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BAe Hawk


Deanflyer

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Hello all,

 

Laid low with the lurgy at the moment, so I thought I'd get round to updating you on my latest build...the Revell 1/32 Hawk:

hawk1_zpscayi6zag.jpg

Note the Argos stock label on it - like many of us probably, I hot footed it down to the local Argos when these first came out as I believe they were one of the only places stocking it. Then it's sat in the stash ever since. That was 2010! About time I made one...

 

I'd also splashed out on the Xtradecal stencil sheet, and their squadron markings sheet, as I didn't want to build a Red Arrows jet:

hawk2_zpsjpt2cmue.jpg

 

I've always had a fancy for the late seventies RAF trainer scheme, ever since it first appeared in the Airfix catalogue when I was a kid, so I'll be doing this scheme:

hawk3_zpsqbqhvbfy.jpg

One difference - the nose ID number 164 will be in white, not black, as I prefer it that way. Luckily I found a photo of this airframe with the number in white, so it will still be accurate.

 

The cockpit is reasonably well detailed, and the instrument decals do their job well enough, settling down well over the raised bezels:

hawk4_zpsnzdlcwfj.jpg

 

The only place the cockpit falls down is on the sidewalls, which are devoid of ANY detail whatsoever. All of this had to be added from scratch:

hawk5_zps6msak8ip.jpg

 

Adding a couple of resin seats completes the ensemble:

hawk7_zpshev0rkit.jpg

 

hawk6_zpsh3d5zilo.jpg

I'd ordered the early style headboxes on the seats, as you can't get much earlier in the Hawk's career than this!

 

Then it was on to the notorious short-shot undercarriage. I added various bits and pieces to replace the missing compression struts, and also added brake lines and tie wraps:

hawk8_zpsoxfqhvbx.jpg

 

I filed flats onto the tyres, and painted everything up. The wheel centre caps have still to be added here, and according to some references the main wheel rims were painted yellow so I'm still deciding whether to do that with mine:

hawk9_zpsm1fmavbl.jpg

 

The wheel wells were well detailed OOB, so I just used a wash to highlight things:

hawk10_zpsz0zc4iih.jpg

 

One notable problem with the kit is that there is no facility to have the flaps dropped, which is how Hawks are ALWAYS parked. I sliced off the flaps from the wings, scratch built them to an aerofoil section, and added the intermediate strip and supports using the mk1 eyeball and much poring over of reference photos. I'm hoping it'll work out ok:

hawk11_zpszkbtvf3z.jpg

 

Before the fuselage halves could be joined, there was the little matter of all the glaring ports in the fuselage which would open onto the bare plastic interior. There are about five of them, which all had to be dealt with using a short length of tube glued to the inside of the fuselage to give depth, and then blanked off. So, ready to close the fuselage - oops, no, the forward cockpit bulkhead is a completely different shape to the interior of the fuselage at that point! It left a gap of about an eighth of an inch  between the halves, which no amount of filler would solve. I had to file off quite a bit of the bulkhead sides to get the fuselage to close:

hawk12_zps6a9rrhm7.jpg

 

The rest of the seams weren't too bad, apart from the ones on the inside of the intakes - which due to the engineering of the kit means they CAN'T be assembled before adding them to the airframe, and makes sanding inside them that much more difficult...

 

More when I've sorted out the photos,

Dean

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Great start to an epic 43 and a 1/2 year old aircraft. You are correct in that early Hawks had a yellow rim painted on them, This was to show that the brake units fitted had 3 sets of stators (discs), instead of the early 2 stators. This mod was was certainly in place by 1983, the year I started to work on the Hawk. So if your "164" in white hails from 1983 then it would most certainly have the yellow rim. Your flaps look good to me and these were always parked fully down. They were set in the mid position when the aircraft was taxiing and for take off.

Hope this helps,

Bob.

 

The wheel bays were white with minimum weathering as they were washed fairly frequently (and by hand at the end of flying on the Red Arrows. I know this from personal experience from 83 to 85) 

Edited by Victor K2
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Thanks for that input - I was beginning to think nobody was interested! The wheel wells have only been lightly weathered, but it's too late to do anything about the colour now...

 

Back to the fray... The fuselage around the front cockpit bulkhead is already a poor design on this kit, but despite having filed chunks off the bulkhead to get the fuselage halves to fit, it's still way too wide for the front edge of the windscreen to fit. This was the first release of the kit with the short shots remember, and it's possible that the windscreen might have been taken out of the mould too soon and contracted in on itself. I found that by applying heavy pressure to the front of the windscreen, I could get it to splay out enough to fit, but the force was considerable and I wouldn't be able to hold it there for long. So...windscreen almost in position, thin bead of super glue in the gap, force into position and hold while a drop of accelerator is applied, hold as long as possible while it goes off, release gently. Phew, seems to have worked. But hang on, what's that fogging in the corner of the clear part perilously close to the masking? Better peel the masking back and have a look underneath...ess ach one tee! Not only had the glue and accelerator wicked under the masking and fogged the windscreen, but the heat of curing had effectively delaminated the plastic too!

 

hawk13_zpszicjtdss.jpg

Result - one totally ruined windscreen. 😞

 

Right, solution - vacform a replacement using the destroyed one as a buck. Layers of superglue were used to strengthen the inside, and filler was used to smooth the outside. After several layers of filing and primer, this was the result:

hawk14_zpstafkcqya.jpg

 

Then I gathered together my home made vacforming gubbins I used for my Spitfire T9 build, and got this first pull:

 

hawk15_zpsenhpvvqh.jpg

 

Cut free, trimmed, and dipped in Klear it's virtually indistinguishable from the original part - except that it fits!

 

hawk16_zps8dqr5cgf.jpg

 

Life saved. 🙂

 

Then, while all that was going on, I gave the rest of the airframe a squirt of Mr Surfacer 1200 to highlight areas of concern, and there were only a few.

 

hawk17_zpslxklwatq.jpg

 

hawk18_zpsdird9ucc.jpg

 

Next step - paint. 🙂

 

More when I feel up to it,

Dean

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Well done on forming your own windscreen, certainly saved the project! You've picked a great scheme too, this is the scheme they wore flying over our house in the early 80's, those and Jet Provosts.

Crack on!

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Well done Dean, great job in the screen. And I agree, probably the best scheme the Hawks wore, followed by the current gloss black. 

Hard to believe the aircraft is from 30+ years ago...

 

Good luck with the paint job.

 

Jeff 

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Good save with the windscreen although when you said you’d used the old (too wide one) as a master I half expected you to show us a new (also too wide) one at the end. 

One question if I may, what paint did you use on the undercarriage. It perfectly matches the undercarriages of my days in the RAF.

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SandyBay: I think you misunderstood me - the kit part was too narrow, and it was while forcing it wider to fit the fuselage that the damage occurred. The vac formed one was naturally a bit wider, but also a lot more flexible, and these two facts combined to make it a decent fit. The 4th picture in my previous post is my home made replacement.

 

The undercarriage was painted Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey with a coat of clear gloss over it.

 

The next in my line of failures was the raised rivets around the rear fuselage. I'd bought some positive rivets by HGW especially for this build, and was keen to try them out. The rivets have to be cut into strips, soaked in water, slid into place and allowed to dry overnight. Then you peel off the carrier film and leave the rivets behind. I studied the rivet patterns on reference photos, and due to the way the decals are applied you can't have two lines of rivets crossing, or you'll be applying rivets over the carrier film of the others. I spent two hours applying mainly the vertical rivets one evening, and then peeled the carrier film off next morning:

hawk19_zps8qotqgrv.jpg

 

Sadly, some of the rivets peeled off with the carrier, but this was the least of my problems; rubbing a finger along the dots, you can't feel them at all. I was a bit concerned that they wouldn't show up under the paint, so I decided to put a thin coat of Mr Surfacer over them to see. Before:

hawk20_zpsdl1gmqtx.jpg

 

After:

hawk21_zpswggwnxlp.jpg

Gone! 😞 Complete waste of time and effort. If you want a row of silver dots on top of your paintwork anywhere, these are for you, but if you're going to even think about painting over them, forget it.

 

Paint next,

Dean

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Now for the bit I really enjoy...painting. As the top half of the fuselage was going to be white, I did that first with Mr Surfacer White Primer. Then I sprayed the inner wings with Light Aircraft Grey, and then masked both of these areas off to add the red. The red went on very thinly, and took a lot of coats to get it uniform. Got there in the end though:

hawk22_zpstszqpuri.jpg

 

hawk23_zpsd0jr8njg.jpg

 

Then I added my home made windscreen, faired it in, and added the anti glare panel:

hawk24_zpscf81o1wy.jpg

 

Then it was an experimental coat of Tamiya X-22 Clear thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner, which a couple of my friends had recommended:

hawk26_zpsqphwey03.jpg

 

hawk25_zpspzyucyry.jpg

 

It went on nice and smooth, but I think I went a little too thick as it's taking days to harden. I'll know better next time.

 

You're now up to date...more as it happens,

Dean

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Looking great! Definitely my favourite Hawk colours, I remember a few 4 FTS ones flying into Woodford occasionally in the 80s, including five at the same time one morning, to great excitement in our class! Well, me and a couple of mates anyway, no-one else was bothered.

 

I agree with you about the numbers on the nose, they look so much better in white than black. It's coming together well.

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Looking good so far.

I've worked on the Hawk since 1983 and I am still working on the T 1 with only a short break on them in all those years (even XX154, the first Hawk). I've never seen an R.A.F. Hawk with a grey U/C bay, doors yes, but never the bays. Now the bays are more an old English white (yellowish tinge).

 

Bob.

 

 

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Nice job all round with this big box of red styrene. 

And especially with the flaps... they're looking good. Well worth doing. 

The Hawk guys will know for sure, but I concluded that the flaps are attached only at the three pylons, and operated by the middle one. 

So.... how to attach them?? 

I resorted to fitting 3 strips in the leading edge that slotted in the gap in the wing, as I knew I'd fail trying to use the pylon fixtures alone. 

So I'm looking forward to seeing you sort this out. 

Shame about the rivets! 

Oh well... 👍

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58 minutes ago, Victor K2 said:

Looking good so far.

I've worked on the Hawk since 1983 and I am still working on the T 1 with only a short break on them in all those years (even XX154, the first Hawk). I've never seen an R.A.F. Hawk with a grey U/C bay, doors yes, but never the bays. Now the bays are more an old English white (yellowish tinge).

 

Bob.

 

 

I know, Bob...you told me on Tuesday. And I said too late...

 

Cheers,

Dean

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1 minute ago, rob Lyttle said:

Nice job all round with this big box of red styrene. 

And especially with the flaps... they're looking good. Well worth doing. 

The Hawk guys will know for sure, but I concluded that the flaps are attached only at the three pylons, and operated by the middle one. 

So.... how to attach them?? 

I resorted to fitting 3 strips in the leading edge that slotted in the gap in the wing, as I knew I'd fail trying to use the pylon fixtures alone. 

So I'm looking forward to seeing you sort this out. 

Shame about the rivets! 

Oh well... 👍

Look at the photo of my flaps - there are six supports for the intermediate flap which will extend into the wing and attach to the inner upper surface. The three hinges below the wings will do the rest.

 

Cheers,

Dean

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I love your build so far and it's one of my favourite aircraft too. I wished I'd have got to this before the rivets thing around the rear end.

Archer do some very nice raised rivets that I'm sure would've worked, but I love it anyway.

 

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1 hour ago, bobsyouruncle said:

I love your build so far and it's one of my favourite aircraft too. I wished I'd have got to this before the rivets thing around the rear end.

Archer do some very nice raised rivets that I'm sure would've worked, but I love it anyway.

 

I was aware of the Archer rivets and was toying with getting some when the HGW ones failed, but I couldn't find anywhere that sold them. I didn't want to delay the build any further, so pressed on without them. 

 

Cheers,

Dean

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Well, the decals are on the airframe. They mainly comprised stencils really, as there wasn't much in the way of markings apart from the roundels and the serials. The topside wing roundels caused a problem, as two sharp little vortex generators protrude through these, and I was hoping it would settle down with MicroSol, but for once it refused to work it's magic. The right roundel was so badly creased and wrinkled that I had to sand it smooth and add another roundel over the top...hopefully, MicroSol is settling that as I type. Here's how it looks at the moment:

 

hawk28_zpsix7vdyec.jpg

 

hawk29_zpsmcqjplqh.jpg

 

hawk30_zpsrz5vfepc.jpg

 

Just some decals for the gear doors and the cockpit canopy to go, a bit of detail painting here and there, and I can get onto final assembly.

 

More when it happens,

Dean

Edited by Deanflyer
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The airbrake on some Hawks drooped over a period of time, In my experience 9 times out of 10 it was due to a leaking airbrake package. The other times it would be a leaking slide and swivel union (one either side of the jack) or the jack itself. On the early Hawks the droop wasn't so apparent (fairly new aircraft). The airbrake bay was mostly white on the early Hawks, but later Hawks varied from grey, black and even red ( they went through re sprays at various R.A.F. bases ).

Hope this is of help,

 

Bob.

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