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REVELL 1:72 HAWKER HUNTER F.6 |
Reviewer:
Kevin Ronayne (kevin.ronayne@nuigalway.ie)
Kit Review submitted:
7 April 2006
Date: April 2nd, 2006
Like the Spitfire, the Hawker Hunter was noted for being a pilots' aircraft, something which no doubt contributed to a very long service life, and to dozens of examples still being maintained in flying condition to this day. It might come as something of a surprise to learn that the development of the Hunter was somewhat problematic: some 184 F.1 and F.2 Hunters were built, but these first production versions were not reliable front line aircraft. It was not until the introduction of the F.4 version that the Hunter began to achieve it's potential, but problems with engine reliability (among other things) were not satisfactorily resolved until the development of the F.6 version. The F.6 introduced a modified wing with larger surface area and extended leading edges, although some early F.6's had to have this retrofitted.
The F.6 had a short service life with the RAF, before it was replaced by the Lightning. However, the RAF decided to convert 128 F.6's to FGA.9 standard, which was optimized for the attack role. Frontline RAF service ended in 1969, but the Hunter career was far from over. The type was extremely successful in foreign service. There were a large number of Asian customers, although the numbers involved were often quite small. In Europe it was a different matter: the Netherlands and Belgium built large numbers under license in a joint production effort. Sweden and Switzerland - two nominally neutral countries with no political alliances to worry about - also bought the Hunter in some quantity.
Over the years, Hunters saw a fair amount of combat action, but very little in the way of air-to-air combat, even in the various Arab-Israeli and India-Pakistan wars.
This kit was released in mid 2005, much to the delight of myself and many others who have been waiting very patiently for a new 1/72 Hunter tooling. The one-piece box seems surprisingly large at first, but it's probably just a case of Revell standardising on mold tool sizes. The kit is molded mainly in mid-grey plastic on one full sprue, one 3/4 sprue, two daughter sprues and a transparency sprue - 80 parts in all. Everything is packed into a sealed bag, with the transparency sprue protected in its own sealed bag. The parts breakdown and some of the parts detail clearly indicates that Revell is planning an FGA.9 version at some point in the future. In fact, such are the gaps in the part number sequences that there may be more versions than that in the pipeline, although a two-seat trainer version still seems something of a long shot. The kit features the usual crisp recessed panel detail, along with some countersunk rivet detail that Revell seems to do so well.
Options are limited to: extended or retracted undercarriage, separate flaps, muzzle blast suppressors for the cannon, a pair of 100 gallon (imperial) tanks for the inner pylons, and AIM-9B Sidewinders for the outer pylons. The last items are only to be used with the Dutch subject. Speaking of which, the 4 kit subjects are:
All four subjects feature the same basic Dark Green/Extra Dark Sea Grey upper camouflage, with natural metal undersides. The RAF subjects have white wingtips, and the Fighter Combat School version has yellow markings, presumably for visibility. This is the subject shown on the box artwork. The 16-page (3 pages blank) A4 booklet is excellent, suffering only (in my eyes) from the Revell tendency to break construction down into far too many steps. Only Revell paint colours are given, but this RAF tactical jet fighter scheme does not need to be spelled out for most modellers. The large decal sheet is broken down logically into 6 sections: one for each of the four subjects, one common section for the two RAF subjects, and one common stencil section.
The asking price for this kit is STG £8 from Hannants, or about 13 Euro. This seems to be just about right for the subject matter and the level of quality expected in new-mold Revell kit.
I'm going to struggle for things to say about the building of this kit, for the simple reason that it's just so good! The detail is exquisite and the fit is excellent - there are just a few minor fit issues. Of all the kits that I have reviewed to date on SMAKR, this is the closest yet to being the proverbial 'box shaker' - i.e., just shake the box and the completed kit falls out! This sounds like something that should wait until the conclusion of the review, but there is no point in beating around the bush.
Anyway, lets get down to business. First things first: put in plenty of nose ballast if you plan on building a kit with extended undercarriage. I did not put in quite enough, and the result is a kit that will fall on its tail if you look at it the wrong way - to take the photographs shown here, I had to place the kit on a slightly sloping surface.
Back to the cockpit: this is based around a single-piece 'bathtub' with side instrument panels. It also has foot pedals molded in place, which is not really a shortcoming as you will hardly be able to see them once the kit is complete. As is often the case with Revell, you get instrument panel decals (side and front), but the panels are also molded with relief detail. As I usually do in this situation, I removed the relief detail with a bit of sanding, and then applied the decals. The ejection seat is a sub-assembly with four parts. Painting the ejection seat firing handle with yellow and black bands was probably the most difficult part of the kit for me, and that's even though I painted fewer, wider bands than on the real thing. It looks realistic enough, and that's what matters to me. In the kit, the handle is tied back to the headrest as a double loop. I assume this is correct, but I have at least one reference that shows it as a single loop. I painted the seat as per the instructions, including the little blue patch on top of the headrest - I used Humbrol 89 for this. The cockpit is mostly black, and mention of this reminds me of something else: the kit instructions refer to three different types of black: Revell 6 matt, Revell 9 Anthracite grey (i.e. grey-black) and Revell 302 satin (semi-gloss) black, a finish which Revell refers to as 'silky'. I just used Hu 33 black everywhere, with a satin varnish where required.
Pictures from the side of the box. The green is a bit lighter and greener than I would have expected, but this may just be result of using the Revell paint mix specified in the instructions, as opposed to using an 'accurate' colour match from Humbrol or XtraColor.
From this point, the rest of the kit body practically builds itself, the fit is so good. I have but one or two minor gripes. Firstly, the fit of the assembled wing units into the 'sockets' on the fuselage sides is ever so slightly loose. Take care to ensure that both wings slope down at precisely the same angle. Secondly, there is a lack of detail in the engine intakes, apart from the splitter plates - this is the only real criticism I have of the kit in terms of the level of detail. The intake interiors should be painted white, which is not mentioned in the instructions that I can see. The one-piece tailpipe (with detail on the exhaust face) is enclosed in two rear fuselage section halves, with the completed unit being attached to the fuselage proper. These rear fuselage sections are on one of the daughter sprues, which is another indicator that Revell is planning ahead - the FGA.9 had a brake parachute housing above the tail pipe. Starting late in the F.6 production run, all-moving tail planes were introduced, although the separate elevators were still kept.
The wing flaps are supplied as separate parts, with lightly raised panel detail on the lower surface of the upper wing in case you want to open the flaps, which I did. The flaps are 'FGA.9 ready', by which I mean there is a semi-circular cutout on the outside of each flap. For this kit, you are instructed to fill in the cutout groove, although you needn't do this if you leave the flaps closed. On the FGA.9, this section would be cut out and become part of the wing. In this respect, this kit is a more accurate FGA.9 than the Airfix FGA.9 kit, although it doesn't have the larger drop tanks used on the later version. The larger drop tanks were the reason why the flaps were altered in the first place, as they could not otherwise have been fully extended without being blocked by the tanks. Outboard of the flaps, the upper and lower wings are full chord, but the trailing aileron trailing edges are thin enough for me. The wing tips are supplied as separate parts. So are the outer wing leading edge extensions, but this does not mean that a kit of the F.4/F.5 variants is planned, given that these earlier versions had a slightly smaller wing.
Before dealing with the undercarriage and weapons, let's deal with the remainder of the fuselage construction. The Cockpit transparencies are quite thin, but still not completely distortion-free. The main canopy is wider than the spine, which is correct, as the canopy would have slid back into the open position. This means that you can show the canopy in the open position - the instructions don't mention it, but one of the pictures on the side of the box does. The Hunter is very like the Hurricane in terms of how the canopy opens, which leads to a curious coincidence: the Revell Hurricane has an inaccurate windscreen, and I have read on the Web that the windscreen on this kit is also inaccurate, in that it is slightly too wide. The fault is not a major one, but you do wonder why Revell seems to have a problem with the windscreens on Hawker aircraft!
The parts for the ammunition link collector box fairings include stubs for the cartridge case ejector chutes. The collector box fairings were nicknamed 'Sabrinas'. As I had suspected, the nickname was in honour (if you can call it that!) of a well-endowed female celebrity of the time. The muzzle blast deflectors on the guns are correctly marked as optional items. However, it is not clear which of the kit subjects (if any) might have actually carried them - I was building one of the 'continental' subjects, and I did fit these parts. As far as I know, Swiss Hunters did have the blast deflectors present. Perhaps Revell's research team just hopped over the border to have a look at a preserved Swiss Hunter, and made the over-simplistic assumption that the blast deflectors were an option on all Hunters from the F.6 onwards. Note: they are shown as fitted on the RAF subject on the cover box art. I left the ventral airbrake in the closed position. If you want it in the open position, then there is some nice detail on the upper surface of the brake.
More pictures from side of the box. This violates the kit instructions in that it shows an RAF aircraft fitted with a Sidewinder. Only the Dutch subject carried the Sidewinder.
Lastly, there are a couple of tiny antennae to attach to the underside of the fuselage, as well as an equally tiny fuel dump pipe on the port side, just ahead of the tail pipe section. The paint/decal guides (and a picture of a completed kit on the first page of the booklet) show a pair of whip aerials on either side of the spine, some way behind the cockpit. These diagrams and picture also show another whip aerial positioned near the upper starboard wing tip - which is correct - but the instructions do not mention any of these aerials. Note: the FGA.9 had a fin antenna aerial on the fuselage spine, just behind the back of the open canopy.
The enclosed wheel bay detail is so good - along with the undercarriage units themselves - that I never had any thoughts about building a wheels-up version, even though that is catered for. There are a total of 10 parts in each main undercarriage unit, including the various door units and extension struts. However the instructions are very clear, and include an end-on view showing the precise orientation of the various parts. The only problem I had was with the shock absorber 'scissors' links, which are very, very delicate. I messed up both units in trying to remove them from the sprue - my fault really - so I fashioned crude replacements from some plastic rod. I have read on the web that the main wheels are slightly too small, but nothing else negative. For the nose wheel section, the construction guide includes a side-on view showing the correct orientation of the door sections. In order to attach the rear door section at the correct angle, I altered the leading edge so that it would attach more securely to the fuselage. One minor gripe: there should be a pair of very thin extensions the nose wheel strut to the rear door section, but they are missing from the kit.
© Kevin Ronayne 2006
It would have been nice to get a wider range of stores, but I guess we'll just have to wait for the FGA.9 kit for that - or else raid the spares box. The only comment I have about the tanks is that the fin parts could have been a little bit thinner - I suppose I could have thinned them myself if I really wanted to. The Sidewinders come with the separate launch rail units which are in turn attached to the outer wing pylons. As I was building the Dutch aircraft, I could have used the Sidewinders. However, doing so would only have made the kit even more of a tail-sitter, so I left them off. I did, however, remove the locating pins on the underside of the outer pylons, something which the instructions don't bother to suggest.
Last of all is the long pitot tube on the port wingtip. It should be the last piece of the kit to you attach - in fact, it might be better to leave it off until the kit is painted, and maybe even decalled as well. I must have accidentally broken off the part on my kit three or four times.
Painting? Nothing much to report here, just the usual Humbrol 163 and 164 for the upper camouflage, and Humbrol Metalcote Dull Aluminium for the natural metal surfaces. On the two continental subjects, there is an awkward burned metal section on the tail pipe section of the fuselage. I say awkward because there is no panel line to guide you, and the curved surface makes it difficult to use masking tape. I just applied it by hand, using Humbrol Metalcote Polished Steel.
I was originally going to model the Belgian subject - it would have made a nice companion kit for my recently completed Italeri Belgian Thunderflash. In fact, I had to use some Belgian roundels from this decal sheet to cover some roundels omitted from the Italeri decal sheet. Since I had bought two Revell Hunters, I could have still done a Belgian aircraft. However, I changed my mind, mainly because it's been a very long time since I modelled a Netherlands aircraft - if ever! As a side benefit, the Netherlands aircraft is the only subject that does not have the under wing serials - I would not have to bother with the messy business of cutting up a decal into bits and pieces to apply onto the wing and various undercarriage door sections.
The decal quality is excellent as usual. It makes you wonder why some other companies have such problems with decal register, when Revell (and Italeri) can reproduce a four-colour roundel in perfect register. On the matter of the Netherlands roundels: the otherwise excellent painting/decal guide is mixed up regarding the orientation of the roundels. The side views suggest that the fuselage roundels are mirror images, so that the red section is facing forward on both sides. This is incorrect, and the upper plan view actually shows the correct orientation - the red is always to the right. There are surprisingly few stencil decals on the upper wing and fuselage surface, other than those around the cockpit. However, the Airfix FGA.9 decal sheet shows the same pattern of coverage, so I guess this is correct. The drop tank decals are on one side of each tank only. The instructions are not clear on whether they should be on the left hand side of each tank, or on the outboard side. I guessed the former, but it looks in retrospect that the latter option is the correct one.
© Kevin Ronayne 2006
I think I have mentioned most of the accuracy or detail concerns in the course of the build review section, and they are all fairly minor. If there is a major fault in this kit, I can't see it, nor have I read anything about it. It's been said before, but it needs repeating: the Hunter is one of the most graceful of all jet fighters, but you sometimes have to see a completed kit - or the real thing - to really appreciate this.
© Kevin Ronayne 2006
The right kit at the right price - that just about sums it up. This is a sure-fire winner from Revell. The standard camouflage scheme limits the variety of interesting subjects, but there are plenty of options for celebratory and other non-standard finishes. Roll on the FGA.9 version.
The Hunter is a very popular aircraft, with a wealth of information available both in print and on the web. Some of my main information sources were:
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