ITALERI 1:72 BAe HAWK 100
'INBOX Review'

 

Reviewer: Johnathon Mock  (taken from rec.models.scale newsgroup)
A fully built review of this kit exists on SMAKR, see links below

The kit shares some common parts with Italeri's existing hawk T Mk.I which first appeared in 1991, but with a new fuselage, wing tip Sidewinder mounts, extra wing fences and rear fuselage strakes. Decals offer options for a two-tone grey RAAF Hawk or ZJ100, one of the BAe demonstrator aircraft in a green/light green/tan finish and RAF markings.

Surface detail is finely recessed and the overall standard of the moulding is good, a godsend given the rather hit and miss nature of some of Italeri's recent output. Cockpit detail is good for the scale (and price). The way the wing-tip launchers slot into place is rather neat and overall accuracy looks good at first glance, save profile of the fuselage behind the cockpit which is slightly too square and the jet pipe which is undersized, both hangovers from the optional hawk kit, as are the drop tanks which depict the smaller 100 gallon units as opposed to larger 130 gallon tanks which the 100 carries (and are illustrated on the box art). A dry run shows no real fit problems (the original Italeri Hawk more or less assembles itself!).

The kit cockpit is a straight cover-over from the previous kit and isn't really correct for the 100 series - at this scale it debatable whether anyone will ever notice, but the conscientious out there might want to rework them using some Reheat photo-etch details.  

The wing also from the original Hawk and therefore doesn't feature the correct number of vortex generators - real nit picking this, but they can be added with slivers of plastic card. The instructions give dimensions for placing the new wing fences, but these put the inner three too far outboard - Italeri seem to have gotten mixed up with the "combat” wing fitted to some Series 60 hawk which looks similar, but is not the same, as the one fitted to the Hawk 100.

The decal sheet, alas, is completely unusable - the RAAF markings are printed in black whereas they should be in grey (as per the box art which is correct). The "RAF" option is even worse, the roundels grossly oversized - they should be 12 inch diameter on the real aircraft whereas these scale up to over 24 inches - and the "Hawk 100" logo on the nose is also too big and some of the lettering too tall. The Hawk emblem on the tail is also missing some details. The style of the serial number also looks suspect in that the stroke width appears too thick.

Italeri's finishing instructions fare no better, the RAAF camouflage (on the instructions and rear colour art) scheme has the dark grey on the wing and tailplanes extending to the trailing edge whereas it should be more or less in the centre of the wing (similar in concept to the F-15). The roll-out RAAF aircraft also lacked the parachute box fairing at the base of the spine - as removing this means some major surgery it might be best to leave this alone and give Italeri the benefit of the doubt that it was probably fitted at a later date.

The artwork for the BAe demonstrator is just plain awful. Not only does the camouflage pattern in the kit not match photos of ZJ100 - assuming these are the ones Italeri based their kit on - it doesn't even match itself from view to view. Italeri also suggest that the aircraft also had light grey undersides - it didn't and the box art is also more correct in this respect. To cap it all, even the placement diagram for the decals has most of the items in the wrong place.

Overall a mixed bag - the plastic itself looks to be good and certainly looks like the basis for a very nice series of Hawk 100 models. The decals on the other hand are useless for this model and replacements will have to be sought for an accurate model. 

 

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The bottom of the kit supplied by Walter Fischer, showing the RAAF Markings as (from left to right)
FS38321 Dark Gull Grey; FS38375 Light Gull Grey and GunMetal.
While I am not convinced the markings (as in design) are right, the colours look very close - check pictorial reference sources.