A pair of Airfix Hawks in 1/72. Finished.

[tomprobert]

Haven't popped in for a while, and boy you've made some seriously stunning progress in my absence!

Really enjoying these - love the added detail with the intakes and it'll be sure to add to 'wow factor' of what are sure to be two stunning renditions of BAe's finest...

Tom

[perdu]

Nowt wrong with DSG Tommo, lovely colour

You are right about the emotion paint though, thin it enough for the airbrush and it has less body than a bodyless thingy

And like the other guys I'm totally bebeggared if I'd even contemplate doing the trunking, you must be brilliant Steve

Oops I meant MAD

Or...

Wonders never cease on a Fritag build

Edited January 3, 2016 by perdu

[philp]

Another option is heat shrink tubing. Would still need to carve some balsa to create the duct, then put in the tubing and shrink it, no seam at all with this method.

[Fritag]

You make that look easy (and you've probably already explained how you did that) but how did you copy the internal shape of the fuselage for the bulkheads?

Ah. Well I cheated actually Giorgio - Sorry..........

I got my Hawks when they were on a half price deal and so I bought a couple of extras. I used a scrap fuselage that I've been using as a test mule for things various - and simply cut a cross section out of it at the point I wanted the bulkhead. I then taped it to some 1mm plastic card (so it wouldn't move about) and use it as a template to scribe a perfect bulkhead profile:

Very simple - but rather extravagant and wasteful use of a kit unless, like here, the fuselage is essentially already scrap.

Intakes are a target for IPMS judges over here in US. They use flashlight/torch to look for seems in intakes. So put a FOD screen over to hide or do the trunking. I've used bass wood to make master and vac it. That way you can still fool around with it to make it fit and just flip it for the other side. Trunking on a 1/72 Jet opens the wow factor...

Another option is heat shrink tubing. Would still need to carve some balsa to create the duct, then put in the tubing and shrink it, no seam at all with this method.

Now these sound like 'proper' techniques chaps and probably the best way of doing it.

The Adour is of course only a modest little engine (I should know as the vast majority of my FJ time was spent with an Adour throttle parked virtually fully forward or in reheat ) and it's airflow needs correspondingly modest - thus the intakes have a really quite small cross section and the trunking is comparatively long and of course, in the Hawk, bifurcated.

In 1/72 scale the intakes are a very small diameter and quite deep. It is therefore hard to see much when peeking down the intake - and the field of view is very restricted. In particular the compound curve is not really apparent and the bifurcated nature of the ducting is just not evident - or in any event even if the beady eyed US IPMS judges could see them - they are not obvious enough for me to worry about on this build

That being the case I don't want to put the effort into making a master or moulding compound curved and/or bifurcated ducting. I'm content with a simple curved surface - representing only the outside of the ducting and leading from a point about 1 cm or so down the ducting direct to the compressor face.

It won't be seamless as such anyway - as I plan to use the Airfix intake front which are supplied as separate parts - and so there will in any event be a circumferential join about 1 cm back into the duct. I hope that this will not be highly visible as i plan for the ducting beyond that point to be slightly larger in diameter - i.e. 'stepped' out of view.

Some piccies of progress so far might (?) make this easier to follow. As I said my inspiration was Gene K's method used by Giorgio.

Started by building up a template from paper. Simple rectangle to begin with and then taping on - and cutting to shape - more bits of paper:

Very quickly (a matter of minutes) get to a shape like this:

And a hopefully definitive template:

Once I've transferred it to some 0.1mm plastic card I'll post a piccie of it in-situ so you can judge for yourselves whether it works or not

And like the other guys I'm totally bebeggared if I'd even contemplate doing the trunking, you must be brilliant Steve

Oops I meant MAD

Nah. It's taken longer to describe than to do - and it may not work - and the idea is pinched from Gene K.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Fritag

[perdu]

OK if I concede that its fairly simple can I suggest trying 10 thou plasticard for the trunking

Or even fill that outer wall section with Milliput and wet shape it with a rather talented finger

I'd probably even try plasticine taking a chance the polystyrene would stop the oil base leaching through into the paint for twenty odd years

[keefr22]

It takes a lot less than 20 years for oil to leach through some polystyrenes Bill. I won't say how I know....!!

That's a very neat technique Steve, I'll file that away for future use, if I ever get less lazy I might contemplate some intake trunking somewhere....!!

Keith

[giemme]

Ah. Well I cheated actually Giorgio - Sorry..........

:d

Template seems very appropriate, looking forward to see the actual part in place.

Ciao

[Fritag]

Or even fill that outer wall section with Milliput and wet shape it with a rather talented finger

Ah. Well. You see trying to shape milliput would be problematical cos there's the wheel bays to cover/hide:

I do believe however I have made my simple/compromise solution work.

Here's the 0.2mm plastic card - cut to shape from the paper template - glued in place. I used cyano rather than Tamiya green cap or similar so as not to risk melting or distorting the thin plastic:

It curved nicely (with modest persuasion) to fit the kit at the Airfix intake join:

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And it all fits ok over the wheel bays. Actually I had to cheat a bit to make it fit over the wheel bays by making the trunking a bit shorter (vertically) that it ought to be (more on this later):

Here's one showing the other fuselage half attached and the kit front section of the intake dry fitted.

It's the same shape for the trunking on t'other side - just in reverse. I don't need to join the two trunks together in the centre - because you can't see to the centre line when looking down the front of the intake:

And, most importantly, one looking down the intake with the front section dry fitted. This is just about as much of the compressor face as can be seen from any sight line - so you can see that I don't need to bother extending the inner face of the trunking rearward:

This is the effect of having to make the trunking shorter to fit over the wheel bays. I will have to use a tiny bit of milliput or do something else just to lose the bottom 1 or 2mm of the rear of the front section of the intake. Not a big price to pay and I don'y think that the comparative loss of height will be noticeable.

Gotta do it 3 more times now...........

Edited January 4, 2016 by Fritag

[giemme]

Looking really good!

Ciao

[Col.]

An elegant and effective solution Steve

[Martian]

Nice progress on the intakes! I have to agree with Smudge though that his is a superior finish for the aircraft (sits back and waits for a bite).

Martin

[perdu]

wot Col says

elegant and effective

nice work

[Miggers]

Sounds a perfectly good plan to me. Please feel free to give it a go so that we can all then copy it in future if successful

What he really means is "If successful you could make a few sets for us too" :winkgrin:

[Hamden]

Nice work on the intakes, a simple but effective solution

Roger

[Ace From Outer Space]

Nice work Steve,

Cheers

Viv

[NontasB]

Today was the first time I saw the whole thread and read it! I'm amazed of your skills in scratchbuilding and all the corrections that you have made at the kits!!

Look forward to see more!!

Regards,

Nontas

[Fritag]

Ta chaps,

I've done the other half now and I'm quite pleased with the result:

One thing tho'. I'm not sure what colour the trunking should be. I know there is a wrap around of the external colour - 6" or 12" (I've seen both quoted) but I'm not sure if the rest of the trunking is white or grey. One photo of a black Hawk I've seen suggests white - but elsewhere it's been said to be light grey. More googling required.....

Edited January 4, 2016 by Fritag

[Tomoshenko]

Very nice work Steve, well worth the effort. Will easily pass the endoscope test.

[Blogs On]

Very neat and very effective!

[hendie]

very nice out of the box thinking

[giemme]

Looking very good, Steve! Shouldn't be too difficult to paint those intakes, if need be (as opposed to the Phantom ones, but luckily they are to remain white )

Ciao

[philp]

Intakes work for me.

[Martian]

That is good!

Martin

[Fritag]

Not too late to change your tack, shipmate

just a thought.

Happy New Year.

I have to agree with Smudge though that his is a superior finish for the aircraft (sits back and waits for a bite).

Martin

No bite from me Martin - age and civilianisation have dimmed the activity of my service rivalry gene Anyways - if you really must have a black painted Hawk (and I do not!) it ain't a bad scheme that......so Smudge can have that one

Plus - who wouldn't have wanted to have experienced operating a Phantom or Buccaneer from the Ark Royal? (or, perhaps even better, the earlier generation jets). Gotta love and respect Naval Aviation it seems to me Definitely worth flying a two-seater to get the chance to experience that; probably worth the downside of doing much if not most of your flying over the sea, and maybe worth living on a boat for a bit (maybe).

As to the colour of the hawk intakes I found this on BM whilst googling:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234939033-airfix-bae-hawk-mk-t1/?p=1301591

I guess that if Hawkkeeper says they are light grey - that should be good enough for me. It was actually this same photo that I'd seen elsewhere that had made me think they were white.......

The trunking also looks a bit grubby further on down.

[CedB]

Great link to the intake photo Steve, but who built that??!! Look at those seams...