Red Arrows Hawk undercarriage colour

[Lightning1968]

Hi all,

Just starting a 1/72 Airfix Red Arrow Hawk T1a and at a dilemma as to what colour the undercarriage and wheel bays should be. Instuctions call out for Humbrol 166 Light Aircraft Grey but i was always of the understanding that they are White.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[PhantomBigStu]

something that everyone gets wrong, they are very light grey, lighter than 166 but not white 

[Smudge]

There are nice pictures of Red Arrows Hawks in the Walkaround section ☺

[Julien]

5 hours ago, Smudge said:

There are nice pictures of Red Arrows Hawks in the Walkaround section ☺

Yes we have an extensive set of pics there;
 

 

[1903flight]

You could also watch Chanel 5 @ 6pm tonight - Red Arrows Kings of the Skys. 

 

What about humbrol 196 for the undercarriage? Or is the too light?

[PhantomBigStu]

@1903flight humbrol 196 is exactly the sort of grey 

[Des]

22 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

something that everyone gets wrong .....

 Everyone ??

[Shaun]

14 minutes ago, Des said:

 Everyone ??

Another conmon mistake is not checking the colour of the inside of the main bay doors, Normally painted the same as the airframe the black scheme or red on the Arrows aircraft.

[Julien]

59 minutes ago, Shaun said:

Another conmon mistake is not checking the colour of the inside of the main bay doors, Normally painted the same as the airframe the black scheme or red on the Arrows aircraft.

Only the one not attached to the gear leg. That one is not red.

 

Julien

[Lightning1968]

Thank you all very much for your great answers. I have looked at loads of images online, in books and walkarounds but the images seem to look white. But thank you PhantomBigStu and 1903flight i don't normally use Humbrol but i have just bought Humbrol 196 Tamiya equivlent XF-66 light grey and maybe add a touch of white to that if it needs it.

Thanks again all,

Mark.

P.S. i presume this is also for the undercarriage legs as well as the wheel wells.

[Lightning1968]

Thank you also Julien.

[Lightning1968]

Just taken a look at the images on here on the walkaround and they are absolutely fantastic just what i needed. Thanks again.

[Antti_K]

Hello all,

 

In Finnish Air Force Hawks all interiors are painted with gloss white (wing structures, engine bay, avionics bay, landing gear bays, ...). The cockpit of course is gray😉

 

It is possible that "Reds" have painted just their landing gears with pale gray but I doubt that. Re-painting gear legs is time (and money) consuming operation.

 

Here is some photos of a Finnish Hawk.

 

 

This is the avionics bay behind nose gear well. The nose is to the right.

 

 

Starboard main gear bay.

 

 

Starboard main gear. Note how dirty the white wheel is.

 

 

Nose gear.

 

 

 

The engine bay from below. Nose is to the left.

 

I have an old "photo book" called "A year with Red Arrows" (It dates back to 1990s) and the landing gears look white. On the other hand, I built an Airfix 1/48 scale Buccaneer S2B some 20 years ago and I used Humbrol 127 for the landing gears and wells as it looked perfect for the job (I had a chance to examine close-up a 208 Squadron aircraft at Kauhava AB in the summer of 1991... or was it 1992). Both aircraft were already under BAe title that time.

 

Kind Regards,

Antti

 

 

[Lightning1968]

Antti thanks very much for the info. Great pics. I also have books on the Reds and like you i thought the landing gear legs look white and so do all other images of them that i have seen but i am informed that they are actually a very light grey so i am going to paint them light grey with some added white.

Do you have any images of the actual Finnish aircraft itself as i would like to look at the paint scheme.

Thanks again,

Mark.

[kiwitrogg]

Hi

The wheel wells and other internals were definately white like the ones shown above, the insides of the nose doors also.  And I'm 99.9% sure that the hydraulic components (MLG, NLG actuators etc) were light grey.

HTH

Cheers

Gaz (Brawdy 86 - 89)

[Devilfish]

Kiwitrogg is correct.  The bays are white, the legs are grey

[Antti_K]

Good morning everyone,

 

so it seems that the aircraft operated by the RAF (and built in England) have light gray main and nose gear legs and white interiors. As many of the Finnish Air Force Hawks were built by Valmet under license here in Finland, they may have used white paint for all components.

 

I'll try to find some information about the first Hawks in Finland as they were built in England. Maybe they had light gray landing gears. Thanks for the tip🙂

 

Mark, Finnish Hawks have carried four different paint schemes since 1980 (and a special livery last year when Finnish Air Force celebrated their 100th year).

- "Initial" paint scheme: Light Bronze Green/ Very Dark Drab and Light Aircraft Gray with large roundels and British style serials. "Wavy" colour demarcation line in fuselage

- "New" paint scheme introduced in around 1990: as above but Finnish paint equivalents were also used. Straight colour demarcation line in fuselage. Small roundels and serials

- "Current" paint scheme: all topsides matt Dark Sea Gray, Light Aircraft gray under surfaces. Small roundels and serials

- " Current Swiss" paint scheme: white and red fuselage, Light Aircraft Gray wings with red tips. Both large and small roundels used

 

I have photos of them all: which one are you most interested in?

 

Cheers,

Antti