Introduction

The following is the introduction Revell of Germany supplies with this model.

The famous Hawker Hunter is certainly one of the most elegant jet fighter aircraft ever produced in Great Britain. It entered service with the Royal Air Force in 1954 and was used in large numbers as a fighter-interceptor. The prototype first flew in 1951 and two years later set the absolute world speed record. The Hunter is well known for its ease of control and stable flight characteristics. It is a favourite with every pilot who has ever flown it. A total of nearly 2000 Hunters were built and it saw service with 18 different air forces. During the 50s and early 60s the Hawker Hunter was the main Guardian of the Skies within the RAF and NATO. The Hunter was later modernized and given a new role as fighter-bomber (FGA.9) within the RAF. Fitted with four 30 mm cannon, it could also carry a variety of offensive weapons. It served in no fewer than 37 RAF squadrons up until the late 70's and was finally decommissioned in 1984. The Swiss Air Force took delivery of its first Mk.58 Hunter in the spring of 1959. It was built under license at the Emmen aircraft factory. The Hunter was used as a fighter-bomber in 15 flying squadrons and received extensive modifications to meet various service requirements. The last Hunter serving in Switzerland was not decommissioned until 16 January 1994, a great tribute to this aircraft’s performance.

Contents

Thankfully inside a traditional tray with separate lid as opposed the more usual end opening box from Revell of Germany, you will find;

• 6 grey sprues
• 1 clear sprue
• A loose leafed instruction booklet
• A decal sheet
• An advisory pamphlet

Review

First Impressions
Upon opening the box I was surprised by how little plastic there is in the box, depending on your aim this could be seen as a plus. The total number of parts is 207 which may seem light for a model of this size, but that does mean there is the possibility for a fairly fast build for those who build from the box or only add minor upgrades or straight swap parts. The moulds for this kit date back to the heady days of 1998 according to the stamp on the inner face of the wings, so don’t expect any slide moulding technology in the box or technological innovations from the box. With that said the moulds would appear to be holding up very well with a very limited amount of flash to clean up and no other obvious issues to deal with.

The parts are reasonably well laid out in terms of access for removal of parts but you will spend some time looking for parts, still at least there is only two sprues. The gates between parts and sprue is a mixed bag; the gates are minimal in number and of a reasonable size when it comes to the small parts, the main components on the other hand have very large T gates which will be best removed with a saw and then sanding back, not the end of the world but defiantly not a job for a side cutter. The sprues are packaged in two plastic bags that are taped shut with the glazed parts in a third bag, a small number of parts have been broken free from the sprues but that is I believe due to very rough handling by the courier judging by the damage to the packing box.

Cockpit
Starting with the centre instrument console; everything appears to be a fair match for my reference as regards to the RAF version of the Hawker Hunter, however there is a very large and fairly thick layer of plastic on the top right hand side that will need to be removed and cleaned up. There is an alternate instrument panel for a Swiss Hunter; I however could not find reference for that panel. The panels down the sides of the cockpit look to be pretty good all told even though I suspect there is always something you can add to enhance if wished. The Mk 2H Ejector seat would seem to be a good match for my reference with the exception of the metal sides of the seat which are not raised at the front as they should be, the Swiss ejector seat is covered separately to the RAF version, this is because despite using identical parts the painting is different which will mean deciding on your finishing option early in the build. The ejector seat has a fair representation of the harness moulded on, however I am not as happy with this harness detail as I have been with the other large scale aircraft I have reviewed and so I suggest looking towards the after-market products available. All in the entire cockpit looks very nice in my opinion despite the relatively small size.

Jet Engine Intake
Revell of Germany has done quite a good job of the jet intake area with the funnel intakes being nicely detailed and finishing at the first of the compressor fans. I will go so far as to say I am impressed with this detail.

Undercarriage
Despite my best efforts I was not able to locate reference images that show the wheel bays of the Hawker Hunter, however I did locate some good artist impressions of the undercarriage struts. The front wheel strut is very good, being accurate along the main strut, but where the steering knuckle is there is a small part of the strut missing. The nose wheel door struts are also a little on the heavy side but should be acceptable to most. The wing wheel struts look to be excellent in all respects from what I have been able to check, with some excellent and fine cable detail in place. The wheels themselves look to have captured the hub detail very well, but I am unsure about tread detail on the tyre. Another plus with the wheels is that they have been supplied with a weighted look to them. The wing undercarriage doors have excellent internal detail when compared to my reference and should really shine with some washes applied. The nose wheel door however does not have the same level of detail but is still fair. One thing I am pleased to see on this model is that the wheel struts are not split in two along their entire length.

Fuselage
As indicated earlier in the review the major fuselage components have some very large T shaped sprue gates which will need to be removed very carefully to avoid damage to the mouldings. The panel lines are recessed but are very fine so care will need to be taken not to obscure the detail when painting. The panel line detail does look to be a very good match for my reference. The airbrake on the underside of the fuselage can be shown deployed or retracted and fair detail on both faces. As with most nose wheeled aircraft the front has to weighted to make it sit correctly to the tune of 40 grams.

Wings and Tail
The wings as with the fuselage look to match my reference when looking at the panel lines, the panel lines are again very light and I am considering if it may be worth doing some scribing some or all of these lines. One way of identifying the FGA 9 version of the Hawker Hunter is the cut out in the wing flaps in order to accommodate the 100 gallon drop tanks that hang from the outer hard points and this model from Revell of Germany does replicate this detail well. There is not a lot to say about the tail other than the panel lines are accurate and share the same attributes as the wings and fuselage.

Canopy
The canopy does cause some distortion when looking through it but otherwise has good detail, and also looks to be a good match for the reference I have.

Weapons
There is a reasonable amount of hardware supplied with this model and which is specific to either the RAF version or the Swiss version. For the RAF version Revell of Germany have supplied;
2 x 100 gallon fuel tanks
2 x 230 gallon fuel tanks
2 x Matra Type 155 SNEB
The Matra rocket pods are supplied as an alternate load for the outer most hard point on the RAF version of the Hunter.
The Swiss version is supplied with;
2 x AGM-65 Maverick missiles
2 x 675 litre drop tank
The Swiss version of the Hunter has an extra internal hard point and Revell of Germany has supplied stores for this area that I cannot identify and for that matter have never seen anything that looks similar. The detail on all of the hardware is reasonable for the age of the model.

Instructions
The instruction booklet is a loose leafed offering that guides you through construction using black and white line drawings. I like the fact that Revell of Germany call out detail painting instructions as the build progresses as some companies do not. The decal sheet looks to be very thorough, both in regards to generic markings and aircraft specific markings. The only decals with a lot of excess carrier film are the RAF aircraft identification letters and numbers. I am a little surprised that Revell of Germany has supplied the RAF roundels in two parts; the red portion of the roundel is supplied separately.

Conclusion

Another in the big is beautiful range from Revell of Germany and one that I have not seen any complaints about. The hawker hunter has the traditional lines most of us above a certain age associate with jets. The parts count and quality is reasonable and so should look quite impressive when built. The only real accuracy issue I found with the kit parts is the fault with the ejector seat, and that is not exactly obvious once installed in the cockpit. This is a great kit at a great price and well worth picking up if you have an interest in early jets. This model would also be a great kit to refresh or hone your skills with after returning to or just joining the hobby for the first time and have good expectations of a pleasant result.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For details visit www.revell.de/en, @RevellGermany or facebook.com/Revell

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