The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Obligatory sprue shots, a well known kit that needs no introduction







Will be doing the Midnight Hawks aircraft

Edit:- Seems to be an issue with "add image to post" so update with a new upload site

Cockpit added OOB so far, seats will probably be replaced. Plenty of space for nose weight

nice start wash on the cockpit sides is effective
craig

Good going so far mate. I believe the 1/48th kit has the same marking option.

Seems that the NT Hawk isn't as nice a fit as I thought.

The intakes stand very proud of the fuselage as is so thinking cap went on. In the end I elected to remove the locating pins from inside the intake and sand both joining faces down. This produced a much better fit that was easier to just smooth in with a sanding stick.



The wings stand very proud of the lower fuselage with a step of almost 1mm. Thinking cap on again, decided to sand down the recess on the lower fuselage that the wing sits in.



This then brought on another problem, the tabs at the wing roots were now too deep so they had to be sanded down.



If I build another these will just be removed before joining wings

Exactly the issues I have just had with my build of the Kit, and pretty much the same route taken to resolve! Other than that though, I found it to go together very well.

Co-incidentally, Airfix's A-4B has similar issues; an excessive amount of fettling for a new tool kit. Still, you do seem to be beating this into submission mate.

Not what you would expect for a new tool at all - shame on you Airfix! Keep up the good work, KH - got to love Finnish Hawks.

nice progress Kit i do like the hawk in the Finish camo scheme could you list the camo colours when you get to the painting stage i have the italeri kit with a Finish option but don;t trust their colour callouts
cheers craig

Thanks guys, and no problem Craig.

Main airframe is done, closing the ventral airbrake meant it sat recessed into the well. A 10 thou shim of plastic in the base sorted that. Looking at photos showed a different fit for avionics. No dorsal blade antenna so that hole had to be filled. The ventral blade antenna on the forward fuselage is swept forward, not back with a "T" type antenna across it, easy change and a small blade antenna was added on the upper nose. ( done after these pics). one thing I taught myself (again) was read the instructions properly When I came to add the wing fences there was no clear indication of where they should be added on the instructions. After much blaspheming I then noticed I should have opened up some slots in the lower wing leading edge in the previous step (sorry Airfix ). Decided not to use the kit seats, had a spare pair of Mk. 10s from a Tornado build so I modified them ( not too different from a Hawk Mk. 10 )





No exhaust in yet so I can stick a paint brush in ready for painting

Looking good, Kit and the Hawk is a handsome little jet. This new tool kit looks better in terms of detail than the old version that I built earlier this year but fit wise there doesn't seem to be much in it! My experience of NT kits, including the Spitfire 22 that I am currently building, is that they require modelling skills almost on a par with the classic stuff. That could be down to me though!

ShaunW wrote:Looking good, Kit and the Hawk is a handsome little jet. This new tool kit looks better in terms of detail than the old version that I built earlier this year but fit wise there doesn't seem to be much in it! My experience of NT kits, including the Spitfire 22 that I am currently building, is that they require modelling skills almost on a par with the classic stuff. That could be down to me though!

I completely agree Shaun. The NT 262 I'm building is a bit of a pig - pretty much every join has required some form of attention. The FROG tempest I'm building has needed less work. Still, it'll look good when finished, as will this rather smart looking Hawk - Nice work Kit!

I flew HW 338 on 23rd and 24th May 1990. The Finnish Hawk aircraft were lovely to fly and handled subtly differently to out T1s. Hardest thing was interpreting the altimeter which was calibrated in metres and looked completely different to ours.

Thought HW 338 was one of the options but its 339

Anyway, ready to slap some paint on. Had to trim some off the rear coaming to get the canopy to fit, but it's on and masked now. Pitot is from Albion Alloys tube and rod.

Looking good kit!

Interestingly, my canopy fitted like a glove on my recent build, so much so that I couldn't get it off again after a trial fit!