1/32nd Hawker Hunter F5 - April 14th

[crobinsonh]

Whilst I was clearing out my modelling stash for a sell off around IPMS late last year I stumbled across s pile of Revell Hunters - one bought at £29.99 all the rest (6) at £9.99. I actually started work on the first Hunter well over 15 years ago and has since been laid on the shelf of doom after one of our cats knocked it off the table and it broken into pieces. I did rescue the interior and I have now completed some minor repairs to the said cockpit. This was primarily based on the kit cockpit with FlightPath add-on and some resin parts for the sidewalls and ejector seat (I think there might have originally been KMC?). I also added a bunch of tiny details to the cockpit from photographs of F4 and F6 Hunters.

 

 

I used some of the Flightpath set to add some details to the rather bare wheel bays and some approximate wiring - but nothing like as much in the real aircraft. At the end of the day no-one is going to look underneath anyway :-)

 

 

Next step is to zip the cockpit up and start on the main assembly and then the various airbrake / flaps from Flightpath - I might even stretch to the gun pack as I have the set.

 

The SU-27 is not dead - just dormant :-)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by crobinsonh

[MikeMaben]

Go for it 

 

 

[Fvdm]

Great progress! 

[crobinsonh]

Some more progress. Whilst I do like the Revell kit there is some signs of mould wear towards the bottom the model where the panel lines and details are "fading" away. I do love scribing - NOT.

 

First thing was to look at what it takes to backdate the F6 to an F5. I have the Flightpath detail set to help with this. 

 

First thing to prepare for is the fitting of the different tail pipe for the Sapphire engine that was fitted.

 

 

This ended up being a bigger issue than expected as the resin pipe has shrunk and does not fit.

 

 

I am not sure that I have all the correct engine vents so I went ahead and cut out the vents moulded for the F6 variant.

 

 

Lastly I had some challenged getting the instrument panel (etch from Flightpath) the kit coaming and the front fuselage to play nicely. In the end I cut the top part of the instrument panel off stuck it directly to the coaming, assembled the front fuselage halves and the rest of the cockpit and now the coaming and top half of the instrument panel all play nicely :-)

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by crobinsonh

[crobinsonh]

More updates from the last day or so. This particular Revell model is quite old (e.g. I bought it many years ago) and therefore any fit issues I a having maybe peculiar to me.

 

Spreading the fitting of the piece that covers the gun pack and introduces the front U/C bay

 

 

Adding plastic tabs for a better fit and a lot of Blu tac, super glue and many, many air rifle pellets

 

 

The topside fit was pretty good.

 

 

But still problems underneath

 

 

This one area that looked like a mould flaw with a big indent where the gun pack cover meets the nose. This will take a fair amount of filling and elbow grease 

 

[Chek]

Good subject, and some nice work so far.

 

I'm not sure how far you want to go for accuracy, but as you probably know, the Hunter F2 and F5 were the Sapphire powered versions, and as such had a different vent and louvre arrangement to the Avon powered ones. As an aside the early Avon Hunters' notorious choking on their own gun gasses problem was eventually cured by Rolls Royce essentially adding an Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire front end to the Rolls-Royce Avon.

 

I believe there's an F5 in the air museum at Southampton, but when I went to get some refs from the one that used to be at Waterbeach, it had gone. I found these online some years ago and believe from the background they are the Waterbeach Hunter, if they're of any use. ( Correction: Actually F5 WP190 at Leighton Buzzard before moving to Tangmere).

 

 

There's also this partial drawing, but only of one side, unfortunately. It was very inaccurate, so I modified the F5 details to be in better accord with the photos.

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by Chek

[crobinsonh]

17 hours ago, Chek said:

Good subject, and some nice work so far.

 

I'm not sure how far you want to go for accuracy, but as you probably know, the Hunter F2 and F5 were the Sapphire powered versions, and as such had a different vent and louvre arrangement to the Avon powered ones. As an aside the early Avon Hunters' notorious choking on their own gun gasses problem was eventually cured by Rolls Royce essentially adding an Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire front end to the Rolls-Royce Avon.

 

I believe there's an F5 in the air museum at Southampton, but when I went to get some refs from the one that used to be at Waterbeach, it had gone. I found these online some years ago and believe from the background they are the Waterbeach Hunter, if they're of any use.

 

 

There's also this partial drawing, but only of one side, unfortunately. It was very inaccurate, so I modified the F5 details to be in better accord with the photos.

 

 

Hi, thanks for taking the time to post these. Very usefull.

[jumpjack]

Are ther any reliable drawings for the differing vent/intake layouts?

[Chek]

3 hours ago, jumpjack said:

Are ther any reliable drawings for the differing vent/intake layouts?

 

I've not yet seen any, and I've had an Academy Hunter on hold for years now. 

Even drawings/artwork covering the Suez Hunter F5s of 1 Sqn RAF with their yellow campaign stripes invariably treat Avon and Sapphire powered Hunters as if they were the same.

 

I should also correct a mistake - the museum Hunter F5 (WP190 K 1 Sqn Suez markings) is at Tangmere Museum, not Southampton. The relevant mid section part of it may be difficult to photograph with the cordon, but some museums can be more helpful than others.

 

 

Another photo you might find useful is the underside of F2 WN915 on the cover of the book 'Hunter - from the cockpit'. Note that some of the vents between the main intakes and the nose gear doors would be covered by the Sabrinas, when fitted.

 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Chek
extra photo added

[jumpjack]

 Useful 'walkaround' 3D CAD images of the forthcoming 1/48 Airfix F4 can be found at https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2019/hawker-hunter-f4-1-48.html

[Marcel111]

Nice start with the cockpit! Looks like a lot of work but you're off to a good recovery.

[crobinsonh]

On 2/22/2019 at 10:32 PM, Chek said:

 

I've not yet seen any, and I've had an Academy Hunter on hold for years now. 

Even drawings/artwork covering the Suez Hunter F5s of 1 Sqn RAF with their yellow campaign stripes invariably treat Avon and Sapphire powered Hunters as if they were the same.

 

I should also correct a mistake - the museum Hunter F5 (WP190 K 1 Sqn Suez markings) is at Tangmere Museum, not Southampton. The relevant mid section part of it may be difficult to photograph with the cordon, but some museums can be more helpful than others.

 

 

Another photo you might find useful is the underside of F2 WN915 on the cover of the book 'Hunter - from the cockpit'. Note that some of the vents between the main intakes and the nose gear doors would be covered by the Sabrinas, when fitted.

 

Thanks for all this very useful. 

[crobinsonh]

On 2/23/2019 at 11:36 AM, jumpjack said:

 Useful 'walkaround' 3D CAD images of the forthcoming 1/48 Airfix F4 can be found at https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2019/hawker-hunter-f4-1-48.html

 

Thanks for your comments, I have taken a look at the Airfix site. 

 

On 2/23/2019 at 12:48 PM, Marcel111 said:

Nice start with the cockpit! Looks like a lot of work but you're off to a good recovery.

 

Now I just need to finish her :-)

[crobinsonh]

 

I was invited down to see the F5 by John (JAW) from Britmodeller on Saturday. It was a very useful trip that shows that I would have been much better not cutting out the vents 

 

Before I get to an update regarding what needs to be changed after my Tangmere visit this is the progress I cracked on with during the weekend. This is all related to the F5 resin exhaust pipe from Flightpath which If I am honest is  not a great addition being to small and a pretty awful fit.

 

 

[crobinsonh]

With a nice tail wind after my trip to Tangmere to see a real F5 I cracked on with the build. I spent a lot of time finishing the blending of the exhaust into the fuselage as well as the wings. I used the wonderful Vallejo Plastico filler for the fine cracks as you just wipe it away and give it a light sand and you are away.

 

 

I then spent a lot of time re-scribing all the panel lines and rivets - many had been diminished by my vigorous sanding but there was a lot of soft details from the Revell moulding.

 

The Flightpath supplied resin parts to replace the dog tooth where next to useless and an appalling fit. I made the decision to remove them and replace them with cut down versions of the kit supplied dog tooth parts. This was a pig of a task but actually much easier that continuing with the Flightpath parts.

 

Lots of Mr Surfacer for the fine filling - got to love this stuff.

 

This was the most difficult part with regard to blending in. We will see with the first coat of paint how successful I have been!

 

Now onto all the mods I need to make having visited Tangmere!