1954 - Hawker Hunter F.4 & F.6 - Final update Jan 2020

[nimrod54]

With the Hawker Hunter Mk.1 entering service in1954 with the RAF's 43 squadron and the Mk.4 and Mk.6 types both having first flights in 1954 too, I thought that one of the early types would make a suitable subject for this GB.

That also means that I can return to my favourite 1/144 scale for this group build, with either a Revell or Mark1 Models (Ex-Revell) kit, using Retro Wings resin to backdate the Mk.9 fuselage and wings. I have the early wings in stock and the rear fuselage part is on order.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Rabbit Leader]

Always a pleasure to have you on board John and a Hunter (or two) in any scale is always an exciting thread to keep one’s eye on. No doubt they will look stunning once completed. 

 

Cheers and warm welcome.. Dave 

[Jinxman]

Gotta love a Hunter, any scale or Mk will do!

[Hockeyboy76]

Hey hey, Johns arrived late to the party and is throwing his weight around, 144 style.   

Glad you found something suitable to build for waaaaaay back then. 

[nimrod54]

On 09/08/2019 at 18:27, Hockeyboy76 said:

Hey hey, Johns arrived late to the party and is throwing his weight around, 144 style.   

Glad you found something suitable to build for waaaaaay back then. 

Will be even later starting now, I have to wait for Domi to get the rear fuselage items in stock.

[Hockeyboy76]

3 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

Will be even later starting now, I have to wait for Domi to get the rear fuselage items in stock.

Domi does good stuff. 

[Colin W]

While you're waiting for the rear fuselage you could crack on with the 1/144 Tower Bridge ready for the diorama. 

😀

Colin 

[Hockeyboy76]

18 hours ago, Colin W said:

While you're waiting for the rear fuselage you could crack on with the 1/144 Tower Bridge ready for the diorama. 

😀

Colin 

John will be using his stash of N gauge card buildings and various diameters of brass rod!  Just a little scratch building 

 

[nimrod54]

The rear fuselage parts are on the way, so I should be able to make a start on these at the weekend.

[Hockeyboy76]

13 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

The rear fuselage parts are on the way, so I should be able to make a start on these at the weekend.

I hope to re start my build this weekend after a two week enforced break! We now have new cupboards in the kitchen. 

[Rabbit Leader]

7 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

We now have new cupboards in the kitchen. 

That’s great, we all need more room around the house to store our stashes! All good, we’ll catch with your builds whenever you can get to them. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

I had hoped that the parts for these would have arrived by now so that I could have made a start this weekend, but they should be here soon. Meanwhile, in an effort to get something underway for this GB, I have had a dig through my kits and found this 1/72 Revell Hunter F.6 and wondered if it would be OK to include it here, or I could start a second thread for this 1/72 kit build. The prototype F.6 had its first flight from Dunsfold in January 1954.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Rabbit Leader]

She’s a good one John. I’ve got two of these in my stash so will take great pleasure in watching you twirl your magic around these Revell kit parts. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

The parts arrived for the 1/144 Hunters on Monday so I hope to get those underway soon. A couple of early rear fuselage sections minus the brake chute housing

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

and a set of late style wings which have improved intake details compared to the kit.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

In the meantime I started work on the 1/72 scale kit by painting the cockpit parts and priming the seat cushions.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Rabbit Leader]

I’ve never seen those 1/144 upgrade bits John, they look good. You know with a little time on your hands you could also add the Airfix 1/48 and possibly even the Revell 1/32 scale Hunter kits, then you’d have the full set! Just a thought. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Hockeyboy76]

On 9/20/2019 at 12:09 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

I’ve never seen those 1/144 upgrade bits John, they look good. You know with a little time on your hands you could also add the Airfix 1/48 and possibly even the Revell 1/32 scale Hunter kits, then you’d have the full set! Just a thought. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

1/48 & 1/32 is far too big for the King of 144. 

Even 1/1 scale is tricky 

 

[nimrod54]

I made a start on these builds again today and decided to prep the parts for one of the 1/144 aircraft. That meant tidying up the resin replacements for the rear fuselage and wings to help me to backdate the aircraft to an early type, and then making the necessary cuts on the kit fuselage halves to accommodate the resin part - remembering to leave the small section of spine that crosses the join. I am going to try to lighten the resin rear section in an effort to stop it being a tail sitter.

 

 

Parts cleaned up and cuts made to the fuselage

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Jinxman]

That looks like a lot of detail for such small parts.

 

I can't remember the last time I tackled a 1/144th kit - must sort that out!

[Rabbit Leader]

Those parts do look quite crisp for 1/144. I once owned a set of three Sweet 1/144 Zero’s and a section of carrier deck. At one point I was planning on buying two more sets to model Akagi’s nine aircraft first wave Pearl Harbour section, however moved these along when I thought long and hard about it. This came about after struggling with the canopy framing on a 1/72 Zero when I thought, if this is causing me issues in this scale, I’m surely gonna have no chance getting these pesky things right! I have since seen some of Sweets kits issued with canopy framing as decals, however mine didn’t have these at the time. 

 

Cheers and good to see these ones moving along a little.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

I drilled out as much of the resin material as I dared from the rear fuselage section yesterday afternoon, then, after painting the cockpit, I joined the forward halves together, and packed as much weight as I could in any available space around the nose and to the rear of the of the cockpit. I am not overly confident about the finished model sitting on its undercarriage though, and I think that I may have to add some pins to the wheels and glue it onto a base in the end.

Once the glue had set, I joined the forward and rear sections together with superglue and the joins have had an initial clean up. I'll check those over and do any further tidying up before I add the replacement resin wings.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

[Hockeyboy76]

That’s look good buddy. Nice to see you finally do something  

[Rabbit Leader]

That's superfine work John, looks like a pretty flush join which is always nice to start with. I like the idea about pinning those wheels, that would appear to be a wise option. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

On 24/10/2019 at 04:46, Rabbit Leader said:

That's superfine work John, looks like a pretty flush join which is always nice to start with. I like the idea about pinning those wheels, that would appear to be a wise option. 

Cheers.. Dave 

Thanks Dave. I did a bit more sanding to the rear join and the fuselage seams before adding the wings and neatening those joins up, the starboard wing was a good fit, whilst the port required a smear of filler. I then fixed the tailplanes in position, I would normally fit these later in the build but because it is a plastic to resin join, requiring superglue to hold them in place, I thought that it would be better to add them before painting so that I could clean things up. I have also had a test fit of the canopy and I made some minor adjustments to improve the fit, I have to repaint the coaming and the area to the rear of the seat before attaching it.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

As for the 1/72 Mk.6, I am doing some checking on the flaps position for an aircraft on the ground before I assemble the wings,  I believe that the speed brake could have dropped a little due to hydraulic bleed but I am not sure about the flaps. I'll then get that to a similar stage to the Mk. 4, decide on the markings and start painting. 

 

Meanwhile here is a photo of a 1/144 Hunter F.6 in RSAF colours that I built several years ago

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Along with a few more small scale builds which reside in my display cabinet. First up some RAF and RN jets alongside a 1/72 Sea Harrier.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Next a collection of foreign operated Tornado aircraft with a couple of MiG 21's and a 1/72 Italian Tigermeet Starfighter.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

And finally a small collection of prop aircraft with a couple of 1/72 builds in the background.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wonderful collection, I really really need a Hunter in my collection. Im trying to build up my British Cold war Jets collection. 

[nimrod54]

On 26/10/2019 at 22:33, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Wonderful collection, I really really need a Hunter in my collection. Im trying to build up my British Cold war Jets collection. 

These Revell and Mark1 kits make up into great little models Dennis, but if 1/144th scale is not your bag, then I don't think that you will go too far wrong with Revell's 1/72nd offering or the new tooled Airfix 1/48th scale model.

 

I have done bit more work on the 1/72 kit. Having looked at the kit decals for the instrument panel and side consoles, I felt that they did not match up with the moulded detail and so set about picking out the details with paint. I had previously sprayed the parts with some Chaos Black from a rattle can and I have since dry brushed the detail with a lighter grey colour, painting in dials and other details with white, blue, yellow and red. Once the paint had dried I added drops of gloss clear to the dial faces. 

 

by John L, on Flickr