Jon Kunac-Tabinor

Hi Dennis - thanks for this - nice drawings! The upsweep of the fuselage at the exhaust end makes me thing this is a 100 series Avon Hunter F1 or F4, or even a Sapphire F2 or F5. Are you sure your drawings are for a 200 series Avon engined F6? cheers Jonners

Hi Guillaume - good find! It just adds to the mystery. Every single pic of an RAF F6 I'ved looked at does not show a diagonal panel line there. Yet look at pics of Belgian and Dutch F6's and the camo is at least "painted" like there is! I have found one reference to licence built Dutch F.4's that were built with dog tooth wing, drop tanks and blast deflectors - so is this what we are seeing? Sorry - was searching as I was replying, and... UPDATE In fact - I've just found a better confirmation: see here http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Hawker Hunter F.4/Hawker Hunter F4 Frontpage.htm interesting! Jonners

Hi all - 2 of these little beauties arrived yesterday. I've started this thread as a questions and notes space. Here are my first few based on the actual plastic. Just so you know - Even though the parabrake faired exhaust is in the kit: There are NO large drop tanks or cut out flaps in this kit - so if you want an F6A or FGA9 you will need to source /modify as applicable. Theres a small amount of warp on mine on the top right wing area of the single wing /fuselage piece- its most noticeable when viewed from the rear on the top of the flap. Ditto with a little warping on the left hand fuselage half: Neither are really bad and don't seem to affect things - but the wing warp will only disappear when the lower half is added I think! There's a raised offset shelf on the spine - I think that is applicable for an aerial fit used on the F6A only - so CHECK your refs for F6's. Ditto with a raised panel both top and below on the starboard wing intake area - I can see something like this in some photos of the real thing - but I can't decide if its too pronounced or should just be there on F6A's or is a one off from whichever airframe they LIDAR-ed ????? The rear fuselage exhaust parts. Ive found it best to glue these to each fuselage half first - AND- just glue the fuselage ONLY join first, then glue the fin area to it: The fin has a bit of flex - so if you do it this way you can set up a good strong join on the fuselage initially, so the fin has something stable to adhere to. The diagonal panel line on the rear of the exhaust section looks like it belongs to the earlier 100 series Avon "small bore" exhaust not the later 200 series version as supplied here - Have Aunty Airfix got confused? it's not visible on the optional parabrake faired exhaust parts. Hmmmm READ the instructions re the wing to fuselage join !!! ( I know - I know, you all do - but there may be a "few" misguided souls out there who think they don't need to....) - you can't add the lower wings sections to the upper first and then add to the fuselage because the lower wing sections have bloody big lugs to fit into equally big tenons in the fuselage. These are a tight fit too - so be warned! Theres an ejector pin knock-out mark on the underneath of the cockpit tub - it's totally visible from the nose bay - so if it offends - remove first! There a two small vents immediately forward of the sabrinas' location - again - the refs seem confused. I can see some photos that appear to show only 1 vent. Some drawings show two, and other photos none. HELP!! There should be a very small NACA type intake on the bottom front of each sabrina- BUT they are really small and they are bloody hard to see in most photos. TBH - its probably a total pain to add them so I mention it only because I can These are my initial notes - BUT fit is excellent, panel lines nice and fine, and the plastic easy to work with. So - All good really Jonners

Now there's an offer! Yes please. Is the museum open over the winter? cheers Jonners

Just a note to say that if you want to do an F4 or 5 ( or 1 or 2 for that matter) without the Sabrinas, as well as cutting new shell link ejection ports ( which look like rectangular slots) you will need to alter the orientation of the circular shell case ejection chutes - these were above each other on un-sabrina-ed machines, rather than horizontally aligned when the Sabrinas were fitted. You also have a choice when Sabrinas are fitted of the original short length shell case ejection ports ( the forward one sticks out a little, the rearward is flush and this hole angles in & forward too) or the later modified lengthened ones in which both stick out (which is what I think the Airfix F6 kit has). Clear? Jonners

Hi Malcolm - yes it is. Theres a PE alternative but the IM part here looked better taper wise. It is thick in a thin way i guess! LOL Thanks for looking. Jonners

Hi all - well here is no 1 of the bench for 2019. I made a series ii from the series i kit as all parts are in there - and sorted out the daftly large and wrongly shaped prop holes in the spinner. The "cuckoo clock" air filter is scratch built. Xtradecal markings for an immediate-post-war 56 Squadron crate. Paints & post shade are Tamiya and Gunze for the camo - freehanded with HS Evolution, weathering from oil washes, detail painting from an assortment of acrylics. All comments welcome as ever. Hope you like her. Jonners

There appears to be internal stiffeners moulded into the F6 wing insides so all one has to do is cut along the recessed line on the inside of the wing to remove the dog tooth panel plus a section of the wing. Looking at the CAD for the F4/5 there will be a new front wing insert to fit in here. From what I understand 1 & 34 sq Suez birds were both F5s - presumably to ease maintenance by having only Sapphire engined versions on Cyprus - and as the Sapphire didn't suffer from the gun gas surge problems that the 100 Avon did - it would be the most "combat ready" model to boot. F4 & F5 are pretty much identical for modellers - save for a few vents. For those wanting a straight wing Hunter but not wanting to wait - it won't be too hard to trim back the leading edge on the F6- this will give you a straight wing F6 - of which there were plenty delivered to the RAF before the dog tooth mod became available & was fitted in the field. You can see 92 Sqn, 14 sqn and 111 Sqn black airframes all without the dog teeth for example. HTH Jonners

Agree totally Col. But it has always been the case I think - it's just that in todays ultra-connected world, the disappointed have a much larger pram from which to throw out their dummy I'm sure when Sir Tim Berners Lee et al came up with the web concept, they expected it to be a place for the exchange of ideas and information- to benefit and enrich all: Not a whinging shop for those with bugger all better to do. We all do it, because we are all human - but perhaps we should all try to not do it. It's perfectly possible to not do it - it's called think twice, type once, and if you haven't got anything better to say - then don't. Cheers Jonners

Pleased to see my source was right about the 1/48th Tiggie! And the small bore straight wing Hunter F4/5 is a nice addition to the family. The Spit we knew about anyway - which is good because it looks lovely. Jonners

I think you are being a tad unfair here. Price wise, Airfix current P51 is about £22, Edwards, if it goes on a par with their Spits and 109's, will be about £33. Yes that will include some PE, and say 4 or 5 decal options vs Airfix 2. If you go for apples vs apples and compare the Eduard weekend editions then prices are about £19, so it's closer. If you add add in all the much vaunted resin for Edwards models, you can soon get into serious double figures, but they also do PE and resin for Airfix kits so that's moot anyway to me. Detail wise, I don't think Airfix's recent Blenheim or Hurricanes would blush in Edwards presence, and the Mustang is pretty good too, certainly better than the older Tamiya and Hasegawa kits. I've built all 3, have you? Ive no doubt Edwards P51 will be lovely, but there's no reason to slag Airfix off. Jonners

Very lovely Mon General. I saw it in the mag too, but always forget that that's you! Airfix have taken payment for my two on pre-order, so hopefully they will turn up any day. One is slated for an all blue 92, tother either gets knifed for a Suez F5 or de-dogged for an early straight wing F6. So so excited here..... Jonners

That's really nice - well built, subtly finished and looks the part. Jonners

Hi all - will post a few pics of the 'pit on here later. Have been delayed by a SAAF Mirage IIID2Z camo scheme!! One thing to watch - the rear cockpit bulkhead has a small locating pin on its base - which is supposed to fit into a small hole on the wing centre section - except there's no hole there. So either drill one, or cut off the pin. The cockpit fits so well you don't need this extra bit of alignment. For those of you wondering - if you use the plastic "blank" instrument panel parts - designed for the decals, and shave of the small amounts of raised detail. The PE etch panel parts fit perfectly and it all fits in the cockpit without hindrance. it makes the PE parts far more stable doing this-in case you wonder why you might do this Currently working on a cuckoo clock door air filter for the radiator/ carb intake - I'm doing mine as a series II 2nd TAF immediate post war bird - so it needs one adding. cheers Jonners

HI Josh - the eduard decals will work very well, as will pretty much any modern aftermarket decal. TBH though all you'll really need if you plan to use the spare squadron codes and serials from the eduard kit are some extra RAF roundels & fin flashes - again there are several aftermarket sources for these - and you have the bonus of roundels that an be used on future models of other types. The Hasegawa/Eduard Typhoon is a great kit - it builds easily and pretty much looks the part. The only area to be careful with, is the upper fuselage insert round the cockpit that caters for the early "car door" variant and later "bubble" version. The consensus is thats its better to glue these inserts into each fuselage half before you join them together. This gives a better fit and its easier to tidy up the joins etc etc. In the USA you can often find out of production decal sheets ( like the Aeromaster Typhoon ones) from Ultracast in Canada https://www.ultracast.ca/category-s/521.htm see what I mean! Welcome back - and happy modelling Jonners