Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9

[spitfire-ian]

Well it's finally finished.

Was given the kit for something like my 15th Birthday (22 years ago!), started it in December 2008 during a few weeks off sick from work then a few bits here and there until finally cracking on with it late last year.

Must say I'm very happy with the result and it was a lovely kit to build even though it is quite basic

Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9 by Ian, on Flickr

Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9 by Ian, on Flickr

Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9 by Ian, on Flickr

Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hunter FGA.9 by Ian, on Flickr

Edited as I made myself older than I am!

Edited by spitfire-ian on Wednesday 29th July 16:24

[Eric Mc]

That turned out pretty nice.

That 1/72 Hunter was the best in that scale until the advent of the newer Revell kits a few years ago (which are beautiful).

[johnS2000]

That is very nice albeit a bit "clean".

Must get a Hunter for my stash . Revell you say Eric?

[dr_gn]

Looks nice - I'd have given it a coat of matt varnish, but it's personal preference.

[spitfire-ian]

Painting instructions did say gloss varnish on the upper surfaces, maybe I did go a little mad though

[dr_gn]

spitfire-ian said:

Painting instructions did say gloss varnish on the upper surfaces, maybe I did go a little mad though

Many aircraft were gloss in reality, but a high gloss finish at small scales tends to highlight the inevitable compromises in a kit, such as raised panel lines and any slight discontinuity along joints or whatever. It's usually called "scale effect", which can apply to a multitude of modelling techniques. I'd have gone for matt (which most in-service aircraft would probably have ended up looking like eventually) or satin. Again that's personal preference, not a criticism.

[Eric Mc]

Theoretically, the finish on RAF fighters in the 1950s and 1960s was "gloss". However, if you look at pictures of actual aircraft from that period you will see that at best the surface tended to be more of a satin finish - often tending towards matt.

Revell released some lovely Hunter models not that long ago -

[dr_gn]

And a 1:32 version, which is a great kit:

[perdu]

Love that Hunter Ian, such a beautiful aeroplane in all its variants

What doc says about the matt varnish is very good advice, scale effect can hammer a model if the lines get picked out by the reflections

That said, this does look very nice

Cheers

[Eric Mc]

The only properly shiny hunters you might see from time to time would be those used by aerobatic teams or Royal Navy Admiral Barges.

[spitfire-ian]

One bit I was very pleased with myself for doing was to leave the little blobs off the top of the wings until it was all painted and the roundels in place. In my teens I would have just left them off