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1/48 Kinetic E-2C single engine trap


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Here's my latest model off the bench. It's the 1/48 Kinetic E-2C Hawkeye 2000. 
It was built with Eduard photoetch, SAC gears, MasterCaster wheels and homemade decals and masks for VAW-115 Liberty 601.
I initially wanted to make the colourful CAG bird for VAW-115 with Fighter town decal sheet (48045) but I realised too late that I didn't have the right prop for that one, so I went to a more unique scheme designing my onw masks and decals for VAW-115 just before they left Japan.


A 4mm brushless engine was added in the right nacelle to further emphasize the left feathered prop. A custom battery holder is inserted in the right nacelle and the internal panel was cut out to allow easy battery replacement. An On/Off switch has been mated to that door as well. 
 

The right oleo was extended (using the kit's part) to give that specific angle of the wings on the landing and the  rudders (only 3 of the vertical surface have rudders, but double hinged) were deflected accordingly.

Model was painted with Gunze H315 and colour variations were done with Tamiya smoke. The walkway were masked and textured with MIG anti slip paste tather than using the kit's decals. 

 

The carrier deck was done in the same way as the previous one, cut from my real size 1/48 carrier deck photoshop template to display the Hawkeye just before snatching the arresting wire. Wings and Rotodome are not glued they slide in place to ease up transport and storage.

 

The WIP is on my blog

 

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Thanks for looking

 

 

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Thanks Kevin and Steve,

 

14 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

Another one done, wow! 😲  You don't waste time, do you?  Really beautiful display, Red Dog!

Well I confess I started this one upon finishing the tomcat and as I was working on the JBD which was boring job, so the hawkeye was a nice change back to real modelling 🙂

Thanks mate.

11 hours ago, Janissary said:

Awesome model and base. That spinning prop looks so real. How did you like the kit detail and fit wise?

Thanks, The kit isn't the best fit. panel lines are quite deep and the worst of the kit is the engine nacelles. I was feeling the intake trunk which has locating pins in both halves of the nacelle side kinda mess everything up. Although I used the resin quick boost replacement they created the same issue. In the end I simply vut the locating pin and glued the intake trunk straight on the intake lip. I had the impression is saved me quite a bit of sanding. 

The 

The bottom fuselage with the different avionics configuration is not a perfect fit either but quite less a problem than then engine nacelle

the last point difficult to master are the windows, the side windows particularly. They don't fit at all the larger transparency and need their front corner to be sanded to avoid that weird positioning often seen on built models.

It's also a tail sitter and it needs a LOT of weight to avoid it. That amount of weight is different if you built the model with wings extended or folded (then it needs even more)

For the rest it looks like a Hummer 🙂 only the main wheels are way too big IMHO and need to be replaced. 
I also used the SAC gear but honestly I am not sure they are required, the weak point of the kit's gear is the way they are assembled which may sag under the added weight of the model, but the SAC gear are built the same and thus suffer from the same weak point and sags too. I used one kit's gear (the extended one) and one SAC gear leg (the normal one. Both needed to be reinforced.

 

6 hours ago, Da SWO said:

Love it, the spinning prop is awesome (how did you do it?).

Late in the build 🙂

I had to get the assembled engine nacelle out of the wing and open it after it was painted and weathered.

But I had a bit of luck as I sourced 4mm brushless motor from amazon (you'd be surprised how tiny these have become) and I was planning to use the empty cylinder that houses the prop pin. This one is about 5mm. So I simply inserted the 4mm engine in a plastic rod bored to 4mm (it was 3inner and 5outer ) and the engine was perfectly secured in the front nacelle part.

The engine requires 4.5v so 3 1.5v watch battery were inserted in a homemade holder and the internal side panel of the right engine nacelle was cut and a switch was inserted.
 

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The challenge of course would be to be able to remove the holder from the nacelle to replace the batteries. so the wires were made long enough so I could pull the holder out of the nacelle. The side panel with the switch is not glued but maintained with bluetack (I considered magnets but didn't have small available)

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Luckily it's barely visible once assembled. The system works as the batteries ran out at the IPMS convention and I had to replace them already 🙂 
It was a tedious operation but worked fine in the end 🙂

 

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This is just awesome on so many different levels. Love the attention to details including deflecting all the rudder areas and the difference in landing gear depression. Is it just me, or are the pilots sweating in the cockpt? Awesome work!

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  • 1 month later...

Excellent diorama and subject. I have read mixed reviews on the Kinetic Hawkeye, but if you want it in 1/48 scale - they are the only available manufacturer. Great job on the kit.

In my travels, I saw a Hawkeye attempting to trap onboard and parted the cross-deck pendant (arresting wire).  The crew was quick enough to get the aircraft back to flying speed and barely avoided going for a swim. 

I imagine that a single engine recovery would only be done if there was no divert field available - pretty hair raising stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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