Bedders Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) Hi All, After tackling a dozen or so Spitfires and Mustangs since returning to the hobby, it's time to cast off the propellers and tackle one of these new-fangled "jet" aircraft. And what better than a Hunter. Must say I love the Hunter: what beautiful lines in a 70-year-old design and it still looks so graceful today, whether in single- or twin-seat form. And it had such a long and successful service life too, both at home and overseas. My own best Hunter memories come from when I was in the air cadets and spent a week at Brawdy in 1984. It was the last full week of Hunter flying and they were practising for the farewell display at the air show the following week. So mock airfield attacks were the order of the day, with jets coming in from all directions right on the deck - fantastic. I've seen many excellent builds of the 1/72 Revell kit, not least @Tomoshenko's wondrous job from a couple of years ago. I won't try to replicate that (how could I even hope to?), but I'll quietly nick a few of his ideas to help me along. Truth be told, I've already made a good bit of progress with the kit, and I'm confident it'll go the distance now - I had had my doubts, hence the hesitation to publish progress in real time. So I'll post up a few WIP shots shortly, so I can bring BMers up to date. Justin Edited January 18, 2020 by Bedders 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Front Row! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Next to Cookie. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 I'll be sitting next to Cookie. 12 hours ago, Bedders said: but I'll quietly nick a few of his ideas to help me along Feel free to plagiarise with wild abandon. However, a small administration fee is payable in the form of beer tokens collected at Telford 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Can't recall if you've seen this one from the official Pilot's Notes but will share it here anyway for general interest 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aardvark Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 On 1/19/2020 at 4:28 AM, Cookenbacher said: Front Row! On 1/19/2020 at 11:56 AM, Tomoshenko said: Next to Cookie. Got more tickets? B.R. Serge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 (edited) Thanks Col, that's a great picture. So this started out with me wanting to do a quickish build and Get a Hunter Done, so to speak. A nice FGA9, as I remembered from Brawdy, bosh and finished. But then you start looking at the bits in the box, and survey a few photos, and begin tinkering with bits of plastic. And soon enough I'd done a bit to the rear cockpit wall: It's a lovely kit this, and so your enthusiasm takes over a bit. But I couldn't be sure whether any of this detail would be seen once it was painted black and closed up. Still, it was fun to do. I did eventually fill those big sink marks in the central mounting for the seat. Then I had a go at the seat itself. The kit part is very nice, so again it lends itself to some embellishment. And the instrument panel brushes up very nicely too. So I was on a bit of a roll with my FGA9. And then I saw this: And I knew. I had to have one. I began to read about the differences between the 9 and the 10. Besides the nose, there were other differences, particularly in the cockpit, as Col's picture shows. So I've been getting to grips with all that, whilst having a go at the nose: I've drilled out the camera windows on either side, and put a piece of brass tube through the nose to create the basis for the slightly more pointy front end. Early days yet, and I think my side windows are a bit on the large side, bit it's a start. On the cockpit, I've taken off the left side of the coaming, and added a new shelf (for want of a better word) in place of the little quadrant of instruments on the top left hand side of the panel. As Col's photo shows, this shelf mounted the camera control box, forward and to the left of the gunsight, which in turn was moved to the right a bit. Again, early days, and it's fun to learn this stuff... Justin Edited January 20, 2020 by Bedders 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Outstanding cockpit, is that just dry brushing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: Outstanding cockpit, is that just dry brushing? Yup - the mouldings are really good. I tend to use Caran d'Ache pencils, the water soluble ones. A bit of moisture on the tip gives a stronger highlight, and you've got all the colours in the world if you get a set. Mine are getting on for 40 years old, and still great. I also added a spot of gloss varnish in each instrument dial to replicate the glass. Works well. Justin 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Tidy work there so far Justin Most of your extra detail down the back of the seat will be hidden by the seat and the 'wing' shelves that project from the control rod case to the cockpit sill behind the seat but always nice to see it before that. In my own kits I've got into the habit of only adding the three ribs and the panels that drop down the sides as well as a throttle and the canopy jettison handle as everything else pretty much disappears into the coal-hole of a black cockpit even with plenty of dry-brushing highlights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey-1980 Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 11 hours ago, Bedders said: Yup - the mouldings are really good. I tend to use Caran d'Ache pencils, the water soluble ones. A bit of moisture on the tip gives a stronger highlight, and you've got all the colours in the world if you get a set. Mine are getting on for 40 years old, and still great. I also added a spot of gloss varnish in each instrument dial to replicate the glass. Works well. Justin I think I may need to get a full set of these water soluble pencils.....they will make cockpits so much easier to do as well. Absolutely outstanding tub for the Hunter too.....Very much pulling up a seat for your build 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 (edited) A progress report on the Hunter. There has been some! I've got the fuselage together, and nose and wings on. A bit of filler went along the wing joins to eliminate any gap. The nose is still a bit of a work in progress as the shape is quite subtle. My first attempt was too pointy and I think this one is a bit better. The camera lens at the tip was protected by a pair of eyelids so no glassware will be seen. And the cockpit is basically done. I made the camera control box on the coaming from some plastic card. The gunsight came from an Eduard Spitfire but I took off the front, vertical reflector screen and added some plastic card side mountings for the remaining, angled glass panel. Looks more Hunter-like now. And some plumbing gubbins for behind the seat. None of my work on the rear bulkhead can be seen (particularly with the shelf for various bits of air conditoning etc in place) so that'll make any future Hunter builds easier... I've also added a bit of detail to the underside. A few missing panel lines were scribed, and that oval disc affair behind the Sabrinas was added. I think it was some kind of direction-finding device which a number of FGA9s and FR10s had, and part of the set-up was the towel-rail antenna down the side of the fuselage. So after scouring books and internet for photos, I've drilled the locations for the three mounting pylons for the towel rail down the port side. This is a good reference photo of a 4 Sqn FR10: The full version also helped me to understand, belatedly, the airbrake arrangement with the jack that sits in a recess in the fuselage above and behind the 'bucket' bit. Having already glued my fuselage together I decided not to try to dig out a hole at this point, but have scribed out the location and will try some kind of trompe-l'oeil with paint later on. Justin Edited February 8, 2020 by Bedders 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Not the most exciting news but the primer is on. Mr Surfacer 1200 straight from the rattle can: Progress has been hampered by me being separated from the model for 3 weeks. Should be able to get some paint on soon though. Justin 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted March 14, 2020 Author Share Posted March 14, 2020 (edited) More progress over the last few days. I must have got a bit out of practice with the airbrush, because it took me an age to get the paint mixture/air pressure right, but in spite of that I've got the main colours on. Xtracrylix Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey over Light Aircraft Grey. The camo was done using the blutack sausages method and has worked pretty well. Not the smoothest of finishes but a coat of Aqua-Gloss brushed on has helped deal with that. This particular airframe had the camo wrapped over the leading edges so that necessitated a few extra profanities at the masking stage. I'e also started picking out a bit of the detailed stuff - black (I chose Gunze Tyre Black, a kind of off-black) around the cannon muzzles for example, and used as an undercoat for around the tailpipe. I'm going with all four drop tanks as FR10s often seem to carry a full load of gas. Had a bit of a drama last night whilst polishing when the nose cone came off in my hand. Not the best moment in the process for that to happen. So spent a couple of hours repairing that little issue, and seems to be OK. A couple of tasks to do before decals. First, the tubes that sit just above the sabrinas - I made holes for them but not sure what my options are for the tubes themselves. Will have a think. And second , should have thought about this earlier but I'll find a way of reducing the colour contrast between top and bottom colours in the spot where the fuselage roundels will go. I might just paint a bit of Medium Sea Grey there so that the contrast doesn't show through the white of the roundels once they're on. Should have masked accordingly but I forgot (must say I find masking such a pain so want to get that bit over quickly...). Justin Edited March 14, 2020 by Bedders 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 (edited) This week I've been mostly at home, which has given me a bit more time to work on this. The decals are on: a mixture of the kit decals (for pretty much all the stencils) and Xtradecal for tne main decoration. All behaved very well. The vent tubes above the sabrinas came from stretched sprue drilled out at the end Given a wash around control surfaces, lower fuselage, vents and various inspection panels (I decided against a wash in the wing panel lines), followed by a coat of humbrol enamel satin, with a bit of matt mixed in, she was ready for the fiddly bits. And here they are going on. Next stop: RFI. Justin Edited March 21, 2020 by Bedders 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Just caught up. Lovely work Justin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Yes, that looks great Justin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Looks very nice. Just the right amount of sheen in the varnish too. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJP Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Lovely Hunter - your paint job & overall finish is really neat CJP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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