Classic Airframes 1/48 Hawk III TRASHED

[Bear43]

Well, a new adventure with a skill building kit. I knew going in this would be a tougher build being a short run kit but I wanted to put my feet to the fire. It is interesting for sure. Tons of filing and sanding. Instructions are vague, to say the least, and the part numbers in the instructions are not right. I shall persevere though.

 

[Pantherman]

Well, a new adventure with a skill building kit. I knew going in this would be a tougher build being a short run kit but I wanted to put my feet to the fire. It is interesting for sure. Tons of filing and sanding. Instructions are vague, to say the least, and the part numbers in the instructions are not right. I shall persevere though.

That looks like a tough kit to build, keep us posted and plenty of photos. Pantherman

 

[Bear43]

Got a chunk of the cockpit together and will start painting next. It was a lot of work getting this much done but if one is patient it comes along. Downside for me was using superglue. Had quite the time there. Dropped one small bit while fitting and glued it to my cutting mat, glued my thumb to one of the side bits and glued my thumb and forefinger together twice. I am a menace to myself

 

[Pantherman]

Got a chunk of the cockpit together and will start painting next. It was a lot of work getting this much done but if one is patient it comes along. Downside for me was using superglue. Had quite the time there. Dropped one small bit while fitting and glued it to my cutting mat, glued my thumb to one of the side bits and glued my thumb and forefinger together twice. I am a menace to myself

Been there brother. Pantherman

 

[Bear43]

Started with black primer and then did Testors steel enamel on the floor and Model Masters neutral gray on front, back and sides and fuselage sides. One coat of the steel gave a nice worn look, I think. The neutral gray has a bit of a blueish appearance but may lose some of that on the second coat. This coloration is based on pictures of the sole Hawk III in a museum in Thailand. I'll get better pics tomorrow but you can get a decent idea here.

 

[Bear43]

This kit is coming along slowly. I am really taking my time. The cockpit is coming along nicely and the tub is glued in one side now. Finishing up some paint on the seat and instrument panel. Glued together the wheels and drop tank in the meantime and will be starting to fit the resin blocks that are the wheel wells. Those will take a lot of trimming to get to fit. All in all it is looking nice so far.

 

[Bear43]

Seat, instrument panel and rudder pedals..... Oh man...... Seat is painted and ready to go in. Instrument panel is painted and disappointing. No gauge details whatsoever, just recesses in the panel, and no decal. I looked around online and am not finding much for decals. So, I grabbed a chrome pen and filled in the recesses. Once installed it will sit back enough to give an illusion of some detail without looking gaudy. Rudder pedal on the right was okay, one on the left was broken into 3 pieces out of the bag. I glued it together and put it on as best I could. I test fit the panel and the pedals won't look bad once the fuselage is closed up. Quite the kit here...lol

 

[Bear43]

I wrapped up the cockpit and did a test fit of the fuselage to make sure the cockpit area lines up well before tackling the landing gear bays and adding fit issues there. I am very pleased with how the cockpit turned out, especially the instrument panel. I think it looks decent.

 

[Bear43]

Tonight I fitted the resin landing gear bays. Took a lot of time with small trimming and sanding steps but I got them fitting pretty good. I will need to do a touch of filler work but not a lot.

 

[Bear43]

This kit is definitely a handful. It took a lot of time to trim down the backsides of the resin landing gear bays so the belly panel would fit in. I did knock the resin parts off once and had to reglue them. This evening I did the test fit of the fuselage halves, the belly panel and back firewall. Everything is lined up well and will get glued in place as I remove the tape.

 

[Bear43]

Tonight I got the cylinders mounted on the engine block. It was a slow, tedious process. Still need to do the exhaust pipes. However..... I am going to set this one aside for a bit. Classic Airframes kits require a lot of work to get together and after dry fitting other parts I found a lot of modification that will be required. It's becoming aggravating instead of relaxing, so time to step away from it a little while. I will pick it back up in time.

 

[the Baron]

And the Shelf of Doom grows....

Yeah, that's the dilemma of a kit like this: short-run, multi-media kit, so it will be more of a challenge to build. But it's also the only kit of this subject in 1/48. So if that's your preferred scale and you want to build a Hawk III, you're stuck with it.

It's good to put it down for a while and come back to, too, though.

 

[Bear43]

That's exactly where I'm at, I plan to do a whole range of Hawk fighters in 1/48 from the Hawk III up through the final P40 variants so it is my only option here. I will also want to do the BF2C variant and as far as I know the only kit of that in 1/48 is also a Classic Airframes kit. I knew it would be difficult but I need to polish my skills a bit more. It's a good kit, just tedious. My only real complaint is the instructions which are so vague.

 

[Bear43]

A couple days break did me good. Today I put the exhaust pipes on the engine. This required drilling divots in the backside of the cylinders to have good mounting points. Once it dried I got it primed. I also glued in the belly panels and cut a chunk off the tail of the fuselage. Cutting is required for doing the Chinese version of the Hawk as it uses a different tail wheel setup. That then required some plastic sheet to create a panel to close the resulting hole. I also used thin straps of plastic sheet to fill in the awful gaps at the sides of the front belly panel. The rear panel fit nicely.

 

[Bear43]

When I was searching for a Hawk III kit I somehow missed this: https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catag...rtiss-bf2c-1-hawk-iii/FDK00018009/product.php

I also found a website that explains how to modify this kit to the BF2C-1 style for the US Navy. Well..... crap....

 

[TimM63]

A couple days break did me good. Today I put the exhaust pipes on the engine. This required drilling divots in the backside of the cylinders to have good mounting points. Once it dried I got it primed. I also glued in the belly panels and cut a chunk off the tail of the fuselage. Cutting is required for doing the Chinese version of the Hawk as it uses a different tail wheel setup. That then required some plastic sheet to create a panel to close the resulting hole. I also used thin straps of plastic sheet to fill in the awful gaps at the sides of the front belly panel. The rear panel fit nicely.

Looks like it's coming together nicely. Patience is the key with a kit like this.

 

[Bear43]

Thanks! It is a slow process but I know rushing it will only be a bad thing. It is coming along pretty good. I now have the drop tank and wheels ready for paint and should be getting those a first coat tonight along with mounting the horizontal stabilizers.

 

[the Baron]

When I was searching for a Hawk III kit I somehow missed this: https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catag...rtiss-bf2c-1-hawk-iii/FDK00018009/product.php

I also found a website that explains how to modify this kit to the BF2C-1 style for the US Navy. Well..... crap....

Thanks for posting that! I didn't know about that kit, either.

Yeah, the story with the Navy is interesting. The BF2C was the end of the line for Curtiss' Navy Hawks. It was a development of the F11C, to replace the fixed landing gear with retractable gear. Curtiss also replaced the wooden-framed wing with a metal-framed wing. In service, it turned out that the wing vibrated violently in sync with the engine. There were issues with the landing gear, too. So it was withdrawn, the last Curtiss Navy fighter. Curtiss redesigned it with the wooden-framed wing and offered it for export, where the design was a little more successful.

 

[Bear43]

Chugging along now. Got the tail together tonight and put a coat of paint on the drop tank. I also fitted the venturi ring that goes in front of the drop tank. So far so good.

 

[TimM63]

Chugging along now. Got the tail together tonight and put a coat of paint on the drop tank. I also fitted the venturi ring that goes in front of the drop tank. So far so good.

Looking good