Kinetic 1/48 E2C 2000 Hawkeye VAW-115 Liberty Bells “Sayonara Atsugi”

[RiotRolo]

Good afternoon guys

 

So this is the kit finally finished and im pretty glad its done. I started it around the beginning of July as it was given to me for my birthday and slowly worked on it until realising I'll be away from home starting on Monday till the end of the week and wanted it done before then.

 

The kit was fairly straighforward in most places and went together pretty easily which was pretty suprising to me; i've been used to building Italeri kits and reboxes of their kits and had a lot of fit issues. This isn't to say the kit doesn't have these kinds of issues but they seemed a little bit less severe than what im used to with their kits. Most notably with the construction was the narcelle fit which although taking a bit of time, was quite an easy fix by just sanding and cutting until it was a little more flush and filling after; and also the canopy fit ( I feel like the canopy fit may have been an issue I created due to sanding and then filling which I am not that happy with the end result).

 

The other issue I had, and was the biggest pain in my opinion were the decals, the tail and wing tip decals were completely out of scale! Even putting them up against the kit before I placed them it was apparent, I tried to make the best of them which I feel went alright but for anyone who has seen photos of the real plane would be able to tell the decal art doesn't match up with it. The mis- scaled decals really proved an issue on the vibrant tail, with the raised sections and the decals that were meant to fit over it not playing ball any way I tried to place them. I opted to leave the decals over the raised section off and just have the Willow green showing through, which I think was for the best.

 

As I mentioned, for the most part I worked on this kit quite slowly, and up until after decalling the kit I was really happy with the result. It was looking really clean, and glossy which was exactly what I wanted to go for. My next step was to coat the whole model in some Klear to lock it all in, it was pretty warm and windy on the evening I did it so I had the window open which is directly in front of where I paint my kits, when I had come back the next morning, the model had loads of little imperfections which im guessing is where the wind had blown dust onto the model whilst the Klear was still drying (kind of a reflection on the cleanliness of my bench, which is getting a complete clean up today before I start a new kit).  I sanded it back the best I could but I felt it didn't look all that great after that so left the kit for about a week before coming back to it. 

I think this might have also been part of the problem for the next issue I had finishing this kit... I did the usual Ammo panel line was I use and decided to brush on a light layer of it, allow it to dry and wipe it off after which i've never had too many issues with. However, I think where I had sanded most of the Klear from the model, the wash stuck to the model in a lot of places and left it looking pretty unrealistically dirty. Right up until this morning I had been trying to correct this the best I could but it is by no means perfect. 

 

Overall this model has been a bit of a pain, and went from being a really fun and different build and turned into a slog to get it finished. (Oh and my attempt at a tinted windscreen has left it completely blacked out, this is a mistake I can live with and is something I can learn from though). I still like the end result, but this was a kit I really wanted to be perfect, and from a lot of error's I could have prevented it turned out not as great as I had hoped for. Anyway from the shelf it looks alright, when you look up close you can see the issues, it's all stuff I can learn from for my next build though so not the end of the world.

 

Hope you can enjoy, despite the issues on the finished kit. I realised just as I posted the photos I have forgot to paint a tiny part but i'll sort that later. 

 

Thanks,

Ryan

 

[SAT69]

Your candidness regarding mistakes made is praiseworthy and I commend you for that. Personally, I think the model looks great and I'd be proud if it was part of my display.

[dnl42]

Excellent build and finish! 

 

Especially so given the horrible fit!

[72modeler]

@RiotRolo

Ryan,

That is a very impressive Hawkeye, especially in the larger scale! How in the world did you get it to sit on its undercart with all that weight aft due to the folded wings?  I can't see any of the mistakes you mentioned- I think it's a case of the builder knowing  they are there, but the casual or not-so casual observer not being able to see them! Only suggestion I  might make to take this already outstanding build up another  notch would be to do the characteristic exhaust staining on the folded wings from  being run up with the wings in the folded position, but it could be it just came out of the paint shop! 👍

Mike

 

My favorite E-2C is the very colorful VAW123  'Screwtops' Hawkeye- have the new-tool 1/72 Hasegawa kit and the decals....someday!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_E-2_Hawkeye#/media/File:USN_E-2C_Scewtops.jpg

[exdraken]

Fantastic Hawkeye!

Turned out absolutely stunning

[RMCS]

Awsome 

[Darwinism]

I used to regularly see these aircraft making practice approaches to the USAF airfield I was lucky enough to live on in Japan which was just down the road from Atsugi. Your model captures the real thing perfectly RiotRolo.

[the MDman]

The Kinetic Hawkeye is not an easy kit, but you made it a wonderful Hummer!

[F-32]

Cracking build and great choice of scheme