1/72 Revell Hunter F.15

by Nick Walton

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Silly Week 2008

 

After the 1989 Soviet coup, and the resulting death of Mikhail Gorbachev crushed hopes for an end to the Cold War, Britain found herself in need of additional air defence hardware.  Though useful in theory, the Sidewinder-armed Hawk T.1A fleet were of little practical value outside of an actual war situation, and with increasing demands on the Tornado F.3 fleet BAe stepped forward offering to upgrade a number of low time Hunter airframes for the RAF.

With the serving head of the RAF a former Hunter man the offer was jumped at. The resulting Hunter F.15 was powered by an uprated dry version of the Turbo Union RB.199 engine, delivering 11,400lb thrust, and had the Sea Harrier FA.2's highly capable Sea Vixen radar. Other updates included a frameless windshield, Martin-Baker MK.10 seat, updated cockpit displays and avionics, an APU, improved braking, an inflight refueling probe, increased internal fuel, and the ability to carry either a fuel tank or a twin missile rail on the centerline.

The first of 48 Hunter F.15s entered service with RAF Germany in late 1994, with 29 Sqn at Gutersloh. RAF Leeming was the next base for the new Hunter, with 74 Sqn converting from the Phantom F.3 in 1995. To mark the return to Hunter operations XG204 (the new Hunters retained their original registration numbers) was painted with a black tail and spine with the famous Tiger Squadron markings.

As an interceptor the Hunter F.15 normally carried 2 AIM-9M Sidewinders and 2 AIM-120B AMRAAM missiles along with either 100 or 230 gal external fuel tanks. The four ADEN cannon were retained, though in normal operation only two were loaded, with 150 rouds each.

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The kit is the excellent Revell 1/72 Hunter F.6.  I started out with the intention of building a "What If?" depicting an RAF Hunter serving in the Vietnam war.  After getting the fuselage together I was digging through the spare parts box and noticed that a drop tank from a Revell 1/48 Strike Eagle seemed 'right' to be a Hunter radome.  I cut the nose form the tank, mostly just by eyeballing with no measuring, just to see how it would look, and was surprised when it fit almost perfectly.

This changed the build a lot, to a more modern Hunter development.  Other changes/additions to the kit were a trimmed down tailpipe, centerline missile rails (a centerline hardpoint plumbed for fuel was looked at for the RAF, and the Singapore Hunters were fitted with a centerline hardpoint), a refueling probe, an M-B Mk.10 seat, and sanding away the center paned framing from the windshield.  The rest is pretty much OOB. 

Nick 

Photos and text © by Nick Walton