Initial assessment
Impressive box art! It’s good to see this one back having been originally released many years ago. You don’t exactly have a great choice of models of the Hunter in 1:32 and we can speculate as to why that may be, the fact is this is it. The great news, however, is that this is a well detailed and engineered kit – one of the best that Revell has produced in my opinion. Nothing too complicated here, the relatively low parts count makes perfect sense given the simple, graceful lines of the type. Sure you can add extra detail, especially in the cockpit – True Details (did/do) produce a great resin cockpit for this kit, maybe others too, so you can check out the usual ranges from the likes of Aires, Eduard and others if you want more.
Revell has always made this kit available at a reasonable price for a 1:32 kit and the current price level above is about as expensive as I’ve seen the model – shop around and you’ll find it available for still less money!
The moulds look to have stood up well and most parts are cleanly moulded with a little excess flash plastic here and there. The panel lines are recessed and restrained.
Sprues
Probably the best thing to do is show the sprues to you here:
So, what do you think? Well, overall what’s inside is fine, especially given the relatively low price of the package. The cockpit features good raised detail for the main instrument panel and side consoles. The ejection seat is good too as far as it goes and by adding belts and some other small extras or simply replacing the item with a resin seat, suddenly the cockpit looks very good.
Highlights at a glance:
- Subject choice – very welcome return and boxing with new decals
- Overall shape – looks accurate
- Cockpit raised detail and acceptable seat
- Wheel hub detail
- Recessed surface detail
- Clear parts clear and undamaged
- Optional 230 and100 gal fuel tanks
- Option for drooped ventral air brake
- Flats on tyres
- Decal options – two varied choices
- Simple model to build and within any modellers’ capability (sorry, I disagree strongly with Revell’s category of 5 ‘Very Challenging’ on their website).
Things to watch and take extra care with:
take care when fitting the undercarriage, it’s not as strong as you may think and you could do well to replace it with a white metal replacement from Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC)
Instructions
These are in classic Revell style with multiple exploded stages.
Decals
Option 1 – Hawker Hunter FGA.9, No.1 Squadron, Royal Air Force, West Raynham, England, September 1963
Option 2 – Hawker Hunter F.58, Fliegerstaffel 21, Swiss Air Force, Emmen Air Base, March 1994
Decal quality is pretty good, the colours are solid with decent opacity; colours look to be accurate markings are in register. No need to go to for aftermarket supplies here.
Accuracy
From what I can see the shape certainly looks fine from most of the angles I have tried with the model comparing well to multiple photographs.
Conclusion
Well I hope that this Here Now in-box review gives you enough information to see that what Revell is offering is well worth the investment, even at the RRP! The package is worth the money in my opinion and there is going to be a lot of modelling fun and pleasure for your money, especially if you can get hold of a couple of add-ons like a resin cockpit.
Recommended
Geoff C.
SMN Quick summary Star rating out of 5
| FEATURE | STAR RATING (out of five) |
|---|---|
| Quality of moulding | **** |
| Accuracy | **** |
| Level of details | *** |
| Instructions | *** |
| Decals | **** |
| Subject choice | ***** |
| Overall | **** |