Hawker Hunter FGA.9

Revell 1/144

The kit is very nice, in spite of the scale and the price. For about five Dollars you get a rather accurate model with a reasonable cockpit and wheel wells detail, weapon options and decals for two planes. The detail on external surfaces is a delicate and crisp negative.

The fit is good (except for the canopy) and no filler is required.

I started from the cockpit, painting it with acrylics and picking out the details with enamels. Then I painted wheel wells and jet intakes with some metallic paint before assembling the wing halves.

The camouflage colors are from the Tamiya acrylics range, mixed on the fly. I primed the model with a light grey, then used black to pre-shade, then sprayed the dark grey in a few very thin layers trying not to cover the areas where the green should go. When the dark grey was dry, I masked with Mo-Lak maskol and sprayed the green, always in thin layers to let just a hint of pre-shading show through.

Once dry, the model was prepared for the decals with a coat of Future (my special thanks to Alessandro Patroncino who shared a bottle of the precious liquid) and decaled. Another coat of Future was the base for a light wash, while the semi-gloss finish was achieved with a mix of Aeromaster's flat and semi-gloss clear paints.

When this was dry, I used some grey and black pastel powder to further enhance the weathered look of the plane.

The airfield's tarmac was built in a couple of sessions using a piece of styrene sheet. First I traced the lines with a pencil and a ruler, then engraved the lines with a Tamiya plastic scriber. Various shades of grey and sand were airbrushed until the effect convinced me, then came a light wash with a dark oil mixture; the yellow line was masked and painted with acrylic matt yellow.

The grass is from Woodland Scenics and was sprinkled on a layer of thinned white glue, painted with greens, yellows and browns and drybrushed pale yellow.

It took me about 15 hours to complete the model, and it was pure fun for me. Oh, yes, it lacks some antennae, I forgot to reinstall them as they were cut at sanding time. I'll put them on. One day.

Recommended to all modellers.