Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9

AIRFIX 1:72 HAWKER HUNTER FGA.9

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Review submitted: January 2002

Aircraft:
The Hunter is a famous jet aircraft of UK design - one of the most successful ever from that country. It developed from the 1948 prototype designated P.1067 as a single seat, single engined, swept wing fighter and was produced in quite large numbers early into the fifties. At one stage the prototype held the absolute speed record of 1164 km/h. After massive defence cuts were initiated in the mid to late fifties, a number of surplus Hunters became apparent. While many were destined for the scrap-heap some F.Mk 6 models could be upgraded and converted to a Ground Attack role to replace the ageing Venoms in RAF service. Thus was born the FGA Mk.9 variant specifically converted for this role. Most remained in service until early to mid 1970's when they were replaced by Phantoms and Harriers.

The Kit:
I'll only go into the basics, because there is already an INBOX review on this site I posted earlier. Sprues total 7 and parts 47, in typical Airfix Medium Grey with one-piece (and rather nice) clear canopy. Some very minor flash need a quick run over with the #11 blade to remove. Some of the sprue pins are thick and these parts will need careful removal. Panel lines are raised with some rivet detail accompanying it, which is not too excessive, while the gun troughs under the nose are very shallow and best described as being represented by just four depressions. There is no wheel well detail, which is touched on during construction.

Instructions:
A4 sized booklet of 8 pages with the usual Airfix fanfare - brief history on the front, 10 easy to follow assembly views (including keeping you informed on the differences between examples) with a couple of instances where positioning is vague, and four-view diagrams for decals and markings for each of the two versions in the kit. Humbrol paint numbers are provided in call outs, but no names.

Construction:
This starts in a typically sparse Airfix cockpit painted in black. A pilot figure and an ejection seat [both reasonable in quality] are placed on a long floor piece that doubles up as the roof to the nose wheel well, without any interior detail of course. A control column is the only other accessory for the cockpit so a lot of work would be needed to bring it up to an acceptable standard. But a combination of a tight, closed in cockpit and the black wash makes it difficult to see much anyway and after adding a few drybrushed bits and pieces to make it look busy I was satisfied.

I'll mention it here, but you can assume that this happened throughout construction, and that is that many parts just needed a quick fly over with the excel blade to remove the very small bits of flash.

Once the pilot figure was painted up and the interior was detailed to the extent I was happy with, then construction proceeded rather rapidly. The interior of the rear fuselage exhaust (there is no separate exhaust piece to place within) and intakes were also painted black. The cockpit and inner intake bulkheads were affixed inside the fuselage (noseweight is recommended) before the halves were affixed together. The fin rudder is separate but is not moveable, you need to glue it in the position desired.

The main wings are simply upper and lower halves and go together well - remember to drill/cut out the holes on upper wing surfaces to display the small fairings as denoted on the instruction sheet depending on the Squadron example you are depicting. The trailing edge flaps are separate but like the rudder, are positionable, but not moveable. The wheel wells are not boxed in and also contain no detail other than the hole to place the undercarriage strut into. The gear doors fit well and the wings fit very well onto the fuselage, as do the tailplanes, and neither required filler. One point to note here is that if you are depicting the No.20 Sqn example with gear doors open, you may want to fix them in the closed position first (with blu tak or something), paint the undersurface and whack on the huge decal that covers the wheel wells otherwise will be hard to add this later.

The canopy is one-piece and fits very well as do the distinctive collection link fairings under the forward fuselage, although you needed to remove them from the sprue very carefully. I left the pitot tube and upper fuselage antenna off until construction was complete but they fit well. The underfuselage rear airbrake fits okay but is not accurate in a number of respects, including shape and the way it sits closed. You can't display it open unless you slice of the large locating lug and fill in the hole, and then construct a small jack from stretched sprue or as some Hunters had no jack at all, without it.

The kit provides a pair of underwing pylons for each wing and three options of stores in a pair of large 230 gal drop tanks, 100 gal drop tanks or rocket pods are provided - I chose the former and latter. The rocket pods need dry fit testing and some trimming for the 'head' to fit properly. Take care and pay attention with the 230 imp Gal tanks, which include a bracing strut to be attached in the locating hole on the outside (ie: wingtip side) of the tanks to the underside of the wing. Although the instructions do show this, you could (as I did) easily misinterpret this - and it was only checking reference sources that I realised it is a bracing strut and attached it accordingly.

Versions & Decals:
Two FGA.9 examples wearing upper standard Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green camouflage with one (No.20 Sqn, RAF Tengah, 1962) wearing underside aluminium and the other light aircraft grey (No.79 Sqn, No.229 OCU, RAF Chivenor, 1972). I've heard others in the past challenging aluminium and silver undersides for Hunter FGA.9 examples, so best to check your references. I chose the No.20 example which wears the red/white/blue roundels as depicted on the left hand side of the decal sheet below, painting it in Humbrols 163 (D.Green); 164 (D.Sea Grey) and 166 (L.Aircraft Grey) which are according to Humbrols charts the correct colours to use when matched with actual BS quotations, and polished aluminium for the exhaust ring.

The decal sheet is split into thirds, two for the different examples and one common for both with stencilling. These go on quite well with minimal fuss and set well with Mr Mark Softer. I used No.20 SQN decals, the small red dots in the middle of the roundels are separate as shown below. Colour register was very good but I thought the Eagle nose insignia was a touch blurry. There is a very slight white border on the blue roundels, just peeping through. There are also very minor scratchy imperfections. Overall quite okay otherwise.

Accuracy:
This is where you really take this kit to task!! While the kit in basic profile certainly gives you an immediate impression of being an FGA.9 Hunter there does appear to be a number of anomalies that will have the stickler for accuracy bating for blood! Already noted is the crude attempt at the ventral airbrake, and you need to check your references about whether the version you are depicting has a jack or not if displaying open (most have been fitted with one). The canopy does not look quite right when compared to photos, a modeller previous suggested it was too long. The wings are too wide with a long elongated wingtip that should be narrower, and the dogteeth are portrayed totally incorrectly (slanting outward when they should be shown straight fore-aft, and are also incorrectly molded along the leading edge). The nose is wrong, needing to be fatter. The main wheel wells are located in the wrong spot, they should be closer to the rear of the wing (they are slap in the middle on the model), and this could be because the wings are set too far back (as another modeller stated).

There are probably a few other flaws I didn't spot but I think enough had been to not warrant further investigation! And those above were spotted just from a few line drawings and photos very quickly, didn't get to measure fully in profile against any scale plans. Proportionally the model is pretty good - while it is about 2mm underscale in length, it is also the same in span, so at least that part is consistent! So one must say that this is nowhere near the best Hunter in this scale!

Overall:
Well there are much better kits on the market that will give you a much more accurate Hunter than this one, so on this basis I can't really recommend this kit for serious modellers. However, if you have no qualms about accuracy, are a novice, want some AMS therapy or just want a reasonable looking Hunter then this kit fits the bill. It is very easy to slap together and my example needed no filler, and was a beaut little AMS stifler.

Footnote on HUNTERS:
There's quite a funny (well I think it is) footnote to this review. A lot of people I have ever come across who are interested in aircraft reckon the Hunter is the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft ever conceived. And the amount of Hunter freaks I have come across (especially, understandably, British modellers!) outnumbers fans of any other aircraft type. For some reason the Hunter never really appealed to me, the photos never really gave it the justice that got others into it. But now having made a real life replica of the Hunter (even if it is a bit inaccurate) all of a sudden I see the graceful curves and lines as they were meant to be seen. And while the Hunter has not jumped to number one on my favourite aircraft list, it has skyrocketed up the list dramatically. At last I can see what the fuss is about, it really is a lovely looking bird. Just don't let my partner hear me say it! So if you are a bit like me, go and build one so you can really admire its virtues, and I am sure you will see why it is a huge favourite of others......!

Related Reviews:-

Matchbox 1/72 Hunter T.Mk 7/F.Mk 58
Academy 1/48 Hunter F.6 (John Hall) : (Nick Hall)
Academy 1/48 Hunter FGA.9

Related INBOX Reviews:-

Airfix 1/72 Hunter FGA.9

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