A different Hunter T12

[PR19_Kit]

Repeating my post on Devilfish's thread on his 1/48 th T12 :-

My 'Telford Cold' having abated somewhat I'm back in the model room again.  Grin

This morning I hauled my Hunter T12 bits and pieces off the Project Shelf and delved back into the numerous packets and boxes there. This is surely going to be the work of many hands, some commercial and some that of Whiffers from here.

An incomplete list would be :- Revell, Airfix, Freightdog, Maintrack, Pavla, Quickboost, Aeroclub, OGL, Rickshaw and JayBee, with the mixing and matching done by me. It could be quite a long build, but then mine usually are. For sure it will be interesting, and hopefully with a good looking result.

Here's some pics of all the assorted bits and pieces. The basics in the top pic are the lovely Revell Hunter FGA9 kit (Why don't they re-release it, or the F6?) and Colin Freightdog's Super Hunter resin conversion kit, but the second pic shows all the myriad goodies that I've assembled for the build.

Top left is the Silver Cloud Super Hunter conversion and directly below it is the bit that makes it all possible, the tandem 2 seat fuselage. This was a joint effort between OGL and Rickshaw, as the original Maintrack tandem conversion is intended for the M'box kit and making fit the Revell offering is a nightmare, but Rickshaw managed it, using one of OGL's re-moulds as a starter, and a super job is it too.  Top right are two Pavla resin M-B bang seats and immediately under them is the vacform canopy moulded by JayBee. At the bottom are two Quickboost sets, one for the airbrake and for the exhaust that may or may not be needed depending on how they work on the model. And lastly the little white tri-angular thing in the middle is the radome from an Airfix TSR2 so the 237 OCU students can lean how to fly the things properly. 

[Captain Canada]

Oh yeah....this is gonna be sweet !

[sandiego89]

Nice!  How would the canopy open?  One long clamshell hinged at the rear (tornado style)? Twin rear hinged (Phantom style)? , side hinged? (Harrier T2/4)

[PR19_Kit]

Nice!  How would the canopy open?  One long clamshell hinged at the rear (tornado style)? Twin rear hinged (Phantom style)? , side hinged? (Harrier T2/4)

Good question, and one I won't need to answer as it'll be closed on my model. 

I suspect it would have hinged at the rear, Tornado style  but I couldn't give you a rational thought process for that conclusion. I've never seen any details of the original P.1101's canopy opening method anywhere, all that's ever shown is a side view with it closed.

[PR19_Kit]

By my usual build speed standards I'm going hypersonic on this one.  Of course if Dizzufugu was doing it he'd have been doing the decals by now. 

After assembling the basic Revell fuselage I trimmed off the moulding block from the Silver Wings afterburning exhaust pipe and slotted it into the tail before the glue had fully dried. This was because the resin part is a trifle too large in diameter and needs a bit of 'persuasion' to fit the FGA9's tail. A smidgeon of PSR will sort out the small gap in the underside later on. The big problem in this area is the lack of parabrake, which I'm sure the T12s would have had, and the Quickboost conversion I bought turned out not to be well suited for the job as it is an entire NON-afterburning exhaust! So I'm planning to Dremel out the insides of the standard Revell FGA9 exhaust, leaving only the parabrake housing, and squiggle (© Allan) what's left over the Silver Wings exhaust pipe.

I sanded down the resin forward fuselage, not that it needed much, and measured the larger diameter of the TSR2 radome (11 mm FYI), marked that off on the nose and sawed off the requisite length, then sanded it down until the two parts matched as well as they were going to, and superglued it in place. The radome is circular and the fuselage nose is slightly flattened, like the RW T7s, so a little 'matching' was called for with large files and sanding pads.

The two intake boundary layer panels fitted nicely in the same places as they do in the Revell kit, or they would have done if the starboard one hadn't fallen on the floor and become an evening snack for the Carpet Monster.  So I cut another one from styrene sheet and bent it to shape, and after glueing it in place I filed it to match the port side one. Then I trimmed off the large moulding flash panels from the new wings and tried one in place. It fitted like it was MADE for it, which of course it was, but not quite in the way in which I'm using it. 

Lastly I superglued the two fuselage halves together with the result you see below.

I must admit I quite like the shape, it looks REALLY fast with that needle nose and with the extra-swept wings and tail I'm sure it will look exactly like a potential TSR2 pilot's airborne classroom. 

[Gondor]

WoW you are going fast on this one Kit 

Gondor

[rickshaw]

Nice!  How would the canopy open?  One long clamshell hinged at the rear (tornado style)? Twin rear hinged (Phantom style)? , side hinged? (Harrier T2/4)

I used a side-hinged canopy on my Hawker Herne build:



However, I was seriously considering a backward sliding one, which is also rather typically "British" IMO.  Clamshell is OK for the period of Kit's build.  Separate clamshells is possible but requires a substantial structure between the two canopies.

[Devilfish]

I would say a rear sliding canopy. It was good enough for the Buccaneer.....

[PR19_Kit]

And the Meteor NF14 (and the PR19...) had a rearwards sliding one too.

If I leave it closed everyone can make up their own mind about which way it opens of course. 

Did you increase the fin height on your Herne build Brian? I was thinking about that too, but there's not THAT much more nose area, and Hawkers didn't do it on the Firestreak test Hunters either.

[rickshaw]

Yes, I increased the fin height.  I thought with the extra nose with the radar at the front, it would need it.  AIUI, the proposed trainer didn't have extra fin but it was either that or adding some underbody fins.

[PR19_Kit]

I did the preliminary PSR work in the fuselage joint, during which the radome fell off. 

So I stuck it back on and started to look at the tailplanes. The Super Hunter Hunter prototype didn't have the acorn faring at the trailing edge of the tailplanes so the conversion tails won't fit as standard, so I had to work out how and where to trim the elevators, during which the radome fell off. 

The problem is that the TSR2 radome has a knife edge rim to mate onto the resin Hunter nose, and there's naff all glueing area to work with, so now I've glued it onto a piece of scrap 10 thou styrene with tube glue and then I'll trim that and superglue the whole shebang back onto the nose. At least that's the plan.....

[Weaver]

Okay, I am definately watching this with interest! I've got two of the Freightdog P.1083 and one of OGL's original noses with the intention of doing a pair of Super-Hunters, but when I saw the hassle Rickshaw had, it kind put me off a bit. I do actually have both Matchbox and Airfix Hunters available that would fit the two-seater front end better, but they treat the intake/wing/fuselage joint differently from Revell, so it's swings and roundabouts.

p.s. I've had over a week of "Telford Lurgi" too...  Travel the country, meet new people, catch their germs........

[PR19_Kit]

p.s. I've had over a week of "Teford Lurgi" too...   Travel the country, meet new people, catch their germs........

I'm afraid you probably caught it from me, terribly sorry. 

[Martin H]

p.s. I've had over a week of "Teford Lurgi" too...  Travel the country, meet new people, catch their germs........

I'm afraid you probably caught it from me, terribly sorry.  

Yeah, kit gifted the lurgi to me as well

Just a quick note. Only 10 conversions have been cast. And I have no current plans to do any more.  Two went down under to Rickshaw, one to Kit, one will be going to Jaybee for his part in providing the canopies, and one was put togeather by me as a test run (ill finish it some day). The remainder are staying with me for now, just in case Kit, Brian, Jim or myself have any another build ideas.

[Knightflyer]

p.s. I've had over a week of "Teford Lurgi" too...   Travel the country, meet new people, catch their germs........

I'm afraid you probably caught it from me, terribly sorry. 

Yeah, kit gifted the lurgi to me as well

I'm quite thankful I only shook hands with Kit now and didn't hang around the stand!