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Showing results for tags 'Hawker Hind'.
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I bought a 1/72 Hawker Hind kit from AZ Model. It's the one with camouflaged schemes, but I think I would rather build one with silver wings. Hannants has a Hawker set from Modeldecal MD108, but they don't have those sheets that contain the letters and numbers. I have a sheet from Kits-World though, KW172235, which is mainly for Gloster Gladiators. Would this sheet have the necessary markings?
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Recently I took an old Aeroclub Demon off the shelf where several still reside. Building it was such fun I thought I would do another. When I found the Bomber Command GB criteria had been revised to include pre-war Bomber Command subjects, I decided to make one of my remaining Aeroclub Demons into a Hind, using some markings from an old ModelDecal Hart Family sheet. There is not a great deal which needs doing to make a Hind out of a Demon: one gun channel needs filling, windows have to be let into the sides, new exhausts need to be contrived, some indication for a bomb-aiming hatch provided, a suitable tail-wheel scrounged, and a few other little bits and bumps tended to. These blend nicely into the enjoyable business of adding various details and minor fixes to the kit, most particularly making some representation of the intricate thing which was the standard Hawker tail assembly with its off-set fin and variable incidence tail-plane. Though rated as a light bomber, the Hind was never seriously intended as a combat aircraft. The small improvements it offered over the Hart, ranging from slightly livelier climb and better performance at altitude to more efficient crew stations, did not change the obsolescence of the design, viewed as a service light bomber in 1936. While a few Hinds sent to the Middle East bombed and strafed on 'Air Control' operations in Palestine, the real and very valuable service of the Hind was as a species of operational trainer in the early days of the RAF expansion program. Expansion meant not just more airplanes, or even more aircrew. It meant more ground crew for maintenance and repair, for supply, more administrative personnel and staff, and it meant welding all these into functioning units which could field operational aircraft to carry out assigned duties to plan. Units were formed on Hinds, learned the trade and became practiced squadrons in every way on Hinds, and then, when more modern aircraft became available, the Hinds were passed on to more newly-formed units and the process repeated. From this emerged a great proportion of the squadrons which carried out the air offensive over Germany during WWII. In a very real sense, the Hind is the little acorn from which the great oak of Bomber Command grew. This model represents a Hind of 103 Squadron's C Flight, circa 1937. An expansion unit, 103 was activated in August, 1936 with Hinds which it flew till July 1938 when these were replaced by Battles. After service in France in 1940, the unit received in succession the Wellington, the Halifax, and the Lancaster. These old kits have points to recommend them still today even in compare with newer limited-run kits from AZ Models and and A-Model. Scratch-building the exhausts was the trickiest bit of the work needed. Personally I hope Airfix does a re-tooled Hart --- messing up their old mould for this type was one of their worst mistakes... Here is a link to the build thread in the Bomber Command GB forum: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234970423-hawker-hind-conversion-from-vintage-aeroclub-demon-172-done/
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