SUEZ Hawker Hunter F5 - April 14th

[crobinsonh]

Whilst I was clearing out my modelling stash for a sell off around IPMS late last year I stumbled across s pile of Revell Hunters - one bought at £29.99 all the rest (6) at £9.99. I actually started work on the first Hunter well over 15 years ago and has since been laid on the shelf of doom after one of our cats knocked it off the table and it broken into pieces. I did rescue the interior and I have now completed some minor repairs to the said cockpit. This was primarily based on the kit cockpit with FlightPath add-on and some resin parts for the sidewalls and ejector seat (I think there might have originally been KMC?). I also added a bunch of tiny details to the cockpit from photographs of F4 and F6 Hunters.

 

 

I used some of the Flightpath set to add some details to the rather bare wheel bays and some approximate wiring - but nothing like as much in the real aircraft. At the end of the day no-one is going to look underneath anyway 🙂

 

 

Next step is to zip the cockpit up and start on the main assembly and then the various airbrake / flaps from Flightpath - I might even stretch to the gun pack as I have the set. 

 

The SU-27 is not dead - just dormant 🙂 I like the idea of finishing some of my shelf of doom builds - CMR Buccs, Scimitars, Airfix Javelin, Airfix rag wing Hurricanes, just to name a few.

 

Does anyone have information on any engine vent changes on the fuselage over the Revell F6 or FGA 9 boxing?

Edited April 14, 2019 by crobinsonh

[crobinsonh]

Some more progress. Whilst I do like the Revell kit there is some signs of mould wear towards the bottom the model where the panel lines and details are "fading" away. I do love scribing - NOT.

 

First thing was to look at what it takes to backdate the F6 to an F5. I have the Flightpath detail set to help with this. 

 

First thing to prepare for is the fitting of the different tail pipe for the Sapphire engine that was fitted.

 

 

This ended up being a bigger issue than expected as the resin pipe has shrunk and does not fit.

 

 

I am not sure that I have all the correct engine vents so I went ahead and cut out the vents moulded for the F6 variant.

 

 

Lastly I had some challenged getting the instrument panel (etch from Flightpath) the kit coaming and the front fuselage to play nicely. In the end I cut the top part of the instrument panel off stuck it directly to the coaming, assembled the front fuselage halves and the rest of the cockpit and now the coaming and top half of the instrument panel all play nicely 🙂

 

 

[jaw]

I see that you live in Chichester. Have you been along to Tangmere to see the Hunter F5 there? If so you will have noticed that the underside of the jet pipe slopes up to the exhaust quite steeply, and rather more than on the conversion piece that you have shown in your picture. If you are able come along to the Museum on any Monday - or indeed this Saturday - ask for me and I will be happy to show you the Hunter.

 

John

[crobinsonh]

16 hours ago, jaw said:

I see that you live in Chichester. Have you been along to Tangmere to see the Hunter F5 there? If so you will have noticed that the underside of the jet pipe slopes up to the exhaust quite steeply, and rather more than on the conversion piece that you have shown in your picture. If you are able come along to the Museum on any Monday - or indeed this Saturday - ask for me and I will be happy to show you the Hunter.

 

John

Hi John,

If it is ok with you I will pop over to the museum on Saturday to meet with you and have a look at your splendid jet. What time would work best for you?

 

Best,

[jaw]

I will be happy to show you the Hunter F5 at Tangmere on Saturday. The Museum opens at 10.00 and last entry is 15.30. It is probably better if you can make your visit sooner rather than later as the Museum can get  very crowded later, particularly in a half term week! When you get to the reception desk ask for me (John Wright) and I will be able to get you into the Museum as my guest for free, and then we can look at the Hunter exhaust  - and the vents as well.

 

Hope that's OK

 

John

[crobinsonh]

30 minutes ago, jaw said:

I will be happy to show you the Hunter F5 at Tangmere on Saturday. The Museum opens at 10.00 and last entry is 15.30. It is probably better if you can make your visit sooner rather than later as the Museum can get  very crowded later, particularly in a half term week! When you get to the reception desk ask for me (John Wright) and I will be able to get you into the Museum as my guest for free, and then we can look at the Hunter exhaust  - and the vents as well.

 

Hope that's OK

 

John

Hi John,
That is so kind of you. I will plan to be with you for 10:00am on Saturday. Really looking forward to it.

 

Best,

[jaw]

See you on Saturday.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Hello @crobinsonh,

 

your work is great! The cockpit details and painting is superb, and the seat looks wonderful. 👍 It’s magic! Can you say a few words about the painting process?!

 

Cheers! 😎

[crobinsonh]

More updates from the last day or so. This particular Revell model is quite old (e.g. I bought it many years ago) and therefore any fit issues I a having maybe peculiar to me.

 

Spreading the fitting of the piece that covers the gun pack and introduces the front U/C bay

 

 

Adding plastic tabs for a better fit and a lot of Blu tac, super glue and many, many air rifle pellets

 

 

The topside fit was pretty good.

 

 

But still problems underneath

 

 

This one area that looked like a mould flaw with a big indent where the gun pack cover meets the nose. This will take a fair amount of filling and elbow grease 

 

[crobinsonh]

9 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Hello @crobinsonh,

 

your work is great! The cockpit details and painting is superb, and the seat looks wonderful. 👍 It’s magic! Can you say a few words about the painting process?!

 

Cheers! 😎

Hi Nikolay - thank you for your comments, I actually painted the seat around 15 years ago so I will try and remember how I painted it. At that time I was painting Games Workshop figures so I think I just used base colour - say Vallejo Flat Yellow and then added 2 or 3 highlights by mixing a little white and then a little more to that base colour. I then finished with a highly diluted orange oil paint for the edges and deep shadows. For the straps I again used a diluted oil paint to mimic the stitches. I always use Vallejo paints for brush painting as I believe they are the best. I hope this helps.

[crobinsonh]

I was invited down to see the F5 by John (JAW) on Saturday. It was a very useful trip that shows that I would have been much better not cutting out the vents 🙂

 

Before I get to an update regarding what needs to be changed after my Tangmere visit this is the progress I cracked on with during the weekend. This is all related to the F5 resin exhaust pipe from Flightpath which If I am honest is  not a great addition being to small and a pretty awful fit.

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by crobinsonh

[crobinsonh]

With a nice tail wind after my trip to Tangmere to see a real F5 I cracked on with the build. I spent a lot of time finishing the blending of the exhaust into the fuselage as well as the wings. I used the wonderful Vallejo Plastico filler for the fine cracks as you just wipe it away and give it a light sand and you are away.

 

 

I then spent a lot of time re-scribing all the panel lines and rivets - many had been diminished by my vigorous sanding but there was a lot of soft details from the Revell moulding.

 

The Flightpath supplied resin parts to replace the dog tooth where next to useless and an appalling fit. I made the decision to remove them and replace them with cut down versions of the kit supplied dog tooth parts. This was a pig of a task but actually much easier that continuing with the Flightpath parts.

 

Lots of Mr Surfacer for the fine filling - got to love this stuff.

 

This was the most difficult part with regard to blending in. We will see with the first coat of paint how successful I have been!

 

Now onto all the mods I need to make having visited Tangmere!

[Biggles87]

Good work resolving the fit issues.

I'm waiting for the Airfix 1/48 F4 to convert into an F5 as I used to work with an ex-Hunter pilot who flew F5s during the Suez operation. I wish I'd  made it to the Tangmere museum before leaving the UK but never did.

Looking forward to the next update.

 

John

[Lord Riot]

Great work!

 

Interesting about the Flightpath parts - would that mean in theory (i.e. If I had the skill!) I could cut off the dogtooth leading edge and file it smooth to make an F1/4/5 out of the Academy F6? Rather than having to shell out on resin parts.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Lord Riot

[stevehnz]

Hi @crobinsonh, you seem to have got to grips with this very well, in spite of the issues with the resin bits. I'm assuming this is the 1/72 Revell kit, recently reissued in FGA.9 form??  I'm also wondering if the Flight Path conversion is the same as offered by @Colin @ Freightdog Models or not, I've had Colin's one on my radar for a bit now.

Steve.

[jaw]

Hi Chris,

 

The Hunter is looking good. Two thoughts though - are you going to add the Sabrinas and I do not think that the F5 was plumbed to have any  pylons on the outer wings. Pleased to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Tangmere.

 

John

[crobinsonh]

On 4/6/2019 at 8:00 AM, Lord Riot said:

Great work!

 

Interesting about the Flightpath parts - would that mean in theory (i.e. If I had the skill!) I could cut off the dogtooth leading edge and file it smooth to make an F1/4/5 out of the Academy F6? Rather than having to shell out on resin parts.

I would say that is correct.

[crobinsonh]

On 4/6/2019 at 8:36 AM, stevehnz said:

Hi @crobinsonh, you seem to have got to grips with this very well, in spite of the issues with the resin bits. I'm assuming this is the 1/72 Revell kit, recently reissued in FGA.9 form??  I'm also wondering if the Flight Path conversion is the same as offered by @Colin @ Freightdog Models or not, I've had Colin's one on my radar for a bit now.

Steve.

 

Hi Steve - I should have been clearer this is actually the Revell 1/32nd Hunter. I actually do have the 1/72nd Revell kit buried somewhere in the deep confines of my stash.

[crobinsonh]

On 4/6/2019 at 9:13 AM, jaw said:

Hi Chris,

 

The Hunter is looking good. Two thoughts though - are you going to add the Sabrinas and I do not think that the F5 was plumbed to have any  pylons on the outer wings. Pleased to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Tangmere.

 

John

Hi John,

I am planning on adding the Sabrinas as I believe they where fitted for Suez? Good catch on the outer wings I may well have forgotten that point. Thanks again for your hospitality.

[crobinsonh]

A few updates after taking the images from my visit with John @jaw to see the incredible F5 at Tangmere. It looks like she is in the final inspection hall at Hawkers as she is immaculate.

 

I had spent some time removing the Revell grills etc and either using Eduard PE or scratch plastic fins for the grills all of which was a complete waste of time and energy 😞

 

The first thing I did was to draw out a scale plan of where the vents for the F5 with the Sapphire engine are vs. the F6 with RR Avon that the Revell kit is based on.

 

 

This then allowed me to draw where these would be on the Revell kit. Anything with an X through it is in the wrong place!

Showing the other side.

 

 

The following photographs from my trip to Tangmere show the reference I used for placement of vents and grilles.

 

You can see the finish on the F5 from these photographs.

 

 

 

 

[crobinsonh]

These photographs show how I filed the vents and sanded them ready to have the "new" correct vents and grilles drilled and created on the model.

 

 

Hopefully the "pictures" present a 1000 words and everything is clear from these.

 

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, crobinsonh said:

this is actually the Revell 1/32nd Hunter.

I should stop watching now least I get detail envy.    though in seriousness, I find large scale builds can be very helpful for showing up what is & isn't on a smaller model. 

Steve.

[crobinsonh]

@jaw do you happen to have any better shots of the large inlet under the main wing? (second photo in my post above of the underneath with the large X where the Revell F6 )

[jaw]

Hi Chris,

 

No I do not. However I will be at Tangmere next Monday (22 April) so could take a photo for you then. If you could PM me your e-mail address I can send it to you then. hope that helps.

 

John

[jaw]

Hi Chris,

 

Correction I do have photos of the vents underneath the wing root fillets - they are on both sides of the fuselage. PM me your e-mail address and I will forward them to you.

 

 

John