Giorgio N Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 My entry for this GB is the Revell new tool 1/72 Hawk T.1. The Hawk started its life as HS.1182, being designed at Kingston as a private venture for a two-seater trainer for the RAF. The RAF had planned in 1964 to develop a supersonic trainer and the program led to the Jaguar, a great aircraft that however became too complicated and expensive to be used as trainer. As a result, Hawker Siddeley started in 1968 studies for a simpler aircraft. The idea was submitted to the RAF and in 1972 a contract was signed for the new trainer. The prototype first flew in 1974 and the Hawk immediately proved to be a great little aircraft, achieving a huge success not only within the RAF but also on the export market. Advanced variants of the Hawk are still in production today, with the latest variant having been first flown in 2017. I have no problem admitting it, I'm a big fan of the Hawk ! It's an elegant design and has flown in a large number of good looking schemes. To me the Hawk is also the last of the true Hawker designs, with several features clearly showing the Hawker heritage. The kit: I'll be building the new tool Revell 1/72 kit. This was first issued in 2017 and replaced in Revell's catalogue the Italeri kit that the German company had reboxed for many years. As the older kit can still be found in shops in Revell boxes, the only way to tell if a kit is new or not is the box The Italeri tool was offered with Red Arrows and Swiss markings, the new tool only includes markings for the Reds. The kit shows signs that Revell may at some point issue the kit with other markings, but more of that when we'll have a look at the sprues... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Oh, forgot the hawk was eligible, think I shall be leaving my local shop with one myself later. Be nice to see how the new Revell builds, not one I’ve done yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Welcome to the GB Giorgio Must admit I've always thought the Hawk a pleasant looking aircraft and as you say it has been a popular machine across many air arms over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Should be a good build Giorgio. Will you be building a Red Arrows machine or something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 On 9/2/2018 at 12:18 PM, PhantomBigStu said: Oh, forgot the hawk was eligible, think I shall be leaving my local shop with one myself later. Be nice to see how the new Revell builds, not one I’ve done yet If they have one buy it, looks good in the box. I hope that the fit is good... On 9/2/2018 at 9:54 PM, Col. said: Welcome to the GB Giorgio Must admit I've always thought the Hawk a pleasant looking aircraft and as you say it has been a popular machine across many air arms over the years. Thanks Col., hope I can do this justice ! On 10/2/2018 at 9:55 AM, modelling minion said: Should be a good build Giorgio. Will you be building a Red Arrows machine or something else? Hope so ! I'l not build a Red Arrows aircraft, I'm not a big fan of aerobatic teams and I already have a Hawk in Reds' markings, the old tool Airfix kit I built many years ago. I've not decided yet on the subject, I have several decal sheets covering the Hawk and I'll chose from these. Most likely it will be XX343 in EPTS markings from a Modeldecal sheet. This aircraft will require the modification of the seats as the decals represent the aircraft in 1985, still equipped with the older headrest 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 Ok, let's show some sprues.. As often happens with Red Arrows aircrafts, Revell moulded this kit in red plastic. I don't like this approach, I understand that this makes things easier for those who are mainly interested in having a nice bright red model, but for modellers like me a more neutral grey plastic is better. The main parts of the kit are on 2 sprues in red and one in clear plastic. The parts specific for the Red Arrows aircraft are on a separate small sprue. Detail is very, very good ! The cockpit and wheel wells are the best ever seen in any 1/72 Hawk kit and finally we have instrument panels of accurate shape. The landing gear looks good too, this really is a modern kit in this respect. Surface detail is also good but the depth of some panel lines is a bit inconsistent. I'll likely deepen some lines a bit to prevent them from disappearing during the painting phase. What is not great is the presence of flash. Most parts seem to suffer from flash and the edges of several parts are not as clean as I'd like. Another thing I don't like are the very large sprue gates, removing some smaller parts may not be the easiest thing to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shatters Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Hi Giorgio I've got one of these in the stash, I seem to think that the size of the seat head boxes dictates the period that the hawk can be modelled. Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 32 minutes ago, Giorgio N said: If they have one buy it, looks good in the box. I hope that the fit is good... Shop had some issue with revell so stopped getting new stuff yeas ago, has plenty of the airfix ones which I went for, though the new revell looks good, maybe Ill get one online 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Giorgio N said: Thanks Col., hope I can do this justice ! Having seen your previous work I'm quite sure you will Giorgio. I see what you mean about the sprue gates. Every flying surface suffers from them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 4 hours ago, shatters said: Hi Giorgio I've got one of these in the stash, I seem to think that the size of the seat head boxes dictates the period that the hawk can be modelled. Phil Yes, the seat headrest changed at some point. Initially it was a bulky affair with an unusual shape, later became smaller and more box-like. I can't remember exactly when the modification started being implemented, I'm sure I have the info somewhere. There is another detail that changed over time: early Hawks had a shorter fin fillet and a shallower "box" above the exhaust, later this area was modified with a longer fillet and a deeper back plate. The Revell kit unfortunately only offers the early fin fillet, that is not compatible with the aircrafts in the decal sheet. I will modify this area during the build adding some more information on the various configurations used over the years. 3 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said: Shop had some issue with revell so stopped getting new stuff yeas ago, has plenty of the airfix ones which I went for, though the new revell looks good, maybe Ill get one online The Airfix kit can be built into a very good replica, is less detailed than this Revell one but IMHO more accurate shapewise. Will follow your build, as I've built this kit before I remember well a couple of areas that require attention for a good fit 57 minutes ago, Col. said: Having seen your previous work I'm quite sure you will Giorgio. I see what you mean about the sprue gates. Every flying surface suffers from them Thanks Col. ! About the sprue gates, I removed the wings from the sprues and have to say that while these gates are huge, they are not too difficult to sort using a modelling knife. I was expecting worse. And speaking of wings, the undersurfaces have covered holes for the pylons, meaning that an armed Hawk is a possibility for the future. Hopefully at some point Revell will give us a new box with TWU markings and who knows, maybe even a CBLS... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 A nice choice Giorgio - particularly if you stick with your ETPS plan Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 (edited) On 12/2/2018 at 8:02 AM, CliffB said: A nice choice Giorgio - particularly if you stick with your ETPS plan Cliff I'd like to stick to the plan but I have doubts... "my" ETPS aircraft still had seats with the older big headrest while the kit has 2 very nice seats with the final smaller headrest. I have a couple of Matchbox seats from which I could rob the headrests however I'd like to be able to cast resin copies to cater for future early Hawk models. The Revell parts don't really lend themselves to be copied in resin so I have to find alternatives. I have seats from both Pavla and CMK, I may combine one of these with the Matchbox headrest and use the result as a master for more copies. Alternatively I may just build a model of an aircraft with the smaller headrest, for example the FTS 70th Anniversary aircraft. Edited February 20, 2018 by Giorgio N 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 With the Gnat finally completed, it's time to start working on this one. As most often happens, work started from the cockpit. Revell gives a good number of parts, all with good and accurate detail. The instrument panels in particular are the best ever done in this scale and, unlike the Airfix parts, are of accurate shape. It was very easy to complete the cockpit to a good level The colours in the picture are not perfect as I had to increase the brightness quite a lot to make the panels more visible. The grey used is darker than it looks and as with the Gnat I used Lifecolor's FS36231. This is lighter than the correct Dark Admiralty Grey used on the Hawk but not by much.. or better, the Lifecolor's paint is not lighter by much while being IMHO a bit too dark for 36231. With a Payne's Grey wash, the result is actually pretty good 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 With the main cockpit parts completed, it was time to glue this to the left fuselage half. Other parts glued at this stage were the exhaust nozzle and the airbrake bay. All these parts fit pretty well into the fuselage. I've built quite a few Hawks over the years but I keep forgetting if these need weight to prevent tailsitting or not. Dryfitting a few parts showed that some weight was needed so I reached for my box of fishing weights and used a few. I may have used a few more than necessary but this is really a matter of better having too much than not enough. My favourite way to glue weights into models is by using clear silicone. This sticks well to both plastic and metal and as it's flexible it prevents the weights from being knocked off the plastic in case the model falls. With the silicone properly set, it was just a matter of joning the fuselage halves Fit was good, with only very few areas to sort with a little filler. With the fuselage complete it was apparent that the panel lines are not all well defined and those parts of the panel lines that go on the top fuselage are shallower in this area. Some work with a scriber will be required to bring all the lines to the same depth and to prevent some lines from disappearing where some sanding is required for a better fit. Some work was also done on the wings. These have some very large sprue gates, fortunately though these are easy enough to remove. The wheel wells have some good detail, the various cables should have been a bit more prominent but I'd say overall the result OOB is decent One negative aspect of the wings, not visible here, is that the trailing edges are thick. Some sanding from the inside will help improving this area but I feel that havin overthick trailing edges in a 21st Century kit is not good. Of course any Hawk enthusiast knows that this aircraft almost always has the flaps deployed when parked. I did consider reproducing this detail and Revell's choice of moulding the wings with totally separate upper and lower surfaces actually makes cutting the various parts quite easy. At the same time cutting the flap actuators to represent the real flap system is not the easiest of thing and I decided to keep the flaps closed on this model. Said that, the actuators in the Revell kit are very nice, I will try to deploy the flaps on my next Hawk. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) You are making great progress with is one Giorgio Edited February 21, 2018 by Col. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Thanks Col. ! I'm trying to move quickly with this one, just hope to have as few problems as possible. No more updates for today but it may be worth talking about the rear end of the model. The Hawk went through a number of configurations of the area above the exhaust nozzle and behind the tail. Iniitially a short fillet was used but this was quickly replaced by a longer one. This is something pretty much everybody knows, however there is one aspect that is less obvious: the rear of the fuselage was initially more curved but when the longer fillet was introduced this area became less curved, with the result that the fuselage above the nozzle became deeper. There were some variations in this area on the export Hawks and some of these configurations were also used on RAF aircrafts, for the moment though I'll just focus on the two main RAF variations. The Revell kit reproduces the original short fillet configuration. The Airfix kit on the other hand reproduces the lon fillet configuration. Here below are both kits compared, Revell in red plastic and Airfix in grey The two kits represent the whole rear area differently and IMHO the Airfix kit is more accurate. In any case it is clear how the Airfix rear fuselage is more straight on the top while the Revell one is much more curved. If I want to build an aircraft with the longer fillet I will have to modify this area. How to do this will be the subject for the next post 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 An interesting comparison and one which illustrates the difference very well Giorgio. I'll look forward to seeing how you update the Revell kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shatters Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 So, if I've got this right, the Revell kit combines an early model airframe with late model bang seats ? When did the long fillet come in to service ? Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 1 hour ago, shatters said: So, if I've got this right, the Revell kit combines an early model airframe with late model bang seats ? When did the long fillet come in to service ? Phil Pretty much, and this makes things difficult for modellers who want to have all the right features in the model. Now forgetting for a moment that the rear fuselage shape is IMHO not that accurate (the curvature before the tailplanes location does indeed exist but I feel it should be less pronounced), the modeller is left with one of these choices: - the easiest is of course forget about any accuracy matter and build the model as it is. I can't say that no Hawk ever flew with the short fillet and the late seats, there may have been one. And of course, not all modellers are that interested in accuracy anyway. - slightly more difficult, replace the seats and build an early Hawk.In theory this is not a difficult option, I say it is becayse there seems to be a lack of aftermarket early seats for the Hawk so it's either hunting a set down (Aeroclub did one many years ago) or modifying the seats. - a bit more difficult, leave the rear fuselage as it is and just scratchbuild a longer fillet. The filler in the Revell kit is a separate part and it may well be that Revell will issue a different box with the longer fillet. This will not cure the different profile of the rear fuselage but I guess many will just be happy with this solution. I believe that this will be the solution chosen by most as scrathbuilding a longer fillet is very easy - the most difficult is of course to replace the fillet and modify the fuselage, and this is what I'm doing. In my case I may actually do something even worse, as I may build a late airframe with the early seats. Really the short fillet was used very briefly, most aircrafts with early seats would have had the long fillet. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 2 hours ago, Col. said: An interesting comparison and one which illustrates the difference very well Giorgio. I'll look forward to seeing how you update the Revell kit. Done the top fuselage ! It wasn't too difficult really: I started by gluing a 0.5mm plasticard piece on top of the rear fuselage. This was slightly longer than needed to allow blending into the existing curvature. Then I started sanding. to a more stramlined shape. I then glued a 0.5mm plastirod strip at the very edge of the rear fuselage and applied filler from there to a point beyond the lower plasticard part. Then it was time for sanding, a lot of sanding ! I reduced the thickness of the rear end plasticard to around 0.75mm while trying to get a flat area from a point under the rudder to the end. I should point out that I used 2 0.5 mm bits as I didn't have plasticard of the right thickness, I could have uased a single 0.75-0.8mm thick bit. Another important thing for this kind of work is using a filler with good mechanical properties, here I used a 2-component epoxy filler. After all the sanding, this is what I got: As the additional plastic is in white it's not that easy to see the different, straighter profile on the rear upper fuselage, but with some imagination it's easier... when everything will be painted I'm sure this will be easier to see. Of course all that sanding left a lot of marks on the plastic. As I had cut the plasticard slightly wider than the fuselage, I had to sand on the sides to blend everything in nicely. I believe that I achieved this but some panel lines suffered as a consequence and I had to deepen them with a scriber... with the inevitable slip as testified by the filled scar just in front of the airbrake 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shatters Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 I wonder if the Revell cockpit will fit into the airfix hawk? Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 2 minutes ago, shatters said: I wonder if the Revell cockpit will fit into the airfix hawk? Phil AAAHHHHHAAAARRGGHHHH !!!! I forgot to check this !!!!! I had planned to check as I considered casting a resin copy of the Revell cockpit to improve the Airfix Hawks in my stash, then I got carried away with the build and totally forgot ! Guess I'll have to buy another Revell kit to check 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Tidy work Giorgio 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Thunderbird Models has just released a resin correction for the tail pipe fillet. So if its no too late go for this. http://www.thunderbirdmodels.co.uk/gb/accessories/1649-tbmr-002-thunderbird-models-172-bae-hawk-t1-red-arrows-tail-correction-revell.html 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Nice work Giorgio Built this kit last year for the Made in Britain GB and really enjoyed it, one of my favourites. Look forward to more updates! Dermot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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