Deeds Not Words Revisited

[Enzo the Magnificent]

A couple of years ago, I built a Harrier and Jaguar in the 1970s NATO v Warsaw Pact GB.  Both aircraft were from 20 Sqn, hence the title of the build thread.  Facta non verba is the motto of 20 Sqn and translates to "Deeds not words".

 

In this GB, I'm revisiting 20 Sqn with something suitable.

 

 

It's the new 1/48 Airfix Hawker Hunter!   

[Enzo the Magnificent]

So...   let's have a look at the box contents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a big decal sheet!  

 

First impressions are that the kit looks quite simple and easy to build.  This would be in contrast to the Airfix Meteor. 

 

In the event, my impressions were borne out.  It's an easy build and an ideal mojo restorer.   Some parts are simplified however, notably the undercarriage door and flap interiors.  There has been enough controversy about this elsewhere on BM, so I'm not going to bang on about these parts.  I'm just going to enjoy the build.

 

The kit has additional parts for the rear fuselage with the brake chute housing - more of this later.  This means that an F.6A can be built straight from the box and if you can source some big jugs and do a bit of minor surgery to the flaps, you can build an FGA.9 as well.

 

The wing components have a very indented cutting line on the inner surfaces which will allow the dogtooth to be removed from the leading edges.  This is how Airfix will provide us with an boxing catering to the earlier variants.  There are even smaller wingtip lights on the transparency sprue which will fit the narrow chord wing.  However, I wonder how much work it will take to remove the joint line.  I think it may be worthwhile to simply sand the dogtooth off and reprofile the leading edge.  We'll see in due course.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Let's get started with the build.  As always, my usual caveat applies. I started this build at the start of the GB, so although the kit goes together quickly, in my case it's not quite as quickly as the photos may imply.

 

The first things I built was the intake and engine front assembly. 

 

 

These were simply sprayed aluminium from a rattle can and then assembled.  This looked to be the only part of the assembly which could give trouble, but in the event it went together perfectly.

 

Next step was to build the rear fuselage.

 

 

And then the cockpit.  The cockpit assembly might be a little spare for some tastes.  You can dress it up to your heart's content.  I restricted myself to adding a few placard decals.

 

Here you can see the intakes assembled into the fuselage halves, together with the cockpit assembly and some detail components for the nose gear bay.

 

 

As you can see, there is plenty of room for ballast.

 

 

 

The fuselage halves are then assembled.  In this view, I have glued the rear fuselage with the brake chute housing together and fitted it on to the fuselage, just so we can see how it looks.

 

 

But this is the real component.

 

 

You can see that I have sprayed the nose sides ahead of the intakes in the relevant camouflage colour.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

On to the wings.

 

A word of warning here.  It is important that you assembe the wings exactly as shown in the instructions.  Don't try and assemble the wings and then fit them to the fuselage - it's just not gonna work.  Look where the intake ducts are.  And there are some honking great tabs to secure the lower wing which will cause problems as well.  Just do what the destructions say.  

 

Here is the upper wing assembly sprayed aluminium on the interior surfaces.  You can clearly see the indents were we should cut to remove the dogtooth.   One surprising omission is that there is no blanked hole to allow the fitment of the fairings on the upper wing which  cover the securing bolts for the outer pylons.  But if needed, that's not a difficult fix by any means.

 

 

At this point I should have sprayed the intake interior lips in the relevant camouflage colour, as it seems that colour extends back into the intake for some distance.  I'll deal with that issue later.

 

The rear of the wing section where it meets the fuselage is quite springy.  You will need to clamp it securely as the glue dries, otherwise you could end up with a nasty step.

 

 

Next step is to build up the gear bays. 

 

 

And then fit the lower wings.

 

 

Here you can see the tabs that I mentioned earlier.

 

 

When assembled, the whole thing is nice and robust.

 

 

The pitot tube on the port wingtip is added right at the end of the build.  I elected to add it here, so I could fair it into the wingtip.  However, there isn't a catinell's chance of it surviving the rest of the build intact.  Therefore I got rid of the pitot itself and drilled a hole in the wing leading edge to take a metal probe from Master.

 

 

And we're up to date. 

 

 

[Col.]

This GB is all the better for having a Hunter in it now  Which decal sheet are you using for the squadron markings?

[Enzo the Magnificent]

9 minutes ago, Col. said:

Which decal sheet are you using for the squadron markings?

It would have helped if I'd mentioned that, wouldn't it? 

 

This one. 

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48191

[Col.]

4 minutes ago, Enzo Matrix said:

It would have helped if I'd mentioned that, wouldn't it? 

This one. 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48191

Well that sheet will be the gift that just keeps on giving   Plenty nice options there.

[exdraken]

Nice start, hmmm that  is actually nearly finished

Poor nose wheel, so much weight to carry!!

What a strange wing construction !

Edited February 11, 2019 by exdraken

[Enzo the Magnificent]

4 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Poor nose wheel, so much weight to carry!!

 

I usually go a little overboard with nose ballast as I'm always scared to get a tailsitter.  The instructions recommend 20g.   I've used 40...  

[John Masters]

Nice looking Hunter you have there.  Good to see another one in the mix.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Just a minor update.

 

I've added the wingtip lights and taken the decision to paint over them.  I had my doubts about keeping a mask in place for the rest of the build, so I'll simply paint them in later.  Windscreen fitted and masked and then all the holes in the airfram packed with tissue paper and sealed with Copydex.

 

Primed with grey plastic primer from a rattle can.

 

 

Sprayed overall with Xtracrylix XA1004 Dark Sea Grey.  The tailplanes are just wedged in place at the moment.

 

[franky boy]

Nice work Enzo

 

Its coming together very quickly.

 

I have one of these on the top of stash pile so am following your build with interst although there doesn’t seem much to be wary off.

 

James

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Moving along slowly.

 

I took the Airfix painting guide and photocopied it with a zoom function so I could cut bits out and use it as masks.  These were stuck to the model with Copydex rubber adhesive.  Some of the more difficult bits were masked using the old blutak worms technique.

 

 

The disruptive pattern was sprayed using Xtracrylix XA1001 Dark Green.

 

[Col.]

Good to see this one moving along Enzo