Revell Hawker Hunter - Swiss J-4013

[Rockie Yarwood]

Cool! 

[LSP_Kevin]

Welcome back, Art!

 

Kev

[Rick Griewski]

Indeed welcome back.  I will be checking in now and then.  The Hunter is a beautiful aircraft.  

[Derek B]

Art for arts sake! Welcome back Art - I am certain that we are all eagre to see more of your excellent work on this kit! (I also have this kit which, hopefully, one day will be a Swedish J34 by the time I am finished with it!).

 

Derek

Edited January 24, 2023 by Derek B

[amurray]

Okay, I've spent considerable time re-familiarizing myself with this kit after my hiatus.  I found some steps I made but never posted (front wheel well) and have added new ones (vents and ducts).  Here goes:

 

I've learned the hard way not to trust plastic struts on 1/32 kits that have triangle landing gear requiring large nose weights.  To that end I drilled out the front gear and inserted brass tube.  After installing the gear I sawed off the tube and set it with 2-part epoxy.  I sleep much better with such a setup.

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by amurray
Typo

[amurray]

One of the simple but greatly appreciated steps I had started and now have finished - wheels and tires.  Revell did a great job of detailing the tires but also included a subtle flattening of the tires vs. the comical flat tires of other detail sets and kits.

 

[amurray]

Recall from earlier that I first embarked upon opening the boundary layer ducts on the upper and lower wings that led to various difficulties and led me down the "rabbit hole" (more on that that later).  All photos of Hunters in flight show those boundary layer ducts open.  They are quite noticeable.  So, open they must be.  Well, if one opens those boundary layer ducts/vents then one must tackle ALL ducts/vents, right?

 

I proceeded to up all the ducts, rectangular and V-shaped, with the latter being the most difficult.  In opening up ducts it is paramount that one reduces the thickness of the plastic behind the ducts/vents.  Otherwise, the thickness of the plastic distorts the effect one is attempting to achieve.  I have thinned the plastic, drilled out the ducts/vents and added trunking/backing.  From the inside it doesn't look pretty but that's irrelevant.  I used "U" channel for the rectangular ducts/vents.  I painted the inside of the "U"channels black.

 

 

 

The "V" shaped vents caused me much consternation.  I finally dealt with them by taking Evergreen 20x40 and sanding down the ends closest to the small end of the "V" so that end was thinner.  The large end of the "V" was thicker.  I then glued a piece of 10 x 60 Evergreen on top of the two "V" pieces.  Crude?  You bet!  But effective.

 

When opening small rectangles on a kit a good set of mini-drills is essential.  Here's what I use:

 

 

This is not meant to be an ad for the product but rather appreciation for a product I have come to use and love.

 

Next:  I have to add the vanes to all those ducts/vents I opened up.     A lot of tedious measuring, cutting and gluing.  But doable in the next post.

 

[amurray]

As I re-familiarized myself with this kit I recalled how good it really is.  And keep in mind that when it first came out it was $14 at the old K&B Toy outlets.  

[themongoose]

26 minutes ago, amurray said:

As I re-familiarized myself with this kit I recalled how good it really is.  And keep in mind that when it first came out it was $14 at the old K&B Toy outlets.  

i totally agree! I keep looking for another one at a decent price but that is hard to come by right now. Love the advanced work you’ve been doing. Inspirational for my next build of this one!

[amurray]

Doing the individual vanes.  Slow going.  

[amurray]

Opening the vents and replacing the vanes turned out to be more work than anticipated.  I considered:

1. Using Evergreen Channel and gluing the vanes into the trough.  Then glue the entire trough to the underside of the fuselage and clean up.  Could use plastic or PE for the vanes with PE the preferred choice.  I didn't choose this route but should have because I had already glued in the ducts and didn't think I'd have many problems.
2. Use plastic strip cut to shape and glue the individual vanes with liquid glue.  The thin plastic dissolved to quickly.
3. Use PE cut to shape and glue with CA.  No way to shape and do fine finish of the PE.
4. What I did:  Use plastic strip cut to shape and glue individually with CA.  CA doesn't handle torque well so when I went back to sand down the vanes they were constantly popping out and needing replacement.  Consistent spacing was the problem here.

 

[MikeMaben]

Brain surgery          20lb paper maybe ?     Nice work tho 

[amurray]

9 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Brain surgery          20lb paper maybe ?     Nice work tho 

 

I didn't think about paper or card stock.

[amurray]

Moving to paint the undercarriage parts aluminum.  Note that the Hunter underside is aluminum PAINT, not a NMF.

 

 

[amurray]

Talk about a Tar-Baby ! [For our non-Southern brethren read Joel Chandler Harris]  Opening one group of vents leads to another group to yet another group.  This time its the flare dispenser.

 

 

 

I have some mesh that has the right dimensions but it is over-under-over-under screen.  I can likely amend it.  But any other suggestions?