Matchbox 1/72 BAe Hawk T.1

MATCHBOX 1:72 BAE HAWK T.1

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 24 July 2003

The Aircraft:

The Hawk is a major success story for the British aviation industry. Initially started by the Hawker-Siddeley group, it was later adopted by the British Aerospace Company. Conceived as a state-of-the-art trainer for replacing the aging Hunter T7s, Gnats, and Jet Provosts used in the RAF, the Hawk entered service in 1976, and quickly established its credentials as a first class trainer. The Hawk has an added advantage in being able to pack a considerable array of armaments, which has helped it gain export orders to many countries (including a version to the USA) for use in the attack role. The Hawk is also presently used by the RAF "Red Arrows" display team.

The Kit:

This kit was released by Lesney in 1981, and is cast in the trademark Matchbox two-colour plastic sprues, this time in red and grey. There are 44 parts including the optional parts for two aircraft. The single sub-A4 instruction sheet contains the assembly instructions on one side, broken down into ten stages, with the other side showing the decal placement for two Hawks, and a paint guide listing generic names only (e.g., "bright red" and "light aircraft grey"). Symbols are used to indicate gloss or matt finish, etc. Also included is a short paragraph describing the aircraft in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and in what I assume is Dutch. Japanese is included in the paint guide.

Construction:

As with all Matchbox kits, the assembly instruction drawings are very clear, although this is because they have sacrificed having the painting guides listed at the end of the instructions. Therefore, there is a bit of checking back and forth as you go along. The two pilot figures are cemented into their individual seats, which are cemented into the one-piece shaped and recessed cockpit module. Two joysticks are then cemented between the pilots' legs. For the RAF version, Matchbox recommend painting the pilots with a white helmet, black visor, flesh face, black oxygen mask, olive drab suit, and black shoes. For the Finnish option, Matchbox recommend painting the pilots with a black helmet and visor, flesh face, black oxygen mask, olive drab suit, and black shoes. Matchbox recommends painting the seats black, the joysticks aluminium with black grips, and the cockpit module steel grey. In my opinion, the detail is good and the parts fit is excellent.

The cockpit module is then cemented into the port fuselage using the Matchbox location guides; a plug for the rear engine is cemented in place, and an inner instructor's windshield is attached between the two pilots. Once these are in place, the two fuselage halves are cemented together. (At this point, if one was to model the Finnish version, then a slot needs to be opened up in the bottom of the fuselage halves to accommodate an optional piece). As I have always found with Matchbox kits, the fit was good, and because it appears to me that Matchbox use a harder plastic than say, Airfix, there were no ejector pin or other marks that can bedevil much more expensive kits. Once again the fit was very good. No filler was used here, and a light clean up of the main fuselage join with a sharp blade saw it disappear.

The next part of the construction was to cement the two halves of the engine air intakes together. There are two of these, one locating on the port, and one locating on the starboard fuselage. These fitted OK via a butt joint onto the fuselage itself, but left somewhat of a gap between themselves and the rest of the engine unit. This needed seeing to using some filler and sanding to get a smooth joint. This was a little tricky given the shape of the engine intake and the small, closing gap that they make with the fuselage. Once the engine intakes were in place, the front pitot head tube is added to the nose, along with a front window for the landing lamp. This part of the construction was completed with the addition of the canopy and the two little heat exchangers behind it. The canopy is nice and bright, with good visibility on the contents. However, I did find that my canopy was slightly oversize. Not a cataclysmic fault, as these are available on the aftermarket. As I was after a quick build, I used the kit canopy, in the knowledge that I can always change it later on.

The next stage is to attach the two single-piece tailplanes and construct the two undercarriage assemblies. These are composed of four parts: a wheel, an undercarriage leg, an undercarriage retraction jack, and the main undercarriage door. The aircraft wings are constructed from their respective top and bottom halves and these fit into the locating holes in the fuselage. There was a degree of filler required in the gaps between the wings and fuselage. This was not difficult, but one side was worse than the other.

Next, the undercarriage units are fitted to the locating slots in the wings, and the outer leg and fuselage undercarriage doors are fitted using a butt-joint to the under wing undercarriage recess. Six aileron ribs are fitted into locating slots on the lower wing. The air brakes are butt-joined to the lower rear fuselage, and the front undercarriage unit is also added. This is composed of the one-piece front wheel and leg unit, a small rear undercarriage door, and a two side doors. These are all butt-joined to the fuselage slot.

There are armament options for the Finnish Air Force option that include two underwing Matra rocket launchers, and what looks like a basic central underside ventral gun pack, although I may be wrong on this.

Decals:

Decals are provided for a Hawk T Mk 1 of the Red Arrows team based at RAF Kemble in Cirencester in 1981, which has the famous all-red livery and white fuselage and wing stripes. There are also some nice stencils (for mainly around the cockpit area). The second option is a T Mk 51 of the Finnish Air Force based at Pori near Tampere in Finland, also one presumes in 1981, although not stated. This Finnish Hawk has dark green-light green disruptive pattern upper sides and a light grey underside. Typical of Matchbox, the decals for both aircraft are well printed and in register.

Accuracy:

I have a Chaz Bowyer book that quotes the Hawk dimensions as having a span of 30 ft 10 in, and a length of 39 ft 2.5 in. This would scale as 13.05 cm and 16.5 cm, respectively in 1/72 metric units. My model has a span of 13.2 cm and a length of 16.1 cm, which looks out from the above, but agrees with the dimensions on the back of the box quoted by Matchbox.

Conclusion:

This is an old kit, so there may well be simplifications and other irksome points when compared to the newer kits of the Hawk, but for its time, it was state-of-the-art. I can't comment on the lack of certain details that always seem to irritate super-modellers, such as the plain and simplistic holes for wheel wells, but for me, this kit looks every inch a Hawk. I can't see where one could go far wrong with this kit, and so would recommend to all but the most rudimentary beginner.

The above image comes from Michael Johnson who built this kit just over 20 years ago,
hence the REAL "weathering" etc on the image above, but still a good effort from a 14 year old at the time

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