Revell Hawker Hunter FGA 9

By Daniel Porterfield

The Kit

The Hawker Hunter FGA 9 by Revell is in my opinion a fine kit. Some of the high lights are:

Recessed panel lines
Recessed rivet detail
Separate flaps
Very little, if any flash
Excellent fit
Can build one of two versions
Pro modeler decal sheet (sheet as large as the box!)
Well detailed landing gear bays and cockpit

Construction

The model was built mostly straight from the box with the exception of a few modifications to the navigation lights and wing tip whip antennas. Also, the ejection seat was replaced with one from Paragon Details. This seat has loads of detail and was a blast to paint.

Construction of the kit was pretty straightforward with no big problems. The only problem I did encounter was the vertical stabilizer was slightly bent to one side. This was carefully massaged back to an acceptable position with diligent use of a hair dryer. All the basic modeling techniques were used with no major surgery required and I didn't even have to break out the putty for the wing root joints or anywhere else for that matter.

Painting

I built up the kit in sub-assemblies for painting purposes, fuselage complete with wings and tail plane, drop tanks with their pylons, landing gear etc.

I painted the entire model with Polly Scale acrylic paints. Firstly the model was prepped for paint and shot with flat aluminum. This was my primer coat. Next the bottom of the model was shot with light gray. I then masked off the bottom and proceeded to shoot the camouflage colors. When all sub-assemblies were finished I clear coated (Future) everything that required decals. Three solid nights of decaling later (about a billion stencils) it was time for weathering.

Weathering

To accentuate the panel lines I used two different colors of wash, one for the areas covered in green and one for the areas covered in gray (top and bottom). I used artist watercolors diluted with water and a few drops of dish soap. I flowed these on, and once dry, wiped the excess off with a dry cotton swap leaving the wash in the panel lines. Once I was satisfied with the panel lines I gave the model a light coat of clear flat to seal in the watercolor and allow me to weather with some pastel chalks. Once the pastel chalk work was complete I picked out some areas with flat aluminum to represent wear and tear. The next step was to tone everything down a notch to try and achieve that ever controversial "scale effect" I did this by giving the whole model a misting of thinned out gray, then followed up with a final coat of semi-gloss to get that satin finish.

The sleek lines of the Hunter and the quality of the Revell kit made this model a pleasure to build If you like 1/32 scale and Hawker Hunters...build it!