1:72 Hawker S 34B (modified Hunter Mk.50), Swedish Air Force, mid/late Sixties

[NARSES2]

Hope the lumbago clears up, can be quite painful

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you, it's persistent (and annoying). I go to work, but for the rest of the day I basically lay down and try to stay put. The work bench is in sight, but... 

[NARSES2]

We can push ourselves to return to soon at times and it doesn't do any good in the long run. Take care 

[Dizzyfugu]

I'm still alive and betting back on my feet. The Hunter received another blow, though: with some progress I recognized that the kit was/missing another part  - not only one of the dogtooth slats (which are uncritical, thanks to their replacement), but also one of the main landing gear covers. Very unusual for an OOB Revell kit, both look as if they had been ripped from the sprue quite brutally, maybe during packaging handling?
I contacted RoG's "Department X" for a replacement, because I cannot (and don't want to) use a dummy. However, work on the rest slowly resumes.

[Old Wombat]

Glad to hear you're feeling better, Thomas!

[Dizzyfugu]

Hardware made progress yesterday. Did more PSR on the nose, and now I know what the converted Hunter reminded me of subconsciously all the time: with the pointed nose it has a serious F-105ish look, probably because of the wing root intakes!

Started to add small bits to the hull, like the lowered flaps, landing gear (sans main gear cover on the left, see above... ) and inner pylons. The S 34B will only carry the kit's OOB (short) drop tanks as ordnance. I also checked pictures of real J 34s and I will add some characteristic antennae. Today I will add the metal pitot from the F.4 conversion set to the wing and finish the cockpit with its respective glazing, so that painting of at least the upper surfaces can start soon.

I also collected the WiP pics so far, so that this WiP thread will be illustrated sonn, too.

[Dizzyfugu]

Good news: I just received an email from RoG that I will receive a replacement for the landing gear cover for free within the next 10 days. That's pretty fast and a nice service. 

[PR19_Kit]

  to Revell!

[Dizzyfugu]

Current status before painting, with one landing gear cover still missing:


1:72 Hawker S 34B 'Hunter'; 'Röda Två (Red Two)' of the Swedish Air Force Södermanland (F11) Wing, 1st Squadron; Nyköping (Sweden), 1968 (Whif/modified Revell kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Earlier posts were updated, too!

[Pellson]

Very, very promising indeed

[Dizzyfugu]

With the pointed nose and the wing root intakes, the Hunter now looks like a missing link between Republic's RF-84G and F-105!

[DogfighterZen]

That nose suits the Hunter very well indeed.
This is not he first time you've used that nose for this type of conversion, is it, Thomas?

[Dizzyfugu]

I have never built a Heller Viggen, the nose was a "gift" from a friend from his build of that kit as a JA 37.

I once had a Matchbox Viggen, and its radar nose ended eventually up on a navalized Kfir (lost in space and time, though).

[Dizzyfugu]

As an addendum: a first picture of the S 34B's paint scheme. Strangely, earlier WiP pics have disappeared from my camera, so this single one with the upper basic colors already applied must suffice.


1:72 Hawker S 34B 'Hunter'; 'Röda Två (Red Two)' of the Swedish Air Force Södermanland (F11) Wing, 1st Squadron; Nyköping (Sweden), 1968 (Whif/modified Revell kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The paint scheme was a challenge. I did not want to give the fictional recce Hunter the J 34's simple camouflage with dark green upper surfaces (Olive Green 328M) and grey undersides. The contemporary dark blue/olive green paint scheme from the Lansen of Draken was an alternative, but I found it to be quite boring and I also already have some Swedish whiffs with this scheme in my collection.

A suitable alternative eventually came from literature, where I found pictures of privately operated J 32E Lansen target tugs (SE-DCM and -DCN) which carried in the early Nineties a unique three-tone camouflage on their upper sides, consisting of mörk olivgrön (328M), mörkgrön (326M) and mörkblå (438M).



I was not able to find pictures that provided detail information about the aircrafts' concrete camouflage pattern, esp. from above, so that I adapted a pattern from an USN aggressor A-4E Skyhawk with adjusted colors to the Hunter airframe. The blue/green pattern on the contemporary J 32 and J 35 could not simply be expanded to a third shade, since the dark blue forms a kind of net pattern over the green background. The lighter green would always have looked like an enforced foreign matter, so that I rather went for an SEA-ish application in which all three colors appear pari passu. The aggressor pattern yet ensured that the dark blue would still form a kind of "river delta" within a murky green landscape.

The paints are Humbrol 77, 163 and 224 – lighter than the original tones, but for better contrast, scale effect and some weathering it is IMHO O.K.

[Dizzyfugu]

The Hunter is on hold again, because I am waiting and hoping for the replacement part from Revell. In the meantime I am working on pictures for some models that have been finished recently before the S 34B.