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Dedicated to the memory of FltLt John Egging who tragically lost his life whilst performing with the Red Arrows on 20th August, 2011. RIP Fltlt Egging, blue skies and godspeed Hello everyone, Here are a few images of the Revell Hawk in 1/32nd scale. I bought this model from a nationwide discount retailer (Argos) here in the UK when it first came out. It was a spur of the moment, impulse buy but I'm glad I did. For just £18.99, Revell have given us huge value for money. After watching a few on-line builds and hearing of a few minor quibbles I began with the cockpit and seats. One area that has been criticised are the seats. It would appear that Revell have molded their replicas with the seat base at its' highest position giving a somewhat squat appearance when compared to many reference photos. However, one gentleman on another forum explained that the seats are left in that position when the crew leaves the aircraft so I chose to leave the seats as they are. For the most part, the detail is good even down to the rocket pack beneath the seat base but there are areas where some extra TLC can be used to spice things up visually. The first area for attention is the drogue chute and top of the seat headbox. This is devoid of any raised detail straight out of the box so metal foil and bits of lead wire were added to liven things up. A second area for help are the straps. Revell thoughtfully provide a suggestion of the straps on the decal sheet but in this scale those decals are n't particularly convincing. Again, metal foil was used to create depth. The pilot and pupil IPs are identical and Revell provide a one piece decal to cover all of the instrumentation. The plastic has raised switchgear molded in relief and I was n't confident in the decals ability to conform to the panel so I opted to punch out the instrument faces and add them seperately on top of the painted parts. The tub side consoles are also provided as decals but I chose to paint the panels instead. One notable omission is the ribbing on the inside face of each fuselage side. Whereas the full sized airframe has an obvious framework visible, the kit is smooth in this department so lengths of Evergreen plastic extrusion were used to simulate the various beams and cross members. I also chose to add a GPS device to the front IP coaming from plasticard with a foil cover over it as well as a foil document pouch on the rear bulkhead behind the rear seat. One or two pipes and wires were added to the voids in the front cockpit beside the seat to give those empty areas a lift. A last tweek involved creating a "bib" for the rear seat to tidy up the straps whilst the Red Arrows pilot performs his/her display. This was made from foil again (useful stuff this metal foil ). My intention is to finish the model all buttoned up, parked between displays. The canopy will be closed, I'll use foil to create cloth effect intake and exhaust covers and I'll add a selection of RBF streamers around the airframe. I'd like to lower the flaps as I've aleady seen a number of great builders who have paved the way on that one. I'd also like to show the airbrake deployed too and thanks to some superb photos here on BM (thanks Mark ) I should manage to add a pipe or two in there. One of the things that has me scratching my head most though is the undulating stressed skin effect to the rear of the cockpit just above the intake trunking. The Hawk has a number of obvious bulged panels in that area so recreating that effect will be a challenge. I'll let you know how I get on in due course. Thanks for stopping by, see you all next time.