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Imminent release of the Airfix Hunter, what´s the consensus on the Academy Hunter?


Thomas from ARC

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Where would you like to start?  The ones that I can remember are:

 

the canopy is incorrect: it’s highest point is too far aft and there is a spurious frame mounded at the rear extremity,

 

all three undercarriage legs are too long and the wheels too small, but the errors cancel each other out giving the finished model the correct overall height,

 

the wing leading edge dog-tooth is in the wrong place(too far inboard IIRC),

 

the tailplanes are too far aft by 2.5 - 3 mm and the bullet fairing between them and the fin extends too far aft by the same amount,

 

the extreme rear rear fuselage diameter is incorrectfor both F. Mk. 6 and FGA Mk. 9,giving the brake parachute fairing of the latter an incorrect shape.

 

Don’t get me wrong: the Academy kit can be improved to the point where it looks far more like a Hunter (there are several upgrade kits available but, sadly, the Aeroclub kit is no longer amongst them).  However the new Airfix kit should render most of them obsolete as their cost, plus that of the Academy/Italeri kit itself, will definitely exceed that of the Airfix kit which, if it’s as good as the recently-released Blenheim, will almost completely supplant the older kit.

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Not only all of the above and most easily corrected the cockpit tub is too shallow and the seat too small for 48th.

Looks Ok with improvements.

 

having said that the 1/72 Revell one has the instrument panel decal too big that fits the Academy 48th one. Thats what I did .

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Many thanks to both!
I saw some sprue shots of the new Airfix Hunter and I am a little concerned about the wide panel lines in some places, the not so spectacular detail of the cockpit (at least compared to the Meteor) and the very strange breakdown of the kit (wing to fuselage joint).

 

Thomas

 

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Not quite sure after all this years, but I seem to recall there was also an issue with the fin, I think it has excessive sweepback , at least in relation to the Warpaint drawings; which itself have a number of errors.

KMC made a lovely replacement pit (maybe still available by TD ?), which shows how underscale the Aca pit and seat are.

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12 hours ago, Thomas from ARC said:

the very strange breakdown of the kit (wing to fuselage joint).

The Academy kit has a modeller unfriendly wing to fuselage joint, if you follow the kit instructions the wings don't fit too well at all, most people, myself included, glue the wings together then attach them to the separate fuselage halves before joining the fuselage halves together.  This allows you to fettle the wings to get them to fit.

 

I made the F.6 with the Aeroclub correction set back when the kit first came out, I recall using an awful lot of superglue on the inside of the wing to fuselage joint before I was remotely happy with the result.

 

As for the rest of your concerns, I'll wait until the kit comes out before passing judgement but bear in mind, at the very least, the Academy kit needs a new cockpit anyway.

Edited by Wez
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On 22/12/2018 at 19:36, Thomas from ARC said:

Hello all,

 

what´s the consensus on the 1/48 Academy Hawker Hunter? How accurate is it, except for the too shallow cockpit tub and the resulting too small seat?

 

Thanks,

 

Thomas

see https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234909441-italeri-academy-hunter/

Quote

Hi all,

With the reappearance of the Academy 1/48th Hunter under the Italeri name I thought I dig out one of my stashed Academy kits and examine and list the accurate/inaccurate points of it. I plan to build a couple of these models in the near future so wanted to know exactly what would be required to make it a more accurate model.

Based on my research and the scale drawings I produced for Paul Bradley's SAM Modeller's Datafile I've noted the following issues. I should stress that this is simply a listing of points, minor or otherwise, that I noted as being significantly 'out' when comparing the kit parts to the real aircraft. Many will consider a lot of these points inconsequential and I think it's best left up to individual modellers to decide which, if any, they want to fix in their own models, but for what it's worth this is what I think is wrong with the kit.

Tailplane - it's been said that the kit has the tailplanes are mounted 2 to 3mm too far aft and that they should be moved forward. On the face of it this looks like sound advice as the trailing edge of the tailplanes is about 2mm further aft that the trailing edge of the fin at their junction. However that oversimplifies the problem and simply moving the entire tailplane forward 2mm introduces other issues. The problem with the Academy kit is that they have the tailplane too broad in chord at its inboard end by about 2mm. On the real aircraft, if the acorn fairing were to be removed, the trailing edges of the fin and tailplanes would meet at one point. Also the hinge lines of the elevators and rudder would, if extended, also meet at another point. In this latter respect the Academy kit has it correct - the hinge lines would meet which indicates that the elevators are too broad at their inboard end and the fixed part of the tailplane is also too broad. I believe the whole thing is still mounted a tiny bit too far aft so the solution is to remove some of the taper on the elevator so that the inboard end is 1mm less, remove some of the leading edge at its inboard end (another 1mm), then move the whole thing forward by about 0.5mm max. The tips of the tailplane are also the wrong shape, being too rounded.

Ailerons and leading edge extensions - ailerons are 2mm too short making the 'dog-tooth' appear much too far inboard. In reality the dog-tooth IS too far inboard, but only by 1mm, the rest of the problem is caused by the too short ailerons. The dog-tooth should be slightly outboard of the aileron line. The leading edge extension is also not 'drooped' enough and simply sticks striaght out in front of the wing.

Wingtips - wrong shape, being too 'squared'. The widest point of the wings should be their aft-most corner. The Academy kit has the widest point some way along the wing tip and the trailing corner curves back inboard slightly. This has the effect of taking the pitot head 5mm too far outboard.

Wing, tailplane & rudder tips - all are too pointed. The Hunter has all tips 'blunted' slightly by having the trailing edges curve back in slightly near to the tips.

Intakes - not wide enough due to their outer corner being too rounded. Should be opened out to almost a point.

Airbrake - about the right size (although slightly thick at the sides), but 5mm too far aft.

Fuselage - I measured the 3 sections of the fuselage between the end frames and the transport joints and found that the forward fuselage is 1mm too short, the rear fusellage 1mm too long (so they cancel each other out!) and the centre fuselage 3mm too short. This 3mm shortfall is made up by the tailpiece being 3mm too long which means that, overall, the fuselage is about the right length! The tail piece of the Academy FGA.9 is famously terrible though and is nowhere near the right shape - Academy simply extended the upper edge to form a 'beak' rather than including the bulge that accomodates the braking 'chute. Even taking the above into account, the overall fuselage shape isn't actually too bad, although it is a little too large in diameter at the extreme forward end - see nosepiece. The fairing behind the canopy is a bit too 'bulky' because Academy don't seem to have realised that the Hunter's hood slid open and so needed to go past it!

'Acorn' fairing between fin and tailpanes is too long by about 3mm.

Nosepiece - too large at its rear edge by about 1mm (vertically) making the forward nose look a little bulbous. It's also a bit blunt.

Windscreen - the base of the windscreen is straight across but should be curved slightly down the side of the fuse. As a result the lower edges of the side screens are angled downwards more than it should be.

Hood - problems with the shape as its highest pont should be closer to the windscreen hoop. Has frame at the rear which the real Hunter hood does not. It's the inflatable rubber seal visible through the hood which gives the impression of a frame at the rear end.

Wheels - (mains) too small in diameter, (nose) not too bad and leg length is accurate.

Cockpit - famously way too shallow, seat way too small.

Trim tab - should only appear on port aileron.

Hood jettison pull window, de-icer filler panel and destructor access panel should only appear on port side.

No hood rails at all.

Boundary layer splitter plates too chunky, too far from fuselage sides and too straight (should be curved to follow the fuselage sides).

Several panel lines fictitious or in the wrong place.

There! So that's my list of main gripes. I appreciate many will say it's very picky but it's just meant to be a list, nothing more. Some of these I'll fix on my own models, some I won't. The ones that stand out to me the most, and which I will certainly fix, are the cockpit, tailpiece, tailplane size and intake shape. The wingtip and tailplane shape issues I will also probably fix as, to my eyes, they are distinctive Hawker shapes which Academy have got very wrong.

I hope that's of interest. If anyone has any other issues then post them here for discussion - maybe this thread can become a 'one stop shop' for fixing the Academy/Italeri Hunter!

Cheers,

Mark

Edited December 22, 2011 by StephenMG

 

 

note

 

On 21/12/2011 at 02:10, Paul Bradley said:

It should be pointed out, for those not in the know, that Mark has his own Hunter - well, significant parts of one anyway! - so he knows what he's talking about.

 

and here's an Academy Hunter with most if the corrections done "with some modelling skill"  

in particular note the cockpit modifications

 

Presuming Airfix get it right, and don't end up with a quality control issue,  it will be the way to go.

 

HTH

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Troy,

 

thank you, this is most excellent! Yes I really hope, Airfix get their quality issues under control. My Meteor is on hold, because also the replacement horizontal tail planes are short shot. Airfix does not react on my email where I described the issue and they did not react on a reminder. This is quite disappointing.

 

Thomas

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I suspect that I am like many modellers who will have a number of Academy Hunters in their stash, plus the additional resin/plastic/metal parts needed to make it into a decent representation, and therefore are now so committed economically that we can't afford to junk them and to acquire the new Airfix kit instead, particularly if the latter is going to retail at around £36!

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4 minutes ago, Welkin said:

I suspect that I am like many modellers who will have a number of Academy Hunters in their stash, plus the additional resin/plastic/metal parts needed to make it into a decent representation, and therefore are now so committed economically that we can't afford to junk them and to acquire the new Airfix kit instead, particularly if the latter is going to retail at around £36!

I'll sell mine and use the proceeds to get the Airfix kit, life is short and I don't have the modelling time to commit to fettling the Academy kit to not even come close in terms of accuracy to the Airfix kit.

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