Premiere
was the only brand producing BAe Hawk kit in 1/48 before Airfix released the
same subject a few years ago. There are two versions, the overall grey and the
Red Arrows. Mine was the grey one.
I
didn’t recall when exactly I got this kit but I remember I paid only $3.00 for
it. What a deal! It was then stayed for a long, long time on my shelf when
suddenly I grabbed and built it last May. It was intended for a present to my
friends of Indonesian AF’s Skadron Udara 15 (Air Squadron 15) when I was
invited to visit them.
I
built this model for exactly 5 days. There's no major modification because the
model has captured the Indonesian Hawk version closely. I corrected the rear
fin-fillet above the exhaust and modified the ADEN gun pod to resemble a smoke
pod.
In
general, the Premiere Hawk's fitting is quite bad. A lot of putty was used
especially on fuselage joints. Fuselage itself consists of six parts (!). Quite
a lot for a small size model.
I
added 2 pilot figures taken from Hasegawa F-16B kit and forced them to “sit”
in the cockpit tub. Tried the Airfix ones but they were definitely too big. The
figures are eye-catcher because I painted them in orange-colored suit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Although
the shape of the intakes is off, the overall look of the model is quite good. I
think it would be hard to tell which is which when comparing to the Airfix Hawk
model. The model was painted in 2 tone greys of Light Ghost Grey (Tamiya Spray)
and Light Grey (Tamiya).
The
quality of Model Alliance decal I used is very good. I didn’t weather the
model as I want it clean. A coat of semi-gloss clear finished the process.
All
of the members of Skadron Udara 15 (SkU 15) were happy to receive my model. They
were all gathered in the dispatch-room to see the model I built for them. The
commander was unfortunately on offshore duty that day. As soon as he saw the
present, he sent me a thank-you message and invitation to visit their base
again.
The
military lives in the world that civilians like me would be hard to enter. But I
want them to know that modelers support them in a way modelers do.
Alex
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