Search the Community

BAe Hawk T.1 Red Arrows 1:72 Revell When the RAF began the search for a new fast jet trainer to replace the Folland Gnat, it was originally intended that the role would be fulfilled by the SEPECAT Jaguar. However, the advanced capabilities demanded of the new Anglo-French aircraft meant that it became too complex for use as a trainer As a result, Hawker Siddley Aviation began work on a private venture known as the P.1182. The design team of Gordon Hudson, Gordon Hodson and Ralph Hooper produced a relatively simple, subsonic aircraft with a number of clever features. The fuselage is designed around a large, tandem cockpit, which features a significant difference in height between the seat for student in the front and that for the instructor in the back. This affords the instructor a much better view than in the Gnat. The wings featured double-slotted flaps which gives the Hawk excellent low-speed handling characteristics. The first of the 176 Hawks ordered by the RAF entered service in 1976, designated the Hawk T.1. 88 T.1s were modified to T.1A standard, which allowed them to carry two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for use in the emergency air defence role. The Hawks reputation as an excellent aeroplane has been confirmed by the considerable success it has enjoyed in the export market. Users include the air forces of Australia, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amongst others. A highly modified carrier capable version is in service with the United States Navy, where it is known as the T-45 Goshawk. The most famous role occupied by the Hawk, however, is as the mount of the world-renowned Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team the Red Arrows. We're not exactly short of kits of the Hawk, and it's easy to see why the diminutive British jet is such an attractive subject for model kit manufacturers. As the chosen mount of one of the world's foremost aerobatic display teams, the Hawk will always be a popular choice amongst the model buying public. Revell's new kit arrives packed into their new style end-opening box and comprises seventy parts spread across three sprues of coloured plastic and a single small clear sprue. Somewhat inevitably, this particular edition is moulded from bright red plastic. While this might be an annoyance for the po-faced, it does lend proceedings a sense of fun. The plastic parts themselves are beautifully moulded and engraved details are fine, crisp and clean. The overall shape looks promising on the sprue, and from what I can tell this kit should be free from any serious shape errors. In line with the usual model building clichés, construction starts with the cockpit. This prominent feature is made up of a large tandem tub, instrument panels and coamings, control columns and bulkheads. The ejection seats are each made up of three parts and look very good indeed, both in terms of detail and shape. Unlike its rival from Airfix, the cockpit is fully detailed, with instruments and controls picked out on both instrument panels and all of the side consoles. Decals are also provided, but I would be hesitant to cover up all of that lovely detail. Airfix have provided decals to represent details on the instrument panels and side consoles, as the plastic parts lack any raised detail. Once complete, the whole sub-assembly can be sandwiched between the fuselage halves, along with the jet exhaust pipe, fin fillet and airbrake bay interior (the airbrake itself can be fitted in either the open or closed position). The wing is moulded as a single lower span with separate port and starboard upper wings. Ailerons are moulded in place, and there are quite chunky sprue attachment points on the leading edges of the wing (and the horizontal tail surfaces too). These shouldn't cause any problems for most modellers , but care will need to be taken when removing these parts from the sprue. The undercarriage occupies six stages of the construction process and is very finely detailed indeed. The gear doors are moulded as solid pieces in order to make the wheels-up configuration a little easier to build, so they must be cut up along the moulded score lines in order to finish the model as it would appear on the ground. The cockpit canopy has been moulded in two pieces, so it can be finished in either the open or closed position. The smaller parts such as the blade aerials are very fine indeed. The parts specific to the Red Arrows variant are all included on one sprue and include a nicely moulded under-fuselage smoke pod, as well as the smoke injectors for the jet exhaust. As you might have expected, the decal sheet allows you to build a Red Arrows Hawk or more specifically a range of Red Arrows Hawks. The decals are extremely clear and crisp and judging by the serial number on the sheet were printed for Revell by Cartograf. Conclusion While there are a few Hawks available in this scale, in my view Revell's effort has surpassed the models already on the market, making it the go-to option for those wishing to build a model of the type. Hopefully a further boxing with extra parts to make some non-Red Arrows versions will follow in a year or two's time. In the meantime, let's enjoy this well-detailed little kit for what it is and build some Hawks! Recommended. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Announced some time ago and confirmed as a new tool http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234973045-revell-2015/?p=1877100 . The Revell's BAe Hawk T.Mk.1 Hawk "Red Arrows" - ref.04921 Source: http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/Flugzeuge/Wiegmann/Rev_BAe_Hawk_Red_Arrows_72/Rev_04921_Hawk_Red_Arrows.html Test build V.P.

Hi Everyone, Here are some of my photos from the Eastbourne airshow, I've tried to pick my favourites out of the almost 1,000 photos I took, but still this is going to be very photo heavy. If you want to view the full 135 photos, they are in an album on my facebook, linked here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488656594634727.1073741851.100004711722357&type=1&l=0724244a56 Anyway lets kick off the photos, I hope you like them. I'm trying to persuade my missus to let me go to either Bournemouth or Shoreham airshow (preferably Bournemouth) this weekend. Chinook Jet Provost Breitling Wingwalkers Typhoon Spitfire MiG-15 Grob Tutor Bulldog Sea King Eastbourne's Tamar class Lifeboat (At High Speed) Hawk T.2 Blenheim Norwegian Vampires P-51 Mustang "Ferocious Frankie" Vulcan XH558 Dakota Patrouille Reva The Blades Red Arrows Anyway, thats all of the photos I'm going to post. You can view the rest on the facebook link at the top. These photos were all taken with a Canon EOS 20D DSLR body with a 100 - 400 mm canon lens stuck on the front of it. Boy was that heavy without a tripod, but made life easier when tracking the planes. They have all been edited to improve colour balance etc. Please let me know what you think. All the best, Rick

With some trepidation, my first RfI... I got back into modelling fairly recently; this is my first 'try and get a reasonably decent result' build, as well as an opportunity to try out airbrushing. I had a lot of trouble with the decals. Not long after doing them I saw a post from someone else here building this kit (or what I assume is the reboxing of it with the Gnat) who commented about how bad they were, so I was relieved it wasn't just me. Thin and fragile, and came out pale and rather speckled, and the less said about the ones for the underside arrow the better. Efforts to patch up with white paint only showed up the problems more... Other lessons learned included making sure I had a proper fit. I ended up with slightly down-bent wings that needed straightening, but that left me with a lot of problems getting the intakes to fit. Built OOB, except for two Pavla Mk 10 seats as I wanted to build without aircrew in the cockpit. Oh, and the pitot tube is replaced by a pin - even that is far more realistic looking than the plastic part supplied! Painted in Humbrol Arrow Red and finished with several coats of Humbrol Clear for the right gloss finish.

Just when Airfix, italeri, Revell etc are bringing out (or have brought out already) their Hawk kits with the Union Jack-tailed 50th season from last year....... http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/news/index.cfm?storyid=5C445744-5056-A318-A8568FFB3C4C1245 Oh well, hopefully the designers at Xtradecal may be sharpening their virtual pencils right now, or Airfix will release a 'c' boxing of their RA kit, but what do you think of this design? I think it looks neat, vaguely reminiscent of the british airways swish tails

RAF Red Arrows Hawk - 50th Display Season 1:48 Airfix - Gift Set When the RAF began the search for a new fast jet trainer to replace the Folland Gnat, it was originally intended that the role would be fulfilled by the SEPECAT Jaguar. However, the advanced capabilities demanded of the new Anglo-French aircraft meant that it became too complex for use as a trainer As a result, Hawker Siddley Aviation began work on a private venture known as the P.1182. The design team of Gordon Hudson, Gordon Hodson and Ralph Hooper produced a relatively simple, subsonic aircraft with a number of clever features. The fuselage is designed around a large, tandem cockpit, which features a significant difference in height between the seat for student in the front and that for the instructor in the back. This affords the instructor a much better view than in the Gnat. The wings featured double-slotted flaps which gives the Hawk excellent low-speed handling characteristics. The first of the 176 Hawks ordered by the RAF entered service in 1976, designated the Hawk T.1. 88 T.1s were modified to T.1A standard, which allowed them to carry two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for use in the emergency air defence role. The Hawks reputation as an excellent aeroplane has been confirmed by the considerable success it has enjoyed in the export market. Users include the air forces of Australia, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amongst others. A highly modified carrier capable version is in service with the United States Navy, where it is known as the T-45 Goshawk. The most famous role occupied by the Hawk, however, is as the mount of the world-renowned Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team the Red Arrows. This particular version of Airfix's Hawk dates from 2005 with new parts for the Red Arrows boxed in 2010. The change is that in this kit decals are provided for the markings celebrating 50 years of the Red Arrows. These decals include the new tail design. It is noted the box now says that this is an officially licensed kit by the RAF, a sad indictment of the times we live in! The Kit The kit arrives on 5 sprues of light grey plastic with a clear sprue. There is no flash evident on any of the parts. Details are done with engraved panel lines. The detail is a little soft in places and could do with a little re-engraving by the modeller. The layout of the parts and construction is standard with two fuselage halves, a one part lower wing and two part uppers. Even though this is a Red Arrows boxing with the smoke pod, the normal gun pod and other stores are included if a non Red's Hawk is wanted. Construction starts shockingly enough with the cockpit. Pilot figures are provided for both seats though for display flying generally only one seat is occupied. If wishing to use the figures the modeller could always paint the Pilot in his red suit and the rear seater as one of the blue suited support team (after all with out the support team they don't fly!). If not using the figures then no seat belts are supplied. The ejection seats are a 5 part affair and don't look to basic in this scale. Once the seats are complete the figures can be added if needed. The seats, control columns and instrument panels are fitted to the cockpit tub. The instrument panels and side consoles feature raised and engraved details as appropriate. Once the cockpit tub is completed it can be glued into the fuselage along with the exhaust. The fuselage can then be closed up. Once the fuselage is closed up then the engine intakes can be assembled and added. The next stage of assembly is the wings. The lower wing is one piece with the two upper parts being attached. The flaps are moulded in the up position. However if the modeller wishes to model them down alternate parts are supplied. If this option is to be done then the moulded "up" flaps will be needed to be cut out. Wing fences and nav lights are added at this stage, though I suspect most will leave the nav light off until the end. The next stage is to finish the main fuselage. The upper insert with its intakes is added along with the tail planes. The panel between the pilots is added along with the canopies. The instructions would have the modeller add the pitot probe at this stage, though I suspect this is another detail which most will eave until last. Once the fuselage is complete the main wing assembly can be added. Next it is the choice of the modeller as to whether the under fuselage air-brake is open or closed. The landing gear parts are the next to be assembled. Flap actuators are then added, along with the lowered flaps if you are using this option. Remember to fit the parts inside the wing if you are using the dropped flaps! Final stages of assembly are then to add the landing gear doors, and the landing gear itself. Finally the smoke pod can then be added. Canopy The Canopy and clear parts come on their own sprue. The parts are fairly thick for this scale, some of that comes from moulding in the Det Cord which breaks the canopy up during the ejection sequence. This will be hard to paint and I cant help thinking a decal might have been a better choice. The canopy is fairly clear despite its thickness but there is one moulding flaw in the review sample. Decals The new decal sheet has the markings for the 50th Anv design tail, and the serial numbers to build any aircraft from the team. As is usual for Airfix they are produced by Cartograf and look excellent. The white markings look dense enough to use over bright red paint. Conclusions This is still a good kit by Airfix and with the addition of the new Red Arrows Decals should prove a winner. Overall recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Kit - Airfix 1:72 (2012 release) Paint - All Tamiya acrylics Decals - SM Silk Extras - None Folland/HS Gnat T1 'Red Arrows' Final Season, 1978 Interesting to read that the builder of the other Gnat posted here a few hours ago had 'issues' with the fit. I definitely did !! - The separate section between the gear bays fought me all the way and when I'd finished painting and decalling, came to insert the jet-pipe and ended-up with a 10mm split in the under-fuselage join.... B*gger !! Ahh well, it's only plastic modelling, not brain surgery, right ?? Ian

RAF Red Arrows Hawk - 50th Display Season 1:72 Airfix - Starter set My colleague Paul reviewed the new tooled Hawk back in July in this thread, the plastic for this kit is exactly the same. The change is that in this kit decals are provided for the markings celebrating 50 years of the Red Arrows. These decals include the new tail design. It is noted the box now says that this is an officially licenced kit by the RAF, a sad indictment of the times we live in! Decals The new decal sheet has the markings for the 50th Anv design tail, and the serial numbers to build any aircraft from the team. As is usual for Airfix they are produced by Cartograf and look excellent. The white markings look dense enough to use over bright red paint. Conclusion Its a RED ARROW of course we want it. The model will look good in these markings. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Just received my IPMS Magazine and included is an excellent 24 paged illustrated history of all the colour schemes and marking variations of the Gnats and Hawks used since 1964. What a reference source!!

Hi A few shots from up on Beachy Head on Saturday. The two Lancasters looked magnificent:

Hi there Anyone know if it's possible to get hold of a Red Arrows Dye Truck in 1/72 or 1/32? Watching the documentary now and fancy trying a little scene with one. Thanks Steve

**

Hi Everyone, Here is my biggest completed project of 2014 so far. This is completed build number 8 for 2014. This is a Revell Red Arrows Hawk T.1A painted using Humbrol Acrylic Signal Red paint. I enjoyed this build as it was one of the most challenging for a long time. Anyway onto the pictures. I have just realised whilst looking at these photos that I have left the fuselage serial numbers off, so will have to correct that. Anyway comments welcome. Thanks as always for looking. Rick

Finally the weather is just right to take a few pics outside! This is my effort at the new Airfix 1/72 Gnat kit. I found the kit somewhat fiddly to fit, so much so that this is in fact build No2, build No1 getting trashed as it emerged that it was quite easy to build this kit badly! red3 Main tip is to fit the intakes to the fuselage halves before you fit the cockpit sidewalls, which otherwise will stop them fitting flush. The fit of the wing also needs a fair bit of sanding and fettling to get it to sit down tight against the fuselage without gaps. I also left off the main gear until the rest of the kit was put together - this needs some nervous bending to get them in, but it was a better result than on No1 where I mashed them up proper with misplaced thumbs while sanding the seams. red1 Paint is Humbrol Acrylic Arrows Red which sprayed very nicely, and has been observed here, is proper red rather than orange like the Xtracrylix version. Decals are a mixture of kit and the S&M Decals Gnat sheet. The S&M has a number of decals which are not identified on the instruction sheet and after much peering through a magnifying glass I reckoned one tiny one was a Silver Jubilee marking found on the tails of the Red Arrows in 1977. I chatted with Mr S&M (aka Mel) at the Croydon aviation fair in January who confirmed this. As I hadn't seen any kits with this marking I thought I would do one, and found a nice pic of XS107 on the net to use as inspiration. red5 To add a bit of interest I also opened up one of the nose panels as can be seen in a few pics on the net, but as I have no idea what is in there, I just blanked it off and hope no-one objects!! red6 Hope you like! red4 Pat

Hi everyone, Here is my WIP thread for my entry into the Less than a Tenner Group Build, Project Pink Arrow. I'd like to give you all some background to this project before posting anything. In November 2012, my niece and her family emigrated to Australia, however before she went my wife and I took her to the Shoreham Airshow for our last day out with her. Her favourite aircraft was the pink aircraft from the SWIP display team (shown below). Ever since she moved we have talked via Skype and she always likes to see my models (especially the Vulcan I built), so I have decided to make a model for her birthday (which is small enough that my step mum can take it on the plane for me in July). I selected an Airfix 1:72 RAF Red Arrows Gnat Starter set for the kit and because I know she will want the kit to be painted pink, have gone with Tamiya X-17 Pink acrylic paint. I guess you can call this one a What If build i.e. What if the painters of the Red Arrows planes picked the wrong colour for one of the planes when they were spraying them, thus the Pink Arrow was born. This kit is going to be a complete one off. I have decided that I will create a Limited Edition certificate for it along with a document to send with it to show my niece, how I went about the project and what it started out like etc. Here is the kit : Airfix built Red Arrow : Sprues : This kit will be the simplest build I have built for a very long time and as such probably won't take a long time for me to do. Thanks very much for looking. Excuse the fact that I have to paint this one pink. Rick

Does anyone know if someone has produced a set of decals for the new Red Arrows 50th Anniversary livery for the 1/32 Revell Red Arrows Hawk? I've got one in the stash and fancy giving it a go this year. Thanks in anticipation! Andrew

Revealed today. Anybody else notice on the Hannants page for Hawks, airfix have another release for the Hawk scheduled in July , with a separate box number - A02005B. I wonder if this is the reason? To their credit, airfix have updated their retooled hawk at least twice since release. The first one was to improve (though not a heck of a lot) the main u/c doors. The second was much more major, including the wing fences moulded onto the wings, slight alterations to the seats, one piece canopy, and better all-round fit. This latter kit I am now buying in droves on my quest to build all the RAF airframes. So I can only assume the release this year is for the new scheme? The other release of this kit, in the black RAF or Finnish schemes, doesn't seem to be the final release either as the lower wing has out hard point holes in them too. One wonders what else they have up their sleeves?! I often wonder if airfix would sell me a larger amount of hawks unboxed, just the bare plastic, for a smaller amount ; bulk buy discount!!

Here are a couple of my images from air displays. It's quite tricky to catch the right moment! The Blades Aerobatics Team And of course, the Red Arrows

Hi All The red arrows have been at Norwich International Airport this week. They flew up from Weymouth for the Clacton Air Show. They arrived on Wednesday lunchtime and have been in and out every day till they left yesterday. Typically iv'e been working everyday this week, so i have missed all the flyby's. But i managed to see them leaving on Friday, although i managed to miss one or two of them...... Also we had one of the black ones in a few weeks back. :-) Enjoy! XX264 This one is actually still at Norwich, it had an Engine problem. XX323 XX325 XX266 XX310 XX263 XX321 XX321 That's all for now, i will upload some of my other photos of Norwich over the next couple weeks, there's only a couple hundred lol Thanks Bradley

Hi Everyone, I just thought I would share some of my photos from today's visit to the Eastbourne Airshow. These photos were taken on a pocket digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix L25, so unfortunately the quality of the photos is not as good as if I was using a larger digital camera. I intend to purchase a better quality digital SLR with a variety of lenses etc, if anyone has any recommendations for me, please feel free to comment. Anyway, onto the photos. The photos of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Red Arrows are my favourites out of the photos I got. Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight - All 3 aircraft BBMF - Lancaster Chinook :- The Red Arrows :- The Red Arrows :- The Red Arrows :- The Red Arrows :- I didn't get any photos of the Typhoon unfortunately and the Sea King and Lynx AH-7 cancelled their displays and didn't show, which annoyed me no end. Several of the other displays were only watched by me rather than photographed as I was walking around the trade stalls etc at the time they were on. Full album is available on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199430156890707.1073741836.100004711722357&type=1&l=3d34ba4505 Thanks for looking, I hope you like the photos even though they are not of the quality most photos on here are. Cheers, Rick

.

This is another project which I will be starting as a fill in project when my 2 main projects are drying as this model will be painted using Revell Enamel paints which I have already got for a previous Red Arrow I bought but which was too small. Box Art Kit Sprues The kit comes on 3 or more sprues, all made from red plastic except from some clear parts. However they all seem quite large. More progress when I actually open the bags and start working on the kit.

Hi there I wanted to try something a little different with the photos I took at Fairford. While on holiday, I started to have a play around with Windows Moviemaker and used it to create an animated slideshow of my favourite pictures. The finished film - complete with AC/DC soundtrack (switch on your PC speakers!) - can be viewed on YouTube. Click on the link below: Or search on YouTube for RIAT 2012 rocks to AC/DC. All aerial shots were taken with a Nikon F4 300mm lens. For the first time I managed to get some crossover shots of the Breitling display team and the Red Arrows. Cheers Richard C