was that the large letters on the fuselage were printed in white when they should have been sky or pale grey blue. This inaccuracy is found when using the decal letters to re-create option I or option II of the available paint/decal options. Paint option III is an interesting night fighter option. No yellow leading wing edge decals are provided on the decal sheet, and no decal is provided for the fuselage band just forward of the tail of the aircraft. Tamiya masking tape is highly recommended when painting on these markings. As the kit has precise fitting parts, dry fitting and careful sprue gate residual clean up are necessary. For the lower fuselage and wing surfaces, I used Vallejo Model Color 70.907 Pale Grey Blue. This same color was used to paint the fuselage band, forward of the tail and the propeller nose cone. For the upper surface camouflage colors, I used Vallejo Model Air 71.324 BS (i.e. British Standard) Dark Green and Vallejo Model Air 71.273 Ocean Gray. For the leading-edge identification stripes on the main wings, I used Vallejo Model Air 71.078 Yellow, RLM04. For the interior surfaces of the cockpit and the interior surfaces of the canopy frame I used Model Air 71.305, Interior Grey Green. All of these acrylic paints were applied using an Iwata HPC airbrush with a 0.3mm needle. Air pressure was about 20 PSI. For metallic surfaces such as landing gear struts, wheel wells and wheel hubs, I used Vallejo, Aluminum. Exhaust pipes were painted with Vallejo Metallic Burnt Iron and the four wing-mounted, 20 mm cannon barrels were painted in a metallic gunmetal color. Vallejo acrylic paints for this build did not peel up when removing Tamiya Masking tape, if this paint is provided with ample time to thoroughly dry between successive coats. Although this kit is not as accurate or as detailed as the 1/48 Arma Hobby Hurricane Series of kits, this Hobby Boss kit is more reasonably priced, and will build up into a highly detailed replica of this iconic WWII British fighter, if good basic modeling practices are followed during assembly of the kit. Although an entry level model builder could possibly successfully complete this kit, excellent results are more likely with patient, methodical, experienced intermediate to advanced fine scale modelers with photo etch part installation, air brushing, decaling and paint masking skills.