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XX162 4 FTS RAF Valley 1979


Colin W

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Hi All.

I moved house in March and managed to loose the box with all my decals in so have spent the last 3 months modeling time looking for it. Yes, we do have that much junk. Anyway as promissed this will be one of the initial batch aircraft used in CFS. I remember queueing with my Dad to sit in the plastic RAF recruitment aircraft on the airshow circuit in the late 70's. I remember the number was XX162. I went on to model it many years ago using the Matchbox Hawk in 1/72. Hopefully this one will be better. Actually XX162 went on to have a long life and existed in the original red/white /grey scheme, the ADC grey and still exists in the Black overall scheme. I'll be doing the original based on the Xtradecal sheet -047 which has xx164 but thats easy to change....

Colin

Edited by Colin W
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys

I'm making a bit of a late start for this GB so figured I'd need a short cut. Most people started with The cockpit so I thought I'd start with the wings.

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I cant find a picture with The flaps down so made them up. The actuators are a bit clumsy but they are easier to get at on the wing so will clean them up once in place.

Colin W.

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Hi

I got stuck in yesterday and finished a late night with the cockpit well advanced then finished it off this morning. The seats are Neomega and the other parts Airfix modified. I've gone with a slightly darker grey than some others but it looks right in the light. The Italeri kit certainly looks better than the Airfix offering.

Hawkcockpit002.jpg

Hopefully will get the fuselage joined up tonight.

Colin W

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The Hawk has progressed well and looks like a Hawk already. I popped the fuselage together and added a bit of filler around the wing joins and under the nose. I dont seem to have had any issues with wing warpage even though the kit is quite old. I bought a few of them in Thailand in 2004 when they were first released. A few mods were made to the nose as I noted on some completed builds that the nose probe is a lot finer than the kit so I cut this off at the base and replaced with a needle. Fortunately once cut off there is enough plastic to drill into. I opened up the vents on the spine but note these should be flat topped not rounded as Airfix have made them. All Hawks seem to have a small aerial in the top of the nose so I added this from a scrap of plastic. One big change was the intakes. These look too rounded so I opened up the front by 0.5mm top and bottom so now they look more typical.

The masking will be quite tricky round the tail so I'll leave the elevators off until last.

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Next job is off to Halfords to get some more white base and then I can start the painting.

Colin W

Edited by Colin W
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Looking good there mate. But the seats are wrong for a hawk during the 70's. ya need the Mk10's with the bigger head box.

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Hi Martin

These are supposed to be Mk10B's. Martin Baker list the 10B as a Hawk seat on their site although there are variations such as the 10LN for the AJT. What seat do you think these are? I note the Tornado seat is a 10A which appears to have a taller head box so do you mean the early Hawks had 10A's?

Thanks

Colin

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Ah ha

I just found Bills Post on the early pre 1985 seat and yes there is a much larger head box. Looks like I need to bang out some new seats, Cheers Martin.

Colin.

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Hi Colin. The seats you have there look like Tornado Mk10's to me. I think the ones you need are Mk10A's. Dont qoute me on that without some research. But they have a bigger/wider headbox. If you can find some they'll look awesome in that pit. Its a great build and i'll keep watching.

martin.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Guys

Well now back from 2 glorious weeks holiday in Wales. I managed a few air museums and an hour or so on the end of the runway at Valley. Got to see lots of Hawks about at Valley and all over Snowdonia and north Wales. All were in the OA Black schemes but there was a good mix of T1 and T2s. Usually we saw them in pairs and got a treat with a pairs formation take off.

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T2 Landing on the main runway

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T1 Also landing on.

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T1 XX321 sitting on the ramp.

Well I'm sticking to the original red white and grey colours and working on the final scheme while sorting out the ejector seats. Overall coated now with Halfords white primer and Halfords polar white on the upper fuselage

IMG_1569.jpg

Masking and then grey then Red I think.

Colin

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I have used Bills pictures to add a new head rest to the original seat I was using to creat a new Master. Here is the seat story so far. The original seat I made and painted up, a plain resin one and the one I modified. I did this yesterday with plastic card and made a mould for it last night. I'll try casting tonight and might finish masking so I can get the grey onto the wings as well.

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Cracking on now.

Colin

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Hi All.

I realised the deadline is drawing near for this and Id better get a move on so I managed to get the paint on over the weekend. Looking like a Hawk now.

IMG_1651.jpg

Still have the new seats to finish painting but most of the sub assemblies are more than 50% done so if its a quiet week I should be OK.

IMG_1650.jpg

Colin

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This is looking very nice Colin, and those seats are looking sweeeet. cant wait to see her finished. :clap2:

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Hi All

I gave her a coat of Future polish and them put the Xtradecals on last night. The black decals I was able to get from the kit but there was no white 2 so I took all the numbers from the Model decal sheets. I have to say the model decal white is more denser than the Xtradec so appears much whiter. I wish now I had put white circles under the roundals. I didnt to prevent the letters from being different to the roundals. So much for planning!

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Next step to do the cockpit and pop the wheels on so not too much to do.

Colin

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She's certainly colourfull Colin! Your paintwork looks great and the decals seem fine in the photo with no red or 'hint of pink' showing. Seeing your one is making me wish even more that I was able to get spraying on mine.

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Well it was a long night last night............but here she is.

I did the fuse link in the canopy as per the ideas here using acrylic paint and a similar technique to make the yellow seal. For this I sanded off the outer framing and hand painted the yellow inside which was very tricky. The intermediate windshield clipped in quite well so I fitted it in place and re-dunked the canopy in Future so the Future acts like glue to hold it in. I did some black framing on the lower windshield as this is quite evident when the canopy is opened.

XX162 4 FTS RAF Valley as per delivery to RAF on 4th November 1976 when, along with XX163, she was the first production Hawk delivered to the RAF. Initially used by the CFS to train the instructors of 4FTS, XX162 moved to Boscombe Down to the institute of Aviation medicine from where she still flies.

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Decals went on well but the roundals crinkled a bit when I varnished them! I Blu-tacked on the canopy to take the pictures with it open but when I removed the Blutac I lost one of the warning triangles. So If anyone has a spare Xtradecal one it would be gratefully recieved!

I kept the weathing light due to the newness of the airframe with only a wash in the wheel bays and on the upper fuselage vents. I cant seem the get a decent pic of the cockpit as my camera only goes down to F8 but this shows the modified seats and the main decals added to the instrument panels.

I took most of my reference from Peter R March's book "The Hawk comes of Age" which was printed in 1995 so is a bit out of date really!

A Good build everyone and thanks to Mark for administrating.

Colin W

Edited by Colin W
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