danielwood5 Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Hi all, as my modelling and internet forum confidence has grown a little I decided to join in here on my first group build! I'm going to be putting together these two specimens of the UKs finest (Airfix and BAe!) Hawks. The Red Arrows boxing is going to become a MK51 in the colours of the Finnish Midnight Hawks Aerobatics team and the Hawk 100 will be in one of the kit schemes (I've not decided which yet as I want to look at pictures of the actual aircraft to see which one looks best). Both will be built out of the box with no upgrades as that's just what I do, sorry! I'm new at this whole forum thing so if I make any mistakes or etiquette faux pas then please let me know in easy to understand terms! Thanks. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 First off the MK51, the decals look pretty good to me Here's the Airfix paint scheme Looking at the instructions Airfix got a lot of the information for this scheme from here: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~garys/teamspot/mdnthwks/mh-photo.htm Looking at the pics it seems that there's some slight variation in the camouflage scheme which will make it easier to paint as it appears that accuracy isn't too important! The Airfix instructions show the aircraft fitted with gunpods and sidewinders but obviously the display team doesn't use these so I'll leave them off. It does, however, look like the wing pylons are left on the aircraft and are empty during displays so I will add them, I may look at adding some detail to make them look better empty but I'll see how that goes. Obligatory sprue shots incoming, I may add one of these chaps. Now onto the Hawk 100.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 For the Hawk 100 I think I'm going to do this scheme from the Royal Australian Air Force The decals again look good Here's the fuselage sprue, this is the only difference between the two kits so should be a fairly straight forward simultaneous build. Now to start putting bits together! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Great choices, good luck in the GB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 Thanks @Wez, I'm hoping I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with the Aussie scheme but hopefully with a little care and patience it'll come out looking good. So far I've put the four seats together but they need a bit of filling and I may use some putty to create the bag thing on the top of the seats as this will be the most visible area through the huge screen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Welcome to the GB ! Glad to see you jumping in, I'm sure you'l enjoy taking part in your first group build ! They are great fun, you'll soon find yourself taking part in more and more 🙂 Being a big Hawk fan I'm very happy to see you building these two. Of the various Mk.100 markings, the RAAF ones is probably my favourite for several reasons, not least having seen them performing to great effect during airshows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 11 hours ago, danielwood5 said: So far I've put the four seats together but they need a bit of filling and I may use some putty to create the bag thing on the top of the seats as this will be the most visible area through the huge screen. I'm not sure what you're driving at there? Be careful because the MB.10 seat has been revised over the years, the early version as fitted to the original Hawks had a large head box, later versions a smaller one more akin to what you're seeing there, you need to check what's appropriate to your model but I suspect both would have the later type. That said, these seats lack detail and need a bit of help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted June 26, 2018 Author Share Posted June 26, 2018 Thanks @Giorgio N, I like this whole group build thing, it's forced me to pull out kits that I've been putting off building for fear of messing them up so that can only be a good thing, I'll never get better at this if I don't stretch myself a little! I really like this Aussie scheme too, it's so different from the Hawks we see here so it should look good on the eventual Hawk shelf I'm planning on putting together! The seats definitely could do with a bit of something to help them out, you're right there @Wez.Looking at my reference pics both these aircraft have the smaller type headbox so these seats are fine with me, I'm going to put the pilot in both kits (as I enjoy painting them) and put an approximation of the belts on the back seat to liven them up a bit. I ned to fill in the gaps on the 'neck' below the head box and do something with the ugly bit on top of the head box as I'm not sure what the moulding is trying to represent there. So far all I've done is painted the cockpit internals so I'll start putting that together soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 Slow going so far, I've painted up most of the cockpit bits and pieces, just waiting for them to dry before putting them together. The instrument panels don't bear much resemblance to their real life counterparts so I've used artistic licence on them a fair bit. I painted the computer screens on the Hawk 100 (or Hawk 127 I believe the Australian one is correctly called) using clear green over silver to give them a 'lit-up' look. Will probably start gluing bits together in the next day or so. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 Good start here ! You're unfortunately right, the panels in these kits aren't really totally accurate. The same problem affects the coaming over the rear panel in particular. I'm also not sure if Airfix represent the correct Hawk Mk.127 configuration, as this variant features a more advanced cockpit style compared to other Mk.100 subvariants. In any case not that much is visible from the canopy on the model, and I admit to having used these decals myself on my previous Airfix Hawks...😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 On 7/2/2018 at 8:15 AM, Giorgio N said: Good start here ! You're unfortunately right, the panels in these kits aren't really totally accurate. The same problem affects the coaming over the rear panel in particular. I'm also not sure if Airfix represent the correct Hawk Mk.127 configuration, as this variant features a more advanced cockpit style compared to other Mk.100 subvariants. In any case not that much is visible from the canopy on the model, and I admit to having used these decals myself on my previous Airfix Hawks...😁 You're absolutely right @Giorgio N, I've found some really good in depth walkaround pics of the Australian Hawk and the kit cockpit interior is NOTHING like the real aircraft, the 127 is pretty much all computer screens with just a couple of dials so it's very high tech! I'm not overly bothered though as I'll be putting in at least one pilot in each model so that will hide the majority of the panels and instruments as well as the slightly basic ejector seats. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 So far I've painted up and installed the cockpit tubs in both models and done some basic weathering in the pits just to give a bit of visual interest. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 A good start on both kits and good to see the differences between the marks of aircraft side by side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Cockpits look good, in the pictures it's hard to tell that the panels are decals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 nice pits!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 On 7/9/2018 at 1:33 PM, Giorgio N said: Cockpits look good, in the pictures it's hard to tell that the panels are decals That's because they're not @Giorgio N I just painted up the raised details, they look OK I think as long as you ignore the fact that they're nothing like the real aircraft! Thanks @exdraken! I feel like I've made hardly any progress on these as I've been putting in half an hour here and there but I've just realised that they're both pretty much assembled now! The fit isn't particularly great but there's not too many parts so the clean up shouldn't be too difficult. I had to do a lot of rescribing underneath as a lot of the panels go across the join seam. I hate scribing so it took me a while to do as I did it in short sessions before I got bored. The wing tips on the Hawk 127 were a pain to fit as you have to cut the ends off and I made a right mess of it, also the tips are a lot thinner than the rest of the wing so it took some sanding and filling to get them looking anywhere near OK. I'm still not happy with them but I'm going to take another look at them once I've got a layer of primer on so I can see better what needs doing. I've put a basic layer of paint on the two pilots too, I've had to take their feet off as the nose weight is packed behind the front console but they didn't seem to mind. I've painted the basic colours on the seats too and added an approximation of the seatbelts using Tamiya tape. I just need to do the detail painting and weathering on these bits then I'm going to fit them and add the canopy before I start putting some paint down. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted August 13, 2018 Author Share Posted August 13, 2018 The seats and pilots are now painted up, weathered and in position. I quite like how thy look now they're built up and in place. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 Both are coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Both looking good ! The Airfix kit is indeed a pain to assemble but it has to be said that the shapes are good. Cockpits look very good too, your work paid off nicely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielwood5 Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 I realise that my last post in this thread was 18 months ago but for the sake of completeness I thought I'd close it up with a report on where I'm up to with this build. Due to personal, work and technological issues I never finished this build, I got as far as decaling the Aussie Hawk but the Airfix decals hadn't lasted the test of time and broke up and split when I tried to use them. I replaced them with a set from Model Alliance but once they came I decided not to use them as I really liked the look of the paint scheme but didn't like the Airfix kit. The extra pieces added to the wingtips looked terrible to me, the tips are so much thinner than the wing that the step looked really ugly. I also dropped the model and snapped off one of the wingtips so that decided it for the Aussie Hawk. The Finnish Hawk is now on the shelf of doom, I've put the paint on it but I'm scared of using the decals in case they've perished like the other ones, I've kind of lost the spark to finish this one off but I may get back to it at some point in the future. Thanks everyone for all the tips and advice on this build, onwards and upwards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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