geedubelyer

Neat selection of types. Thanks for sharing. Glad the weather was kind for everyone on the day. Memo to me* I really need to get to a Shuttleworth show.

Thank you Woodie, Chris and Antoine, glad you like how the seat turned out. @Antoine, please do add the reference photos. They may come in very useful. The Hunter is certainly a pleasing design with a super selection of schemes for us modellers to choose from

Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well. Work has continued gently in the background on the Hunter concentrating mainly on the seat and cockpit. Here's how the seat looks under paint. I am grateful to Sean (Madmax) for his build as I cribbed shamelessly from his WIP. I used Airscale instrument decals on the IP Very little of all of this will be seen tbh so I simply painted what was on the kit tub Comparing the plastic to reference photos suggests that Revell did a good job. Next up, control column and pedals. Cheers, Guy

Excellent. 🫶

Wonderful mix of types and superb photography too. I really enjoyed this set, thank you for sharing them. 🫶

That four way split is the money shot! What a belting set of pics as we've come to expect from you but that one in particular is magnificent. 🤩

Postimage seems to be working again now so here's that pic I mentioned. #1 is from the neck of some bubbly stuff. It's very shiny and I've used it often for making light reflectors etc. It's quite thin so although it's soft it's not the best for straps or webbing. #2 is the most common type of bottle closure and I tend to use this for a multitude of tasks. It's stiffer than #1 so can be folded up to make boxes and brackets as well as punched out for instrument panels. It takes surface detail easily so adding fastener detail to panels of this stuff is simple. #3 is the heaviest, thickest and softest which makes it ideal for straps and webbing. Even cloth gaiters can be formed from this and it drapes nicely. It's pretty rare though so I use it sparingly.

Welcome aboard Alan. Thanks for the kind words. Good to hear that the Hunter is one of Revell's better offerings. Do you have a link to your build so that I can crib some tips and ideas? Chris, I tried to upload a snap of the types of foils that I've saved but Postimage isn't performing at the moment. If it changes it's mind I'll add it later. It sounds as though you're got things sorted though. No more procrastinating (word of the day) 😁 Perhaps I should have started with a before pic of the kit seat? As you can see, I chose to thin the seat edges a little using a technique Airfix use on the Spitfire seat armour where the edge is bevelled to deceive the eye. I also rounded those shoulder parts where the seat straps would later attach. At this scale the straps benefit from some extra detailing. I removed the headrest pads as the one in XG168 is flatter. There is a curious cut out in the seat pad where I initially expected the pull handle to sit. In fact that handle sits at the front of the seat in the shaped recess. I filled the hole after removing the molded in belts. I did manage to upload a couple of images of the primed seat before the site went pop. Now it's simply a matter of colouring in. Yaay. 😊

Thanks Chris. ☺️ Over time I've kept many of the metal foil wine bottle closures. These vary in texture. The ones from fizzy stuff tend to be thinner and shinier on the inside. These are often textured with a diamond pattern and can be ideal for representing the padding in some jet or helicopter cockpits. The majority which are from still wines are slightly thicker and hold their shape reasonably well. These are relatively pliable, cut well and are good for folding. Occasionally I've come across one that is more like lead foil. These rare ones are thicker still and heavier but are much easier to mold into soft curves. It's some of the last category that I used for the belts on this occasion. I'll snap a photo of a variety of them later to better illustrate what I mean. HTH Cheers, Guy

Back to the model then and on to the seat. The Revell assembly has some nice detail, especially around the headbox and chute area. Unfortunately it doesn't exactly match what's present in XG168 so some modification is possible. I drooped the pull handles a bit and refashioned the pad. The kit part has raised bumps whereas the actual seat is flatter. The actual seat also has the prominent protrusions near the pilot's knees (knee protection?) I enlarged the seat cushion and added the parachute(?) back pad as well as straps and harnesses. I wonder what that lot will look like under a coat of primer? There's more I can do around the headbox/parachute but I need to try to find some clearer photos than the ones I took. If anyone has any more please add them to this thread, thanks. Cheers, Guy

Epic adventure. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride. 🫶 👏

Jaaaaaaaaaaaag 😃

Thanks @JagRigger . That's added to the reference pics. 👍 Would that belly panel have been removed to re-attach the wings?

Thanks guys. By chance, West Raynham is a little closer to me too. ☺️

That's great. Thanks Phil. I took some photos through the glazing but it was a really sunny day and the glare obscured any meaningful detail. Comparing your coaming pic to these it looks as though there may be a central covering panel missing forward of the gunsight?