1/32 Revell Hawker Hunter FGA.9

XG228-The last Hunter in RAF service

by Shaun Bowman-Davies

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History

 

Hawker Hunter XG228 first flew on the 2nd October 1956 with Hawker test pilot Neville Duke at the controls.  The aircraft was delivered on the 15th October 1956 to 5 MU at RAF Kemble for entry into RAF service.  XG228 was first delivered to 92 Sqn based at RAFG Geilenkirchen, West Germany and was coded “C” on the unit.  In 1965 the aircraft was reworked to FGA.9 standard and was reissued to 1 Squadron at RAF West Raynham this time coded “D”.

By  August 1972 the Hunter had been passed onto 79 Squadron and was based at RAF Chivnor, Devon with 229 OCU.  229 OCU was transferred to RAF Brawdy, Pembrokeshire in 1974 to form the “1st Tactical Weapons Unit. XG228 stayed with 79 Squadron and was coded “56”.  The Hawker Hunter was retired from RAF service in 1984 and was replaced by the BAe Hawk T.1 in the weapons training role.

XG228 has the place in RAF history of being the last Hawker Hunter in RAF service.

In July 1984 this Hunter was flown to RAF St Athan to be stored.  This Hunter was sold to the Zimbabwe air force in 1987 and was delivered to it’s new operating country on 30th September 1987.  Now  carrying the serial R1811, the aircraft was flown until 2002 when the Zimbabwe Air Force retired all of its Hunter force.

 

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This Model was built from the excellent Revell 1/32nd  scale kit.

A lot has been said about this kit and I can confirm that the fit and build is very good.

I built this Hunter out of the box with no after market help.

What you see is a what you get!

I painted the model with Extra colour decal ready paint, which was spray applied.

 I used the kit decals for only the roundels and stencils.

The other decals came from Extra decal set  X005-32.

This is a nice decal set and offers some nice alternatives to the kits 208 Squadron option.

The model was weathered with a pastels and sealed with a flat coat.

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This kit can be highly recommend to any Hunter or jet fan, and would make a nice addition to any 1/32nd collection.

 

Shaun

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Photos and text © by Shaun Bowman-Davies