F239 DH Hornet F Mk 3

[PeterB]

The late Eric “Winkle” Brown was a RN test pilot who flew a record number of planes during his long career – in excess of 490 not including different marks of say Mustang, Bf 109, Fw190 and Spitfire (although the Seafire was classed as a different type). These ranged from the Gloster Gauntlet biplane to the MD Phantom and included most of the wartime British, American and German machines together with a smattering of Japanese and Italian so he knew what he was talking about when he rated the Hornet as the best for a combination of performance, handling, and the feeling of confidence he felt when flying it, including landing it on a carrier. The chapter on the Hornet in one of his books is headed “Overpowered Perfection” which says it all to my mind, and he compared it to driving a sports car which he also enjoyed (his first was confiscated by the Germans in 1939 and his last was bought the year before he died) .

 

In the middle of WWII De Havilland decided to build a smaller single seat version of their Mosquito as a private venture long range fighter , and the Air Ministry were sufficiently impressed to draw up an official specification for it in 1943. 2000lb lighter with an even more streamlined fuselage than the Mossie, the Hornet was one of the fastest piston engined fighters ever to enter service, reaching 472 mph, and unlike most previous twin engined aircraft its handling was as good as many single engined fighters! With flashing speed, long range and an armament of 4 nose mounted 20mm cannon it should have proved deadly against the Japanese but the war ended as it was entering service. It makes me wonder what might have happened if the proposed Merlin engined version of the Westland Whirlwind had been built, as that could have been in service 2 or 3 years earlier.

 

 

Frog released a kit of the RAF Hornet Mk 3( there were also naval versions including a 2 seater radar equipped night fighter) in 1971 offering a camo version in dark grey/green and PRU blue and a Medium Sea Grey version also with blue unders both from around 1950. Immediately post war they were also painted in overall silver I believe. The camo version was introduced when they began to be used in what we would now call “Counter-Insurgent” ops against terrorists in the jungles of Malaya. As usual it is basic and will need a bit of work on the cockpit and wheel wells but having built a camo one back in the 70's I know it should build up into a nice little plane reasonably quickly. When photographing the bits I have noticed that the header on the instructions says Hornet-Sea Hornet which is odd as Frog provide neither markings or naval equipment for the latter. It would be an easy conversion though providing you just wanted the standard F20, not the two seater NF 21 - basically just add a hook and scribe on some wing fold lines. I am hoping to have enough time to finish this kit after my other 3 GB, though I will probably make a start quite soon.

 

Hope it will be worth the wait - see you before too long.

Pete

Edited May 27, 2019 by PeterB

[stevej60]

Great choice Peter,never built one of these look forward to seeing it come together.

[Rabbit Leader]

If there's a better looking piston engined aircraft out there, I've never seen it!.

I just love the DH Hornet and although I have a Special Hobby kit in the stash, for some reason do think that tarting this one up to modern standards would actually be more rewarding. It will be great seeing this one take shape and on display once built. If I see one at our next swap meet, I'm gonna grab it! . 

 

Cheers and thanks again for the informative text... Dave 

[PeterB]

3 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Cheers and thanks again for the informative text... Dave 

Thanks Dave,

As you know Frog included a lot of less well known types in their mouldings, so I thought some modellers might not be familiar with the subject. I will try not to overdo it but I am rather enjoying myself! Yes it is a good looker, though a longer nose might make even more so. To be fair a couple of the late Japanese twins were pretty good looking too.

 

Pete

Edited May 28, 2019 by PeterB

[Greg Law]

I would like to do one of these in 1/48. You guys are distracting me from my current late war jet obsession. 

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice choice Peter, this is a very sleek looking machine and would like to get me one although I have been looking more at the Special Hobby boxing for the F20, one day maybe.  I look forward to seeing this progress.

Good luck with your build.

All the best
Chris

[Rabbit Leader]

11 hours ago, PeterB said:

To be fair a couple of the late Japanese twins were pretty good looking too

Such as these perhaps ??? 

 

 

[PeterB]

Hi Dave,

 

Back in the day, Humbrol included a "mauve" colour in their Japanese "authentic" paint set ( together with JNAF green,  ditto JAAF, undersurface grey, silverand camo brown) - I gather it was for floatplanes as in Profile Publications Rufe, though more modern research has somewhat discredited the use of that colour. However these two young ladies seem to have used it on their hair!

 

Pete

[PeterB]

14 hours ago, Greg Law said:

I would like to do one of these in 1/48. You guys are distracting me from my current late war jet obsession. 

Greg,

 

Like the Bearcat it was flying in Squadrons just before the end of the war, and they both were as fast as some of the early jets with a lot more range!

13 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Very nice choice Peter, this is a very sleek looking machine and would like to get me one although I have been looking more at the Special Hobby boxing for the F20, one day maybe.  I look forward to seeing this progress.

Good luck with your build.

All the best
Chris

Chris,  Special Hobby will be no doubt be good, but with 10 minutes scribing wing folds and an "A-Frame" arrestor hook from your spares box, you can have a reasonable impression of an F20 now with this kit and it would probably cost half the price. Just a thought.

 

Pete

Edited May 29, 2019 by PeterB

[PeterB]

 

For the record this is what my 40 year old one looks like - years of pipe smoke and yellowing varnish have taken their toll, and I could not wash it as the decals look like they are about to come off. I think that after this build is finished I will strip it and maybe add an undercarriage. Don't know what paints I used, possibly Humbol HX1,2 & 3 from the Authentic Range,but by modern standards they were a bit on the dark side bearing in mind I had to lighten this pic quite a bit.

 

Pete

Edited June 23, 2019 by PeterB

[Greg Law]

Seeing that just reinforces my wish to have one. Looks like a good restoration project.

[Doccur]

I very much look forward to this Pete! What a beautiful aircraft 

 

Cheers,

 

Ash

[PeterB]

On 5/29/2019 at 6:33 PM, Greg Law said:

Seeing that just reinforces my wish to have one. Looks like a good restoration project.

Hi Greg,

 

When I started off I used to model with u/c down but later went through a phase of u/c up. My ongoing restoration projects involve stripping the paint off, opening up the wheel bays, and scratch building an undercarriage, which can be a little fiddly with ones with twin legs unless I have something appropriate in my spares boxes, but I note this has a single leg unlike the Mossie. Amazing what can be done with plastic rod, ditto tube and card, and various thicknesses of paper clip! As I have the new kit I can get the lengths right, and moulding new resin main wheels should be simple enough - the usual problem since Aeroclub closed down is replacement tailwheels, though I am OK with this one.

Edited May 31, 2019 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I won't make a start on the build until the Me410 is out of the way, but I have stripped the old Hornet - and what a job that was.  I think I must have used Ronseal wood varnish on it as it would be all I had at the time. I have given it a quick blast of car primer and cast a set of wheels. I am not submitting it as an "official" build but it might be nice to have the 2 together for comparison. Now all I have to do is make up an undercarriage using the one in the kit as a template and it is ready for the top coat. I am tempted to go for immediate post war silver as it will be a quick spray job. Of course, being mostly wood, they would have had to paint it, rather than it being NMF.

One problem I have found is that whilst Humbrol Maskol works fine when spraying enamel paint, it lets acrylic seep through, perhaps because it is water soluble? I will have to dig out my Micro Mask and see if that is any better, failing which I will have to use tape, which is tedious. Anybody else had this problem? Are there any masking solutions for use with acrylics?

Edited June 23, 2019 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

Are there any masking solutions for use with acrylics?

Bluetac or poster tack ? It's similar to silly putty. I use it all the time for masking.

[PeterB]

9 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Bluetac or poster tack ? It's similar to silly putty. I use it all the time for masking.

Thanks. White tac may be better as it is supposed to be non greasy. I was ordering some more paint anyway so I am going to try Ammo from Mig's masking liquid - I would have thought that was intended for use with acrylics but we will see.

Edited June 6, 2019 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have not forgotten this kit, but am watching the 3 other Hornet builds with interest to see if I can get any ideas. I suspect it will be pretty much OOB, though I will have a shot at thinning down the wing leading edges as they do look a lot better for it. I may also do a little work in the cockpit, but not much. I should start it in 2 to 3 weeks if all goes well on the other builds. Whilst we are waiting here is a quick taster.

 

 

This is my old Hornet which I have stripped and repainted - when compared with the earlier pic in this thread you can see that modern paints are certainly different.

 

Bye for now.

[JosephLalor]

On 7/8/2019 at 4:08 PM, PeterB said:

This is my old Hornet which I have stripped and repainted - when compared with the earlier pic in this thread you can see that modern paints are certainly different.

 

Bye for now.

That's looking very nice.  I've gone for Xtracrylix Dark Green, Lifecolor FS 36187 and Gunze Sangyo Blue Angels Blue on mine for Dark Green, Ocean Grey and Dark Mediterranean Blue respectively.  I've based that on the Scale Aircraft Modelling Aircraft in Detail article on the Hornet, and Mike Eacock's instructions for the Skybirds 86 kit.  I wonder if my information's out of date by now.

Edited July 30, 2019 by JosephLalor

[PeterB]

 

Hi,

I used Xtracrylic Dark Sea Grey, Mr Hobby Dark Green and Humbrol Acrylic PRU Blue. On my actual build I will be using the same blue with Medium Sea Grey uppers, either Mr Hobby or Tamiya. Dark Med Blue is a lot darker - do you remember which edition of SAM you used?

 

At the rate things are going I won't be starting on mine until mid August but it should hopefully be a fairly quick build.

 

Thanks for the interest.

[PeterB]

Rather later than originally intended But we are off! The Bearcat is finished, the Folgore is coming along quite well, and the Shackleton is close to the stage where I glue the wings on, at which stage it will be a case of waiting several days for the glue to set and the joints to be filled and fettled, so I have made a start.

 

 

I actually started on the props a couple of days ago but it was not worth posting just them. I know I have said this before and then changed my mind, but modelling fatigue is setting in so this will be an OOB build, Having seen the beautiful but laborious work others are doing on their Hornets I know the nose and cockpit area could do with a lot of work, but the only thing I might attempt is thinning the wing leading edges, though it depends on how I feel on Thursday. With luck this should be together and primed by the weekend. I will be going for the Medium Sea Grey over PRU blue on this as I already have a camo version under refurbishment.

[JosephLalor]

On 7/30/2019 at 7:51 PM, PeterB said:

 

Hi,

I used Xtracrylic Dark Sea Grey, Mr Hobby Dark Green and Humbrol Acrylic PRU Blue. On my actual build I will be using the same blue with Medium Sea Grey uppers, either Mr Hobby or Tamiya. Dark Med Blue is a lot darker - do you remember which edition of SAM you used?

 

At the rate things are going I won't be starting on mine until mid August but it should hopefully be a fairly quick build.

 

Thanks for the interest.

Hi Peter, it was Volume 12, Number 8, May 1990.  I must check that issue now to make sure that my memory's not playing tricks.  Looking forward to seeing how your model comes out.

Edited August 28, 2019 by JosephLalor

[PeterB]

That's one of the volumes I don't have, which could explain why I have not come across that particular scheme before.. The RAF used a number of Blues - PRU, Light Med (which is pretty dark) and the even darker Dark Med. There was also a colour called Deep Sky or something like that which was I believe intended for high flying PRU planes either in the Med of Pacific - can't remember which. Anyway, you may have seen my comments about "accurate" colours elsewhere - every paint manufacturer has their own version and not all of them look the same. Not to worry, do what you feel happy with.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Johnson]

Hi Pete,

another build I’m playing catch up on!

Great introduction as always, ‘Winkle’ Brown is my all time hero! Did you hear him on Desert Island Disks?

When I discovered this GB (being a newbie and late entrant) I looked for kits to model and thought about the Hornet. Such an amazing plane, I don’t think any survived?

Obviously, no time now, but glad to see you’re doing it.

Best of luck!

[PeterB]

Hi Charlie,

 

No I missed him on the radio but saw him in a rather dissapointing TV prog on his life. That would be 2 or 3 years before he died. He certainly lived life to the full - apparently he bough a new sports car a couple of months before he died - full throttle to the last!.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Well as you can see I have glued the wings and fuselage together. All were quite warped so I will leave them to dry for a while before cleaning up and assembling them.

 

 

 

Then it will be up to the garage for a blast of rattle can primer.