Hawker Hurricane 1/72 Scale Models

British Mk.I - This is a model of a fighter that participated in the 1940 Battle of Britain. The Mk.I Hurricane was the RAF's first modern fighter and entered service in late 1937. It was developed from the plane it replaced, the Hawker Fury biplane fighter, and early models had fabric-covered wings and two-bladed propellers. An improved version of the Mk.I Hurricane entered production in 1939. It featured metal-covered wings, a three-bladed propeller, a Rolls Royce Merlin III engine, and was armed with eight machine guns - four in each wing. While the Spitfire received most of the glory from the British victory in the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane was the real workhorse, accounting for almost 60% of the German planes shot down. By the beginning of 1941, however, the Spitfire had replaced the Hurricane as the RAF's primary fighter.

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Romanian Mk.I - This is a model of a fighter that defended the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta from Soviet bombers during the 1941invasion of the Soviet Union. In addition to supplying Mk.I Hurricanes to its Commonwealth allies, the British exported Mk.Is to several other nations. Early versions, with fabric covered wings and two-bladed propellers, were sold to Belgium and Yugoslavia before the war, and both of these countries then began to make their own Hurricanes under a license. The British sent some Mk.Is to the Finns in early 1940 to help them resist the Soviet invasion. The planes did not see action before that conflict ended in March, but were eventually employed against the Soviets during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Most of Romania's Hurricanes were obtained from Britain before Romania joined the Axis in late 1940, but a few were former Yugoslavian planes the Romanians obtained from the Germans after the Germans captured them during their April 1941 conquest of Yugoslavia. Mk.I Hurricanes were also sent to the Dutch on Java in 1942 in a futile attempt to help them stop the Japanese invasion of the East Indies.

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Soviet Mk.IIB - This is a model of a fighter bomber that flew against the Germans on the Eastern Front in 1942. The Mk.II Hurricane was an attempt to make the Hurricane more competitive against the German Bf 109 by fitting it with a more powerful Merlin XX engine. The first version of the MK.II, the Mk.IIA entered service over Britain in September, 1940. Like its predecessor the Mk.I, it was armed with eight machine guns in its wings. But the British also needed a fighter bomber, so the Mk.IIA was strengthened to carry bombs under its wings. This new variant was designated the Mk.IIB, and was called the Hurri-Bomber. It also had two additional machine guns in each wing, for a total of twelve. Mk.IIBs first saw action in 1941 and, like all land-based Hurricanes variants, were used by several Allied nations. After Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June, 1941, Churchill created a British lend-lease program to help the Soviets. As part of this program, the British began to send Hurricanes to the Soviets in the fall of 1941. By the time Hurricane production ceased in 1944, the Soviets had received about 3,000 Hurricanes of several variants, accounting for about 20% of the approximately 14,000 total Hurricanes built.

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British Mk.IIC - This is a model of a heavy fighter based in the Middle East or Africa in 1941. The Mk.IIC had heavier armament than the Mk.IIB, with four 20mm cannons in its wings instead of twelve machine guns. The extra firepower proved to be useful and Mk.IIC production exceeded 4,700 planes, more than any other Hurricane variant. The Mk.IIC, like the Mk.IIB, first saw action in 1941. But as the war progressed, more modern fighters became available to both sides and Hurricanes were relegated to ground support duties. Subsequently, in 1942 the Mk.IID Hurricane was introduced. It had a 40mm anti-tank gun mounted in a gondola under each wing. These cumbersome planes didn't fare well against agile enemy fighters but could inflict serious damage against armored columns when provided with fighter cover. In 1943, the British began providing the Royal Indian Air Force with many Hurricane IIBs and IICs to use against Japanese ground forces in Burma. But in western Europe that same year, the Hurricane was replaced in the ground support role by the Hawker Typhoon.

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British Sea Hurricane Mk.XII - This is a model of a Canadian built carrier fighter that participated in the November, 1942, Allied invasion of French North Africa, called Operation TORCH. They were painted with American markings to discourage the defending Vichy French from shooting at them. Sea Hurricanes were navalized Hurricanes, fitted with tail hooks for carrier service, but lacking fold up wings. The first Sea Hurricanes, however, were Mk.I Hurricanes fitted with hardware so they could be launched from catapults attached to the decks of merchant ships for convoy protection at sea. These planes, nicknamed Hurricats, first saw action in the fall of 1941. Hurricat pilots had to ditch in the sea when their fuel ran out and hope that their convoy could pick them up. Many Hurricane variants were converted into Sea Hurricanes, totaling about 1,200 planes in all, but by 1943 they were being replaced by Seafires.

(About 1,400 Hurricanes, in several variations, were built in Canada, with the mark X being given to those fitted with a Merlin engine built under license in the USA by Packard.)

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