Airfix BAe Hawk T1 (100 Squadron 95th anniversary markings)

I am currently working on the traditional end-of-year rush for completing models. Some of these were pretty close in the process when I fell into the midyear mojo funk, and some had some construction to finish up. But at least 4 will be debuting before the end of calendar 2013, and it is possible that I might add one or two more to that. It will still be a slow year in terms of total completions.

Today's completion is part of a long-standing type project. I have been building BAe Hawks for much of my modelling career. It falls well into many of my preferred categories: RAF, trainers, special anniversary paint schemes. Most years the RAF paints up at least one Hawk for some sort of special occasion.

This is the Airfix Hawk. The newer tooled version, not the one from a decade or more back. It is a fine example of the Hornby ownership's art: nice shape, reasonable panel lines, no nasty surprises during construction. It is a pleasure to put one together, especially when they are so reasonably priced.

Not that it didn't have a few issues, mostly self-inflicted. I always seem to make some sort of mess of the canopy (in this case the painting of the internal seal strip). And though I didn't screw up the wheels this time, they didn't seem to want to anchor solidly into their receptacles in the gear bay, so there is an ever-so-slight list to one side.

The decals came from Xtradecal 72-156, which includes a number of special RAF schemes. I've already used the Hawk T2 from 4 Squadron, the anniversary Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 with the green tail, and have imminent plans for the 1 Squadron Eurofighter as well. But this time out, I decided on the Hawk T1 set for the 95th anniversary of 100 Squadron. It is basically put into Bomber Command markings, with a Dark Earth and Dark Green upper fuselage (the rest of the fuselage and wings in trainer Black) and a WW2 style 95oY on the fuselage side. There is also a rather attractive skull and crossbones on the underside and the tail. As always the decals performed without a hitch.

Since the lower skull crossed onto both landing gear bay doors, I used the process suggested on the instruction sheet. Using double sided tape, attach the bay doors in the closed position, apply the decal and wait for it to dry, use a sharp knife to cut along the door outline, then glue the doors in the open position.

But the snakebitten aspect of modelling followed the kit around: the pictures were pretty useless since I am transitioning to a new layout and had to shoot them in an unfamiliar spot. #1 son is back home for longer than we expected and is tired of sleeping in the living room and has requested his old room back. Not an unreasonable request, but it did mean a day of moving modelling equipment around to another space.

So all you get is one photo this time. Hopefully I can improve the focus and depth of field on the next few shots. As a bonus, I've included a shot of the display case with the Hawk collection all assembled in one place.

This is completed model #432 (#13 for the year), completed in November of 2013.