Beginners guide 1/72 Airfix Hawk

[markmarples]

well ive been asked to do a how to guide, i hope this helps any questions please ask, and any tips you can give me will be appreciated as well, anyway...

PART 1

Airfix 1/72 Bea Hawk

There are currently 2 incarnations of this kit, the red arrows boxing and a black T1, which has just come out as a gift set, but which is also about to have a normal ‘red’ boxing which I believe will contain 2 black hawks and a ?finish one



What do you get?
Well for this I’m going to use the red arrows boxing and strangely for me build it as a Red Arrow! the box contains 4 sprue’s of light grey plastic and 1 clear, instruction sheet and a colour printed paint guide and a decal sheet







THE BUILD

Well I’m going to build this without the pilots so they can go in the spares box,
Tip 1 - start painting the cockpit tub while it’s still attached to the sprue’s, this helps with holding the bits and stops getting paint everywhere,



when you have painted all the tub and seats in their respective colours ; main colour i use is medium sea grey, but may not be 100% here are some photos of the cockpit of a t1 at RAF Valley this year





Anyway the tub is nearly complete, time to add the decals to the instrument panel (there not 100% accurate but at this scale you can’t tell

more to follow!

[viper3111]

Many thanks for doing this Mark, Im sure we will all learn from this

[markmarples]

PART 2


TIP - The canopy, here’s a tip I picked up on a different forum so credit must go to them, once it is removed from the sprue, PAINT the inside with light grey WATER BASED ACRYLIC paint, allow to virtually dry and wipe off the paint with a damp cloth, this will leave the paint in the groves that make the MDC (miniature detonation cord – wiggly line in the canopy)






TIP - Then once fully dry dip the 2 canopy parts in KLEAR to keep them shinny and sealed, then once fully dry leave a good hour, mask the canopy with tamiya tape, then put them in a bag and put them away

[markmarples]

PART 3

TIP - on building the tub the instructions state that you should fit the nose gear but DONT as long as you check the fit first don’t add it will go in latter, while the glue for the tub is drying why not paint the side walls! And give them a little wash to dirty them up a bit, don’t forget to paint the nose gear bays white first!



Now it’s time to join the fuselage halves together but STOP!!!
TIP the instructions also say to add the tail pipe, but again leave it out, you will see why latter! Ok stick the tub to one side of your fuselage, now the instructions say to add 5g of weight but I always add a little more, the photo below shows where you can safely add the weights (I use fishing weights) glue these in place with CA or even just use blue tac





Ok now join the two halves together and clamp them and leave them overnight to ensure a really good join



TIP - Now the wings, before you glue the tops and bottoms together make a small cut, in the lower wing on both sides where the ?vortex generator goes, and paint the wells white





Then glue and clamp over night

[markmarples]

part 4

At this point I glue the 2 parts of the smoke pod together, when dry fill and sand as appropriate



Meanwhile, to the intakes, these need to be painted white again on the insides, this can be done whilst still attached to the sprue’s, but after the white, paint the aircraft colour (red on this occasion) from the mouth into the intakes 3 or 4 mm in as the colour goes in to the intakes



Then when dry glue them together and clamp them over night

[Flyingmonster]

Looking good mate! Interesting use of the paint in cockpit!

[markmarples]

thanks Jamie but what do you mean?

[Flyingmonster]

Sorry mate just seen this The use of paint for the MDC mate! I acn use that tip for my Harrier Build

[markmarples]

up a quick update from this morning

the intakes are now dry and ive filled the seams with squadron green stuff, on my earlier hawks i filled and sanded these while in place on the main body but this becomes fidlly so i have taken to filling and sanding first



i have also glues the wings on to the main fuserlarge, and inserted part 19 which is the air break cover now there is an option to have this open but if you choose to do that there is a wacking gap to fill and this area is devoid of any detil but ill add a couple of photos so you can see the real thing






ok back to the canopy, now before i mask it, i thought id show you how i KLEAR it, basically i have a jar full of klear which i drop the bits into and use clean tweezers to pull them out, the let the edge of the 'glass' wick against som kitchen roll to remove any excess and stand them on a post it note to dry, DO NOT| stand them on anything like kitchen roll you will never get it off!



this one shows the det cord better

[markmarples]

on the intakes are on and she is ready to fill, now i have made 9 of these and wheter its me or not but no 2 need the same filler, this one is one of the worst ones, but that last one i did hardly needed a drop





Then comes the job of filling and sanding, I prefer to use squadron green stuff for filler

[markmarples]

Now comes the job of sanding, I use sanding sticks that are available from models for sale (in fact I think there their own make), and this is what you should be left with




Then paint the area around the canopy black and the part between the canopies DO NOT FIT THE GUN SIGHT as reds don’t have them!!! also attach the bit of the fuserlarge behind the canopy somtimes this needs to be thined to fit

The clear plastic part no 4H Needs to be painted beige around the side like i put tape on the back and then paint around the edges




anyway thats enough for tonight, one last piccy with big brother

[markmarples]

next bit....

ok, the canopy has been masked using tamiya tape and a new blade to cut carefully around the edges, the cover for the rear control pannel has been glued in place and the clear blast screen has been glued in place with White glue (pva), remember not gun sights on reds!!!



next ive glued the 2 parts of the canopy on again using white glue



when that was dry ive added the 2 wing fences into the hole i previously cut and on the bottom ive added the fins from the airbreak, using white tac to hold them in place in the correct angle while the glue is drying

i have also filled in the wheel bays and intakes with whitetac ready for the painting stage




now rember not putting the engine exhaust in, well this is why i dont, i use a wooden skewer with tape wrapped around so i can turn the hawk easily when im spraying and not risk gettin finget prints on the the hawk, especially on such a small plane i want to paint her as quick as possible as to not waste paint

here she is ready to be painted on the modified ikea lazy suzan!

[Flyingmonster]

Top notch so far Dude!

[markmarples]

ok not a lok more done but shes been airbrushed using xtraclyix red arrows red paint, this is slightly orange but the best match out there, without making your own mix, but if you do that you wont get 2 the same and as im making a few ill keep them the same, so paint on and a coat of Klear

[markmarples]

ok first lot of decals on, i do a few then seal them and let dry before carying on, these have dried nex to a radiator and have now been Kleared

[markmarples]

i havent forgot this but ive been waylaid, anyway, not much more done, im still decaling i will post photos when done