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A brace of Hawker Hunters from Abu Dhabi & Singapore


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Well I have missed the deadline on my last two GB's so I shall be getting on with these two right away.

I shall be using replacement seats from Quickboost and decals from Xtradecal, other than that they will both be straight OOB.

Andrew

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Time for a quick update as the main airframes are now all together.

The interior is basically black with aluminium dry brushed for highlights.

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Because I was rushing too much I did not realise until after the fuselages were all together that the cockpit tubs on both kits had not settled flat on the locating points and were both slightly down on one side. I toyed with opening up the fuselages but in the end just adjusted the seats slightly and as the canopies will be closed hopefully nothing will be visible when they are finished.

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The wings loads will be slightly different so on the Singapore Hunter the inner hardpoints have been opened and a Sidewinder will be hung from them. I shall have to scratch build a pylon.

Lastly a picture of the decal option I shall be using for the Abu Dhabi option. Roundles are red/white/gold (or so I am told, I thought they were green/white/gold - the joys of being colour blind!)

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Nice work on the cockpits, pity about the locating problems though. Guess we'll see the first coat of paint very soon

Those Hunters are going to look fab :D
How does the Revell kit compare with other 1/72 kits? I've only ever built the Airfix Hunter to date.

Day and night, where the Airfix kit is the night.... The Revell Hunter is IMHO one of the most beautiful kit ever made by a mainstream company in 1/72 scale. The only small issue is that the main wheels should be larger. Pick one if you can find it, you will not be disappointed

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  • 2 weeks later...

Those Hunters are going to look fab :D

How does the Revell kit compare with other 1/72 kits? I've only ever built the Airfix Hunter to date.

I've not built any other 1/72 Hunter so I can't give a definitive answer but it is a lovely kit, one of Revells best in 1/72 scale. The only things that could have been improved are the fit of some of the parts and some intake trunking would have been nice. These two will be my 3rd and 4th builds of the kit and I have one more left in the stash.

We had a discussion about the desert colours on export Hunters way back when! The consensus was that the colours were not the listed BS381 shades but paints manufactured by ICI. The thread is here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1103-export-hunter-colour-question/

HTH

J

Thanks for the pointer. I had originally planned to use Xtracrylix Azure Blue but changed my mind to a Tamiya mix of Middle Blue (XF-18) and Sky Blue (X-14). My first try was too dark and too grey so I have redone it with more Sky Blue and lightened with white (XF-2). The results are shown below.

The undersides of the Singaporean Hunter has been done with a mix of white (XF-2) with a small amount of Sky Grey (XF-19) in. The decal reference just gives it as Grey and although some references suggest that it should be light aircraft grey pictures show a very light off white grey.

Both aircraft were primed first with Halfords grey plastic primer from a rattle can. (Not easy to apply with all of the windy weather we have been having over the last week!)

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I've heard nothing but good about this kit, Andrew.

A few years ago, it was selected by concensus as the subject of a same kit, OOB competition at my local modelling club. Typically, I was away at the time and never did get to build one!

Maybe if Col's STGB takes off, I will get my opportunity :)

Your two are looking great, particularly now that they are starting to 'diverge'.

Cliff

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  • 3 weeks later...

Paint and decals now on.

The Adu Dhabi Hunter is painted Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth and a mix of XF-3 Flat Yellow and XF-60 Dark Yellow for the Light Stone. Fortunately I mixed more than I needed and was able to store it for any touch ups later in the build.

The Singapore Hunter has XF-2 again, XF-61 Dark Green and then a mix of Xtracrylix XA1815 Bronze Green and XA1116 FS14102 for the lighter green. Looking at how it has come out I don't think there is enough contrast between the greens and think I should have added more of the XA1116.

Decals went on fine except for one of the Abu Dhabi "Army Air Force" signs a portion of which broke off and disappeared. Fortunately it was a part of the arabic portion and I have been able to do a passable freehand imitation to fill in the missing part (more pics later).

Both nearly finished now and should have more pictures by the end of the week.

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Love those Hunters :)

I think I am going to have to copy them at some time!

The Colours of the Abu Dhabi ones look just like Humbrol Middle Stone (Hu225) and Dark Earth (Hu29) - would they be a fair match?

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Love those Hunters :)

I think I am going to have to copy them at some time!

The Colours of the Abu Dhabi ones look just like Humbrol Middle Stone (Hu225) and Dark Earth (Hu29) - would they be a fair match?

If the lighter colour is a close approximation of BS381c Light Stone, Humbrol 237 will be just about spot on.

J

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Those are looking superb. I agree with your observations about the intake trunks and the fit of some of the parts. Lovely kit though. The camo looks really sharp and crisp. What technique did you use?

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Those are looking superb. I agree with your observations about the intake trunks and the fit of some of the parts. Lovely kit though. The camo looks really sharp and crisp. What technique did you use?

I used Tamiya masking tape for the masking. I purchased a special cutting tool at Telford last November that has the cutting edge on a swivel mount so it makes cutting shapes much easier than with a normal blade - works a treat.

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Both now finished. They have both had a light panel line wash using Flory Models dark dirt followed by two coats of matt varnish. First coat was with Tamiya XF-86 Flat coat but this came out with more of a satin sheen so I gave it a second coat of Alclad Klear Kote Matte.

The canopy masking turned out not to have been 100% effective and primer had crept underneath in several places on both kits. This was gently scraped away with a knife and a coat of Johnsons Klear applied which has repaired most of the damage.

The sidewinder pylons are adapted from ones that came in the kit by extending them forwards. I had to trim the rear ends of the missile rail once on the aircraft as they would have impeded the undercarriage closing otherwise.

More pictures in the gallery.

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