1/48 Airfix Hawk CT-155 |
Gallery Article by Darius Aibara
on
Nov 20 2003
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Hawk CT-155 RCAF/NATO
There have been a
rush of new 1:48 Hawk kits of late - the High Planes limited run export version,
the Italeri-announced kit, and the Airfix "Red Arrows" and "Hawk
100" kits. This is the Airfix Hawk 100 built almost out of the box as
the RCAF/NATO CT-155 Hawk trainer. The "almost" is due to my
using a pair of Paragon resin MB Mk 10 seats in place of the kit offerings
(which are not too bad). The kit cockpit has raised instrument dials and
buttons etc. but the main consoles lack the prominent multi-function displays (MFDs)
and so I scratch built these from plastic card by drilling a hole of the
appropriate diameter and then opening out the hole to a square profile using a
small file. The holes were drilled away from the plastic card edge to
prevent the card from splitting, so after shaping I trimmed the card to produce
the "MFD frames" which was then cemented to the kit consoles. I
painted and dry brushed the consoles to bring out the raised detail and added
the MFD buttons using a blunted steel pin in a pin vice as a "brush"
dipping it into a spot of paint and then applying it to the consoles.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The rest of kit went
together as per the instructions. An option to drop the flaps is offered
and I duly accepted. The completed fuselage was sprayed with auto acrylic
primer and then a several gloss applications of an auto colour approximating to
the all over "Oxford Blue" of the actual aircraft. The
undercarriage is reasonably detailed but the one-piece wheels have a prominent
ridge moulded around the ridge, which does not appear on photos of the aircraft
that I have, so I sanded them off. After coating with Johnson's Clear
varnish I applied the kit decals - these were excellent with full stencilling
provided for both the RCAF training and the RAAF lo-vis schemes. The only
problem was with the RCAF roundels: the Maple Leaf is sensibly provided as a
separate decal but the main roundels have a white outline and this was out of
register. Fortunately I had some white decal circles with a similar
diameter in the spares box and so I applied these first to cure the register
problem. The decals adhered well with no silvering and I sealed them in
with further coat of Clear.