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1/72 Curtiss Hawk 75A-7 Dutch East Indies - Revell/Monogram conversion


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The Curtiss Hawk 75 was developed as a private venture by the Curtiss factory in the early 1930s. A number of versions with different engines and armaments were produced for different countries. By September 1939 the Dutch government had speeded up the modernization of its air force and ordered the Hawk 75A-7, which was equipped with the Wright-Cyclone R1820 1200hp engine. After the fall of The Netherlands, the planes were rerouted to the Dutch East Indies. The Hawks engaged Japanese invaders from December 1941 but were withdrawn from service in February 1942 due to engine issues. However, its more famous descendant, the P-40, served with much distinction in the Indies during and after the war.

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Since I’m on something of a Pacific Air War modeling spree, the P-36 / Hawk 75 has been on my list for some time. I’ve had the DB/Airwaves conversion nose in my stash for over 20 years, and I was always impressed by the quality of the part; it’s nicely detailed with recessed panel lines and flawless casting.

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The Revell/Monogram kit to be used for this conversion represents an A-4 and it’s old… raised panel lines, little interior detail, few parts. However, what’s there, is pretty good. Fit is decent and the transparencies are very clear.

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Installing the nose was a relatively simple job, but for some reason I misread the instructions, ignored common sense and used 2-component glue instead of CA to mate the new engine to the fuselage. This resulted in endless cycles of filling, sanding and priming. In the end I gouged out the 2-component glue and refilled with CA. I never did get the join quite right, but only I will notice (I hope).

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One issue caused by the nose job was that it removed the front on the cockpit. This resulted in a less than optimal mating surface for the windscreen, so this required some cutting, filling and blending. In turn, the sliding part of the canopy would not fit in the closed position, so I left it open. I added a QuickBoost gunsight and some tape seatbelts to spruce up the cockpit a bit.

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Since the nose has recessed panel lines, I decided to rescribe the entire kit. This was quite easy as there are only one or two curved panel lines, the rest are on flat surfaces. Even for me this was a relatively easy job – I’m useless at rescribing!

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Apart from the nose job, some other minor conversions were required. The Dutch planes only had the inner wing guns, so I removed the outer ones and the shell ejection chutes. Then I removed the inner ones as well as they are quite crude – and replaced them with Albion Alloys tubing. Same for the pitot tube. The propeller hub needed replacing as well as it’s the wrong shape. I cut off the original and replaced it with a reshaped piece of sprue. Finally, the Dutch planes had the lower portion of the gear doors removed, so this required some cutting and carving of the original parts.

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Painting was done with a layer of Tamiya fine primer followed by two coats of Games Workshop Runefang Steel, my NMF color of choice at the moment. It dries quickly and hardens very well, it’s easy to mask and does not pick up any nasty finger prints. The ailerons and elevators were sprayed in the same color with some grey mixed in to give a slightly faded look.

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Decals are from FlevoDecals ML-KNIL set 72012, which went down very well, as usual with decals from this manufacturer. I really like their sets, being a Dutch guy they are really indispensable to building my collection.

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I’m very happy with the final result; it’s a good-looking plane, and I’m very happy to have finally done this conversion, which has languished on the shelf for so long.

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Edited by sroubos
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Very nice work - with conversion to single row 9 cylindrers done so tidy...

I expected DK green/Chesnut brown camo for Dutch Hawk, the NM was rather rare there, I supouse.

I have some experience in Cyclone powered Hawks. Many years ago - about 40 I made first attempt to do also Dutch single row Hawk-75. Those times I convereted from Heller. Now I am pretty happy, that I do not have it on my shelves any more - it was not so nice done as yours :)/ Later I made second time conversion to Wright engine Hawk from Monogram kit - I made Thai one, with fixed u/c. I was posting it here some months ago....But I was more lazy - not engraving lines...

Congratulations :)

J-W

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I think the NMF was the delivery scheme; as hostilities approached, all KNIL and MLD planes were overpainted in camo colors and the orange triangles were removed from the upper wing surfaces and rudders. The underside was generally left in NMF.

Edited by sroubos
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Thanks very much for the reactions folks.

I was comparing the kit to some earlier builds and I noticed a bit of a boo boo - I used a larger diameter tube than usual for the guns. All the ones I've used represent .50 cals so far, but now I've used a larger diameter tube to represent a .30!

I'll just move it away from my Hellcat...

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