Alliance Models Miles M.2H Hawk Major
1/72 resin kit, no. 72006
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History:
The Miles M.2 Hawk Major was developed to replace the popular M.2 Hawk,
which was being phased out due to limited supplies of the Cirrus IIIA
engine. Like the M.2C Hawk, it was Gypsy III powered but with a metal,
instead of wooden, engine mounting and a cantilevered undercarriage. In
November 1934 a trailing edge flap was added to the standard aircraft
to create the M.2H, seven of which were flown in the 1935 King’s
Cup Race.
Like many other private aircraft of the day, a few M.2 Hawks found their
way to the Spainish Civil War, two of which are the subject of the Alliance
Resin kit.
The Kit:
 Alliance
kits come in sturdy top-opening cardboard boxes and the Miles Hawk is
no exception. Inside you will find an instruction page, decal sheet and
twenty cream-colored resin pieces. These pieces are nice, but will require
a fair amount of cleanup. The engraving on the exterior is nice, as is
the detail on the one piece landing gear, but the interior is as bare-bones
as it comes. The seats must be made from four square pieces of resin,
the instrument panel is blank and there is no interior detail in the cockpit
at all. At first this seems like a stumbling block, but there are a few
surviving Miles Hawks still flying and detailed photos should not be too
difficult to find on the internet.
Also, the Miles Hawks used for racing were all varied in some ways,
with single cockpits and headrest fairings among other small modifications.
This kit is a great starting point for these and in some ways it’s
simple detail is helpful as it means less to modify.
 The
decals are well printed and give options for two Spanish Civil War machines,
one with khaki upper surfaces and light blue lower surfaces, the other
in green-brown and middle grey with Portugese civil registration (CS-AAL).
The latter may have been Jose Rabello’s Hawk Major, formally G-ADEN.
If anyone has any information on this, please let me know. I’d be
very interested in any photos or information on CS-AAL before it was camouflaged
so that I could add a Portugese civil aircraft to my collection.
Conclusions:
This is a nice, albeit simple kit that will really shine with some extra
detail. Its civil history opens a lot of doors for variation and its military
history will make for an unusual small aircraft model.
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