A test Hunter: Xtrakit's 1/72 T.7 in RAE service

[Giorgio N]

My entry for this GB will be the Xtrakit 1/72 Hawker Hunter T.7 in RAE markings.

In particular I will build WV383, an aircraft served for a long time with RAE and is today preserved at the Farnboroughg Air Sciences Trust. As many twin seaters, WV383 started was built as an F.4 and when this variant was retired she underwent conversion to the T.7 standard. She joined the RAF as a twin-seater in 1959 and served with various first line units before being put in storage. In 1971 she went to RAE and started a long career between Farnborough and Cranwell, testing various sensors untile her retirement in 1998. Quite a career !

 

I'll be using the Xtrakit kit of the T.7 in 1/72 scale, a kit that caused quite a storm when issued. All modellers with an interest in postwar british types were happy to have an injected plastic kit of this variant, however the kit was not really up to the expectations of the more dedicated Hawker Hunter fans for a number of reasons. Still, this is the only complete kit dedicated to this variant... ok, with the exception of the older Matchbox kit that however is affected by so many shape errors that IMHO can't be considered a kit of a T.7..

 

 

As will most Xtrakit offerings, this was manufactured by one of the Czech short run specialists. Can't remember it was Sword, in any case the plastic is very reminiscent of a Sword product.

 

 

In common with many Czech short-run kits of the era, a number of details are supplied in resin or photo-etch. The parts don't look too bad honestly, clearly no Tamiya but overall quire acceptable even today for this kind of kits. I know that most modellers experenced fit issues with this kit so I'll try to work harder during the test-fit and parts preparation steps.

 

Decals in the kit are for 2 RAF machines, one in the red/white/grey training scheme and one in standard camouflage, and 1 FAA aircraft, one of the well known "Admiral Barges". Now the latter is one of my favourite subjects but I already have a PJ conversion for the Revell kit to build that one...

This as said before will be built as WV383. This aircraft is today exhibited in her latest scheme, the beautiful Raspberry Ripple as used by many British aircraft in test roles. My plan however is to build a model in an earlier scheme, a scheme I first saw on a book that must be present in the collection of any proper Hunter lover:

 

 

It was here that I first saw a picture of WV383 in a scheme of overall Light Aircraft Grey with dark blue tail and trims, as in this picture:

 

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/registration/WV383

 

It is a much more restrained scheme that I find quite elegant. Other aircraft had a similar scheme with red trims however WV383 seems to have been the only one with blue.

I was able to find some more information on this aircraft in this book, including a nice picture in flight:

 

 

Well, you see the pattern here,.. books like these are an invaluable source of inspiration for subjects, I could probably spend the rest of my life building only British postwar test aircrafts and I have a few planned...  of course also having Adrian Balch's "Testing Colours" on the shelves only makes things worse from this point of view

 

One more book before getting back to work.. another oldie but goldie, very useful if building a model of Hawker's beautiful jet:

 

 

Yes, it's an old book, yes most pictures are B/W, yes today there are walkarounds on the web that make books like these look like poor... still I consider these old Aeroguide volumes as extremely valuable for the modeller and I always grab them any time I see one I don't have for sale.

Ironically this book will not be used much this time for the reason that I've decided to go with a mostly OOB build, so I will not be adding much detail. Really the only extra work I want to put in place is that needed to modify the kit to the proper configuration of my subject

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice, Giorgio! I will definetly be following along, as you might expect !

 

Martin

 

[Head in the clouds.]

Good choice Giorgo, what is not to like.

 

I am in on this build.

 

Gary.

[Col.]

Hawker's Hunter is my second favourite jet aircraft behind the Harrier so this one has immediately caught my attention Giorgio and that you have picked a scheme which is not only unusual but also so beautiful simply makes this one even better in my highly biased opinion  

[bigbadbadge]

Lovely, looking forward to seeing this,  that is wonderful scheme too

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very nice choice and welcome to the build. 

[CliffB]

Very nice Giorgio.  That grey/blue scheme is a new one for me - I can see why you've chosen it 

[Giorgio N]

Thanks everyone, glad to see that this subject is raising some interest !

I've not touched any plastic yet but I've started to compile a list of things to watch for that will require some work, some due to problems with the kit and others due to my choice of subject. In no particular order...

- The cockpit parts are too wide to fit in the fuselage halves. I could simply sand the walls however I'd like to retain the width of the side consolles so I may cut the floor in two longitudinally, remove material from the centre and rejoin. Only some test with the parts wilhow if it works. An alternative would be to use the PJ cockpit part, or better a resin clone of this... I wonder if it's worth the hassle though

- The resin seats are too tall and too wide and may not be the right type for this aircraft. What I can do is check what else I have in the stash, I know I have a Quickboost seat and I may buy a second one... or I could use the quickboot part for an F.6 and use two Revell seats. I have 4 Revell kits in the stash, one will receive the resin seat and the other is bookmarked for conversion into a T.8 with the PJ set, I'd have two spare Revell seats. Or again I may clone the Revell seat in resin. It all depends on which seat fits best, I may find out that none does !

- The resin exhaust is too wide to fit.. again I could sand all parts a lot but I may simply replace the exhaust with a plastic tube of the correct size, much easier.

- The exhaust area looks more like the one of the Avon 200 powered variant... A solution could be adding some plastic inside the rear end and sand to achieve a more correct profile. The PJ set offers a resin rear fuselage part of the right shape, I may clone this or just use it as a template for my own correction

- The nose is maybe not really correct..not much I can do, I may try with some sanding but I don't want to spend too much time on this

- The hump behind the cockpit is not really perfect in shape... again, I'll likely not bother

- The nose wheel is really too small... a resin clone of the Revell part should work

- The main wheels are a bit suspect... I may clone the Matchbox wheels that are maybe the best part of that kit ! Since the Revell kit features too small main wheels a mould to make resin wheels would be used for this kit as well so makes sense to invest some time and effort.

- My aircraft at some point acquired a window for sensors on the lower side of the nose. It's just a matter of finding out when and if the window was there while this scheme was worn I can simply flatten the relative area, drill a hole and insert some clear plastic.

- Pictures clearly show the presence of the fairings over the outer pylons as in the FGA.9. These are missing from the kit but are present in the Revell FGA.9 kit. I may rob them from the one I'll convert into a T.8 or make resin copies.

 

I may find some more things that need work during the build, for the moment at least I have a plan. And this was supposed to be an OOB build....

[Col.]

Be mindful the T model Hunter used a Mk.4 seat rather than the Mk.3 found in the single seat examples Giorgio.

[Giorgio N]

36 minutes ago, Col. said:

Be mindful the T model Hunter used a Mk.4 seat rather than the Mk.3 found in the single seat examples Giorgio.

 

Good point, I'd have to check what is included in the Revell kit... the 4H is said in the Aeroguide volume to be similar to the seat used in the Lightning, I have some aftermarket for that too so maybe I can find something there...

[Col.]

The Mk.4 was found in Mirage III as well if that helps you.

[Head in the clouds.]

A strange hobby this is, we buy a kit and then research it to death and give ourselves a list as long as our arm that we did not have when we originally envisioned building the kit.

 

Freightdog did/do a replacement wheel set for the Revell kit but not sure on availability, may save some time on resin casting.

 

Gary.

 

[woody37]

Looking forwards to this, I prefer the T Birds for some reason.

[Angus Tura]

Giorgio,

 

This is on my list/in my stash of "unbuildable" kits I want to do. I will be very interested to follow your build in the hope of easing my "sometime" one,

 

Buona Fortuna,

 

Alan

[Giorgio N]

On 9/30/2022 at 10:55 PM, Head in the clouds. said:

A strange hobby this is, we buy a kit and then research it to death and give ourselves a list as long as our arm that we did not have when we originally envisioned building the kit.

 

Freightdog did/do a replacement wheel set for the Revell kit but not sure on availability, may save some time on resin casting.

 

Gary.

 

 

Indeed, although of course research can also be part of the fun....

Have to say that in this case my list is mainly due to the need to improve the fit of the parts: I checked the cockpit and yes, it doesn't fit. The seats are indeed too big so will need replacing... had the kit been better from the box a number of items in that list would have not been included.

Other changes will be required because of the specific subject I've chosen, any other standard T.7 would not require these. But then I don't want to build a standard T.7, that would be too easy...🤣

[Giorgio N]

On 10/1/2022 at 1:24 PM, Angus Tura said:

Giorgio,

 

This is on my list/in my stash of "unbuildable" kits I want to do. I will be very interested to follow your build in the hope of easing my "sometime" one,

 

Buona Fortuna,

 

Alan

 

Thanks Alan ! I Hope my build will be of some help. A first check of the parts shows that there will be some work to do to achieve a decent fit. The wing-to-fuselage joint for example promises to be "interesting"...

[PeterB]

On 9/29/2022 at 10:37 AM, Giorgio N said:

 

 

As will most Xtrakit offerings, this was manufactured by one of the Czech short run specialists. Can't remember it was Sword, in any case the plastic is very reminiscent of a Sword product.

 

I believe the instructions actually say it was moulded by MPM. I built the Xtrakit Spitfire F22, Meteor F8, Scimitar, Swift and Vampire a while back and one was Sword, the others MPM as I recall - all needed a bit of work but came out looking quite good.

 

Pete

[Giorgio N]

2 hours ago, PeterB said:

I believe the instructions actually say it was moulded by MPM. I built the Xtrakit Spitfire F22, Meteor F8, Scimitar, Swift and Vampire a while back and one was Sword, the others MPM as I recall - all needed a bit of work but came out looking quite good.

 

Pete

 

Thanks for clarifying this Peter, I did not notice this in the instructions but during the test fit I had started wondering about this as the plastic  looked more like MOM's than Sword's. I've built a few MPM/Special Hobby kits from the same era so I now know what to expect...

Of the previous Xtrakit aircraft I only built the Vampire but in a Special Hobby box. This was quite a pleasant build, I found the fit better than in the Airfix T.11 I was building at the same time. The Vampire though is a "more advanced" product, IIRC coming from full metal moulds so not quite as "short run" as previous kits. I also have the Meteor in an MPM box (actually four: F.8, FR.9, PR.19 and T.7) but I've yet to start one. I did not get a Spitfire as I find the shapes of this kit too inaccurate for my taster (but then I'm a well known Spitfire nut...)

IIRC the Scimitar was from Sword and so was the Canberra PR.9

(edited: oh, and I forgot I also have the Scimitar in the stash... one day I'll build that too... And the Meteor NF, that however was a Matchbox mould. Not sure what to do with that one as I now have a Special Hobby NF...)

Edited October 4, 2022 by Giorgio N

[PeterB]

20 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 

 

(edited: oh, and I forgot I also have the Scimitar in the stash... one day I'll build that too... And the Meteor NF, that however was a Matchbox mould. Not sure what to do with that one as I now have a Special Hobby NF...)

Hi Giorgio,

 

I also built the "Xtrakit" Meteor NF and as seen on the recent Matchbox GB it can be a bit of a mess in terms of aligning the various fuselage sections/inserts. Also, the decs disintegrated! The SH one might just be the better option in this case but I have never actually seen or built one.

 

Pete

[Giorgio N]

On 10/5/2022 at 4:10 PM, PeterB said:

Hi Giorgio,

 

I also built the "Xtrakit" Meteor NF and as seen on the recent Matchbox GB it can be a bit of a mess in terms of aligning the various fuselage sections/inserts. Also, the decs disintegrated! The SH one might just be the better option in this case but I have never actually seen or built one.

 

Pete

 

I built the Matchbox kit when first issued and I remember how it was a departure from the typical kits of this company, much more detailed but also not a very easy build.

I'll be building the new SH NF kit in the upcoming Meteor STGB, in the box looks like a very nice kit ! I still mean to build the Xtrakit one though at some point, there's no lack of interesting 2-seater Meteors...

As there's no lack of interesting 2-seater Hunters! I hope to make a proper start on this one during the weekend, with pictures to follow on Monday... fingers crossed...