US Navy E-2C Hawkeye 2000
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At the risk of repeating myself, I'm sure you've all by now heard and indeed seen the previous Hawkeye kits that Kinetic have released to great applause this last year. First was the US Navy E-2C, the French E-2C, and these were closely followed by the JASDF E-2C with 50th anniversary decals.
Now we have the latest version - the E-2C Hawkeye 2000, which is my own personal favourite, mostly because of those cutlass shaped prop blades. I do also have a soft spot for the newest version of most aircraft I like too... everyone's different!
The usual Kinetic top opening box contains the typical heap of sprues that I've come to associate with their Hawkeye kits, and the majority of these, and indeed the build process is the same as the other kits, so in order to save myself from repeating myself verbatim, I respectfully refer you to the earliest review here.
All of the Hawkeye kits so far include the belly radome, which until now has been lurking on the sprues redundant. This part replaces the earlier flush belly insert, and is accompanied by a slightly different antenna fit on the underside of the aft fuselage.
The new prop parts are on two separate sprues, and initially I thought that the wrong ones had been included, as there were only four blades to each boss. This is due to some clever design-work by Kinetic, and results in you sandwiching two prop bosses together to end in a single boss that has the full complement of 8 blades. These are then slotted into a keyed back plate, and the stubby spinner slips on top. You get a set of blade decals for the manufacturer's info midway up each blade, which adds a little bit of detail.
The final major difference is a small cone that fits on top of the main rotating radome and contains the Satcom communications equipment, which curiously is portrayed as a small bump on the painting instructions.
Painting of the Hawkeye 2000 couldn't be much simpler. FS16440 is used throughout, with only the props, wing leading edges and anti-glare panels being painted black, although the anti-glare panel is provided as a decal. All of the grey walkways on the upper surface are provided as decals.
The decal sheet covers just one aircraft, that of VAW-120 Greyhawks, with a striking emblem of a swooping hawk on the side of the nose, and another pair of larger grey hawks that I can't quite work out where they go, as they don't seem to be mentioned in the instructions. The rest of the decals make up a pretty comprehensive set of stencils, which should add a little extra busyness to your model.
As usual, the decals are designed by Fightertown Decals, and printed by Cartograf. Register is good, as is the detail, with every stencil being legible. My only gripe is that the decal placement instructions might be a bit confusing for the uninitiated.
The final neat touch to the package is a small A5 color booklet that gives you 18 pages of reference pictures and information about this version of the Hawkeye, including details of the updates from the previous incarnations, and what the various sensor fits do during a typical mission. My copy was bound with the cover or the inside pages upside down, depending on your point of view. A quick unpick and re-stapling, and everything was the same way up though.
Conclusion
This edition should prove popular due to its more modern credentials. It exhibits the same attention to detail and good quality moulding as its forebears, as well as sharing the majority of parts. Thankfully for Kinetic, the upgrades to the 2000 series are for the most part underneath the skin of the airframe, so the alterations to this well liked base kit are relatively few. Again, it won't be long before the aftermarket decal companies take this kit under their wings, and the availability of Kinetic's own Photo-Etch sets for the cockpit and exterior of the aircraft let the detailer have their head.
Another sound model kit from this young company.
Review sample courtesy of
