Airfix BAe Hawk T2

I seem to be sticking to familiar models in my campaign to get some completions in 2017. That probably is not a bad approach if you’re trying to recharge your mojo after an extended drought.

This completed model was inspired by a Combat Decals set: 72004 – Test and development Hawks. I’m a fan of promotional schemes like these, and most Hawks are covered by the two excellent Airfix kits. Alas, a couple of the schemes on this sheet are for Hawk 200s. The only kit in 1:72 was the Matchbox version, which has been out of production for many years. I’ve already built it and am not inclined to pay collector’s prices for another. I seem to remember that some manufacturer was talking about a new kit, or at least a conversion, but I haven’t seen any news along that line lately.

The one I chose for the first model was the Bae Systems demo from Warton in 1997. This must have been around the time they were trying to sell Hawks to South Africa, since the plane has stripes in their national colors.

The build was uneventful, having already constructed a number of T2/127 Hawks. The decaling was a bit more problematic. The large decals weren’t so much the problem – although it would have been infinitely better if Combat had allowed for the cutout for flap fairings on the lower wings and more precisely cut the decal into pieces to allow for the parts that appear on the gear doors. The issue came with the smaller markings, primarily stenciling. I had a lot of them break up while trying to transfer from backing paper to model surface. Despite being thin, they resolutely resisted the efforts of Microset/sol to get down into the panel lines.

After the decals were all on, I added a Master nose probe. This is a tiny part, but much better than the plastic kit version. I do wish they had been produced it in steel rather than bronze. Being gold colored, I had to get some silver paint on it, and I did a bit of clumsy job. Still, another colorful Hawk to add to my display lineup.

This is completed aircraft #469 (2 aircraft, 0 ordnance, 1 vehicle for the year), finished in April of 2017.

I thought I would add a few shots of my upstairs / hobby room display case. This is solely for Tornados, Eurofighters, Hawks, and Hurricanes and is the only one not currently in the garage (pending the lower story reconfiguration). And even it is running out of space.