Airfix 1/72 Sea Hawk

AIRFIX 1:72 HAWKER SEA HAWK

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 15 June 2009

Kit Details:

Airfix 1/72^nd scale Hawker Sea Hawk (Kit N° 02097 ). Produced in France

Aircraft History:

(taken from Simon Skinner’s review): The Hawker Sea Hawk was brought into the RN (Royal Navy) to replace the rather disappointing Supermarine Attacker, and became the first real RN high performance jet fighter. Developed from the P.1040 and first flying in late 1947 the type showed some promising qualities, with the first production F.1 model flying in 1951. In 1956 the Sea Hawk saw combat service in the Suez Canal crisis where it was used as an interceptor, bomber and attack aircraft and served four aircraft carriers. It remained in active service until 1959 before being replaced by the Sea Vixen.

The Kit:

Inside a small, sturdy end-opening box you get a couple of trees with 33 grey styrene parts, the clear canopy, a small decals sheet and the instructions; no bag (I got this kit in the early 2000´s). Looking at the parts you immediately realize that this is an old kit. Surprisingly, there is no real flash to speak of, just the usual mold seam lines. There are a few raised panel lines and no rivets. Surface quality is good, although there are some sink marks on the outside and rear to the locating pins on the inside (easy to correct with putty). You get two different tail fins which is nice: according to the version you’ll make (Hasegawa would have made two different kits!). The canopy is thick but very clear, so that maybe you’ll give the cockpit some detail.

Instructions:

No surprises here : typical modern Airfix in good printing quality: multilingual history, data and infos; 6 "understandable for everybody" constructions steps, and four-view coloring/decaling diagrams for 3 versions, with numbers coding the decals. Main and (basic) detail painting information given, of course, for Humbrol paints [*]

Construction:

Well, be advised, this is really a very simple kit!

You get a pilot’s seat which is just a double-right angled piece of flat plastic to make the office; further an arrestor hook to be trapped in between fuselage halves, and then you can glue the two fuselage halves together. Voilá! Since the canopy is very transparent, I made a rudimentary instrument panel from plasticard and added a Martin Baker Mk-2 ejection seat from Aeroclub (ABEJ001); I painted the cockpit satin black. Since I don´t wanted it to be movable, I left the arrestor hook off, planning to add it at the very end of construction. At some areas of the fuselage join line there was a step which needed filling and sanding (there’s no really detail you can ruin).

Each wing consists of a two-halves “shoulder” (thanks to Mark for this description) and a one-piece outer section, with the join of course located were the original was hinged. I blanked off the air intake and the exhaust areas with plasticard, to avoid the see-through effect, and painted them simply black. The join at the wing roots was very good for a kit of this age, and also the fit of the one-piece tailplane and the vertical fin revealed no major problems. You have a choice among two different vertical fins according to the version you will build (British FGA6 or German Mk.101). There are two fuel tanks and two bombs you can use, which are mounted on (very, very basic) pylons molded integrally with the outer wings. I don´t assume that these parts are somehow accurate.

The canopy’s fit was surprisingly good, leaving just a small gap on its contour which can be filled with white glue (or other method of your preference). After masking these I applied two layers of satin white on the under surfaces (Humbrol H130) on two sessions. The next day I masked the white areas and applied one layer of Extra Dark Sea Grey (Humbrol H123) on the upper surfaces. Note that this color wraps around the wing’s and tailplane´s leading edges. With both paints being satin, I could apply the decals directly on them, and later sealed everything with Humbrol H135 Satin Clear. Finally, the very basic landing gear, the very thick well doors and the arrestor hook were glued on; now the model was finished.

Colour Schemes:

Sea Hawk FGA6, N° 806 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Army, RNAS Brawdy, 1959-60. Also Royal Navy Historic Flight, RNAS Yeovilton, 1996. Extra Dark Sea Grey over White.
Sea Hawk FGA6, Royal Navy Historic Flight, RNAS Yeovilton, 1977-1995. Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky Type S.
Sea Hawk Mk.101. Marineflieggeschwader (MFG), Bundesmarine, Schleswig, 1958. Same colors as former.

Decals:

Just basics, they went on easy, but some of them silvered after drying. Unfortunately enough, the color density on the roundels is poor and the grey shined through. I have had much better decals on other Airfix kits (e.g. the B-17G). Funny detail: a decal representing the guns openings is provided!

Conclusions:

IMHO, a real “Oldie but Goldie”. An easy and relaxing project for everybody, good cure for AMS, good “building just for fun” and a good alternative for those having less hobby working place (this one’s for you, Mark!). Recommended on hat basis. Of course if you want an accurate and state-of-art Sea Hawk then you have to get the MPM/Special Hobby offerings. I’m pleased how mine worked out.

References:

None

Footnote:

[*] I will take the opportunity to state here some comments to paints (all of course just personal, humble opinions).

Humbrol are still my favorite paints, because they have a good color density and are very treatable with both airbrush and hair brush. Some colors in the Humbrol range were specific from the very beginning (e.g. H23, H29, H30, H64 and H90 for RAF; H30, H65 and H91 for Luftwaffe), and the fantastic “Authentic” range was far ahead of its time (e.g. the HX-Series in satin finish). In fact, some specific shades have never been produced again by anybody (e.g. French colors, Italian colors, interior colors). What I really don’t like is Humbrol´s policy of deleting main colors from its range, for which H92 Iron Grey (a very good match for RLM02) and H181 Sea Blue gloss are the best examples.

Revell paints are good quality, very generic, but… that damn mixing! Not for me! I only use some basic Revell colors like R15 yellow, R36 red, some browns and R9 anthracite (my favorite one for tires). They also work good with airbrush and hand painting.

Gunze Sangyo have an interesting range, with some very useful colors like the ones which represent RLM 75 and RLM78 through 82 (hard to match in other ranges). A further advantage is the fact that their colors are easy to maintain, because the bottles with threaten cap seal well, and you can always dilute the color even with alcohol. On the other hand, I have often troubles applying Gunze paints with hand, regardless how long I mix/shake the paint (e.g. H8 silver, H12 flat black).

Other brands are nearly impossible to be found here in Austria. You can get here paints from Games Workshop’s Citadel range, but they are much more for the figures modeler. I often read in other’s reviews about paints which seem exotic to me, but may be well know in USA and the Asiatic area (e.g. Tamiya, Floquil, Poly Scale); of course I can not comment about them.

Dear reader: please feel confident to write an addendum with further information missing here. It may be useful to all of us! (I am also happy to put up a quick page in the reference section - Ed)

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