Coming along very nicely

This is looking damn good 👍

Thanks, gentlemen! I've been slowly getting it's small bits glued on but real life and all that...
Anyway, the Hunter's on it's wheels and it's just the ordnance left but i still have to paint the sensors on the Sidewinders and Mavericks, paint the nav lights and final bit will be a few easy to break antennas and the Master brass pitot tube.
Again, i may not have time for that today as i have to drive to my hometown to take care of some stuff...

So, a few days short of 11 months after work began, today i've finished the PoAF Hunter...  
I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out despite there are some areas where it could've come out better.
When removing the canopy masks, i've found out that the aft right corner of the canopy was cracked and only kept in place by the tape... 
Oh well, better be more careful with this type of thing next time. Can't say i couldn't have done it sooner but it is what it is... Here's just a teaser pic, i'll get the backdrop and lights set up after lunch and should have better pics by the end of the afternoon...

Looking good 

Very good!  

Not only good, wholly believable as well. 

Hawker Hunter F Mk.58A "Caçador"- Esquadra 301 "Jaguares" of the PoAF - Montijo BA Nº6 - 1994


"Towards the end of the 1950s, the Portuguese Air Force(PoAF) and the Swiss Air Force both  performed an extensive evaluation of several aircraft for a prospective purchase.
Competitors evaluated included the North American F-86 Sabre, the Folland Gnat, and the Hawker Hunter; a pair of Hunters were loaned to the Swiss for further trials and testing.



In January 1958, the government of Switzerland chose to terminate their independent fighter aircraft project, the in-development FFA P-16, instead choosing to order 100 Hunters to replace their existing fleet of de Havilland Vampire fighters. Further development of the indigenous P-16 was discontinued. This initial order for 100 single-seat Hunters consisted of 12 refurbished RAF F.6s, and 88 new-built F.58s.



In Portugal, after the conclusion of the study of the same options in 1957, the F-86F Sabre was the favorite so, 50 North-American F-86Fs were ordered and the aircraft were successively delivered by the US under the MDAP Program (Military Defense Assistance Pact). The first 4 aircraft arrived on August 25, 1958 at Air Base 2 (BA2), Ota, destined to equip Squadron 50 "Falcões", provisionally placed there. By the end of October of that same year, all the remaining aircraft of an initial shipment of 30 had been received.



Swiss Hunters were operated as interceptors, with a secondary ground-attack role. From 1963 onwards, the outboard wing pylons were modified to carry two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. In the ground-attack role, the Swiss Air Force maintained an arsenal of conventional iron bombs, a number of compatible napalm bombs were also maintained for intended use by the Hunters.



In the interceptor role, the Hunters were supplemented by a surface-to-air missile (SAM) defence system also procured from the United Kingdom, based on the Bristol Bloodhound. In case of unserviceable airstrips, Swiss Air Force Jets would take off from adjacent highways, using them as improvised runway.
The initial delivery rate of the Hunters had been slow and by the end of 1963, only 32 of the initial order of 100 had been delivered. The Swiss AF was not happy to divide the small fleet of their best fighter aircraft to have all units running at half strength.



This led to the decision to cut the initial order to half and redirect the funds for the acquisition of the already evaluated and denied Fiat G-91 R/4. More airframes could be made available sooner because of the recent withdrawal of Greek and Turkish orders. These aircraft would take over the ground attack role, leaving the Hunter fleet free to be totally dedicated to air defense duties.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese armed forces had been involved in anti-guerrilla warfare since 1961 in the African colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.



The PoAF deployed a squadron of Sabres to Guinea in 1961 but soon began facing pressure from the US secretary of foreign affairs and more importantly, from the NATO council, of which Portugal was a part of.
The Sabres had to be recalled back to Portugal as they had been supplied under the MDAP agreement so, with threats being made of future denial to all technical assistance and of access to spare parts, by 1964, all were back in the mainland.



This left the Portuguese army forces relying solely on T-6 Harvard trainers converted to carry gun pods and bombs under the wings and fuselage centerline. Besides this, the PoAF was spreading its already weak forces thinner by employing them in 3 separate theaters of operation so, a solution had to be found soon.



The PoAF's generals had predicted this situation and close contact was kept with several military aircraft manufacturers ever since the beginning of the war.
As soon as the pressure began about the use of MDAP funded weapons, the order was given to procure the best type of combat aircraft from a manufacturer that would ignore the pressure but things were looking bad.



Fiat G-91R/4 from German stocks were one option but the cutback of the Swiss Hunter F.Mk.58s left the Hawker factory salesmen looking for a country that would take the cancelled number of the Swiss order and, after a couple of meetings held in early 1963 mostly "under the radar" to allow for the deal to go through and only be widely reported after most of the aircraft were delivered.



Having an old relationship with the Portuguese military, the British government agreed to the "cover" story that the Hunters were only intended for use in mainland Portuguese territories. These would equip two attack squadrons, to free the F-86 Sabres airframes for air defense duties only. This was needed to avoid the NATO council and the American government's interference in the deal before it was completed.



The Portuguese Mk.58As would be exactly the same as the Swiss had received so the same designation mark was used. The only difference was that the PoAF also asked for the AIM-9 capability to be integrated in the assembly line. PoAF crews began preparing and pilots were in training way before the first F-86s were back in the main Portuguese territory. Training of grounds crews and pilots at RAF Chivenor with No. 229 OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) began in September 1963. and the first 6 PoAF Hunters were flown to Portugal by the most experienced of the first batch of Hunter-qualified Portuguese pilots in April of the following year.



The whole effort of acquiring the Hunters and training the pilots for deployment to the African colonies was to be put to a halt with the growing suspicion and dissenting voices being heard more on every NATO council meeting and directly from the US department of foreign affairs. In March of 1965, Portugal was threatened to be put under heavy sanctions if the use of advanced military equipment in the African continent began disturbing relations with countries that held common borders with the Portuguese colonies Like Guinea-Conakry and Senegal.



In total, 60 airframes (48 Mk.58A, 12 T.68) were delivered to the PoAF, with the last one officially landing at Monte Real Nº5 air base in July of 1968. In 1975, an order for another 26 single seat Mk.58A and 4 T.68 was cancelled due to the change of political power and subsequent military budget cuts that were imposed.



PoAF Hunters never left the mainland, according to official sources... But after the end of the war, in late 1974, rumours started surfacing of at least 4 Hunters being unloaded off a ship at a harbour in the South of Portugal, which were subsequently hauled out to uncertain location. Confirmation of the rumours was never obtained and the reason of these aircraft being shipped in at such a location and without official information regarding their origin raised suspicion that these aircraft had been operated in African territories but no official confirmation was ever released nor have any witnesses come forth to sustain such claims.
After the F-86Fs were retired in 1975 due to lack of spare parts and resulting high operating costs, PoAF Hunters served as the main interceptor, going through a modernization program in 1988/9, mainly to upgrade the ground attack capabilities. This program would follow the same guidelines as the Hunter 80 program created for the Swiss AF Hunters, to allow for more modern weapons like AGM-65F Maverick air-to-ground and AIM-9P air-to-air missiles to be used.



Hunters flew for the PoAF for 30 years, with a very low rate of accidents and and only one airframe and it's pilot were lost in a crash when the pilot got disoriented in heavy fog and flew into a hill. No further serious mishaps besides a nose landing gear failure that ended with the pilot managing to stop the jet without severe damage to the airframe, which was repaired and stored for spares. Until their retirement in 1994, when they were replaced by the modern F-16A Fighting Falcon, the Hunters flew with distinction with the 301st Foghter Squadron "Jaguares", participating in several Nato Tigermeets, winning several awards, including the best tiger paint scheme in 1989.
Their pilots loved the agility and reliability flying the Hunter, which was also loved by the ground crews as they found it a simple and rugged aircraft to maintain with simple tools in rough conditions. Again, rumours of where that knowledge and experience were obtained were plenty but the stories never got official confirmation and thus became myths and legends, maybe based on reality or maybe just product of someone's imagination..."


Well, lots of bad photos and a long story that probably has some major holes but i can't be bothered to read, think and write anymore... That's done!   

That is some top notch weathering!

Looks well used, & towards the end of their lives they would have. Excellent build & a good story!    

It certainly looks as though it's had a hard life. Excellent weathering compliments the build perfectly 

Beautiful build, great detail & weathering       

You're too generous but i'm glad you like the "Caçador", gentlemen! 

The weathering is quite an interesting thing to do on a model, i'm finding that it does give an extra bit of "character" to the build. I'm enjoying it a lot so, i'll try to do better on some things that didn't come out exactly like i wanted but i have enough kits in the stash to have fun for the rest of my life. 

Still, there are many flaws in the build but i didn't loose much sleep over them...
First of all, the colors aren't the exact ones, just kind of close to the colors used for this scheme in the real world but i was too lazy to mix up paint or buy the correct colors for it... I did buy the Hataka set with the correct colors... after this one was painted... 
The canopy was broken after it was masked so i had to glue it and it's easily visible... I went too heavy with the X-19 clear smoke on the navigation lights and it obscured the red and green dots that represented the light bulbs so it looks like dark tinted glass instead of clear glass cover with colored light bulbs inside like on the real thing... Next time i may try some clear sprue to represent these lights.
I don't like the way the windscreen looks, it needed some work. I should've done some light filling on the front and some light sanding on the side frames that connect to the fuselage, they're too thick and not as obvious on the real one.
Panel line wash is too heavy on some lines, the lighter/darker patches of paint are a bit too random for my taste and i need to study reference pics a bit better. I have to say that i had a hard time finding colored pics of dirty Hunters so i tried to keep it reasonable for a fighter jet at the end of it's service life.

These are nitpickings but they're some of the things i know could be better so, at least i guess i have an idea of what to work on in future builds. There's so much detail that i don't have the skill or patience to add, the kit has its own flaws... Whatever! There's always something that could be better so i won't be wasting my time trying to achieve perfection.
It took me almost a year to finish a simple markings whiff but i had good fun with it and i'm happy with the result so, it's a win in my book.

Good job.

 

Agreed I am with Fred..looking pretty sharpe mate 👍