Hawker Hunter FGA.74B - Singapore

[Wez]

Finally back from my jolly holidays, I guess I'll need to pull my finger out and post my entry for this GB.

 

My plan was to do Special Hobby's super little 1/72nd HAL Ajeet however, looking at the list of aircraft submissions there's a couple of startling omissions which have served the GB well in the export market notably the EE Canberra and Hawker's beautiful Hunter. 

 

I've decided to correct this omission with a Billy Bunter as it was referred to in the RAF in the 1980's, I'll be using Revell's great 1/72nd FGA.9 in its export guise as a Singaporean AF FGA.76B.  I'll be using the Xtradecal sheet 72-063 to make No.521 of 140 Sqn in the high vis insignia scheme from 1991 as seen here.

 

I've got an old copy of the IPMS magazine from the 1980's which details the differences and where to place the Sidewinder rails.

 

Pictures will be posted at the weekend once I've got myself sorted out and dug out my references.

[Vultures1]

Excellent choice!  

[Giorgio N]

Welcome to the GB !

Great plan, love the Hunter and I was myself surprised that none had been entered in this GB yet !

[Grandboof]

Great choice Love the Hunter 

Martin H

[Wez]

Well, finally got myself sorted out, here's the kit and decals...

 

 

...and my references, I know most of these are for British Billy Bunters but a Hunter is a Hunter right?

 

 

Obviously, I'm a bit of a Hunter fan and I'm really looking forward to the forthcoming Airfix 1/48th kit.

 

I've got some after-market wheels for my Hunter as the kits are somewhat lacking in diameter!

 

When Modelzone sadly went belly up, I availed myself of as many Revell 1/72nd Hunters as I could, they were flogging them off for £4.99, I got about a dozen.  I rather baulk at paying the current retail price of £19.99!

 

 

[Giorgio N]

Nice selection of references there ! I found myself pleased to see that I have most of them too...

I thought I had a few pictures of a former RSAF Hunter somewhere, but I can't find them... should I find them I'll post them here as reference

[zebra]

I have a few photos of a former RSAF Hunter at a museum in Queensland that you might find helpful - can upload them tomorrow if you want. Not a complete walkaround but I have some  that show the inner wing pylon, some of the aerials, and one where you can see something of the HUD through the windscreen.

[Wez]

2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Nice selection of references there ! I found myself pleased to see that I have most of them too...

I thought I had a few pictures of a former RSAF Hunter somewhere, but I can't find them... should I find them I'll post them here as reference

 

2 hours ago, zebra said:

I have a few photos of a former RSAF Hunter at a museum in Queensland that you might find helpful - can upload them tomorrow if you want. Not a complete walkaround but I have some  that show the inner wing pylon, some of the aerials, and one where you can see something of the HUD through the windscreen.

 

If you have photos I'd be very pleased to see them thanks.

[zebra]

Here you go @Wez - a few pics of Hunter FGA.74BS 533, previously XE614 which apparently was an F.6 with 263 Sqn and an FR.10 with 1417 Flt in Aden during its RAF career.

 

You can see in this shot that there are a couple of aerials on the nose and spine that don't look like standard RAF fit. There are also a couple of boxy fittings on the spine behind the cockpit, and the inner wing pylon. 

 

 

Here's a crop from the first photo - you can see something of the HUD (doesn't look like the standard gunsight to me):

 

And from the side:

 

Here you can see the blade aerial on the nose:

 

And the one on the spine:

 

Boxy-looking protrusions on the spine behind the cockpit:

 

And finally the inner wing pylon:

 

Hope these help

Z

[Wez]

Z,

 

Thanks for the photos, very helpful, especially the pylons.

 

I think the larger plinths on the spine are for later avionics, GPS etc, they don't appear on aircraft from the period mine comes from e.g. the 1970's.

 

The nose antenna and the smaller one on the mid spines could be a TACAN or IFF fit or both, I'm only going by the aerial size.

 

Interesting to see how they tried to keep the aircraft viable as it got older.

[zebra]

Very interesting to see how they updated it. I had a look around online and there seems to have been a bit more avionic fit than this one is showing - the second plinth behind the cockpit seems to have had a large white blade aerial on it, and there are photos of a Hunter in a museum with a towel-rail aerial on the rear fuselage, just below and aft of the wing. I suspect also later fit and not relevant to a 1970s aircraft though.

 

Will yours be carrying sidewinders? There seem to be a few photos with sidewinders on those inner pylons, don't know if that fits the era you're modelling though. There are online photos of a Hunter at (from the looks of things) an airshow carrying four sidewinders, fuel tanks and with two bombs under the fuselage - I wonder whether it could have taken off with that load!

[Wez]

20 minutes ago, zebra said:

Very interesting to see how they updated it. I had a look around online and there seems to have been a bit more avionic fit than this one is showing - the second plinth behind the cockpit seems to have had a large white blade aerial on it, and there are photos of a Hunter in a museum with a towel-rail aerial on the rear fuselage, just below and aft of the wing. I suspect also later fit and not relevant to a 1970s aircraft though.

 

Will yours be carrying sidewinders? There seem to be a few photos with sidewinders on those inner pylons, don't know if that fits the era you're modelling though. There are online photos of a Hunter at (from the looks of things) an airshow carrying four sidewinders, fuel tanks and with two bombs under the fuselage - I wonder whether it could have taken off with that load!

 

The towel rail fit was very much in the 1970's time frame (very much in vogue in 1950's - 1980's avionics).  Hadn't equated one of those plinths with the large blade aerial used on later aircraft but it would need a substantial plinth so it's consistent with that.

 

My plan is for underwing tanks and Sidewinder fit, I'm assuming the Sidewinder rails are pretty much the standard rail fitted to most things that had Sidewinders as an ad-hoc fit?

 

That airshow demo fit could've been a struggle to get off the ground in a hot environment like Singapore.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Wez

[zebra]

They look like standard sidewinder rails. I’d post a link but not worked out how to do it on my phone - but a google image search seems to produce quite a few shots with the Sidewinder rail fitted to both the inner and outer pylons. Most of them look like photos from museums though, not so many photos of operational aircraft.

 

You’ve got me interested in RSAF Hunters now! New Airfix kit can’t come out soon enough.

[Giorgio N]

Nice pictures Zebra, thanks for sharing !

[Wez]

I’m afraid I’m going to have to withdraw from this GB (I’m withdrawing from all GB’s), we found some water on the floor of the basement which is where I do my modelling. 

 

We need to find where this water is coming from and put it right before autumn comes which means emptying the contents of the basement and potentially taking up the flooring.

Any modelling is now on hold until this is sorted, I’m gutted because I only get to do any modelling between June and the end of September.

 

If we get this sorted in good time I may re-join later.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Wez

[Jabba]

Sorry to hear that Wez, we had a leak coming from our loft over the weekend,. Luckily did not do any damage and is now fixed, but did mean that I was unable to display at the Avon show on Sunday. Hope that all is fixed quickly.

[Wez]

12 minutes ago, Jabba said:

Sorry to hear that Wez, we had a leak coming from our loft over the weekend,. Luckily did not do any damage and is now fixed, but did mean that I was unable to display at the Avon show on Sunday. Hope that all is fixed quickly.

Thanks Jabba, likewise sorry to hear of your misfortune.

 

There's a lot of stuff to clear first 😞

[Giorgio N]

Sorry to hear this Wez, hope you can sort things quick enough and get back to the modelling bench.

Hate it when water appears from somewhere, particularly when it's hard to find where it's coming from. Hope you don't have to lift all the floor !

[Jakub Cikhart]

On 7/26/2018 at 12:22 PM, zebra said:

Here you go @Wez - a few pics of Hunter FGA.74BS 533, previously XE614 which apparently was an F.6 with 263 Sqn and an FR.10 with 1417 Flt in Aden during its RAF career.

 

You can see in this shot that there are a couple of aerials on the nose and spine that don't look like standard RAF fit. There are also a couple of boxy fittings on the spine behind the cockpit, and the inner wing pylon. 

 

 

Here's a crop from the first photo - you can see something of the HUD (doesn't look like the standard gunsight to me):

 

And from the side:

 

Here you can see the blade aerial on the nose:

 

And the one on the spine:

 

Boxy-looking protrusions on the spine behind the cockpit:

 

And finally the inner wing pylon:

 

Hope these help

Z

BIG thanks for the pictures, especially the inner wing Sidewinder pylon.

I am planning to build Omani Hunters, and it looks like that they were upgraded with the help of Singapore. They were fitted with the inner pylons, towel rail antenna AND two chaff/flare launchers under the tail.

You can clearly see it here (and I bet the Singapore birds will have same or similar config) - Hunter

Edited August 20, 2018 by Jakub Cikhart
update for link