BAe Hawk T.1A Red Arrows

[Mike]

BAe Hawk T.1A Red Arrows

1:32 Revell of Germany

The Hawk is Britain's Fast Jet trainer, and anyone that has spent time in North West Wales will have seen many of them in the skies, latterly in their fetching all-over black scheme. The Hawk is also the ride of the Red Arrows, possibly the best aerobatic team in the world - but then I would say that, being British!

This kit from Revell has been anticipated for a long time by many modellers, and due to a contractual obligation with a certain catalogue store, kits were available before most model shops had stocks, so it was possibly the oddest release I've seen for quite a while. To cap it off, our review sample was somewhat delayed, but on the basis of "better late than never", it shall be reviewed.

I will also point the reader to a thread on the Britmodeller forums by Iain, one of our 1:32-philes, who did an excellent build-up of the model as soon as it arrived.

The kit arrives in a colourful, sturdy end-opening box, and is jam packed with nine sprues of bright red styrene, a clear sprue, which is separately bagged, instructions and decals. The instruction booklet seems to have been printed on low quality recycled paper, but that cost saving has clearly been ploughed into the tooling of this kit. For the retail price of £19.99, you get a superbly detailed kit that makes you wonder whether any profit is being made by Revell.

The construction process naturally starts with the cockpit, and here the detail is good, if a little hard to see with the glaring red styrene. Separate side consoles hint at other variants, which is good if true, as I'm looking forward to the export Hawks, as well as the true RAF trainers. The twin instrument panels are nicely done, but the modeller will have to source some instrument decals or splash out on the Revell cockpit update set that is now available. I'll link to that from the conclusion section. The seats and cockpit coamings are nicely done although in the case of the seats, a resin replacement would clearly improve on the detail.

There is no sidewall detail on the inside of the fuselage halves, so the modeller will have to take a view on whether to add any here. Before the fuselage halves can be joined together, the intake trunking, the jet exhaust and nose gear bay need to be built up and installed, as well as a few small bulkheads in the nose area. The intakes are full-length, and join in a Y-shape, terminating in a nice representation of the Adour's front compressor face, even down to the curve in the blades. How much of this will be seen without a torch is another matter however! The jet exhaust is made up from two halves, which will require the seam cleaning up (if you think it will be seen) and the rear face of the engine. It is held securely in a slot on the inside of the fuselage, so won't shake loose easily.

Once these large assemblies are installed, the fuselage can be closed up, the intake outer pods installed, and the seams filled. Be careful here to install them in the correct position, as at first glance they could install on either intake. The rudder clips into place on the tail, and can be left posable if the modeller desires. To the rear of the fuselage is a small insert above the exhaust, and here is an issue that has been identified by some sharp eyed modellers. There is a slight variance of the slope of the rear deck behind the tail, resulting in a curved rather than sloped profile. There is a fix for this in Iain's build, but it is of course optional - it's not that easy to spot unless you know it is there.

The lower wing is in one piece, and the top parts install to this after adding in the detailed landing gear bay walls. Detail here is good within the limitations of styrene moulding, but the super-detailer could add more if they so wished. The flying surfaces on the wing are mobilised, but the flaps are moulded in the retracted position, so cutting and scratch-building would be needed if you wanted to deploy them.

The landing gear is nicely detailed, although a few of the early release were missing a small part on the nose gear leg, which appears to have been a short shot. The review sample has this part included, but it looks like it has been bent in transit. The nose wheel snaps into the yolk, which should ease painting, and the main wheels simply slip onto the axle. Oddly, the gear bay covers are all supplied as single parts, and must be cut if posing the gear down. Presumably, this is to ease the way of those modelling it with the gear up, or to keep the part count down. There is a cutting diagram supplied for each one, so you can't really go wrong here.

The ventral air-brake is open, and has sufficient detail here to please most, including a number of raised rivets, as appropriate for this part of the airframe.

There are no weapons or pylons included in the kit, except for the central gun-pod, which is on the same sprue as the display tank that provides the smoke for the tail mounted dispenser tubes, which are thankfully included in the kit.

The canopy of the hawk is a large one, and the moulding of the clear parts is exemplary. I have seldom seen such an optically clear canopy. The correctly shaped blast screen is shown fitted to the canopy, and the prominent det-cord that shatters the canopy on ejection is provided as a pair of large decals. The canopy has a pair of lugs on the starboard edge that are either removed if posing it closed, or used as the hinges if leaving it open.

Decals are printed in Italy for Revell, are crisp and in register, permitting you to model any of the team's airframes. A set of decal seatbelts are provided, but they look a little cartoon-like and two dimensional. The large white stripes are cut into sections to make their installation easier, and density of the white appears to be good.

Conclusion

You get a lot of plastic for your money, and the tooling is good. The red styrene is a little hard on the eyes, but I guess that's so little Johnny can put the stickers on without having to paint the model. If that's the case, and it encourages kids into the hobby, then so be it!

Here's Iain's excellent build

[Iain Ogilvie]

Thanks for the mention Mike - I really enjoyed this kit (so much so I'm working on two more!)

For anyone that hasn't seen it - this is how the kit turns out - with very little additional work (with after-market metal undercarriage from John at Aeroclub and 100 Sqn. decals from Xtradecal)

Iain

Edited May 18, 2011 by Iain (32SIG)

[Mike]

Thanks for posting those pics Iain

[Iain Ogilvie]

Hoped you wouldn't mind Mike - you may have noticed but I really like this kit and thought a couple of finished pix might be useful...

Iain

[Radpoe Spitfire]

Thanks for the mention Mike - I really enjoyed this kit (so much so I'm working on two more!)

For anyone that hasn't seen it - this is how the kit turns out - with very little additional work (with after-market metal undercarriage from John at Aeroclub and 100 Sqn. decals from Xtradecal)

Iain

Lovely Photos of a cracking build Iain, thanks for sharing. The example youv'e built isn't an aircraft from 100 Sqn's RAF Finningley days by chance is it?

Iain, can you give me the catalogue number for these decals please?

Edited July 8, 2011 by Radpoe Spitfire

[Iain Ogilvie]

Sorry - hadn't spotted your post!

According to the Extradecals sheet - Leeming '94 (not sure what homes they've had since Wyton?) - but should cover their 'grey' period

Build here and featured in current Military in Scale.

Iain

[Radpoe Spitfire]

Sorry - hadn't spotted your post!

According to the Extradecals sheet - Leeming '94 (not sure what homes they've had since Wyton?) - but should cover their 'grey' period

Build here and featured in current Military in Scale.

Iain

Hi Iain, Cheers for that, I don't know when they arrived at Finningley but believe they were there almost upto the station closing.

Thanks again Rad.