Azur 1/72nd Curtiss H-75 A-4/Mohawk IV By Matt Bittner

The Curtiss H-75 was the export version of the P-36 Hawk, with the majority of the exports going to France. The French used them as best they could, but they were already in a bad position and tried to make the best of what they had.

The Kit

The Azur version of the Hawk H-75 consists of 34 injected plastic pieces, 12 pieces of resin and three vacuform pieces meant for the clear areas. Markings consist of a French machine flown in North Africa in 1942, a German captured machine in 1940/41, a Mohawk IV of No 5 Squadron, RAF in India in 1942, and a Finnish machine in June of 1941. Decals are nicely done and in register.

Construction

First of all, let me state that I was going to provide a review of this and the AML Hawk 75 side by side. Unfortunately the AML Hawk is getting the better of me, so I decided to finish this one, and get back to the AML whenever the mood strikes - maybe next millennia.

Construction naturally starts with the cockpit, and the Azur is not as good as the AML cockpit, nor is it as accurate. However, I did try to fit the AML cockpit out of the box into the Azur kit, and it won't fit without surgery. Since the Azur kit has such a rudimentary, inaccurate cockpit, I decided to close the canopy and build the kit as easy as possible. Even so, I used one of the True Details US Navy WW2 bucket seats (with integrally molded seat belts) instead of adding belts to the kit seat. In addition I mounted the distinctive support structure to the back of the seat. Once the three cockpit pieces are glued together, I glued them and the instrument panel to the fuselage sides. Now I was able to glue the fuselage halves together.

The fit of the fuselage halves is almost perfect. Only a small smidge of putty on the underside while the rest of the fuselage seam required none. Nice! Construction now moved to the engine and the cowl halves, and once the engine was painted was inserted between the cowl halves. Unfortunately this seam wasn't as nice as the main fuselage, requiring more putty.

Construction now moved to the wings. After the plastic wheel 'wells' are added to the underside wing piece, I ventured away from the instructions and glued on the lower wing half before adding the upper wing pieces in place. This ensures a better fit of all the wing components - at least on my example. There was more putty involved here, namely where the lower wing half - part 5 - meets the rear of the fuselage. The wing roots required work as well, but not as much as other kits I have worked on.

After the wing underside piece is glued to the fuselage and dried then I added the upper wing pieces, parts 3 and 4. After all seam work was accomplished on the entire wing to fuselage joints, then I added the horizontal tailpieces. Fit here was decent as well, only requiring a small portion of putty.

One thing I did after the cowl halves were together and seams removed was to thin the inside of the cowl flaps, giving the appearance these flaps were open. Now the trickiest piece of assembly - adding the cowl to the fuselage. I'm not sure if it's something I did wrong, but this wouldn't fit well at all. It could have been due to the thinning of the flaps, but I don't think so. Whatever, I used plenty of putty and elbow grease to get this area to look right, and it still doesn't look 100% correct. Odd. Wish I knew exactly what I did wrong.

Since I decided to make the Azur Hawk as easy on myself as possible - construction and painting - I decided to take parts from the AML Hawk and convert the Azur Hawk into the P-36G, the version that was going to be exported to Norway before WW2 began, and the US 'confiscated' for their own use. Actually I ended up only taking one part from the AML kit for this conversion, and that was the "football antenna" on the fuselage spine. I also used the AML decals for the US version. Since this was an "easy" version, and since I wanted to close the cockpit since it was so spartan, I glued the windscreen to the kit, faired it in as best as possible, as masked it prior to painting. I also stuffed tissue pieces into the cockpit so the over-spray from where the side windows should be, wouldn't effect the cockpit.

Painting and Final Construction

Now that it was ready for painting, I used Aeromaster's defunct acrylic paint range 'Warbird Colors' and the colors Olive Drab (OD) and Neutral Gray. First the underside was painted gray, followed by masking and spraying the top OD. Once everything was dry it was time to apply Future over everything and apply the decals. Note that the AML instructions show the wrong location for the numerals on the fin/rudder. This is best shown in P-40 in Detail & Scale. The numbers should actually be on the fin only, like I have on my model.

I had a little problem with the side windows. Since the clear pieces are vac, they need to be carefully sanded out and fitted - and sanded and fitted - and sanded and fitted - until they fit the cut out perfectly (or almost perfectly). Well, my first run of sanding and fitting didn't go well, and thanks to the generosity of MPM I had another set of vac side windows to try again. I finally was able to get these to fit, but it was a chore. Just take your time and constantly fit after you sand.

At this point I added the painted landing gear, struts, doors and tires; the tire wheel and doors along with new exhaust stacks from round rod (although these look a bit - well - odd) and all the other exterior bits including the prop. I drilled out the machine gun "barrels" to make them look more realistic. Weathering was primarily with an oil wash, as the P-36G as it appeared in the photo in P-40 in Detail & Scale was quite clean. I drilled holes and added antenna wire from .005" stainless steel wire.

Conclusion

If you want a quick and accurate Hawk, then Azur is your kit. It doesn't have a lot of finesse, but it is a relatively easy build and you'll have a model of a Hawk quicker than building the AML kit. If you also plan on closing the canopy, then the Azur kit is the kit of choice. In addition, be sure to take your time with the vac pieces, especially the side windows. Not doing so will cause you to have problems with these. This is the only time I wished for injected clear pieces, or better yet, vac pieces already, properly sanded out for me.