Revell Germany 1/72 Hawker
Hunter F.Mk.6
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Overview
The Hawker Hunter is one of the most significant jet fighters ever built.
A member of the last generation of subsonic jet fighters, it served in
20 air forces, and saw action in several conflicts, notably with the
RAF in the Suez crisis, and with India against Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.
The Hunter served for almost a half-century, entering service with the
Royal Air Force in 1954, while the last Indian Hunters were not retired
until 2001. Designed by a team led by Sir Sydney Camm, the Hunter first
flew in July 1951, and entered service with the RAF in July 1954. The
Hunter F.6, which featured a Roll-Royce Avon Mk.203 engine with 30% more
power than its predecessors, first flew in January 1954, and entered
service in late 1956, missing the Suez crisis.
As meritous as its service career was, the Hunter's appeal to modelers
rests as much on the looks of the aircraft as its history. The Hunter
is a striking aircraft, with graceful, flowing lines. It's frequently
named as the most attractive jet fighter (my Mum certainly thinks so),
and if it isn't, it's certainly one of the finalists.
The Kit
 The
past few years have seen numerous Hunter kits, in several scales, emerge.
Academy has issued two versions of its 1/48th scale kit, which aside from
some problems with the cockpit dimensions, is a well-regarded model. Revell
Germany has also released two new Hunter kits, one in 1/32nd scale, and
the other in 1/144th, leading to speculation that a 1/72nd scale version
would be forthcoming. That speculation was correct; the kit is here, and
it's a beauty.
It's been over two decades since we've seen a new injection-molded Hunter
in 1/72nd from a major kit manufacturer. Frog was first off the mark in
the 1950s with a Mk.1 (which is still available from Eastern Express!),
and later did an FGA.9. Airfix brought out its F.6 in 1960, but this was
a crude, toylike kit that "featured" a removable Aden gun pack.
The mold was upgraded in 1983 into an FGA.9, deleting the removable gun
pack, and adding mild improvements like a cockpit floor and stick, intake
splitters, and a variety of underwing stores. Still, in the words of one
web reviewer, the kit suffers from "(incorrect) location of the wheel
wells, the wings are set too far back, the canopy is too long, the fuselage
is too short, the dogteeth are perpendicular to the leading edge instead
of being aligned straight fore/aft, the wingtips are incorrectly shaped,
the nose is incorrectly shaped and requires putty on the upper surface
to contour it, the tail cone is not tapered enough and the undercarriage
fairings are the wrong shape" Aside from that, it's a nice kit.
Matchbox also offered a Hunter, the best feature of which was the choice
to build it as either a single-seat FGA.9 or a two-seat T.7. Unfortunately,
the kit was covered in the infamous Matchbox trenches, the cockpit detail
was limited to seat and pilot, and the nose was misshapen. Aeroclub made
more accurate vacuform noses for both versions, which helped things a
bit, but these reportedly did not fit that well.
 For
these reasons, an accurate, state-of-the art Hunter has been on many 1/72nd
scale modelers' wish lists, and the new Revell kit comes laden with high
expectations. The mark chosen is the F.6, the last of the pure fighter
versions, and the one that introduced the characteristic "dog tooth"
leading edge extension to solve pitch-up problems.
There are 80 parts, three clear (packed in their own bag), and 77 pieces
on four other sprues molded in light gray plastic. There is a 16-page
instruction booklet with the usual exploded view drawings, but three
of those pages are blank, two are devoted to general instructions in
every EU language, and four are full-page marking schemes for the four
decal options, so there are only actually five pages of building instructions,
in 31 steps. The four decal options cover two RAF, one Dutch, and one
Belgian aircraft, all from between 1957 and 1961.
This is one of those kits whose level of detail is not apparent unless
you look at it closely. The panel lines are recessed, with a hint of rivet
detail that doesn't overwhelm. The main wheel wells are magnificent, among
the most detailed I've seen in this scale. There are optional fairings
in the cannon troughs, although what these are for, I'm not sure. As with
many kits, the gear doors (both main and nose gear) must be cut if you
wish to display the aircraft with the undercarriage lowered. The very
nice ejector seat comes in four pieces; combined with a detailed tub,
stick, and instrument panel (which can either be used with the supplied
decal or painted, as the dials are molded-in), it should look just fine
for this scale. Decals are also provided for the side consoles. There's
no explicit instruction that the canopy can be built either open or closed,
but the Hunter had a sliding canopy, and the model shown on the box side
has an open canopy, so it's clear that this can easily be done. The dive
brake can be built in open or closed position, although some Hunters didn't
have an external jack, so check your references. Separate wing flaps,
with internal detail, are provided, to allow them to be built either extended
or retracted. Underwing stores include fuel tanks for the inner pylons,
and a pair of Sidewinders, which were used only on the Dutch aircraft
among the decal options, for the outer pylons.
 From
the breakdown of the parts, it's obvious that Revell intends to do other
versions of the Hunter. The leading edge extensions and wingtips are separate
parts, meaning that the same wings, with different insertions, can be
used for the straight-winged F.4 and earlier versions. The link collectors
on the fuselage undersides (known as Sabrinas - don't ask why!) are also
separate pieces; these were introduced on the F.4. The fuselage, though,
is not broken up like the Matchbox kit with separate forward and rear
fuselages, so it looks like Revell will only be producing the single-seat
Hunters (unless they tool a whole new fuselage. ed.).
Accuracy? I don't have any 1/72nd scale Hunter F.6 plans to judge it
against, but it seems to have captured the lines of the aircraft perfectly.
I'm sure some rivet counter will find something, but it looks fine to
me, in-the-box.
 All
four well-printed decal options are for aircraft in Dark Green/Dark Sea
Gray upper surfaces, with silver undersurfaces. However, this a Revell
Germany kit, so the painting instructions don't exactly tell you that,
telling you to mix specific Revell Germany paints to obtain the unnamed
colors. One of the RAF options has the spine, tail, and wing bands painted
in yellow, making a striking aircraft, while the other three are in standard
camo. Both British examples and the Belgian aircraft have large underwing
serials that extend over the landing gear doors; these will have to be
very carefully cut apart, and although the decal sheet provides guides,
this will be a difficult task. The RAF serials will each need to be cut
into four pieces. There are about 20 decals providing stencils common
to all four options.
One way to get around the underwing serials problem and still make an
RAF F.6 would be to build one of the all-black F.6s used by No. 111 Squadron,
"The Black Arrows", most famous for their 22 Hunter formation
loop at the 1958 Farnborough display. These aircraft did not carry underwing
serials, and one of them is included among the seven F.6 options on the
recently re-released Xtradecal sheet X046-72.
Conclusion
As the Hunter was used by so many air forces, this kit will be welcomed
by aftermarket decal manufacturers, although the export versions of the
FGA.9 were the most widely used. I wouldn't be surprised to see Revell
follow this kit with an FGA.9, and going backwards, an F.5 (the version
used in Suez). It's certainly my kit of the year so far - at least until
the Airfix TSR.2 gets here!
References
"Aircraft Profile Number 4, The Hawker Hunter F.6," by Francis
K. Mason, Profile Publications, 1965.
"Hawker Hunter, The Operational Record", by Robert Jackson,
Airlife Publishing, 1989
"Hunter Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm",
by Richard L. Ward, Aelous Publishing, 1985
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