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1/72 Hunter F.1 233 OCU


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Hi all,

I'm a bit late coming in to this but will give it a go and see how I get on!

My Dad was an airframe technician on Hunters with 233 OCU at RAF Pembrey in 1956/57 and I've long had plans to build a model of one of the aircraft he worked on. I must confess to not doing an awful lot of model making (I've managed to complete 1 Hunter and 3 railway wagon kits in the past 20 years!) but this GB seems the perfect KUTA to get on with it!

Anyway, I'll be using a Revell 1/72 Hunter F.6 as the basis for the model plus an Aeroclub early Hunter conversion set containing a replacement tailcone and wing leading edges. Decals will be a mixture of kit decals (roundels and stencilling) and homemade (serials) plus some individual ident letters from a source as yet undiscovered (if anyone knows where I can get some yellow Fs about 8mm high from, please let me know)!

I've made a start by assembling the seat, but decided the Revell job, although reasonable looking in most respects, was not up to scratch around the headbox area in particular. So I discarded the kit part that represents the top of the head box and constructed that area from pieces of plastic card, strip and rod adding the curved tops of the rear seat beam, ejection gun breech, headbox sleeve etc.. I've thinned down the edges of the seat pan and parachute container, carved the inner seats bits to better represent the separate parachute pack and back pad and have added the parachute harness straps.

2H-front-right.jpg

Pic showing front of seat with raising handle added, new BTRU, early style single-loop top handle, headbox sleeve, parachute harness.

2H-left.jpg

Left side of seat with new drogue gun, drogue withdrawal line.

2H-right.jpg

Right side of seat.

2H-front-left.jpg

Seat harness still to add, plus oxy and anti-g hoses.

So that's progress so far. It would have been much easier to buy a resin seat, but this is more fun!

More progress pics soon hopefully!

Mark

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Thanks chaps.

Tiny bit more progress here. I've added a little detail to the cockpit - not much because it's almost impossible to see it once the fuselage is closed up.

cockpit.jpg

Frames 10, 11, 12 and 13 plus spray bar covers added to the cockpit sides, crowbar, high pressure cock and throttle lever, hood control box and hood jettison handle added. I've also modified the upper instrument panels and glare shields to better represent an F.1. The glare shields in particular have been cut away to allow for the retractable gunsight mount fitted to these early Hunters.

Next job, some paint and weights before closing up the fuselage!

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Cockpit and seat painted now.

cockpit-painted.jpg

The dry brushing looks a bit over the top in this photo, but you need it like that otherwise, when the fuselage halves are closed up, you can see nothing other than a black hole! I've also just noticed that I've forgotten to paint the black stripes on the hood jettison handle. :doh:

seat-painted-2.jpg

seat-painted-1.jpg

Seat still without the seat harness - that will be added later as I want to drape the shoulder straps over the cockpit sides.

Mark

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Cockpit and seat painted now.

The dry brushing looks a bit over the top in this photo, but you need it like that otherwise, when the fuselage halves are closed up, you can see nothing other than a black hole! I've also just noticed that I've forgotten to paint the black stripes on the hood jettison handle. :doh:

Seat still without the seat harness - that will be added later as I want to drape the shoulder straps over the cockpit sides.

Mark

Lovely work Mark,

If only I had the eyesight/patience/etc... :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks all for the encouraging comments folks. It looks unlikey I'll finish this in time for the end of the GB though, but I'll keep plugging away and see how far I get.

Anyway, a bit of progress to report. I've added the Aeroclub early Hunter conversion pieces (tailcone and leading edges) with mixed feelings. The tailcone isn't bad (but lacking any real surface detail) just needing a bit of filling and sanding to get smooth, but if I was doing this again I wouldn't bother with the resin leading edges and use plastic card and rod instead. The problem is that a straight exchange of the kit extended leading edges for the straight Aeroclub ones leaves a kink in the leading edge where the 'dogtooth' would have been. Once this is sanded back to produce a dead straight wing leading edge, half the resin part has been sanded away! Add to that the relative hardness of the resin compared to the plastic of the kit wing and I reckon it would have been easier to build up the new leading edge with strips of plastic and sand that back instead.

Anyhow, it's done now. Here's a piccy of the wing,

F1wing.jpg

And here's the tail piece. Note that as well as cutting a slot and adding the airbrake jack from plastic rod, I've also had a bash at modifying the kit airbrake into a better representation of the early style airbrake. It's not perfect by any means, but does look a little more accurate for an F.1 than the kit airbrake,

F1tail.jpg

Here we are primed with Halfords grey plastic primer (I love that stuff!). Just look at the wonderfully elegant shape of those wings - just as Sir Sydney envisaged it before all the lumps, bumps and sticky out bits were needed! :)

F1primed.jpg

A couple of shots of the modified airbrake - easier to see now that's it's primed,

F1airbrake.jpg

F1airbrake2.jpg

State of play at the moment is that a couple of blemishes revealed by the primer have been dealt with and the undersides painted with Citadel Mithral Silver. It's now masked up ready for the Dark Sea Grey topside colour.

Onwards and upwards!

Mark

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Mark - that's coming along really nicely - you CAN get it done in time before STGB closes!! Nice to see an early Hunter with all those clean lines and free of other lumps and bumps.

Mark

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Mark - that's coming along really nicely - you CAN get it done in time before STGB closes!! Nice to see an early Hunter with all those clean lines and free of other lumps and bumps.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I'm certainly going to give it a good go and did manage to get a coat of Dark Sea Grey on last night.

The horrendous job of masking the camo pattern next...!

Mark

Edited by StephenMG
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Couple of quick update photos for you, with the camo painted and the model all glossed up ready for decals.

Top view,

F1-painted-top.jpg

Bottom view,

F1-painted-bottom.jpg

Mark - the Mithril Silver was excellent and, to my eyes, give the look of High Speed Silver pretty well. I tend to stick with paints I can easily buy locally, so that means Humbrol, Tamiya and Citadel. For brushing I use Humbrol enamels, but for spraying I always use acrylics. By default I use Tamiya as I find them absolutely superb to spray and I've never had a problem with them. Humbrol acrylics I find very difficult to use unless it's to cover large areas at higher pressures - for smaller detailed stuff I don't even bother trying them anymore. So I was very wary about trying Citadel paint for the first time on this model, but I'd heard a number of people suggest Mithril Silver so thought I'd give it a try. I have to say, it went on just as nicely as the Tamiya paint so I'm very impressed and can thoroughly recommend it. I gather they've changed their range now though and I'm not sure Mithril Silver is there anymore? I might have to stock up with a couple of pots!

Cheers,

Mark

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She's looking great Mark :thumbsup:

I think mithril silver is a good match for hss too. I managed to pick up two pots in Hobbycraft last weekend as they've still got the old range. No boltgun metal though which is a shame because its a favourite.

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Very nice indeed - what a beautiful a/c the very early Hunters were! I also have sprayed Mithril and it goes on brilliantly. Look forward to seeing this finished!

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Well, I just about scraped in and have uploaded some photos to the completed builds gallery - here.

WW604-1.jpg

Small things seem to have taken ages on this. For example, I was never happy with the Revell main wheels as they're just too small. I looked at some Matchbox ones which have nicely detailed hubs, but the tyres are too low profile. Then I ordered some CMK resin/etch ones. The etched hubs were very nice, but the tyres were much too 'square shouldered'. I then dug out an old Airfix FGA.9 and found that the wheels were about the size, the tyres the right shape and the hub detail not too bad either. In the end I used the Airfix wheels and stuck the CMK etched hub on to them.

I extended the Revell nose leg too. It's too short anyway, but with the larger mainwheels it makes it even worse and gives the model a 'nose down' attitude when sitting on it's wheels. The Hunter should have a very slight 'nose up' attitude on the ground and even with lengthening the nose legs a could of mm it's still not quite right. Never mind, I'm reasonably happy with it's 'stance' now. and the mainwheels look much better than the kit examples to my eye.

My other dilema was whether to weather it or not. These aircraft were pretty clean on the whole, but the Hunter was prone to getting a bit of a dirty belly and dirt around the tail cone. Also, the early marks did generate an 'orrible long dirty streak from the engine's oil system down the rear starboard fuselage. I decided to add 'the streak' as it's very commonly seen in photos, and do some light weathering on the belly. I also put a light wash in some of the panel lines, although it looks much darker in the photos for some reason.

Although there are a couple of 'issues' with the model, overall I'm quietly pleased with the way it's turned out I think. Good fun.

Mark

Edited by StephenMG
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