Of 50's jets, I'd have to rank the Hunter up there with the F-86 Sabre and the Mig-15 as one of the three best and most popular. With modelers, however, this plane seems to be much lower on the list of popularity. I'm not exactly sure just why that is as it has everything going for it. Perhaps British planes are just not that popular as one would think. Perhaps it is that the two kits in this scale are not Tamiya or Hasegawa. It surely isn't for lack of aftermarket bits!

I'm thinking that perhaps it is kits. There are basically two around. One is the old Lindberg version and while it was fine for its day, it has some decided flaws. For one thing it is a very early Hunter without the saw-tooth in the wing and without the shell casing collectors. Back in my younger days I built this particular kit and it actually didn't turn out too bad, however it has many shape problems. If you want to see what I made of this beast, check the bottom of the page. The pic isn't flattering, but it gives you an idea. It came without the shell collectors so those were made from Milliput. Apparently so do the much newer Academy releases of this kit. To my eye, they are not a horrific as on the Lindberg kit, but the critics have deemed it a mess so now these kits are frequently seen on sale and languishing on store shelves which is a real shame.

This particular sheet has four planes, all in the camouflage of Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey over Aluminum (not bare metal).

First is an F.5 from 1 squadron during the Suez Crisis of 1956. This plane has the black and yellow stripes painted on the wings and fuselage of aircraft participating in that operation. This plane does not have the saw-toothed wing leading edge so that will have to be modified if using the Academy F.6 kit.

Next is a 112 Squadron F.4. It has the usual shark mouth of this unit that flew P-40s in the Western Desert during WWII. This is also a plane that will need to have the wing back-dated.

A true F.6 is this 14 Squadron Hunter as is the next in ine from 26 Squadron, both from the early 1960s.

A small addendum sheet with more roundels is provided to allow more a second model to be done using this sheet.

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