Revell 1/32 scale Hawker Hunter FGA.9 by Roger Hardy

Revell's 1/32 scale
Hawker Hunter FGA.9

by Roger Hardy

Hawker Hunter FGA.9

Revell's 1/32 scale Hawker Hunter FGA.9 is available online from Squadron

Introduction

The Hawker Hunter is one of those iconic fighters of the 1960s and one of the most attractive fighters ever to fly. For years, the modeling world was poorly served with models of this aircraft; there was the venerable Frog kit, shortly followed by the early Airfix Black Arrow, both in 1/72 scale.

At 1/48 scale was the Lindberg kit which was actually not bad. Later came the Matchbox T7 and the Academy 1/48 kit but none of these captured the lines of the real aircraft accurately and needed a lot of work to make them look right.

Then Revell announced a Hunter in 1/32 scale. Wow! This German company producing a model of an aircraft that never served in the Luftwaffe? I think it came out in the late 90s but I got mine discounted to £12.99 as, bizarrely, this model did not sell well. It sat in its box for ten years until I got an attack of the 1/32 scale virus and started to make big scale. It also has something to do with advancing years and eyesight!

This is a big model but not too big; it’s about 44cm (17 inches) long. I decided to make it more-or-less straight from the box but added the Airwaves ejection seat and an Eduard instrument panel, just because I like them. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with the kit ejection seat but I balked at adding all those belts which were moulded into the Airwaves seat and just needed painting.

Construction

I won’t go into the full details of the build but I didn’t follow the instructions exactly as I didn’t want to add details that would get knocked off during the build.

The only problem I had was putting together the wings to the fuselage. This needs a lot of faith and quite a bit of force but in the end, they fitted well.

Thumbnail panels:

The fit of all parts was good and the only filling that needed to be done was a bit around the wing roots and a bit of Milliput to blend the windscreen to the nose. Most of the joints just needed a good scrape and polish.

Build criticisms? Nothing much really. This is really rather a good kit and does not need excessive modeling skills.

Painting and Markings

I sprayed it with an Aztek airbrush, using Tamiya paints that I mixed myself. I like to spray satin finish paints because you can decal directly onto them and don’t have to gloss-up a flat finish. Gloss and matt finishes don’t look right on models, in my view. Most aircraft are satin to some extent and satin finish can be mixed from flat and gloss varnish (although I actually used Tamiya’s semi-gloss clear spray can - recommended). I use Tamiya paints because they are the nearest thing I can get to my favourites, Gunze Sangyo. I didn’t bother with weathering because I think the junkyard look should be reserved for dioramas. Straight models should look good in a museum. I like the showroom varnish. Also, I’m crap at weathering!

I decided to use the kit decals as they offered the red-white-blue roundels from 1961 (208 sqn) from the days when we were not ashamed that potential enemies could identify the country from the high-vis markings. We’re British, after all! Now, the decals are the only part of the kit I would criticize. OK, they are old but seemed to be very brittle and broke up if not handled carefully. The register of the white was less than perfect and overall, I wished I’d got a set from Xtradecal.

Conclusion

When it was finished, I could sit back and assess the finished product. And I like it. This model is exactly a Hunter; it’s accurate and looks absolutely the part. Heavy, elegant, colourful and very British. Model courtesy of my pocket but thanks to Revell for giving us this kit.

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