Mistercraft Hunter F.6, 1/72.

[Lord Riot]

Hot on the heals of the Canberra, another beauty from the 50s, the elegant Hawker Hunter.

 

This is my first 'Mistercraft' kit, and looks on first glance to be quite simple; very few parts and to my less than professional eyes, a reasonable shape. Not bad for about £6 on eBay anyway! The kit decals, however, were awful! Very blotchy looking 92 sqn checks, and some 1 sqn nose flashes that seem a bit too small in my opinion. As I'll be making my Sabre in 92 sqn colours, I wanted to do something different for the Hunter, so I splashed out on the Xtradecals set. 

 

A good choice on the Xtradecals, I'm still undecided on whether to do 56, 63 or 74 sqn! They all look fabulous to the point where I may have to get another Hunter! Whichever unit, I think it'll be nice with camo upper and silver undersides - classic 1950's RAF, the best genre!

 

So, to the kit ...

 

Does anybody have any tips about 1/72 Hunters in general, and the Mistercraft kit in particular? Any potential traps or issues to look out for? It really does contain very few parts! I'll need to file that pointy 'pen nib' jetpipe fairing flat for a start. Interestingly, the instructions call it an F.1, but the box and markings are all F.6!

 

 

 

 

[phildagreek]

I've never seen any "Mistercraft" kits before, but the Hunter is a beautiful aircraft, maybe one of the most elegant ever. I shall look forward to this.

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Looking at those wings,it's not an F Mk 1 as they didn't have the leading edge extension.

I also see the brake parachute fairing so it could be an FGA9 or F6A.

No doubt a better qualified Hunter guy will be along shortly

48 minutes ago, Lord Riot said:

but the box and markings are all F.6!

Just noticed serial on box art is an FGA9 (sold to now preserved in Zimbabwe!)

[Courageous]

Another seat at the front. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Ditto taking a seat 

[Pete in Lincs]

My seat still has the pins fitted just in case.

[Lord Riot]

So, Mistercraft. The two fuselage halves don't seem exactly symmetrical. I had to file the airbrake housing so it was the same size on each side, and the nose slightly too.

 

 

However, the plastic is quite soft so not too odious a task. It was easy to accurately cut off the 'late F.6A/FGA.9' jetpipe fairing too, although I'll need to now file down the slight brake 'chute bulge. I'm doing a 1950's era F.6. 

 

 

I'm going to leave out the 'butt plug' because it's solid and would sit only about 1mm inside the jetpipe! Looks more like a FOD guard. 

 

The pilot's office is what can only be described as rudimentary ...

 

 

Luckily I have some decent photos so I'll try to handpaint the instruments and seat, etc. This is all you get, and no instrument decals. 

 

 

More updates later!

[CurrantBunbury]

This looks interesting. Looks like you've got quite a job with that cockpit.  

[Lord Riot]

The cockpit is certainly a challenge, especially having to hand paint in 1/72nd! 

 

It is coming along though.

 

 

[Lord Riot]

The intakes were almost blocked off inside, right near the front, so I cut out the blank and will use this piece cut from my spares stash much deeper into the fuselage. 

 

[Lord Riot]

Sanded away the FGA.9 parachute housing and rescribed the lines. 

 

[Tempestwulf]

I've gandered a few MisterKits in the past and thought they were simply carbon copies of other kits. They always had a breakdown similar to Hasegawa types, the Hunter might be the Revell kit. Could be that they've taken a moulding of the outside or even whole sprue & worked from there.

[Graeme H]

As Tempestwuld asserts, Masterkits always have their orogins from something else, this looks very much like the Frog FGA9 Hunter, also done by Novo, and Eastern Express to name a couple of others

Good luck with the build looks like you are not taking it as it comes, some good corrections going on 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/145724-frog-f204-hunter-f-g-a-9-ground-attack-fighter

[Lord Riot]

Not sure how much of the turbine will show deep inside the fuselage, but I made this as otherwise you could see straight through!

 

[Lord Riot]

Does anyone know the best colour to use for the undersides?

 

The Xtradecal set states 'aluminium' which I'm assuming is closer to silver than Humbrol 56?

 

Walkaround photos of Hunters show the oleos and wheel bays to be silver too, would it be accurate if I sprayed the entire underside silver, including the wheelbays, inside the wheel doors and the oleos, all the same colour? That doesn't seem quite right, but Humbrol aluminium looks too dark (I painted it on my Swift and it's closer to grey than silver).

 

I'm going to be doing it as a late 50s jet, UK-based (one of 56, 63 or 74 Sqns - still can't decide which yet!)

 

Please help!

[Graeme H]

Yes the entire underside would be RAF High Speed Silver or HSS as it is sometimes referred to, it is available in the Xtracolor range under that name, but any good quality silver would do, but it should be on the lighter side, and you will need to matt it down a bit probably a satin finish would be best to give it a more accurate appearance it was only glossy when new.

 

Next year Revell are going to re-release their Hawker Hunter, supposedly the FGA9 like you have, although they also di release an F6 like you are making, which is the best around by far, nowhere near as much work, but as always at a higher cost than what you paid, of course you can always search ebay or 2nd hand dealer for them, quite hard to find though.

[Lord Riot]

Thanks Graeme, that's perfect info! In that case I'll use the silver spray, it should be just about right. 

 

Good news on Hunter releases too, as this one is needing quite a bit of work to fashion it into a more accurate F.6 - despite the box art and name purporting to be an F.6 it was essentially an FGA.9!

[Max Headroom]

You’re doing a good job there.

 

If I’m not mistaken if that isn’t the old FROG mould then it’s certainly ‘inspired’ by it.

 

Trevor

[Lord Riot]

Thanks Trevor! 

 

It certainly needs a fair bit of work to get it into shape, quite literally in some areas! The wing roots will need a fair bit of filler too. I'll see how it turns out before I decide whether to use the nice decals on it. 

[Lord Riot]

Beginning to resemble a Hunter, hopefully! 

 

[Graeme H]

I forgot to mention, if you don't have much in the way of references, then the excellent Aeroguide on the Hunter is available to download from the Boxart Den

basic, but still very relevant and the plans are very good as well, probably close to being the most accurate out there.

 

http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Aeroguide/AeroGuide-09-Hawker

[ivand]

The origin of this kit is ZTS Plastyk. It is also still sold under that name, AFAIK Mister-/Mastercraft only rebox. The Plastyk Hunter may have been loosely "inspired" by the Frog Hunter FGA.9 (both Frog Hunter moulds are still churning out kits in Eastern Europe I think), but it is a new production. While the late Frog Hunter has a rather portly rear fuselage, the Plastyk has a skinny one. It is far too slim towards the rear end and this is difficult to rectify. Easiest mod may be to clone an Arfix Hunter rear fuselage to the Plastyk body. There are other problems with this kit, but I can't tell you which off the top of my head, apart from the fact that it is pretty primitive and the nose is a bit off (as is the case for most Hunter kits). I wonder if this kit is worth the Xtradecal markings!  You can find a quite decent decal sheet for the Airfix Hawker Hunter on Ebay for next to no money:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRFIX-HAWKER-HUNTER-FGA-9-02073-1-72-scale-decals/362183852224?epid=2254395407&hash=item5453d700c0:g:JB0AAOSw1DtXKgCI 

 

Anyway, have fun with it, I have a couple of those in my stash too!

Edited December 15, 2017 by ivand

[ivand]

Just to be perfectly clear, the suggestion in this review that this kit is a rebox of the Frog Hunter, is utterly wrong! The Frog Hunter doesn't have engraved panel lines to start with, which this kit has (sort of).

 

Meindert De Vreeze lists the inaccuracies of the Plastyk kit as follows (very interesting page about Hunter models in 1/72, BTW):

 

- The nose profile is too blunt and needs sanding into a more pointed shape. 

- The fuselage dorsal spine is too pronounced and deep. 

- The fuselage diameter is a bit too small, making it too slim.

- The main landing gear legs are too long, about by about 5 mm. 

- The main tank pylons won't fit if you do not move the pylons a bit more outboard. 

Edited December 15, 2017 by ivand

[goggsy]

I’m astonished Italeri haven’t had them in court for that box design though. Being a bit short sighted I’d easily have picked that off a shelf as one of theirs.

[Lord Riot]

Thanks guys, all interesting input. I've struggled along as best as I can correcting a few things (not the fuselage width though, I had no idea!) 

 

I think I'll see how it looks on completion before I use the nice decals, just in case it rapidly goes down hill. I suppose it also depends on how fussy one is. It does look like a Hunter, but how accurately we'll have to wait and see!

 

I might put it up to the vote on here once all painted and the wheels & fuel tanks are on. Actually did they even carry the small underwing tanks in the late 50's, or were they almost always flown clean? 

 

Progress so far ..

 

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Lord Riot