Special Hobby 1/72
DeHavilland Hornet F1
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Introduction
The Hornet is probably one of the most elegant aircraft of the post
war period. Sired from the legendary Mosquito fighter-bomber, its purpose
was to fight against the Japanese at the end of WW II. It came too late
to fight in that conflict, as the advent of the jet made it's time of
operational use short. Sadly, because of the interest in jets, interest
in the Hornet's historical preservation was negligible and none has survived.
This was a pitiful end to the plane declared as one of the fastest piston
engine fighters in the world. We are fortunate that the Hornet has not
completely escaped the realm of modeling. Previous models of the Hornet
include Frog/Novo; the oldest of them all, Skybird 86; and Magna Models,
all in 1/72nd scale. There is also the excellent Dynavector kit and the
Classic Airframes kits in 1/48th scale. This article is about the newest
addition, the Special Hobby kit, that I believe shares more than a passing
family acquaintance with the Classic Airframes kit. In fact, I have a
sneaking suspicion that Special Hobby molded the Classic Airframes model
due to their similarity.
As an aside, I recommend the purchase of the Warpaint book on the Hornet.
It is indispensable, particularly the three view drawings.
First Look
The Special Hobby kit looks like every other limited release injection
molded plastic kit. It consists of thick, soft gray plastic parts with
nice engraving and some very substantial ejector pin marks. The sprues
that the parts connect to are quite thick and will require care to clean
up. The kit comes with a number of resin parts for the more delicate details
that are too fine for plastic molding, such as the tail wheel, main wheels,
exhaust, and the smaller cockpit parts. A small photo-etched fret includes
the main gear scissors, instrument panel, and the seat harness. The instructions
are very clear and easy to follow, and a very nice decal sheet is included
with markings for three aircraft.
Cockpit
 The
cockpit is basic and has some inaccuracies that will require work to rectify.
The biggest problem is that the side consoles are very short. They look
like little raised rectangular bumps on the cockpit floor. Having built
the Classic Airframes Hornet with its beautiful resin cockpit, the Special
Hobby kit's example is very wrong. I used a little sheet plastic to give
some semblance of side consoles. This required modifications to the instrument
panel. The seat is adequate, and benefits from the photo-etched harness.
The control column is a very fragile small resin piece that will require
care in both clean up and installation. There is a tray located behind
the pilot's seat that holds two resin parts that are, I believe, ammunition
canisters for the under nose cannons.
The tray is a flush mount to the seat bulkhead and needed a little strip
of plastic to support it. The completed cockpit is painted in various
shades of black, which is a good thing as this cockpit really could stand
a lot more work than I gave it.
Fuselage
 The
section under the nose needs to be removed to allow the placement of the
cannon ports as they are molded separately in resin. To do this, chain
drill small holes around the inside of the fuselage area for removal,
and file out to the indented mold line. Clean it up with sandpaper, and
mount the cannon ports. The fit is good, but will be dictated by the amount
of care and caution used. The spent shell ejector ports are not molded
on the fuselage and require the builder to add by cutting out or painting
them. The fit of the cockpit between the fuselage halves is poor. The
cockpit is too wide in the fuselage and cannot be narrowed, so material
will have to be removed from the fuselage. A moto tool will make short
messy work of that. Once the fuselage halves are thinner and the cockpit
installed, the fuselage halves go together fairly well. Do not forget
to add the resin fairing in the tail for the tail wheel. The fuselage
will still require putty to clean up the seams.
Wings
The wings consist of two upper and
two lower halves with the engine nacelles as separate parts. The radiator
matrices are molded as separate resin parts that are too narrow. If the
radiators are not corrected, the wings will not correctly mate with the
fuselage. This requires a strip of plastic added to the top of the matrices.
At this time, I added a wing spar to the fuselage, as the wings are a
simple butt joint. This adds strength and security to the assembly. This
was done by drilling a hole in the wing roots and running a length of
plastic rod through the fuselage. The rod does not have to be very long,
just enough to support the wings. Thin the trailing edges and get rid
of the ejector pin marks.
At this point in the construction, things get very ugly. The initial
wing to fuselage joint is appalling. The wings have almost a 30-degree
dihedral; this is extreme to say the least. A great deal of filing, sanding,
and test fitting was required to get the wings down to a realistic appearance.
This is where the Warpaint book comes in handy.
 Once
corrected, the fit of the wings is fair. They will require a great deal
of putty and sanding to clean up. I recommend that this be done before
adding the nacelles as this will save a lot of grief.
I cut out notches in the wing tips for clear navigation lights. I used
clear sprue bits from the injection-molded canopy that comes in the kit.
Use overly large pieces as that will make the job easier. Paint the wing
notch silver, little dabs of red and green paint for bulbs, and add the
sprue bits. I let the glue set overnight as these lenses will get some
rough treatment the next day. I took a moto tool and carefully removed
the largest chunk of plastic. I followed this with filing to fine shape
the part, and finished off with fine wet-dry sandpaper, and finally some
plastic polish to shine things up.
Engines
The nacelles are typical for a multiengine combat aircraft. They are
split vertically into halves. I recommend adding the exhaust before assembling
the nacelles, as adding them after the model is completed will be nearly
impossible. The apertures for the exhaust will need to be opened up, as
they are too small. Do not forget to add the propeller shafts. Bear in
mind that the exhaust is very fragile and care must be used, as it could
snap in half, just as one of mine did. The fit of the nacelles to the
wings is fair. There is some filing and sanding required around the leading
edge of the upper wing to get a good fit. The under wing seams are good
and require little filling. I added the gear doors at this time, as the
inside of the wheel wells was the same as the overall scheme.
Propellors
 The
propellers on the Hornet are typical Eastern European modeling fare. They
consist of separate blades, a spinner, and a backing plate, none of which
fit very well. The blades require some trimming at the root so that they
fit into the backing plates. Care must be taken to ensure that the blade
pitch is correct as port propeller spins counter clockwise, and the starboard
one spins clockwise. Drill out the center of the back plate so that the
propeller assembly will mount on the shaft. Once the blades are mounted
on the back plate then the spinner is added. The spinner is a poor fit.
I painted the blades the standard black with yellow tips and painted the
spinner in Tamiya XF-7 red for the scheme I chose. I recommend leaving
the propeller assemblies off the model until final assembly.
Tail
The horizontal stabilizers are molded as one-piece units, and are identically
molded. This poses a problem because the trim tabs are molded on one side
of the stabilizer. This means that if you mount them as is, one actuator
will be on top of one stabilizer and on the bottom of the other. This
is incorrect as both actuators should be on the underside. I solved this
by carefully shaving off one actuator and moving it to the other side
of the stabilizer. I then made piano wire pins at the root of the stabilizers
to mount into the fuselage, as like the wings, they butt join with the
fuselage. Some putty was required to clean up the seam.
The tail is a separate piece and posed no real problems, although some
trimming is required on the fuselage for a neat fit. A small amount of
putty was also required here.
Painting
The major seams of the model were
given a coat of Gunze Sangyo Mr. Surfacer 1000, as that helps seal them
up. A light sanding cleaned up the seams and I masked off the wing lights
and filled in the cockpit with tissue in preparation of painting. Before
painting began, I gave the model a quick wash of Poly Scale Surface Prep
to get rid of any grease that could ruin the paint.
Painting in earnest began with a coat of Tamiya spray can gray primer.
I love this product, it is easy to work with, sands nicely, and is a nice
surface for acrylic paints to bite. The particular Hornet I built is in
the very lovely aluminum dope that was frequently used by the RAF in the
late 40s and early 50s. I chose to use Tamiya flat aluminum and flat white
with just a touch of sky gray. I cannot honestly say what the formula
was, as I go by appearance, and when it looks good, I go with it. After
the paint was dry, I then added a couple of coats of Future in preparation
for the decals.
Decals
The kit comes with markings for
three aircraft:
1. PX252 - an F1 piloted by Squadron Leader C. Haw of No. 65 Squadron.
This is the aircraft I decided to do, as it is aluminum dope with large
red chevrons around both fuselage and upper wing roundels. I liked this
scheme.
2. PX232 - YT O R of No. 65 Squadron, an attractive aircraft in sea
gray medium and PRU blue.
3. PX284 - O H of No. 19 Squadron. A modified version of the previous
aircraft scheme, but with attractive white and blue-checkered stripes
on either side of the fuselage roundels.
The decals are very thin and adhere well to the Future, a little too
well. I did not get one of the wing markings quite right, tried to move
it and damaged it a little. Be careful when using decal solvents, as some
of them maybe too aggressive.
When the decals had fully dried, I applied another coat of Future. This
was followed by a couple of very thin coats of Testors Acryl flat coat.
The decal film had virtually disappeared.
After decaling, I added a little exhaust stains to the engine nacelles
using Tamiya red brown and semi gloss black thinned 70% with isopropyl
alcohol. I kept weathering to a minimum as this was the Squadron Leader's
plane, and therefore, would have been kept in a clean state.
Final Construction
After all the painting and decaling was done, it was time to wrap things
up. I started with the landing gear. The gear struts are fair, but very
simple compared to the actual aircraft, which resembles a Mosquito assembly.
The retraction arms are terrible, so I replaced them with ones made from
brass tubing and piano wire. The oleo scissors, which are photo-etched,
are small fragile fiddly things and require some care to bend. The landing
gear mounts to the forward nacelle bulkhead, and rests on a molded-in
lip. The nicest part of the landing gear is the resin main wheels. There
is nice detail and mount to the legs with little fuss. The tail wheel
requires quite a bit of care when removing it from the pour block. It
can easily snap in half with a little rough treatment.
The next item added was the canopy, and this is where I think Eastern
European kits fall flat. Instead of being a bad vacuform canopy, this
kit has a bad injection molded canopy. It did not fit, and requires some
work along edge that meets the fuselage. Even after all that work, it
still did not fit. The rear of the canopy sits proud of the fuselage when
the windscreen is secured. Why don't these companies think of getting
a company like Falcon to make their canopies? So far, I have not found
an Eastern European model to have acceptable clear bits.
I finished the model by adding the propellers and a piano wire pitot
tube near the port wingtip.
Conclusion
 The
Special Hobby Hornet was not a terrible kit. True, it does have some dreadful
issues: the wing to fuselage join, the canopy, and some of the landing
gear parts. Overall, the kit has its merits, and does look every bit of
what a Hornet should look like. I wish it were more like the Classic Airframes
kit in some of the detail shortcomings. Try this kit, it will provide
hours of challenge and modeling satisfaction!
Postscript
This is the second complete edition
of this article as the first, including all the build process images to
go with it were completely wiped out. A nasty virus snuck through our
meagre defenses and wiped our hard drive clean. I apologize for the limited
number of photos provided.
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Once
corrected, the fit of the wings is fair. They will require a great deal
of putty and sanding to clean up. I recommend that this be done before
adding the nacelles as this will save a lot of grief. 
