Airfix Hawker Hunter FGA.9/FR.10/GA.11 (A09192) 1:48

[Mike]

Hawker Hunter FGA.9/FR.10/GA.11 (A09192)

1:48 Airfix

 

 

Arising from a post war specification during a period where the prevailing government thought there wouldn’t be another conflict for a decade or more, the Hunter took some time to develop into the aircraft we know and love due to the rapid development of aviation at the time, and a constant search for better performance.  Eventually, the Hunter F.1 reached prototype during the scramble for capable jet aircraft at the time of the Korean war.  The F.1 morphed into a single F.3 whilst still developing rapidly until the F.4 came along with additional fuel tanks in the wings and a more powerful variant of the Sapphire engine.  Development continued apace with the F.5 following on with another variant of the engine, and so it went on into the F.6, some of which were later converted into the new FGA.9 ground attack Hunters for service with the RAF.  They were given heavier controls to make them easier to fly near the ground, fuel tanks under the wings, and more powerful engines.  The FR.10s were reconnaissance airframes that were again converted from F.6s, adding cameras and the majority of the same upgrades as the FGA.9s apart from the control optimisation because it wasn’t required.  The Royal Navy took on a quantity of converted F.4s as Weapons Training GA.11s, but seemingly contrary to their intended use, the guns were removed along with their troughs, however an arrestor hook was added, with forty taken on charge for this role.

 

The Hunter was a much beloved aircraft by ground crew, pilots and airshow visitors, remaining in service as a trainer after it was replaced by the Lightning, Phantom and Harrier, which its adherents would cite as a sign of a great aircraft that took three types to take over its role.  Whilst it’s an over-simplified argument, at the time it probably had some legs.  Most of the remaining airframes were retired from the training role once the Hawk T.1s came into service, with a few remaining in specialist roles as development aircraft, the two-seat T.8Ms in Royal Navy service being amongst the last to retire.  We’re lucky enough to still have a few flying examples in the UK, so we can enjoy the distinctive “blue note” of its engine at airshows.

 

 

The Kit

This is an additive re-tooling of the F.4 kit and arrives in Airfix’s red themed box with five sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a large decal sheet, instruction booklet in spot colour, with painting and decaling guides at the rear in colour.  If you’ve seen or already own the earlier kits you’ll know what to expect in terms of detail, which is good, and extends to all the usual places of interest around the airframe.  The three main sprues are unchanged, but two additional small sprues have been added to this boxing with a pair of new exhaust fairings that we’ve seen before, as well as two extra nose cones, exhausts, air-brake, drop-tanks and other sundry parts.  Detail is just as good as previous editions, but they look crisp in the darker grey styrene that Airfix are using now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the two-part seat chassis, which has a choice of cushion with moulded-in belts or without for those wanting to provide their own.  A headbox top is fitted with yellow and black striped pull-handles, then the cockpit tub is made up from a rear bulkhead plus added cross-member, seat-rail, cockpit tub, control column, diagonal lever, instrument panel with decal and a gunsight.  The coaming is moulded into the fuselage, but the beginnings of the nose gear bay is attached to the underside of the cockpit tub beforehand.  To prepare the fuselage for closure you need to add a small insert in the rear along with sanding a pit behind it, add a couple of outlets under the wing root, and drill a 1mm hole nearby.  The remainder of the nose gear bay is fitted after the cockpit is inserted, consisting of two parts within the ribbed nose.  A bulkhead with a representation of the first compressor blade of the engine is fitted after being painted a silvery colour aft of the wing root cut-out, and then it’s a case of making up the two trunking halves that form a Y-shape inside, and direct the air from the wing root intakes to the engine for compressing, mixing with fuel and igniting.  The auxiliary outlets and drilling of holes are repeated on the starboard fuselage half, and a pair of cylinders on a rack are attached to the nose gear sidewall after which you can close the fuselage.  If you’re going for an in-flight model, there are two small holes on the underside that should be opened for the Airfix stand (sold separately) before you apply the glue.  You’re advised to place 20g/1oz of nose weight behind the cockpit before you close the fuselage, so don’t forget, and maybe add a few extra grams for good luck.  For decal option C, the gun troughs should be filled and sanded to the shape of the surrounding skin, as the Navy airframes didn’t carry guns.  Two choices of exhaust trunking and rear engine face are supplied for the variants, with appropriate rear fuselage insert halves, which is to cater for the differing exhaust and cowling sizes between the marks.  The insert is glued in place under the tail, laying the full-span upper wing halves over the depression in the fuselage top, drilling a pair of 1mm holes in the outer panel either side of the dog-tooth panel’s cut-line that’s for earlier marks.  The lower wing halves are separate, and you have a choice of holes to drill, depending on what you plan on installing under the wings, adding closed gear bay doors if you are making an in-flight model.  Another bay door is fixed over the nose gear bay, and slim splitters are added to the outer section of each intake.

 

 

For the wheels-down model, the three main bay walls are arranged round the moulded-in detail, and a small vane is inserted into a slot in the upper intake lip.  For both options, there are a couple of pre-marked holes to drill out if you are fitting the drop-tanks before you close up the lower wings.  The separate rudder can be deflected 20° to port and starboard, while the elevators are each single parts that slot into the tail fin with no options for deflection.  You can however deflect the ailerons and drop the flaps by 13° either way and 80° down respectively, and add the triangular insert between them, repeated on each side.  Decal option C’s parts are slightly different from the other two options, and those are covered in the steps after options B and C.

 

Providing you’ve not elected to close the gear bays, it’s now time to install the landing gear struts, beginning with the main legs that fit into a recess in the outboard wall of the bay, adding a retraction jack and a prominent rib at the same time in each bay.  There is an additional scrap diagram showing where the retraction jack and rib sit within the bay to assist you in getting it right.  The lower bay door is captive to the leg, and the two additional doors fit into the bay edge at angles, referring to in the scrap diagram below for alignment and angles, while the inner bay door is slotted into the inner side on two sturdy hinges.  The tyres are separate from the hubs and have slight flat-spots moulded in that will automatically fall into the correct location on the ground due to the keyed axle on the leg – a nice way to simplify your task.  At the front the yoke is formed from two parts trapping the single-part wheel in place, with bay doors and a retraction jack fitted to the front and rear of the bay, attaching the rear bay door to the leg by two links.  While we’re in the vicinity of the nose, the two “Sabrinas” that collect the spent cannon casings to avoid them being ingested by the engines are clipped into position on their two holes for options A & B, one each side behind the gun troughs.  Moving further back, the semi-conformal air-brake has its hinge fairing added first, then you can either lay it flat for retracted, or add the jack and deploy it for extra visual interest, having a choice of two – C being the odd one out as you might expect.  Option C also gets the arrestor hook behind the air-brake to reflect its RN ownership.

 

There are two types of drop tanks, both made up from two halves plus a separate pylon each, the one with fins being suitable for all decal options, while the others are only for A & B.  They fit into the holes you drilled in the lower wing earlier, the finless tanks having an anti-sway brace to keep them stable.  One option for completion depicts the aircraft with four tanks , two of each type under the wings, while the other has finned tanks on the inner pylons and three-part rocket pods on the outer, which is correct for option C.  The wings are finished off by adding the tip lights, with the port one having the pitot probe inserted between it and the wing, so be sure to fit that first.  A blade antenna is fitted behind the cockpit on the spine, and for the first two decal options there are a pair of blisters applied to the upper wings in the dog-tooth section where you drilled the holes earlier.  You then have a choice of a single-piece closed canopy, or a two-part open canopy, which slides back as far as the antenna location, and remember – there’s no frame at the rear of the Hunter’s  canopy, so don't paint one or the purists will lynch you.

 

 

Markings

There are three decal options on the sheet, one for each of the three variants, with each one allocated a full page in colour to assist you with painting and decaling, while the stencils that are common to A & B variants are dealt with on one page, and C on another, both in black and white and without other markings to reduce distractions.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Hawker Hunter FGA.9 flown under Tower Bridge by Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock, No.1 Sqn., RAF West Raynham, Norfolk, England, April 5th 1968
• Hawker Hunter FR.10 No.4 Sqn., RAF Gütersloh, West Germany, 1961
• Hawker Hunter GA.11 Fleet Requirements and Aircraft Direction Unit, RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, England, 1976

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. 

 

Conclusion

A modern Hunter FGA.9, FR.10 or GA.11, that’s just as good as the other two variants we’ve had from Airfix over the last few years, consigning more old Academy kits to the back of the stash or the nearest second-hand kit dealer.  Incidentally, there is a special edition with commemorative coin included that should look nice near your model or on the base once it is finished.  It’s a free option, but in case you don’t want one, we’ve included links to both it and the kit on its own.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

With Limited Edition Collector’s Coin

 

Just the Kit

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

[rs2man]

I have to admit that I'm slightly puzzled by one aspect of the decal sheet .  According to the decal instructions , the FGA9 flown under Tower Bridge was believed to be allocated to Flt Lt Sim , which suggests his name would have been painted on it .  The decal sheet , however , has a decal reading Flt Lt JK Pollock.  This is doubly confusing because firstly why would his name have been on someone else's aircraft , and secondly because his name was Flt Lt AR Pollock .

Does anyone have any explanation for this ?

[Shaun]

Has the missing front wheel hub spoke detail been addressed in the modifications to the moulds?

[Julien]

On 30/06/2023 at 22:03, rs2man said:

I have to admit that I'm slightly puzzled by one aspect of the decal sheet .  According to the decal instructions , the FGA9 flown under Tower Bridge was believed to be allocated to Flt Lt Sim , which suggests his name would have been painted on it .  The decal sheet , however , has a decal reading Flt Lt JK Pollock.  This is doubly confusing because firstly why would his name have been on someone else's aircraft , and secondly because his name was Flt Lt AR Pollock .

Does anyone have any explanation for this ?

He says here it was not his normal aircraft http://www.rafjever.org/4sqnper004.htm so very much doubt it had his name on it, even if you wanted to you would have thought Airfix would get it right, again you have to question the research and who signed it off. I have seen pictures of the Aircraft with Sim's name on it but they were take 18 mnths after the fly under so who knows if his name was in it then?

 

Might just be best to leave it off if building this one?

[tony.t]

On 7/2/2023 at 5:58 PM, Shaun said:

Has the missing front wheel hub spoke detail been addressed in the modifications to the moulds?

 

Looks not, but Aeocraft include a resin one with its brass legs set. 

 

Tony

[TimB]

Only minor complaint so far is the instrument panel on the FR10.  This had the gunsight moved to the right and the left hand upper panel removed to improve forward visibility.  The instruments were moved around too, with the large heading indicator repositioned.  It is a bit obvious, especially with the canopy open, so I'm scratch building a new panel.  I can understand Airfix not wanting to modify the fuselage mouldings, but an alternative instrument panel would have been nice.  The plastic is much better than the older blue soft stuff and the dry fit is very good.   

Tim

[Shaun]

On 7/9/2023 at 11:12 AM, tony.t said:

 

Looks not, but Aeocraft include a resin one with its brass legs set. 

 

Tony

Would of thought they maybe would of fixed that in the amendments