1:48 Airfix Hawker Hunter F Mk.58 - "It's Not A Crime, Merely A Miss Demeanour

[CraigH]

 

As I posted on my Stuka build, I've taken a break from it because I was contacted by Robin Carpenter regarding a build of the Hawker Hunter Mk.58  "Miss Demeanour". The aircraft was owned and flown on the display circuit by Jonathon Whaley and Robin did the unique paint scheme on the original aircraft.

 

 

Jonathon had a trophy he awarded at the end of every display season consisting  of a 1:32 scale model of Miss Demeanour in a glass case. Over the years, the model has suffered from wear and tear and Jonathon decided to make a new trophy but with a 1:48 model instead of the original 1:32.

 

 

Robin couldn't build the replacement at this time and very kindly suggested to Jonathon that I might be up for doing it. I jumped at the chance, my mad streak being alive and well and living in my man cave.

We decided the base kit had to be Airfix's new tool 1:48 Hunter FGA.9 as this was closest to the Mk.58 which itself was in service with the Swiss air force.

 

 

 

I sourced a resin conversion kit for the Mk. 58, the main thing I needed were the drop tanks which, although there are two sizes in the kit, neither of them were the right size.

 

 

 

 

We also decided that, in contrast to the original model, we'd keep a clear cockpit which meant I had to source a pilot as there isn't one in the kit. I ended up with a mirage pilot in 1:48 who needed to have his arms and legs broken and reset to fit the cockpit.

 

Seatbelts from Eduard completed the cockpit upgrades I felt were required. At 1:48, there comes a point where you can't detail any more and have a positive, visible effect.

 

 

 

So, the cockpit build was straightforward. the only thing I changed was to jazz up the ejector seat with wires and decals. Jonathon sent me a picture of the digital aspects of the cockpit and I made a decal from that and stuck it on in place of the analogue original. Just a little dry-brushing and the cockpit was finished.

 

The pilot was a basic paint. I'm no figure painting expert. I just had to get the special coloured helmet Jonathon wore as near as possible to being correct, add the Eduard seatbelts and the cockpit is done

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. I'll post the rest of the basic build tomorrow as it's very straightforward...then the fun begins

Edited October 9 by CraigH

[CraigH]

Build done, it was time to think about tackling the paint job. The idea of the paint is that it represents a spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. The white hot nose going back through the colours of the rainbow to the black of space with the constellations shining at the rear of the wings and fuselage. The constellations had to be exact mind, Aires, Virgo and Taurus, so no extra pressure. I'd decided every star would be reproduced exactly as on the original anyway, to do anything else would be plain wrong. The problem would be how!

Anyway, paint first. I was lucky that the chap who sprayed the full size Miss Demeanour and built and sprayed the 1:32 version, Robin Carpenter a fantastic modeller in his own right, gave me advice on colours and methods.

The paints I decided on, all MRP, were:

White
Insignia Yellow and white (mix 50:50)
Insignia Yellow and White (mix 75:25) 
Insignia Yellow
Orange (a mix of 60% Insignia Yellow and 40% Signal Red)
Signal Red
Marking Red

Blue..just Blue, apparently part of the SU-33 Camo scheme

Marking Blue 
Sea Blue

I started with an all over coat of Mr Hobby white primer then the fun started.

 

I had plenty of pictures of Miss Demeanour both in flight and on the ground and all of them showed quite hard demarcations between colours so not too bad as in 1:48 you have very little width, or depth in you prefer, between colours to do a soft blend.

The initial results were ok. The curve is obtained by taking midway on the canopy as the centre then drawing arcs to give the correct dimensions.
Spraying from light to dark, the 50:50 yellow mix  blended on perfectly. I then used paper templates of the correct diameter (each colour will be a larger radius as you move rearward to keep perspective) to get the yellow to orange to light red and finally dark red.

So we were back to the red/white junction with no trouble at all. Doddle I thought. Oh the arrogance! A couple of pics sent to the client and problems. 

It turned out that the original concept and spraying of Miss Demeanour was a very soft blend between colours, of which there seem to be very few examples online. Most of the images depict her in later years with some poor resprays (not by Robin) showing the much harder edges.

Back to the drawing board big style. I did find an image (copyrighted) which appears to show the earlier paint scheme, much more blending is evident here.

Jonathon also sent me his original CAD drawings which also show a much softer demarcation line between colours.

So, I had no option but to respray and try to get a soft blend with very little space to work with in terms of mm. 

The signal red to marking red caused some real heartache which I wasn't expecting but final the front half was not too bad a match for the original CAD drawings

I'd already decided that the boundary between red and white would have to be quite hard as I'd tried blending and, between two such disparate colours given about 4mm to work with it wasn't possible. Again this was around 6 resprays to get it acceptable. White is bloody awful to work with at the best of times and against red, if I had hair before, I wouldn't have had by the end.

From there it became not too bad as we were going light to dark again.

 

So, paint job complete apart from numerous touch up that are always needed on a job this complex. Thank the Lord for MRP paints which make a blending operation like this much easier as they spray so thin.

 

Next came a panel line wash, nothing too much, just a brown on the lighter parts. The dark areas past the marking blue I won't use a white PLW on as it never looks natural.

Paint work done, it was time to turn my attention to the stars...all 500+ of them. 🥸

 

Thanks for looking as ever. Next post I'll definitely be seeing stars!

 

[DaleRFU]

That looks stunning! Always love that scheme.

[alt-92]

I was wondering who'd be mad enough to have a go at this scheme, no need to worry anymore!

 

We wish you strength, clarity of vision and a steady hand!

[CJP]

Hi, your Hunter is looking great & that colour scheme is going to look spectacular

Chris

[Pete in Lincs]

Simply fabulous. One of the best display schemes ever on one of my favourite Aircraft. But, An Airfix kit without a Pilot figure? Oh, the horror! What were they thinking ? 😲 

[CraigH]

20 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Simply fabulous. One of the best display schemes ever on one of my favourite Aircraft. But, An Airfix kit without a Pilot figure? Oh, the horror! What were they thinking ? 😲 

I know!😁

[CraigH]

Onwards and upwards. The stars came next.

To sum up the situation. I've got 500 to conjure, the tail fin and wing tips have to be specific constellations. The stars come in 4 different sizes.

What I had was:

Star decals from the 1:32 build that Robin kindly sent me. So obviously, the largest stars were bound to be too big for my needs. That was problem number one.

I also had the "Miss Demeanour" and "Jonathon Flapjack Whaley" decals but again in 1:32, and I had the registration letters yet again in 1:32. Problem number two.

To reduce 1:32 ro 1:48 means a 66% reduction. Joy of Joys the two smallest sets of 1:32 stars were the right size to use as the 3rd and 2nd largest stars in 1:48.

I had the tapered white "arrows" for the drop tanks which were fine.

I tried to source someone to make the largest stars in 1:48 for me but no joy. Printers don't print white so it's a nightmare. I thought next of masks but the scale was very small. I approached Sven at 1ManArmy but he's really flying with his company now and just can't do bespoke stuff any more. A couple of others fell by the wayside until our very own Guy @geedubelyer came to the rescue. I really can't thank him enough. Without him, I'm not sure what the answer would have been.

He'd just bought a laser cutter and kindly offered to cut me masks. The tiniest stuff was right out but the largest stars for the constellations were perfect. The very smallest stars at 1:48 were no more than dots so that's what they became. Now for the positioning.

The decal sheets were a sheet of just the stars of varying sizes :

There were also two other sheets which were meant to cover the body and wings  of the aircraft with all the stars in place. These were my godsend. They're very difficult to see on the blue backing paper so I took them off and mounted them on black card to increase the visibility.

I had the wing tips, tail plane, elevators and fuselage sides.

So, my reasoning was, shrink these by 66% to 1:48 scale. Print off and cut out and I had templates.

Put a pinhole in the centre of every star, fasten them to the model and then spray lightly with white paint. Remove the template and I should have a perfect pattern of the position of every one of the stars.

 

It worked! So now, I could spray the largest stars with Guy's masks, the 2nd and 3rd largest stars were the 1:32 decals downsized (making sure to get the long points all the right way. I'm a Virgo LOL) and the smallest were dots of white paint.

I used photos and Jonathon's original drawings to get all the orientations. I won't bore you with the long process but.....four wings, four elevators, two tail fins and two fuselage sides later, we weren't too far away. A light coat of clear to hold all the pesky little star critturs in place and check it all.

 

Next came the fist emblem on the rear fin. Again, can't get that off of a shelf and no chance of a colour match to print it off with a coloured border to show the fist. I finally hit on an idea to print off the fist on masking sheet. Cut it out by hand then stick it onto white decal paper. Cut around it then add to the model. Spray around the borders then remove the mask to reveal a nice looking fist. I think I'll invest in a white printing printer next LOL.

The drop tanks were pretty poor resin quality to be honest but leaned up and painted, they got the star treatment then the pointed decals were cut to size and spaced accurately so there were no gaps. White paint misted over the point gave the similar effect as the aircraft. This pic had it test placed with whitetack

 

 

The Miss Demeanour and Jonathon "Flapjack" Whaley decals were easy. Shrink by 66% and print on clear decal paper. The only other signage on the whole model were the ejection signs from the kit an the registration letters G-PSST.

 

The reg letters were a bit of a nightmare as they're grey decals but when printed on my inkjet don't show against the deep blue of the night so I used commercial lettering instead.

 

Last thing then was coats and coats and coats of clear. The original really was shiny. Main problem was and is, Tamiya X-22 gives a fantastic gloss, doesn't run but My God will not dry! I'm pretty sure it will over a month or so.

 

Jonathon asked for a 5mm threaded stud to be inserted into the bottom so it could be mounted on a bespoke stand if you're wondering what's on the bottom.

I've posted the finished here with out the background removed. I'll repost in RFI with it replaced for "flying effect"

Again, thanks for following this. It's been 5 months of fun (a lot for a 1:48) but I've learned  lots...namely NEVER build in less than 1:32 ever again 😁Joking

 

 

 

[geedubelyer]

What a result.

 

Congrats on pulling this one off. The colour fade is brilliant and you must have the patience of a saint to position all of those stars!

 

The finished model was worth all of your hard work and I'm positive your client will be over the moon. 😉

 

 

[CraigH]

17 minutes ago, geedubelyer said:

What a result.

 

Congrats on pulling this one off. The colour fade is brilliant and you must have the patience of a saint to position all of those stars!

 

The finished model was worth all of your hard work and I'm positive your client will be over the moon. 😉

 

 

Thanks Guy, for your kind comments and your hard work learning to use the laser cutter. Hopefully it'll stand you in good stead

[perdu]

Wow.

[HOUSTON]

Craig,

Your Hawker Hunter with this exceptionally  STUNNING colors and scheme has to be MY Favorite Hawker Hunter  build.

 

You did an Exemplary  Work and the colors are simple AMAZING  and your meticulous finish is GORGEOUS. 

Very RESPLENDENT accomplished  model for your Client,Jonathan Whaley and recipient of this famous  Hunter will be cherished for years to come.

 

 KUDOS Craig.

 

 

[CraigH]

Link to RFI Page