McGreig's Quick Build-1: Hawker Hurricane Mk.V

[McGreig]

I'm not sure that "quick" is the right word. Maybe "simple" would have been better – the point really is that there will be very little kitbashing in these builds and no (or very few) progress photos.



Back story for the Soviet Hurricane V:

Between 1941 and 1944, Britain supplied the Soviet Union with 3,360 Hurricanes, of which 3,082 were actually delivered, the others being lost en-route. The Hurricane was used extensively by fighter units on the Northern and Karelian fronts but, by mid 1943 it was obsolete as a fighter and was being phased out in favour of P-39s and Russian fighters. The last examples supplied to the USSR in late 1943/early 1944 included 46 Mk IIDs with 40mm cannon, 30 Mk IV dedicated ground attack machines and all 50 of the production run of Mk Vs with four bladed propellers and rocket rails. The Mk Vs had been intended as optimized ground attack aircraft for Burma but, as RAF Hurricane stocks were already high in India and Indian Air Force Hurricane squadrons were now also becoming operational, Mk V production was cancelled and none were sent to the East.

The Russians tested the ground attack Hurricanes but found them inferior to the Il-2 which was now available in increasingly large numbers and decided that the Hurricanes would be distributed to second line PVO units, used as trainers or converted to two seat artillery spotters. And that would have been the end of the story of the Hurricane in the USSR except - - -

Throughout the war, despite the worst pressures of the German assaults, Stalin had kept 40 divisions on the Manchurian border because he didn't trust the Japanese even though he had a Neutrality Pact with them. However, 40 divisions kept in place as an insurance policy tend to be equipped with older or obsolescent equipment and this was true of the Eastern 10th Air Army which retained Polikarpov fighters and SB bombers long after these had disappeared from the Western Fronts.

By early 1944 it was apparent that German defeat was inevitable and that the USSR would probably join the war against Japan – Stalin wanted to take Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to make the Sea of Okhost an internal Soviet sea and also had ambitions to invade Hokkaido. The Eastern armies began to assume importance and this was not lost on Major General Vinogradov, commander of the 10th Air Army of the 2nd Far East Front. He had been impressed by intelligence and news reports of the performance of the RAF's rocket equipped Hurricanes in Burma and, hearing of the new but unwanted Mk IID/IV/V batch, he requested that they be sent to the 10th Air Army.

The Hurricanes might be slow, but General Vinogradov expected to have complete air superiority and he thought that the RAF experience showed that there might be times when a pinpoint attack from a flying Katyusha would be more effective than an Il-2. And, of course, the Hurricanes were new airframes. Slow, yes, obsolescent as fighters, yes, but not old, second hand or war weary, they were very definitely new!

The Hurricanes were put through a maintenance unit when they arrived in the East to be brought as far as possible to the same standard and were also, unusually but not uniquely, repainted in current VVS colours.

Eventually, ninety days after the defeat of Germany and as agreed at the Yalta Conference, Stalin launched his Eastern armies against Japan.

While the Hurricanes performed as expected, the Soviet attack on Manchuria, launched on 9 August 1945 was so effective (the Soviets having learned a lot in the last four years) that by 20 August the Soviets had reached Mukden (now Shenyang) and it was all over. Spare parts became more difficult with the end of lend lease, ground attack units re-equipped with the Il-10 and the rocket-equipped Hurricanes faded into obscurity, their ten days of intensive action now entirely forgotten.

The Model:

This is the old  1/72 Airfix Hurricane Mk.I/II. I had got it out of the stash because I wanted the cannons for another project when, pretty much on a whim, I wondered how convincing a Hurricane it would make with some modifications. I decided to go for a rocket equipped version simply because I've never built one before.





The main alterations to the basic kit were as follows:

- A plastic card wedge was inserted to widen the nose
- A tropical filter was added to disguise the lack of depth under the nose
- The wheel wells were blocked off
- All the rather heavy raised rivet detail was sanded off (but not rescribed – life is too short!)
- Some plastic card was used to produce the armoured radiator of the Mk.IV
- A small sliver of plastic card was added and sanded to shape immediately behind the canopy to
produce the characteristic flat section before the spine starts to slope





At a rather late stage, I decided that I would add a four bladed propeller (from a Spitfire, although I can't remember which one) and call it a Mk.V. With hindsight, I should probably have replaced the exhausts with six-stack units but it was too late when I thought of this (and the few photos that I've come across seem to show three stack exhausts anyway).





After I'd decided on the back story, decals came from the spares box.

And how much of the back story is true? Virtually all of it apart from the direct references to the Mk.V. In the real world, it actually was intended as the optimized Burma Hurricane and it really was cancelled for the reasons stated but it did not, in fact, go into production, only two being produced. And the Hurricane's real world Soviet service is as described except that it really did fade out in 1943, the Mk.IIDs and Mk.IVs having only minor operational roles with no reprieve to take part in the Manchurian invasion.






And finally, the Hurricane's first public appearance at Southern Expo 2014;

[PR19_Kit]

I love it! 

That 4 bladed prop makes a huge difference to the Hurricane. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Second both statements. The grey/grey livery suits the 'Cane well, too! 

[kitbasher]

A big 

[NARSES2]

Really nice mate 

[lancer]

I love it! 

That 4 bladed prop makes a huge difference to the Hurricane. 

I agree wholeheartedly!! It's a simple elegantly lovely build..

[Captain Canada]

Nice work. Simple but very effective ( hence the quick build I guess ! )

I like the rockets and the prop....sure looks like a powerful aeroplane !