J 34 - Hawker Hunter - Revell

Top lid opening box - these are great for holding stuff during the project. 

Fret 1 - Fuselage. The panel lines are overall much too deep for a perfect realism, as the Hunter's panel lines were almost invisible. But it looks better on a model than perfectly smooth surfaces. 

Fret 2 - Wings. The wing's dogtooth leading edge is incorrect for the F.4 version, which was used by the Swedish Air Force, so it will need to be corrected. They are provided as separate pieces so it seems that Revell was considering the possibility to make an earlier version. 

Fret 3 and 4 - Fuel tanks and rocket pods. The kit represents the FGA.9 attack version, so these will not be used. The Swedish Hunters were instead equipped with Sidewinders on the outer wing pylons, which will be sourced from the spares stash. 

Fret 5 - Windscreen and canopy 

Superb instructions. Very detailed, beautifully drawn and super clear. The color callouts are for Revell paints only and usually need to be mixed, which is a pity. I will use my own references anyway. 

Eduard pre-painted photo-etched parts purchased. Absolutely lovely! I will just need to coat them with flat varnish to remove the metallic sheen, 

Painting masks for the windshield and canopy. Well, why not. 

Metal pitot tube. Easier and better looking than using a sewing needle. 

Decal sheet from Moose Republic for several Swedish versions. They all looked the same, green top and greyish-blue bottom, so no difference there. The "Acro Hunters" was a Swedish aerobatic display team, but they also used regular aircraft with the standard camo, although with the yellow paintjob on the nose. 

I bought the resin conversion kit for the F.4 version used by the Swedish Air Force (set from Freightdog Models). The main difference is the lack of the characteristic "dogtooth" zig-zag break in the leading edge of a wing. The kit also includes replacement wheels as the kit's own wheels are rather undersized. The nose cone on the bottom right with the "Harley Light" is not to be used for the F.4 versions. 

This resin plug should replace the part between the two panel lines for the correct air scoops for the F.4 version. I don't think I would be able to make the mating lines to look as crisp and neat as the original lines, so for me the few changes are simply not worth the trouble.  

The conversion kit also includes a new resin tailpipe (the one on the top) for the F.4 version. The kit's version is not valid for the Swedish Hunters. 

Starting with cutting out the photo-etched parts for the cockpit. I am using a curved blade on a ceramic tile to avoid bending the parts while cutting. 

The PE parts are carefully bent into shape and superglued into the fuselage halves. I sometimes use a cocktail stick to apply the glue or a metal needle for a very delicate application. 

Cockpit sides embellished with some PE. Now ready for some paint. 

The molded-on instruments on the dashboard are sanded smooth and the opening for the pilot's legs are increased slightly according to the instructions on the Eduard PE set. The instruments will be represented with PE once painted. 

The kit's ejection seat is really nicely detailed, but the seat belts are sanded off, some details from the seat headrests, and also the ejection handles. These will all be replaced with PE once the seat is assembled and painted.  

Ejection seat and cockpit tub painted and a bunch of photo-etched details added. The printed instruments on the side consoles may appear a bit rough in the photo but look convincing enough in real life. 

Cockpit tub cemented into the fuselage. The seat is not yet cemented in place to make subsequent canopy masking easier. 

Fuselage sides joined with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. No issues so far. A few panel lines on the bottom are lost during sanding, but are easily restored by a few straight cuts along the remaining lines with a razor saw. 

The instructions call for 5 grams of nose weight, so I crammed in as many tiny fishing weights as I could under the nose gear bay and into the tiny nose cone, hoping that it will be enough. Cemented in with acrylic glue to avoid lead corrosion from superglue. 

Loosely taping the main parts together to check that the nose weight is enough for all three wheels to be firmly on the ground. Looks good enough! 

New resin tailpipe sawed off from its casting block. Breathing mask is always to be used when working with resin as that dust is really toxic. There was a tiny hole in the resin material, just near the very end of the tailpipe that needed to be filled in with superglue and sanded to shape. You can just barely see it in the photo. 

Tailpipe cemented on with superglue.  

Adding the 'Sabrinas' to the fuselage (for obvious reasons named after the, hmm, front heavy British photo model of those days). These are actually the spent ammo cartridge collectors. Not all Hunters were equipped with these, so you will need to use your references for the exact aircraft you are building. 

The sawtooth leading edge of the wings (the inner parts) need to be corrected. The resin leading edges in the Freightdog set (the outer parts) however do not fit particularly well and are a bit bent, so instead I decided to use the kit's own parts and just sand them into the correct shape.  

One wing done - another one to go! 

Before the wings are attached, the insides of the intakes are metalized (AKI Xtreme Metal 482 Duraluminium). Not much will be visible but better than bare plastic. 

Wings joined. The model has a cleverly engineered attachment system to hide the wing joins. 

Stabilizers added. 

The kit features extended flaps with some nice internal detail. The instructions suggest that you cut out the outer corner along marked lines, to allow the large 230 gallon wing tanks to be added, but for the F.4 only the smaller, 100 gallon tanks were used, so I left the flaps as they were. Both tanks types are provided in the kit - thank you Revell! 

The square shaped blast deflectors on the guns are drilled open. 

The Swedish Hunters had been modified to be able to carry the Swedish RB 24 missile, a license built version of the AIM-9B Sidewinder. The missile rails are not provided in the kit, but I found some usable parts from the Tarangus Lansen kit that I spliced to the slightly modified pylons. The RB 24's are represented by the Vympel K-13's from the Eduard MiG-21 kit. These were Soviet built Sidewinder clones, so they should be just fine to represent the missiles. 

The RB 24's are painted as exercise missiles. In the Swedish Air Force, green color means "blind" (inert). Live missiles were seldom used for exercise flights to avoid the missile's quota of allowed flight hours to be exhausted. 

Pylons and landing gears are attached. It's all beautifully detailed, even the brake wires are represented. Wheels and the rest of the gear bay doors will be added after painting as otherwise they would make the painting a bit difficult. 

Both the kit's own wheels and the Freightdog replacement resin wheels are painted, first spraying the metal hubs, masking them off and painting the black tyres. The kit's own wheels are the ones on the top of the picture. Actually they are more crisp than the resin ones, and although they are slightly undersized, I will use them. 

Nose gear replaced with the resin equivalent from Freightdog as the kit's own nose wheel is grossly undersized - at least with 50%. Unfortunately the new resin gear is a one-piece item, the original has a separate wheel, which makes painting much easier. 

The large ventral air brake cemented in dropped position. This is a really beautiful piece that adds a lot to the busy look of the Hunter. 

Instrument panel coaming sprayed black, HUD and windscreen added using acrylic adhesive. As you can see, the ejection seat is temporarily removed, as it would make masking more difficult. 

Canopy being dry-tested for fit. The fit is flawless, but if you intend to install the canopy in closed position, be advised that the back edge is meant to be resting on the back spine, which because of the out-of-scale thickness of the canopy results in a nasty step. This is of course not present on the real thing but hard to avoid unless you are prepared to sand down the canopy to a fraction if its thickness. The easiest is to the display the canopy in an open position, which I intend to do. 

Cockpit and windscreen carefully masked off with the Eduard masking set and Tamiya masking tape plus some Mr Hobby masking fluid. 

The entire model is rubbed off with IPA alcohol to remove fingerprints, molding grease and dust particles. 

Model primed with UMP Ultimate Primer Gray using the H&S Evolution airbrush (0.4 mm needle). Now left to dry for a day. 

Panel lines preshaded with black. I need to do something to break up the rather uniform color and avoid a toy-like appearance. 

Underside sprayed with my mix of 60% Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray and 40% XF-23 Light Blue. Thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and applied with my H&S Infinity, 0.2 mm needle at 12 PSI. Paint intensity varied to allow the darker undercoat to break up the uniform appearance. When done, all generously oversprayed with pure Leveling Thinner to melt the paint layer a bit. It's a bit intimidating at first, but I find that this method eliminates all tendencies to orange peel effect and leaves an absolute immaculate smooth paint coat. And oh, don't touch the model for at least two days as the paint coat is super soft and your fingerprints will be permanently embedded in it. 

Wheel wells masked off with slices of Tamiya masking tape. 

Wells sprayed AKI Xtreme Metal Matte Aluminium. 

Details in the wheel wells emphasised with various AKI Paneliner washes and AKI turpenoid. 

Underside carefully masked off with Tamiya masking tape for spraying of the top surfaces. 

Top surfaces sprayed with Tamiya XF-65 Field Gray, which to me seems like a near perfect match for the sun-faded Swedish camo. I deliberately let a bit more of the underlying pre-shading shine through to simulate faded paint. The panels lines will later also be treated with a brownish wash.  

White exercise markings for an F18 Tullinge based aircraft (Yellow Gustav) masked off and sprayed on (Tamiya XF-2 Flat White). Starting to look neat! 

Model coated with Tamiya X-22 Clear Varnish for protecting the paint and preparing for the decals. The final finish will be dull so it is just an temporary glossy sheen. 

Decal application commencing. Lots of stencils are provided but some are hardly visible and too small to actually matter, so not all of them will be added. 

Adding some oil based weathering with black Tamiya Panel Liner. Just let the wash flow into the recesses and let sit for a while. 

After 20 minutes, carefully wipe off the excess using cotton swabs and a broad brush with some AKI Odorless Turpentine (turpenoid), making sure to keep the staining as much as possible in the direction of the generic airflow. It's easy to end up overdoing the panel lining and ending up with an aircraft that looks like an Excel spreadsheet, but you can then just wipe it all off and do it again. Because of the gloss coat, the paintwork is not harmed by the turpenoid. But be careful with the decals! 

Wheels, drop tanks and missile rails added. 

Semi-flat clear coat sprayed on and masks removed. Now, just a few minor details are missing plus some final paint chipping added with acrylic pencils, and then it's time for the finished model shots! 

Finished 

Finished 

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Finished 

Finished 

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Finished