Matchbox 1/72 Hunter FGA.9/T.7

  Hawker's beautiful Hunter is the epitome of what many think of as the classic jet fighter.  Personally, I believe the F-86 fits that bill, but would get an argument from a lot of people on that. Only recently pulled out of service by the Swiss A.F., the Hunter still soldiers on in Chile and a few other countries around the world, mostly in secondary roles or as display aircraft.  The RAF stopped flying them in squadron service in the early 1980s where they were used as weapons trainers. Some may still be on hand with the RAE, flying in test status.

Well the first thing you will notice with the Aeroclub conversion are the vacuform parts.  You get two forward fuselage halves, a gun blister and a new nose should you wish to do a T.8M, used to train Sea Harrier FRS.1 pilots how to use the radar system (hence the new nose). Now, to cut out vacuform parts, here is what you do.  First, get a good, sharp soft lead pencil. Then draw around the parts to be removed from the backing sheet.  Then, taking a hobby knife with a new, sharp blade (the pointed ones work best), score around the parts a couple of times, holding the knife at about a 45 degree angle.  Then simply grab the piece and surrounding plastic and bend it.  The plastic should snap right off, leaving the part in your hand.  The reason for the 45 degree angle is that way you'll have less plastic to sand off.  

Now, get a large, flat piece of 320 grit  wet and dry sandpaper and, using double sided tape, stick it to a flat surface ( I use a piece of plexiglass).  Then put the sandpaper under a slowly running faucet and, using a circular motion, slowly sand off the excess plastic on the bottom of the part.  The reason for the pencil mark is that when you start to sand into it, stop.  Now I will admit that this is the most trying part of a vacuform kit as it is so easy to take off too much plastic.  The key is to stop a lot and check as well as to provide even pressure on the plastic while sanding.  Small pieces can be held with a handle made of masking tape.

Once the pieces are sanded down enough, then take out the cockpit area; again by scribing it with your knife and snapping away the excess plastic.  Next, using the templates given, cut out the floor and bulkhead from scrap plastic sheet.  I tape the template to the back of the sheet and then hold it up to the light.  Then I make a pencil drawing on the plastic sheet and cut it out using my knife. I'll warn you at this part, that the templates are overlarge and that you will have to file them back to get them to fit.  Just remember that it is easier to take off material than to put it back on. Again the key is constant dry fitting.  It will seem like a hassle at first, but with practice you'll get very good at it.

Before fitting the floor and bulkhead into the nose section, it is time to think about the nose wheel well.  You have two options. You can build a new one from plastic card, or you can cut one from the kit nose.  I chose the kit nose option.  I crudely cut out the nose well from the FGA.9 nose and glued it together.  When dry, I trimmed it even more then fit it where it should be using the kit T.7 nose for a guide.  Then I installed the floor and bulkead in one half; again trimming and dry fitting all the time.  Once those  are installed, paint a piece of plastic card flat black and when dry, attach the kit instrument panel decal.  Then fit that into the cockpit. The cockpit should be flat black.  Finally install short strips of plastic card around the nose section to act as tabs for the other half to glue to. Install weight in the nose to prevent tail sitting. Then, after the usual dry fitting and adjustments, glue the halves together. That all sounds very simple, and can be, but for me this meant a lot of filing and filling as I am not good with vacuformed plastic. Sorry that there aren't any photos of all this as something always happens and for some reason, I had the shutter speed at 2000 instead of 90; ergo no photos!

While things are drying on the new nose, you can start on the rest of the airframe.  You will notice that this kit is blessed with a number of sink holes on the wings and fuselage that must be filled.  Assembly of the wings and fuselage is very straightforward.  I painted the fuselage sides and wing intake areas flat black, since there is no detail.  After the fuselage is dry, I attached pieces of card to the forward section to provide mating surfaces for the new nose.

Painting is rather basic. First the entire airframe is painted gloss white, as were the short fuel tanks and inner pylons.  This is to provide a nice base for theDay-Glo and the aluminum.  After that is dry, the areas of Day-Glo were painted, and this includes the front nose gear door, but not the aft one. I used GunzeDay-Glo and it took a number of coats to get a more or less consistent finish. Once that was dry, the airframe was masked using lo-tak and scotch Magic tape. Then the entire airframe was painted with Testors AluminumMetallizer. Also the outer wing pylons were painted this color.

Allowing ample time for all to dry, the masking was removed and attempts were made to touch up any overspray.  In this process, I smudged a small area on the fin, which will be repaired at a later date. Next, the entire aircraft was sprayed with Future gloss floor wax.  This is done to seal the metallizer and it also dulls it sufficiently to look like aluminum paint instead of bare metal. When that had dried it was time fordecaling.

This kit is a representation of a Hunter T.8 (the T.7 is the RAF version) from 764 Sq at Lossiemouth, Scotland in 1964. Modeldecal sheet #28 provided me with the markings I needed.  Common markings such as insignia need to come from another source. Application of the decals was no problem, except for the roundels, and they reacted well to all setting solutions including the industrial strength Champ solution. Roundels were a problem.  This is because theDay-Glo paint is such an intense color. I used Modeldecal roundels from sheet #47, but the paint still bled through the white areas. Eventually, I had to underlay each of the upper and lower wing roundels with two layers of white decal to get the bleedthrough down to a reasonable level.  The next time, I will put the insignia down on the white undercoat, and spray theDay-Glo over it. When the Day-Glo is dry, lightly scribe around the edge of the insignia and remove it with a piece of tape leaving a white area for the finaldecaling. One lives and learns.

Speaking of learning, I had forgotten to add the arrestor hook and attachment point until after I had finished the painting.  The tailhook came from an Aeroclub pack and I made the attachment point from a bit of scrap plastic. These were attached, the area sanded again and then repainted. RN Hunters never landed on a carrier deck; these tailhooks were for emergency use at shore stations.

After decaling, the gear doors were removed (note here; be sure to cut the decal with a sharp, new blade before removing the doors), the interiors painted aluminum, the gear legs and wheels installed, the doors reinstalled in the open position, pylons and drop tanks attached, and an antenna attached just aft of the canopy. Final bits of painting included the black nose and antenna fairing at the tip of the tail, both of which had to be done free-hand as there are no areas marked. There is no black anti-glare area on the nose of this particular Hunter as on some other RN Hunters. One final bit. While the daglo doesn't look too bright in these photos, I can guarantee that it is quite brilliant, especially in direct sunlight.