Tower Bridge Hawker Hunter Query

[Badhatharry]

I wonder if any of the Hunter aficianados can help me with a simple query?

I have the 1/32 Revell Hunter FGA.9 kit and the DEKL'S decal sheet covering XF442, the Hunter FGA.9 flown by Alan Pollock of 1 Squadron in his protest flight under the Tower Bridge on April 5th, 1968.

The decal sheet instructions do not give colours, so I have been trying to find out if the Hunter would have been carrying undersurfaces finished in (the correct) Light Aircraft Grey or still have been finished in High Speed Silver (a 50/50 mix of aluminium paint and gloss lacquer/varnish, which with time dulled to a greyish finish). The Light Aircraft Grey was introduced in 1966 but there plenty of photos of RAF fighters (Hunters, Javelins. etc) after this date with silver undersides.

As an extra thought, would the white serial number still be carried or might they have been repainted in black?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

BHH

Edited June 11, 2021 by Badhatharry
Mistake in name

[Black Knight]

A photo I have shows that XF442 was in LAG underneath, based on the forward 2/3 of the port side sabrina seems to be in bare metal or silver paint. The rest of the underneath looks different

[Antti_K]

What was the reason for this protest? And what happened to the pilot afterwards?

 

For your question about under surface colours: operational Javelins had their undersides painted with High Speed Aluminium up to the end in 1968. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with Hunters but here on BM is plenty of people who can give you exact information.

 

Cheers,

Antti

[RAF4EVER]

It was Flt Lt. Pollock

 

https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiokM--x4_xAhXfD2MBHfscACsQFnoECA4QAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident&usg=AOvVaw2ScjW6K2nr-NdMfUEBp625

[Badhatharry]

The protest was against the Ministry of Defence not being willing to recognise the 50th anniversary of the founding of the RAF. Alan Pollock was arrested when he landed and later invalided out of the RAF on medical grounds, thus avoiding a court martial

[Selwyn]

On 6/11/2021 at 12:48 PM, Badhatharry said:

I wonder if any of the Hunter aficianados can help me with a simple query?

I have the 1/32 Revell Hunter FGA.9 kit and the DEKL'S decal sheet covering XF442, the Hunter FGA.9 flown by Alan Pollock of 1 Squadron in his protest flight under the Tower Bridge on April 5th, 1968.

The decal sheet instructions do not give colours, so I have been trying to find out if the Hunter would have been carrying undersurfaces finished in (the correct) Light Aircraft Grey or still have been finished in High Speed Silver (a 50/50 mix of aluminium paint and gloss lacquer/varnish, which with time dulled to a greyish finish). The Light Aircraft Grey was introduced in 1966 but there plenty of photos of RAF fighters (Hunters, Javelins. etc) after this date with silver undersides.

As an extra thought, would the white serial number still be carried or might they have been repainted in black?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

BHH

Already discussed on Britmodeller here and here

 

Selwyn