Hawk 1/72 Supermarine Swift as F1 WK207/N 56 Squadron, RAF Waterbeach 1954

[David Womby]

 

This is the old Hawk Swift boxed as an F Mk 4 and actually pretty accurate for one incarnation of the Swift F4 which did have two wing fences per wing.    However, I wanted to build an F1 as it flew in all over silver whereas the later Swifts were all camouflaged.   

 

Things that I did to 'adjust it' to make a an F1:  fill in two cannon troughs (F1 only had two cannons), thin down intake lips and put card to close off intakes and prevent 'see through', cut off the four wing fences and fit two in the correct location, remove the leading edge extension that  was only fitted to F2s and later, replace the whole tailcone aft of the tailplanes as the exhaust was way too wide, reduce the tailplane dihedral and add a pitot tube to the starboard wing.   Hawk moulded a solid cockpit with just the head of the pilot to be glued in there.  I did nothing to the cockpit except add a block of plastic to represent the ejection seat headrest.   The decals are from FreightDog/Fantasy printshop and were great except the wingtip chequerboards which refused to conform until glued down with Future and resulting gaps along the wingtip edges had to be touched up! 

 

Comments and criticisms welcomed.  Thanks for looking.

 

David

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wulfman]

Very nice job on the old and very basic Hawk !
 

Wulfman

[SAT69]

I'm ever amazed at what Britmodelers do with old kits. I remember that kit (yes, I'm that "senior") and a lot of other simple kits (Comet brand kits at 29 cents each come to mind). You've done a marvelous job on that. Quite impressive.

[Space Ranger]

I remember that kit as well. In fact, when I was a kid, it was one of my favorites (yes, I'm that 'senior' too!), even though I knew absolutely nothing about the airplane other than what was on the instruction sheet. You did a great job with it.

[Britman]

I refuse to admit being old enough to remember this kit. However, you have done a smashing job on such a basic model ,moulded markings and no undercarriage bays notwithstanding.

 

Keith

[David Womby]

16 hours ago, SAT69 said:

I'm ever amazed at what Britmodelers do with old kits. I remember that kit (yes, I'm that "senior") and a lot of other simple kits (Comet brand kits at 29 cents each come to mind). You've done a marvelous job on that. Quite impressive.

 

9 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

I remember that kit as well. In fact, when I was a kid, it was one of my favorites (yes, I'm that 'senior' too!), even though I knew absolutely nothing about the airplane other than what was on the instruction sheet. You did a great job with it.

 

5 hours ago, Britman said:

I refuse to admit being old enough to remember this kit. However, you have done a smashing job on such a basic model ,moulded markings and no undercarriage bays notwithstanding.

 

Keith

Thanks, gents.  Not wanting to be accused of 'ageism' here but I don't remember the kit's first issue..  It predates me (only just!) but Hawk clearly didn't want anybody to forget it as they moulded it into one of the flaps!    Here: 

 

 

David

[Mig88]

Well done! Nicely finished indeed!

 

Once again, it goes to show how old kits can be turned out very nicely and, one could almost say, deserve to be built regardless of their flaws and/or limitations. That's what they were made for!!

 

Miguel

 

[David Womby]

24 minutes ago, Mig88 said:

Well done! Nicely finished indeed!

 

Once again, it goes to show how old kits can be turned out very nicely and, one could almost say, deserve to be built regardless of their flaws and/or limitations. That's what they were made for!!

 

Miguel

 

Thanks, Miguel.  I tend to build only old clunkers because that's what I have in the stash from the 90s and 00s when I was busy acquiring them and, also, because I enjoy their simplicity as long as they are fairly accurate shapes.

 

David