Revell 1:72 Hawker Hunter F.Mk.6

[Tomoshenko]

After bloodying myself with my first WIP in the Korean War GB, and lurking around and commenting on this forum for a brief while, I feel it’s time I made a contribution.
The Hunter is my favourite British fighter jet. For me it’s our Cold War equivalent of the Spitfire (please guys that’s a personal opinion, no offence to anyone intended). I bought this off evilbay recently and I’ve been dying to have a crack at it. By all accounts it’s a great kit and reasonably accurate.

I got the Eduard etch, mainly because I’d like to do a reasonably detailed representation of the cockpit, but it is the full set...and...Mmm… I’ll see how I get on with the foldy fiddly bits! I will add the odd bit and bob scratch, and drill out the odd this and that here and there, but modest it will be as new am I to the dark art of WIP. This will be a straightforward gentle build within my limited but well intentioned experience. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson “what could possibly go wrong…?”

The kit and craft need little introduction. All I can say from first glance and what’s been said already is this is a finely crafted model. Lovely decals, but alas I won’t be using them so they will be donated to my small but increasing spares. Undecided as to its scheme yet but it will be a fighter in our classic grey and green camo.

Fine quality plastic. Compared to some kits it’s the difference between oak/beech and cheapo warped chipboard.

The etch requires that you remove the raised detail which is a real shame because it is nice and intricate as you can see. However, I’m aware that a doctor must remain professionally detached from the patient, and I wielded the surgeon’s knife.

The raised detail was sent to plastic heaven and I avoided a trip to triage, A&E and a blood transfusion. Here we are so far. A little more trimming of the IP is required.

Now the etch has you remove some detail from the headrest. I was a little reticent to do this because the kit detail is good. You also remove some bits that aren’t replaced. After some umming and aahing I decided to go ahead and use it. Partly persuaded by the fact that the port side had an iffy sink mould dimple – you can just make it out I think. And partly because I had one of those “seems like a good idea at the time” moments and decided to scratch replacements.

Here they are with the better half scratch close up. Fit for purpose but I’ll see what they’re like when painted.

Here are the foot rests (one folded and assembled). A little fiddly but not as bad as I thought they’d be.

I’ve also began to add a little detail to the bulkhead. Not technically accurate or to scale but it’ll busy things up a little. Please note reader, these are second and third generation attempts. My first attempts pinging off into oblivion – I found one piece several days later on my window sill several feet away from the bench. Of course modelling law dictates that I continue to find lost items after I’ve duly replaced them.

Anyway that’s enough for the moment. A brief introduction I admit. Next up a little more work in the pit and finish off the seat before painting. Bye for now.

[jgrease]

Great work so far- keep it up!

[mick]

good progress

[perdu]

I like it

I'll be enjoying this one

[dhtmo]

It's a smashing little kit. Looking forward to this.

Dave

[Procopius]

I've been waiting for this thread.

[Col.]

Good start so far If you need a change of decals let me know as I've a few spare options.

[Marty]

These Revell Hunters are so gorgeous, loved building mine

[Tomoshenko]

Right I’m back at the bench. My apologies for being AWOL for a while, but progress has been slow. This is due to my available time - chronologically challenging to say the least – and cos’ I’m a bit slow. Also I feel there are only so many pictures of fiddly bits of tubes, wires and plastic strip etc. that I feel duty bound not to impart upon you. That said going forward I will endeavour to be a little more frequent.
Anyways thanks all for the encouragement, kind words and likes.

Good start so far If you need a change of decals let me know as I've a few spare options.

Very kind offer sir, upon which I will take you up on. Please let me know what you have or PM me – I’m a little unsure of the protocol of such things being a newbie.
I’ve spent what available time I have had adding scratched bits and bobs to the pit and seat. Nothing extraordinary or uber detailed, just a little to busy things up. Here is the pit and seat:

I haven’t glued all the seat bits together as I hope it will be easier to paint and assemble them IKEA style. The wire bits on the headrest (hopefully) connect to some other wire bits that fit on top of the etch once fitted. It’s all a mixture of takeaway carton file, copper wire, etch frets (and a spigot thingy from a Mig-15) and some Albion Alloys tubing that I picked up from the Sutton Coldfield Model Show. And not dissimilar to Alclad, I understand this stuff’s attraction for modellers – very versatile.

I have found it quite therapeutic or should that be cathartic? The main cause of my frustration and time, is the sod’s law modeller’s paradigm that states once completed, a piece of scratch build en route to assembly will ping off into oblivion. The time taken to recover or rebuild said piece is exponentially proportional (at least raised to the power of four, or logarithmic like the PH scale) to the time taken to make said piece in the first place. As you can imagine these bits have a considerable predatory rate courtesy of the carpet monster. Much cussing has been witnessed by the walls of the man cave.

A close up of the headrest. I added a Milliput cushion and a piece of Tamiya tape to attempt to replicate what appears to be a leather flap.

Here is the etch on the fuselage walls:

I’m just getting to grips with etch, and my tools and techniques are rudimentary to say the least – more on that later. However, it was coerced into place. I like it. Pity that much of my efforts will be hidden from human view forever once assembled, but it has been good practice and learning.

With that done and awaiting primer I turned my attention to the tail and removed the flap. Yes I did feel a pang of barbarism as I took the scaled down equivalent of a chainsaw to such a finely engineered kit; but I want the flap angled to add interest and depth (that’s the theory), but more importantly, after what seems an eternity of gluing seemingly bits of subatomic particles to bits of well …errm other bits of subatomic particles, I really needed to cut and file plastic proper!

Here is the finished result. A little clean up needed, but they came out okay. Next step is to finally prime, paint, wash and dry brush the pit – fun at last. Oh yeah… begin adding a multitude of miniscule fiddly bits of etch belts and buckles to the seat…oh joy…not!

Edited October 8, 2014 by Tomoshenko

[Col.]

Let me have a dig through the Hunter decal stash and see what I've got spare for an F.6 You have any preferences?

[Tomoshenko]

Thanks. None in particular but do have a penchant for 65th Squadron.

[jean]

Hi Tomoshenko,

just got back from abroad and found your WIP. I agree with you re the "sexyness" of the Hunter! Really gorgeous plane and so racy that it would have deserved to be born French!!!! But the British got that one down pat!

So they are forgiven...

Anyway, great start on this beauty. Are you going to replace the rudder by an aftermarket one or the glues and tidied up original?

Congrats and have fun!

JR

[Col.]

Thanks. None in particular but do have a penchant for 65th Squadron.

XE627 'T'of 65 Sqn do you?

I agree with you re the "sexyness" of the Hunter! Really gorgeous plane and so racy that it would have deserved to be born French!!!! But the British got that one down pat!

So they are forgiven...

France has the Mirage III so it's only fair Britain has the Hunter

[Tomoshenko]

Hi Tomoshenko,

just got back from abroad and found your WIP. I agree with you re the "sexyness" of the Hunter! Really gorgeous plane and so racy that it would have deserved to be born French!!!! But the British got that one down pat!

So they are forgiven...

Anyway, great start on this beauty. Are you going to replace the rudder by an aftermarket one or the glues and tidied up original?

Congrats and have fun!

JR

Thanks. I won't be replacing it as the kit rudder came off well and just needs a little clean up. It will be glued back in place at an angle to add interest.

XE627 'T'of 65 Sqn do you?

France has the Mirage III so it's only fair Britain has the Hunter

Brilliant mate that will do very nicely thanks. I take it I need to PM you my details. Sorry if that's a stupid question cos' you clearly need them to send them to me, but I'm knew to this sort of thing.

PS the French also has the Magister.

[Col.]

Brilliant mate that will do very nicely thanks. I take it I need to PM you my details. Sorry if that's a stupid question cos' you clearly need them to send them to me, but I'm knew to this sort of thing.

PS the French also has the Magister.

Aye PM me your address and I'll post them through for you

As for the French v British aircraft designs; both countries got together to create Concorde and the Jaguar so lets call it a win/win draw

[Tomoshenko]

Will do cheers.

Concorde and the Jaguar - the best of all worlds and the worse of none.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Tomoshenko

[Tomoshenko]

After what seems like an eternity I have finally finished the pit. I scratched a map holder (some reference sources show either none or different types so I took artistic licence), although scaled up to full size you’d probably get the Times World Atlas in there.

I also made a couple of lever thingies. Very fiddly, as was the etch on the IP. Rewarding but very fiddly.

First it was given a coat of Nato black. As you know it is an off black and looks more realistic in this scale. Revell calls for Anthracite grey, which is similar I guess. Have to admit to being somewhat overcome by all the exotic variations of greys and blacks on the market. In my day Anthracite was posh coal. Anyway I gave it a dry brush, perhaps a little heavy handed, but it’s difficult to attain much contrast and see anything amid all that black, so any reflective contrast is welcome.

I was making reasonably good progress up until this stage. Got all the seat bits together and scuffed it up a little

Then I began to add the etch. And this is when progress slowed to a crawl, literally like a space probe en route to a distant world. It did go on reasonably well actually, it just took forever. Application is the fiddly bit, I use a cocktail stick with a minute amount of blu-tak stuck to the end and tweezers with a slither of Tamiya tape attached. I really must get hold of one of those magic pen thingies from Telford.

One problem was that it looked a little false. Not a problem with the IP because there are two layers of etch, so you can weather the second layer and add a blob of Klear on each guage. Which is what I did. The etch in the pit was a little trickier, so I dry brushed it a little, and added a very light silver wash in the grooves. This toned things down a little.

By far the most perishin’ fiddly bits were the belts and harnesses, plus a relentless battle with the carpet monster. On applying the last harness to the seat it pinged off no less than three times, and I undertook a time and motion study as to time wasted on hands and knees with a magnifying glass recovering the damned thing. Took about an hour and a half!

I have come to the conclusion though that working with etch is like partaking of a strong neat spirit or liqueur. There is that initial burning sensation – pain – then a nice pleasant glow and feeling. With etch there is the fiddly pain, frustration and cussing, followed by a nice sense of satisfaction. Of course things can go horribly wrong – strong alcohol can make you ill; the etch can go completely pear-shaped and end up being glued to ... well … everywhere it shouldn’t, or just ping off into oblivion. Well it went okay… this time. Here it is pretty much complete.

There is more etch to come but I need a break. My poor eyes feel as though they have been extruded through the eye of a needle and back again. As you can see (or not) you can barely make out the cushion I made. I did make some foot harnesses out of take-away foil, but you can barely see them too. Also when the pit is buttoned up in the fuselage you can see literally diddly squat. A shame really, but I am pleased with how it’s come out.

I’m not entirely satisfied with the lie of the belts, but to be honest I found it quite difficult to get them to lie naturally. I may have a dabble again later, but will probably quit while ahead. More practice with etch is needed methinks but I am…slowly…getting the hang of it. Folding and bending without cracking the paint on the pre-painted stuff is a pain. Cocktail sticks, round-nose pliers wrapped in protective tape, the human hand, cussing and alcohol are the only tools in my arsenal for this task. Here is a close up of the seat. It is a tangled mass of belts and harnesses. Not dissimilar to the reference sources and it looks busy. The seat isn’t glued in place and I will add the pull rings to the headrest at the final stages. It would only get busted off and end up as manna for the carpet monster. Also there are some bits of scratch I need to add to the bulkhead immediately behind the headrest.

Photographing all the black has been difficult too. Feels at times as though I’ve been trying to photograph a black hole from the event horizon using an old polaroid camera and one of those old disposable flash bulbs.

Still the pit is done now. Took too damn long and not perfect, but I am quite chuffed overall. Enjoyable so far though. I can now look forward to more conventional modelling like gluing wings together and joining fuselages.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Tomoshenko

[ruudster]

looks great!

[Nigel Heath]

I really must get hold of one of those magic pen thingies from Telford.

Yes, you must. Mine has deprived my pet carpet monster of many a meal and the poor beast is (happily) wasting away.

[Col.]

Good work in the 'pit Tom I've never bothered with the etch in any of my Hunters so far, preferring a combination of the kit detail and scratch made additions, don't think that'll change for the others having seen your effort/reward equation. As you assemble the wings watch the tip parts - they are a little thicker than the main panels so some care there will reduce the amount of sanding required.

Now where did I put those decals...

[HOUSTON]

OUTSTANDING work .... EXEMPLARY workmanship in the cockpit et al..

[Fritag]

Great choice of subject. Achingly beautiful jet.

Love your writing. Empathise totally with your description of using etch. As to the results - all I can say is that your eyes and steadiness of hand must be a whole lot better then mine. Lovely cockpit - looks really good at several x life size so must look exceptional in life.

Dunno what to do about the problem of folding and bending pre-painted seat belts. The detail of the painting is probably unachievable without em - but I know what you mean about paint cracking off and then they are also hard to get to look adequately 'soft'.

I scanned and saved an image of the painted seat belt fret when I used one - and it came in handy cos i was then able to print off a decal which I used to cover one of the belts when the paint pinged off into the carpet monster. It worked as a save but the resolution wasn't good enough to make me think it was workable alternative ab initio. Seems to em that you've got your belts just about as good as it's possible to do

So gonna enjoy following this one

[mick]

great pit

[Col.]

Got those decals off to you this morning before i forgot again Tom. Hopefully you'll see them tomorrow.

[Tomoshenko]

Thanks all for your encouragement.

Col

Thanks for the advice and noted. I am tinkering with the wings as - almost - I type. Thanks also for the decals that you've posted. Regarding the cockpit etch, I agree with you. To be honest if I had my time again I wouldn't bother using the etch for the side consoles. The etch looks mighty fine mind, but with a little TLC and patience the kit details are fine as they are. Couldn't equal the IP and belts though. I think when I do an F.9 I will retain the kit detail for the consoles, and if they look iffy after painting I will replace with the etch.

Fritag

Thanks for your warm words. Agree with your comments about the belts. You did a great job with your Provost belts, but as you say not an ideal working alternative. I even thought of a way of annealing them using conductive energy by holding them tightly between forefingers and thumb until they got hot and softened - you know, a similar principle to the bar bet where you challenge someone to see how long they can clasp a piece of foil in their hand tightly before burning. Yeh I know ... it didn't work. And yeh I know ... I am that sad.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Tomoshenko