Blow-in Hawk T.1

[Angus Tura]

Evening All.

 

I wanted to do a Scottish Hawk but I'm not sure any were stationed there. This is one passing through Leuchars in 2013 as part of operation Joint Warrior.

 

I got the right kit now, and decals.

 

 

The decals are great. They include serials for most Hawks, I should think.

 

 

The kit too seems fantastic. What a treat to make a modern kit. It all fits together, and everything! So far, anyway.

 

I do see a problem with the tailpipe. One couldn't add the jet nozzle after the fuselage is assembled and so finishing the rear of the fuselage and the jet pipe neatly would be tricky.

 

 

I've cut off the rear-most bit of one fuselage side,

 

 

Filled the saw cut with 15 thou.

 

 

Carved the plasticard back to the contours of the fuselage, and stuck the rear ring of the fuselage together.

 

 

So, now I can completely finish the back of the fuselage before sticking the fuselage halves together.

 

I've got all the bits of the cockpit ready for paint having trial fitted all of them. There are a couple of irritating sink marks on the coaming between front and back cockpits. There are a few little gaps on the ejector seats but the detail on them is great. This being an OOTB build, I'm really glad Revell have molded on seat belts. 

 

 

Thanks or looking.

 

Manana,

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

Hello again.

 

Just a day of fettling today. Cleaning up the cockpit bits to paint and trying out various fits of wings and so on to see.

 

Here is the rear fuselage finished off but minus the jet pipe. The little panel above the jet pipe is loose so that I can put a sprue through there later for a painting-handle.

 

 

I don't know if everyone's is like this but half of my tail-fillet is undershot, which, on other websites, could be taken the wrong way.

 

 

So that's getting fixed.

 

 

The elevators are a bit wobbly. So, I've added some plasticard above the tabs which will need carving back a bit, but should then hold them at the correct anhedral.

 

 

The fit of these strakes each side of the airbrake housing, and the fit of the housing, is pretty uncertain but I'm fairly happy with it. Once the strakes are sprayed black, I don't think the gap each side of the housing will be a problem.

 

Much of the day has also been spent translating Revell's paint call outs to an earth-language and then seeing what I've got, or need to get, before the shutters come down again. This has been with much reference to previous discussion of Hawk interiors here at Britmodeller.

 

 

 I like Gunze lacquers so these are their DSG and ocean grey for the cockpit; I need an acrylic version of revell anthracite: "tyre colour", they tell me. The light aircraft gray is for the undercarriage. I've got Gunze gloss black for the exterior colour. I read here that the undercarriage bays were white but I think I'll do them all in light aircraft grey: any suggestions gratefully received.

 

Alan  

[CliffB]

6 hours ago, Angus Tura said:

I don't know if everyone's is like this but half of my tail-fillet is undershot

 

Thanks for posing this question Alan, as it's prompted me to finally get my kit out of its box!  As it happens, both my tail-fillets are fine.

It's good to see you making such progress.

 

Cheers

[Angus Tura]

Hi.

 

Didn't get very far today.  I did get to the barbers where I waited for two hours for a number 1. This may have been an error. Its very short.  I was clearly not the only person who wanted a haircut before Boris' latest wheeze. I did get to the local shop and got various possible Revell 9 anthracite substitutes, of which I think Gunze tyre colour is probably best. Before setting off for the haircut I was just test fitting the hawk and found this step at the wingroot:

 

 

This is an annoying one to me as so many kits seem to have a step here. I thought I would get the wings assembled this evening and sort the step and just about remembered to drill out the wing pylon locations before sticking the wings together.

 

I've then spent the rest of the evening getting annoyed at he kit instructions for the pylons. 

 

My mate Dave tells me, with respect to my reference photo that, "I think the port pylon has a sidewinder acquisition round on it, and the starboard pylon has an ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation) or RAIDS (Rangeless Airborne Instrumented Debriefing System) on it." He tells me this with a good deal of confidence, and I daresay he's right! The kit's sidewinders and the sidewinder rails look pretty easy to modify to the acquisition round and the ACMI or RAIDS. However the instructions would suggest that the sidewinder rail goes straight on the wing. It doesn't fit the wing and it would be impossible for the flaps to go down if it did:

 

 

Anyway, I finally got my head round the fact that the rail goes on a pylon before going on the wing. That involves drilling out the pylon to accept the locating pins of the rails. After that it all fits:

 

 

Enough already!

 

Alan 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Angus Tura
ellipsis and repetition

[Dave Swindell]

8 hours ago, Angus Tura said:

This is an annoying one to me as so many kits seem to have a step here

Avoid the gaps - Drop the flaps!

8 hours ago, Angus Tura said:

I finally got my head round the fact that the rail goes on a pylon before going on the wing.

Sorry, should have mentioned that!

[Angus Tura]

1 hour ago, Dave Swindell said:

Avoid the gaps - Drop the flaps!

Sorry, should have mentioned that!

 

Avoid AMS,

DNF less!

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

Hi.

 

Precious little done today: I had to do some actual work. However, I'm determined to do a bit and post every day in the hope that I actually finish this thing.

 

I've started sticking the wing halves together. I'm going to leave these to dry pretty hard in the middle before trying to deal with a warped starboard upper outer wing. Also here is the other pylon and the airbrake and intakes cleaned up.

 

 

 

Next to deal with is another gap:

 

 

There's a gap at the back of the airbrake housing. I think I could have probably avoided this by fitting the airbrake housing to the fuselage and not to the jet pipe, as the instructions suggest. There are gaps at the front of the airbrake too but the airbrake itself should cover them. I'm a bit too knackered to start this tonight.

 

Manana, again,

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

 

Hi. Yet more little fixes.

 

Here is the undershot fin fillet glued and filled with Mr,Surfacer,

 

 

and here it is in place.

 

 

Having stuck the two sides of it together its too narrow for the fin. Had I known this beforehand I could have put some 10 thou between the sides of the fillet but instead I've had to thin down the interior of the fin halves, at the front of the fillet especially. The clamp is holding the fin halves together so that it looks OK. I hope that the glue will do this as well. The other bit is the jet-pipe plus the housing for the airbrake. The plasticard is to fill the gap at the back of the housing.

 

Here's the warped wing tip getting fixed up,

 

 

These are a couple of shims of 20 thou. at the wingroots to abolish the step in the top of the wing root fillets.

 

 

These worked pretty well:

 

 

but at the expense of making a big step under the fuselage:

 

 

After all that here it is pretty well aligned:

 

 

This has also involved paring back the card blocks over the elevator locating tabs to get the anhedral right and symmetrical.

 

See you tomorrow.

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

Hi.

 

Just a quickie

 

 

Here is the beginnings of an undercarriage and the card filling the airbrake-gap carved back. The fit of the nosewheel leg into the wheel well seems weird but I can't make a start on that till the glue on the nosewheel leg has cured properly.

 

Alan

[Hockeyboy76]

The kit seems to be fighting you all the way, but shes looking good dude. 

[Angus Tura]

21 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

The kit seems to be fighting you all the way, but shes looking good dude. 

 

Cheers my dear. I think I'm fighting it, rather than it's fighting me.

 

Tonight I've just been getting the main gear sorted. I had hoped to construct the legs and actuators, doors, wheels before painting but its not going to work. The nose wheel leg, contrary to what I thought, fits really positively into the wheel well,

 

 

When the time comes to glue in the cockpit/nose wheel well, it's going to be important to glue the well in the right place first. The main wheel strut is fine, if a bit wobbly without glue. I did have to take the locating plug for the wheels back quite a bit for the wheels to sit properly.

 

 

The extending jack for the main gear is more pesky. I think the instructions are mistaken here in mixing up parts B43 and B45. The jacks will only fit on the fronts of the gear legs using them as the instructions suggest and on-line pics certainly show them going on the backs of the gear-legs on the real thing. I'm interested that the review on finescale modeller's website has them that, wrong way round. I thought I was going to have to carve back the insides of the wheel wells to get them to fit but, in fact, I think they'll be OK:

 

 

I don't think I'll be able to get them on correctly before the main gear leg is glued in and so I'm planning on painting all of this before assembling it:

 

 

I'm hoping to get everything to a point to start painting in the next couple of days.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan

Edited November 8, 2020 by Angus Tura
opacity

[Angus Tura]

Very brief today. I've spent more time on the undercarriage: but there's nothing to see!

 

The step under the fuselage caused by the fix for the tops of the wing roots has been bothering me a good deal. I tried this fix of sawing the fuselage section connected to the lower wings. I've tried to cut on the fuselage to avoid the panel lines on the wings. The fuselage at this point is very plain.:

 

 

and then its pretty easy to close up so that the step's gone.

 

 

I think the additional gaps from the saw cuts will be a lot easier to fix up than the step would be...however, I have been wrong many times before!

 

Alan 

[Angus Tura]

Right!...he said decisively.

 

Here are all the bits and pieces ready to start painting.

 

 

These all need a wash and I can start getting some paint on tomorrow,

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

So, a little update.

 

Here are my bits and pieces semi-painted:

 

 

The cockpit and seats are nearly done and its all prepped up for more black and then light aircraft grey in the interiors and landing gear.

 

Here are the sidewinders modified, or at least, half-modified.

 

 

I've cut off all the fins and cleaned them up. They're not long enough to be the acquisition rounds (or whatever: they look a bit like AMRAAMs to me). They've been drilled out to accpet the rods but then I didn't have a bit of tube of quite the right diameter. So they've been fattened up with Mr.Surfacer 500 and they'll need smoothing out again when that's dried properly.

 

See you later.

 

Alan

[Fifer54]

On 11/3/2020 at 12:57 AM, Angus Tura said:

 

I need an acrylic version of revell anthracite . . .

 

Revell do No.9 Anthracite in their Aqua acrylic range (or they certainly used to). It's my go-to colour for tyres, that or Humbrol 67 Tank Grey (which is easier to find locally to me!

[Hockeyboy76]

It’s funny seeing it altogether then the next picture it’s completely in pieces 

[Angus Tura]

1 hour ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

It’s funny seeing it altogether then the next picture it’s completely in pieces 

 

Funny peculiar, or funny ha-ha? 😕

[Hockeyboy76]

Funny peculiar 

[Angus Tura]

On 11/25/2020 at 4:05 PM, Hockeyboy76 said:

Funny peculiar 

 

That's alright then...

 

Hello. Progress has slowed but not stopped.

 

 

Quite a bit of painting done but getting a bit sidetracked also:

 

I hate doing the same bit of a model twice: it's such a waste of time. However, I put some decal red placards on the ejector seats.

 

 

I've cut these out of a sheet of fantasy printshop red. In this photo it looks red but in reality it was a muddy sort of maroon because there's no white backing on the decals. So, I've taken them off and replaced with these cut from the spare fin-flashed on the Hannants Hawk sheet. These look much better to me, in spite of the fact that they look very much the same to the camera.

 

 

The yellow stripe under the seat-cushion is strips cut from a microscale yellow stripe set. The seats just need a wash and a bit of shading and should look OK. I've certainly been in the situation before where I've practically finished something and left the ejector seats till last...and never got finished.

 

The other hold up right now is the instrument panels.

 

 

These look a lot better with a bit less magnification (honest!) I've painted the details with oils and of course they, especially white, take forever to dry. I've painted some spots on the back to test when it's dry.

 

 

I painted four spots on the panel on the right. So, it hasn't dried yet.

 

I can keep going with the missiles and undercarriage and hopefully still finish this on time.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Alan 

[Angus Tura]

"...still finish on time," he said lightly.

 

I thought to have a pleasant day yesterday putting this together and instead got some glue on the outside of the front instrument panel shroud and had to do it again.

 

So, today this,

 

 

and this,

 

 

and this,

 

 

I've painted inside the intakes and between them and the fuselage before putting them on.

 

and then, THE HORROR, THE HORROR! The same windscreen trouble as Pappy, Paulio, Little H (although Little H wisely doesn't seem too fussed,) Mr.Head and all have had.

 

 

I've now got a lot more sympathy with Pappy's view that he shouldn't have to fix this in a modern kit. Just very annoying.

 

However, having committed to this and stopped the Centurion Vietnam Build for it, I am bleeding determined to finish. More later.

 

Alan

[Angus Tura]

Later!

 

I've made up a little jig with a bit of wood, matchsticks and epoxy resin.

 

 

There are grooves cut in the wood to allow for the tabs on the windscreen and matchsticks to hold the starboard side of the windscreen still, and to hold down the windscreen.

 

 

There's a fourth matchstick on the port side approximately in the right place to fit the sills of the cockpit. When the glue is dried tomorrow I'm going to make a wedge shaped bit of plywood to push out the windscreen to the matchstick on the port side. I haven't tried this with such a thick bit of transparency before. I'm hoping that I can push the wedge in a little, clamp it with a berna clamp, heat it up, cool it down, shove in the wedge a bit further, and so-on, and gradually persuade it that resistance is futile. We'll see. I do have the still unsold Old-Revell/Italeri version whose windscreen looks OK. Whether it would fit, I dunno. 

 

It has certainly slowed things down a lot. I'm working next weekend and might struggle here.

 

Here's the fuselage ready to close up:

 

 

There's quite a bit of lead shot epoxied in and a painting handle above the jet pipe. There's a bit of masking tape to protect the jet pipe from scratches. I've blanked off the weird little holes on the rear fuselage. Did any one answer the question as to what these are? It passed me by if they did.

 

An annoying day!

 

Angus: really a bit bitter. 

[Dave Swindell]

12 hours ago, Angus Tura said:

Did any one answer the question as to what these are? It passed me by if they did.

Me.

Twice.

Pay attention whilst you're rushing ahead of me!

That's three times now....

[Angus Tura]

I do beg your pardon, Your Honour. I must have been momentarily distracted by a centurion Mk.5, or something.

 

I don't know if I can be bothered altering them to be accurate! Do you think anyone will notice?

 

Alan

[Dave Swindell]

58 minutes ago, Angus Tura said:

I must have been momentarily distracted by a centurion Mk.5, or something.

Distractions of the modelling kind can be permissible evidence (but only just in this case, you're only getting away with a target because it's British)

 

1 hour ago, Angus Tura said:

I don't know if I can be bothered altering them to be accurate!

Apathy on the other hand will not be tolerated in this court!

 

1 hour ago, Angus Tura said:

Do you think anyone will notice?

I think they already have.

They're on my to do list. 

I'll put mine next to yours when it's done (eventually!)

People with (very) long memories are bound to remember 

 

[Angus Tura]

...but, Do think anyone, in their right minds, will notice?