1/72 Airfix Armstrong W. Sea-Hawk

Gallery Article by Paolo De Sanctis on July 13 2011

 

The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the British Fleet Air Arm that proved to be a reliable and sturdy workhorse and went on to export success abroad. The first production Sea Hawk was the F 1, which first flew in 1951, entered service two years later with 806 Squadron. The next variant of the Sea Hawk was developed into a fighter-bomber, the FB 3 Fighter-Bomber Mark 3 (over 100 built). The final Sea Hawk was a fighter ground-attack variant, FGA 6, with just under 90 built. All Sea Hawks were in service by the mid-1950s and eventually over 500 were built. An export variant was the Sea Hawk Mk 100, a strike fighter variant for the German Bundesmarine, the Navy of West Germany.

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The model: this is a Series 2 Airfix kit, simple and nice to build.  I assembled it straight OOB, apart the cockpit which includes a complete dashboard, cloche and pilot.  Unfortunately this one had skidded quite down in the cockpit and is almost invisible!  I used the colours in the Humbrol range, but I substituted the box decals sheet with an ESCI one aftermarket.  It depicts a jet used by F.A.A. in the Suez campaign, 1956.

In one of the photos above you can see the Sea Hawk in company with other contemporaries jets.  I hope you like them.  Good work to all ARCair friends!

Paolo De Sanctis

Photos and text © by Paolo De Sanctis