Kinetic 1/32 Hawk 100 Series
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The BAe Hawk has evolved over time from a basic trainer to strike fighter. Recently the aircraft has returned to its training roots with the Hawk 100 Series advanced jet trainer. This updated aircraft features a redesigned wing, modern avionics, and HOTAS controls. In this new configuration, the Hawk has been quite popular with air forces around the world, including Australia, Canada, and Singapore.
The Kit
Kinetic continues to release some exciting kits, and this is definitely one that many 1/32 modelers have been anticipating. While the earlier Hawk T.1 has been available from Revell, this is the first 1/32 Hawk 100 out there. Molded in the typical Kinetic light gray plastic, the surface detail overall is quite good, with a blend of recessed and raised bits. On the inside, Kinetic has paid attention as well, with plenty of useful bits from front to rear. Finally, the decal sheet is large, full of options, and features extensive stenciling.
Starting with the interior, out of the box this is pretty good. The instrument panels fit into separate hoods, with the front one getting a nice photoetch/clear HUD unit. The seats, while initially looking simple, are also spruced up with the addition of photoetch, and coupled with the five-piece plastic assembly, should look pretty good when finished. The cockpit tub has molded in detailing that is sharp and detailed, with separate rudder pedals, control sticks, and throttles adding to the level of detail here. Finally, a rear bulkhead provides a solid point of attachment to place inside the fuselage.
While on the subject of fuselage insides, this kit features another nice touch: full-length intakes. These are split into right and left halves for each side intake, and connect together at the engine face. While the seam might be a bit of a challenge to fill, providing these intakes is definitely better than having nothing there but a blank wall. The exhaust pipe is also provided, split into right and left halves. With the cockpit, intake/exhaust assemblies, and nose gear bay put in place, you can close up the fuselage. There is no reference of adding nose weight mentioned, but you will want to double-check this just to be sure.
Moving on to the flying surfaces, the stabilizers are molded as solid right and left pieces, but get added inserts on the mounting end to replicate the plates found there. The lower fuselage strakes are provided as a single insert that incorporates part of the lower fuselage, so no worries on getting these at the proper angle. The wing is very nicely done, with the one-piece lower wing getting separate wheel well sidewall and roof inserts. The upper wing halves then trap all of that in place. The kit also comes with two separate options for flaps, so there is no need to try and piece together multiple flap parts if you choose to have the flaps up.
The landing gear is well done as well, with the main gear struts cast as one piece for robustness. The wheels are molded separate from the tires, which will facilitate in painting. All of the gear doors have interior detailing, and there are separate retraction arms provided. While still looking at the wings, the final bits there are the separate wing fences, and once all that is together, the wings can go on and it's down to the details.
The small details for the exterior will keep you quite busy, as Kinetic has provided a whole host of probes, vanes, and antennae as separate pieces. While it is nice to have these separate, to avoid breakage during assembly, it does mean some pretty careful cleanup of some pretty small pieces. With all of those in place, you can choose to add the wingtip Sidewinder missiles (which are nicely done) or not, tack on the canopy, and head to the paint booth.
Painting the Hawk 100 apparently takes a page from the Henry Ford Finishing School, in that you can have it in any color, as long as it's black. A bit of an exaggeration, I know, but the first two options on the decal sheet are just that: overall gloss black. These are the Canadian CT-155 from 15 Wing out of Moose Jaw and the Hawk Mk 128 from BAE Systems Warton out of Lancashire. For those who want something a bit more exciting, the third option is the BAE Demonstrator aircraft, which is metallic gray, aluminum, and aircraft gray (although the latter two colors are indistinguishable in the instructions), and of course, gloss black. The final option is an Australian Hawk Mk 127 from 76 Squadron, finished in a special scheme that features a large black cat on the fuselage side and a black fin, spine, and nose added to the two-tone gray camouflage.
The decals are very nicely printed, quite colorful, and feature the added bonus of extensive stenciling. The latter will really help out a lot, as on these aircraft, especially the gloss black ones, the stenciling stands out quite a bit. While adding these will take a while, it will definitely pay off in the long run.
Conclusion
For those looking to add a modern trainer to their 1/32 shelf, this is a good one to pick up. Nicely detailed straight out of the box, and affordable on top of that, this one will be a popular kit for the large scale modelers. My thanks to Stevens International for the review sample.