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Wolfpack 1/144 E-2C Hawkeye Wing Fold

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

While Revell's 1/144 Grumman E-2C Hawkeye kit is nice out of the box, there have been quite a few aftermarket sets designed for it. One of the most popular concepts is to fold the wings, and this set from Wolfpack is the second set I have seen designed to do just that.

The Parts

Cast in a light blue-gray resin, this conversion set is made up from ten pieces and requires no cutting of the parent Revell kit. The parts throughout are very nicely cast, with the recessed panel lines matching that of the Revell kit perfectly. The wing fold detail is likewise nicely done, and the finished wing fold should look quite realistic when done.

Delving deeper into the actual conversion, the set comes with three main wing pieces: a center section and the two folding outer wings. The center wing piece fits into the opening in the Revell kit, so there won't be any cutting or fiddling required here, just drop and go. Commonly seen on Hawkeyes with their wings folded are extended flaps, and this set provides those as separate pieces. The attachment points for these flaps are very sturdy, and by having them separate it will be easy to glue them on at the same angle across the span. I recommend starting with one outboard section and using that as a template to match the other flap pieces. The remaining parts are for the wingtip-tailplane attachment points, with separate doors and actuator arms.

The folded wing attachment is probably the weakest point in the instructions, as there is no real clear illustration of the actual hinge point. After a bit of test fitting I am still not clear as to how that will go together, but perhaps once everything is together on the Revell kit it will be more logical. No matter what, it will be a weak joint, with no real logical way to strengthen it without destroying the fine detail. Hopefully between the wing joint and tail joint there will be enough support to hold things steady, but I think it will still be a fairly fragile finished assembly. This might be a good model to firmly glue to a base, to prevent potential damage from movement.

Conclusion

While fragile, this set will make for a great update to the Revell E-2 Hawkeye kit, and with the wings folded, the kit will take up even less shelf space, so you might as well get two sets. I'm looking forward to using this set on one of my Revell kits in the very near future. My thanks to Wolfpack Designs for the review sample.