pablo189 Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Started this a few days ago. I wasn't that confident when it was first announced, I'm not the biggest fan of Italeri's and didn't like their A-10, but...it's turning out quite nicely so far :) . Box shot... Pulled the Hawk decals from the stash Some reference, not sure how helpful an article on building the Airfix kit will be :lol: Started by shoehorning in the Neomega pit. Nothing wrong with the stock tub but its a bit basic, the detail although supplied by p/e sheet is still somewhat generic and as I like open canopies I wanted a bit more. Black basecoat to give a bit of depth followed by Xtracolour Dark Admiralty Grey. Note the fine rivets and detailing on the outside of the pipe. Nice touch... but a bit peculiar, as you can't see a single rivet of it when installed as the exhaust is tight up against the fuselage :blink: Not so nice ejector pin marks in the wheel wells, Mr surfacer took care of them. The wheel wells are not bad, better than the Airfix kit, still a bit basic but I elected to leave them alone as I don't spend much time looking in my wheel wells once on the shelf. :lol: One thing I didn't like was the shape of the nose, again better than the Airfix kit but its missing the gradual curve from the windscreen forward edge down to the light, especially around the pitot, being almost a straight line instead. I'm not 100% sure but I think the light might also be a bit on the large side as well as the windscreen being a tad oversized. http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Br...Hawk/1390628/L/ Individually not the end of the world but they do combine to give it a bit of a bug eyed-needle nosed look. I've slapped a bit of Tamiya putty on top of the nose to try and reshape it a bit and some careful masking should reduce the size of the light. And this is where I'm at... More soon, Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AnthonyWan Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Great start Gary! Really like the paintwork in the pit Quote Link to post Share on other sites
antony robertson Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 looking great so far, i'll be following this one as i have one to do once i've finished current builds Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie Cheslo Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Nice progress on that Hawk, so far! I built the Airfix CT-155 last summer, so I will find it interesting to see how the two kits compare when built up. Looking forward to more! :blink: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TobHol Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Nice one How does the Neomega cockpit fit in the Italeri model? Any problem or straight forward? Glue safely Tobias Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 I will definately be watching this build as I am interested in buying a Hawk in the next week or so. Keep up the great work and I might be coming at ya with some questions about the Hawk! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pablo189 Posted November 4, 2008 Author Share Posted November 4, 2008 Thanks for the kind words guys. Nice one How does the Neomega cockpit fit in the Italeri model? Any problem or straight forward? Glue safely Tobias Be prepared to do some sanding... it will fit but it needs the overall dimensions reducing. Easy enough just take some time and test fit a lot. Some more on the nose. In order to fix the shape it needed to be built up behind the light to give enough material so that the slope could be shaped in. This was done using a layer of Tamiya putty followed by three thick layers of Mr Surfacer 500. The stuff I've got is old and a lot of the cellulose base has evaporated out of it making it really thick like treacle, just perfect! This was done over the course of Sunday allowing a couple of hours between coats followed by a rough shaping and then the next layer. Once it was sanded back to a shape I was happier with, the entire shape of the tip was reduced in diameter and the tip light was inserted and CA'ed in place. Obviously oversized, this was reduced with a coarse sanding stick... The entire tip, light and all, was then covered in some more Mr Surfacer and left to set. It was then sanded back to shape and polished up with succesive grades of micromesh until it was all nice and shiny again. Blending it all in like this means I can now mask the light down to the correct size when I come to paint... As for the canopy and windscreen I'm gonna use either the vac one from the CMK set or a spare Airfix one as the kit supplied screen is waaaay oversized. The one you can see in these pics is Airfix's. To get it to fit I removed some of the width off of the outside of the fuselage directly below the windscreen sides and reduced quite dramatically the size of the hump forward of the windscreen... The remaining rough spots on the nose have been filled and just need cutting back and polishing. The wings and intakes are also on now,:) no drama's there, fit is good, just needs a little filling underneath... :D Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 That Hawk is looking pretty good! Keep it coming! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kilroy Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Very nice! I love the diminutive Hawk. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jenshb Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Good to see this kit finally being built. Well done on the pit and thanks for showing us the corrections. Jens Quote Link to post Share on other sites
0viking0 Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Is this Airfix rebox? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lgl007 Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Looks really good... I like what you've done with the nose... definitely an improvement. -Greg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pablo189 Posted November 5, 2008 Author Share Posted November 5, 2008 (edited) Is this Airfix rebox? No, brand new tooling...only released last month. Edited November 5, 2008 by pablo189 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Great seeing the new Italeri Hawk being worked on. Looking good and watching with interest. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Looking great....I´ve been oogling this kit at my local plastic mongerer and I must say that your build is an inspiration! Wonder if there´s some Finnish decals out there as well? Cheers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pablo189 Posted December 4, 2008 Author Share Posted December 4, 2008 First bit of progress in a while, I blame the Kintic Vipers ...been waiting for a new airbrush needle and tip too, they turned up last week :)... so on we go. A couple of other area's I noticed that could stand a little improvement... Firstly the pylons are rather shapeless and anaemic when compared to the real thing. The notch at the forward end of the base is missing, the sharp angle on the leading edge kink is rather too rounded and the winder rails are too pointy and elongated. Easy enough to fix with a sanding stick and scalpel though, the original is at the top, the modified version is below. I drilled out the vents on the rear of the fuselage. The middle one of the three actually looks like an inspection window although I haven't found a close enough pic yet. I added the stall warning strips from plasticard on the leading edge of the wing. Italeri moulded one per wing, which I removed to facilitate cleanup, there should be two. I also filled the nasty sinkmarks caused by the gear leg locaters in the wheel wells. The wingtip lights were a rather poor fit so I CA'ed these in place now, smothered them in Mr Surfacer to fill the gaps and sanded and polished them back. Much nicer and saves that oh ****! moment when five minutes from finishing the build you discover that they don't fit. :lol: The whole thing was now dumped in the sink, given a good scrub with a toothbrush, left to dry and then masked ready for paint. The nose tip light was masked at the edge with a very thin cut (0.5mm) strip of Tamiya tape and filled in with maskol. The cockpit was closed with tape and the rear wall covered with a dollop of blutak, a bit agricultural but the best way I could think of to mask an awkward curve. The lower surfaces were given a coat of Xtracrlix Barley Grey. I then added some black to it and went back and created some dirty spots and patches especially around the rear of the wheel wells and the gun muzzle. I followed this with some lightened Barley Grey just to break things up further. Looks a bit stark at the moment but by the time it's been through a glosscote, wash, weathering and dullcote it should blend into a nice, slightly uneven, worn finish. I hope. :) Top surfaces next, Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Well Pablo I do have to admit that is one sharp looking Hawk! If the topside looks anything like the bottom she is going to be Marvelous! Keep at it and send more pics! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pablo189 Posted December 10, 2008 Author Share Posted December 10, 2008 Quick update time, got the upper surface colour(s) on... And with the black fin... Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stephen Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 looking good so far! Stephen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie Cheslo Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Excellent paintwork! I love your preshading! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
a4s4eva Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Nice... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I knew it! The topside looks as good as the bottom side! You really knocked this one out of the park! Great job! BTW, thanks for the tip on how to get the landing and position lights to blend in nicely with the fuselage. I had some fit issues with my B-29's position lights and remembered this thread and let me tell you it looks awesome, thanks again and cant wait to see this one done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pablo189 Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 Thanks for the kind feedback guys... Tiny update time... Being a postie and seeing as it's Christmas I've not had the chance to do much of late :D but... I did manage to mask and spray the cockpit coaming and sills and the wheel wells... and gloss cote with future and get the stickers on... Couple of minor hiccups with the decals...not sure I've used the right style of no step logo's... there seem to be both high and lo viz types on the grey Hawks and given a lack of hard evidence for my particular airframe I went with the most colourful and....the 63 Sqn badge on the right side of the tail was reversed on the Xtradecal sheet, fortunately I had two copies of the sheet, problem solved, More soon, Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AndrewPerren Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Looking really nice Gary. Santa Claus is bringing me the kit for Christmas. B) Yours might be just enough inspiration to start it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Troll Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Gary, I see you have some Red Arrows decals in your stash... They appear to have Twobobs and FSM logos on them. Where can one buy those? I got the Airfix 1/48 Red Arrows Hawk kit, but the decals are badly aligned so that some printed colours are in the wrong place. Oh! Almost forgot! Nice build!! Jorgen "Troll" Toll Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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