We now have confirmation that IL-2: Great Battles Collector Plane release of the Hurricane Mark II will come with five available modifications that will represent the aircraft’s varied career. This is thanks to the most recent developer diary that goes into a little detail and shows off a ton of renders of the work in progress Hurricane Mark II model that is looking close to being ready for some textures.

Five of them!

The Hurricane Mark II saw a very wide variety of uses during World War II and in some form or another managed to last until the very end of the war despite being outclassed by the latest fighters. The Hurricane was a tough, reliable, and versatile aircraft and 1CGS has confirmed that they will be showing off a fair bit of that versatility through these five versions.

Here they are:

1. Hurricane Mk.IIa: basic model armed with 8 х 7.69 mm Browning MGs;
2. Hurricane Mk.IIb: the number of MGs has been increased to 12;
3. Hurricane Mk.IIc: this model had 4 x 20 mm Hispano guns;
4. Hurricane Mk.IId: anti-tank model armed with 2 x 40 mm Vickers-S guns and 2 x 7.69 mm MGs;
5. Hurricane Mk.II with Soviet weaponry that was installed on the Lend-Lease aircraft: 2 х 12.7 mm UB MGs, 2 x 20 mm ShVAK guns and Soviet bomb and rocket holders.

While the Mark IIa and IIb variants are by far the most common and will make up a lot of the aircraft’s single player career experience, the four 20mm cannon variant was also popular (and a portent for future fighters like the Typhoon and Tempest that came after it). Even more exciting is the inclusion of the tank busting Mark IId with the pair of 40mm Vickers-S guns mounted in pods beneath the wings. Finally, the Soviet air force modified many Hurricane’s with Russian weaponry including the ShVAK 20mm cannons and various Soviet bombs and rockets.

Fighter, attacker, tank buster, and very light bomber, it looks like this will be a feature rich Collector Plane – one that I know many of you are very anxious to get your hands on. I’m with you. I can’t wait!

Here are some screenshots from the update.

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For more screenshots, check out the latest developer diary!

Where does the Hurricane fit in?

I’ve seen this question asked quite a bit recently and so I thought I’d help try and fill in a few details on this new Collector Plane.

2,952 Hurricanes were delivered by the British to the Soviet Union of which most were Mark II variants coming in the Mark IIa (218 sent), IIb (1,884 sent), IIc (1,182 sent), and IId (60). These aircraft were flown at first by two RAF squadrons alongside the Soviets at Murmansk before behind handed over to the Soviets entirely.

Hurricanes served across many parts of the Eastern Front and notably had a role in defending Moscow when fighter reserves were low. Although the Russians didn’t particularly like the Hurricane (it’s performance being somewhat lower than the Bf109’s), it was still a sturdy and reliable aircraft and it was available when others weren’t.

According to 1CGS employee, BlackSix, the tentative plan for the Hurricane in IL-2: Great Battles is as follows:

BoM: from the end of December 1941 to the end of the career in April 1942, 4 regiments

BoS: 2 weeks at the beginning of the career and 2 weeks at the end, 2 regiments

BoK: perhaps in one of the air defense regiments in the far rear, the issue is being studied

BlackSix on the IL-2 forums

The Hurricane is, according to the list provided by Jason Williams earlier this week, is set to arrive after the Yak-9/9T and P-47D-22 although timelines can shift and it is possible for the Hurricane to arrive together with other aircraft as well. I would expect it to arrive sometime early spring based purely on my own guessing – and that’s not too far away.

Can’t wait!

Questions around the tropical filter

Updated: January 25th at 12:14 pm EST

The update from yesterday included shots of the Hurricane with the tropical filter. These versions of the Hurricane were used alongside standard filter fitted versions in Russia – the filter proving useful in some of the more typically dusty and austere conditions on the Eastern Front.

We now have confirmation on how that filter will work:

Desert version will be an optional modification for all Hurricanes except Mk.IId where it will be the only and standard modification.

BlackSix on the IL-2 forums

Yet another layer of depth and detail for this Collector Plane.