Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - Finished

Well she be done, XX179 Red 4

I don't like the kit, mainly due to the new kit hype and the online builds that skip the warts. Which for me were...

- Inlets don't fit well
- The undercarriage interfering with the doors for gear up,
- Those trenches,
- Undersized pilots,
- That jet nozzle why is it so small?
- The decals need to be a bit more opaque.
- Decal placement guide.

There's lots of my fat finger oops, I destroyed a couple of the decal stripes on the tank under the fuselage so there a couple short, canopy masking around the windscreen, and decal creases etc.

I replaced the pilot and the pitot is a broken 80 gauge drill bit.

I'm glad its done.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - paint and decals started

Well let the primer harden up and gave it a light sand, then on with some Tamiya gloss red acrylic, and started the decalling..

put on the large and some small of the white decals.

They are thin, and I found slightly brittle, the opacity could be better, as they look a bit pink close up, but not bad at arms length, they went down well and the Klear I used on them pulled them in to the trenches.

I did cut the big side fuselage swoop decal, which includes the Royal Air Force text, into two, to make it easier to apply. I worked from the tail to the nose, to get it all sort of lined up.

There are two rectangular white decals that are not mentioned on the decal placement guide, I think 47 and 48, which I think are for the inside of the jet intakes.

The arrow decals are a bit of a puzzle, and I started with the wing corner pieces as I could line them up with the undercarriage doors.

So onto the stencils and other little tiny decals.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - primer

Applied primer to the Hawk so its all white..

Its a cheap primer from a hardware store here in, and enamel and it seems to be slow drying, so I'll be giving it a few days before spraying the red.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - Intakes

Well it may a 'new tool', but when you get to the intakes she's like an old school build, plenty of fill 'n sand on this one.

This side had the largest gaps, so used Tamiya basic putty and correction fluid.

Intakes not too bad from the top, a bit of a step to sand down.
The locating hole for the blade aerial is rather cavernous, and has been filled. Also the round vent towards the fin, has had some correction fluid in it to hide the seam, going to paint it black after main painting, so I'm hoping it'll be ok.

The under side gets plenty of filler here, the gaps realy were a bit large for a panel line. I've also left the flap actuator fairings(?) off, I think it will make the decalling easier.

Superglue gel on the intakes to fill the vertical seam lines, as they are right on the edge of the lip.

Finally tonight the canopies got cemented on with Tiger Grip glue. Looks like a bot of a step to fill in the front of the windscreen.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - wings..

Well after having warm fuzzies about my first new tool, I am am losing the glow, especially after building the Hurricane last weekend.

I'm building wheels up, and Airfix supply two sets of doors, sweet so in they go, and..

so filled with card and then join the wings but....

get this gap, due to..

the undercarriage leg mount, so sliced off and gap is gone.

Good now attach wings and we have wing root gaps..


more card to fill, also we have steps..


I thinned the wing as much as I dared before, they were a lot worse.

Oh well more fill and sanding, so I attached the intake halves..

filled the two mounting holes in them and painted.

Hmm I'm definitely plodding along with this one, and am disappointed with it, I think I had high hopes due to the reviews of it. I might have to dive in to "The Stash" and get old an old Airfix kit....

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - fuselage gaps

Put the rear decking on, had to sand down the rear bulkhead a bit so it would fit down..

puttied the seam in the coaming and added a square of plasticard to hide the hole for the HUD. I've put on the fuselage halves of the intakes, as I thought it would be easier painting them.

I had a 'heads up' about the undercart doors being gappy, so I looked at them, and do have a bit of a gap all around...

 so I added strips of 5 thou card to the edges of the doors. I'm hoping I don't get a double panel line...

Found the same gapage with the airbrake door, and it sat a bit low..

 so a bit of 10 thou to raise it up, and some 5 thou on the air-brake edges.

Its nice that Airfx supply seperated undercarriage doors for wheels down option and a single piece wheels up option, and two air-brake doors, an open one and one closed, good stuff.

I'll let the plastic setup and I'll trim the doors. Oh, the nose gear door fitted quite well, sits just a tad low on mine, but I should be able to sand that out.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - cockpit finished

Well rattling along with this, finished painting the cockpit and pilot.. ready to button up the fuselage.

My pilot ended up being too large so I had to enlarge the leg holes in the instrument panel and move it forward a bit.

I am really liking this kit, I see more in my future..

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - pilot and seats

Well I am quite enjoying this kit and forgetting to take any photos..

So I took a couple tonight, after a painting session.

The pilot is a replacement as the kit is way undersized. I have tarted up the seats a bit with some stretched sprue, plasticard and tape.

Also modified the cockpit tub, a little.

Added a plasticard bulkhead behind the pilot, and added a thick bit of card to the rear bulkhead, and some bevelled side pieces.

Not too much filln' sand on this one..

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - box

Another GB starting on Revellations  is a Red Arrows one, so I took the chance to get this..

My first new tool Airfix kit, and first red boxing, I'm all a flutter, it does look good on the sprues, maybe not so much Fill'n sand.