1/72 Italeri BAe Hawk T.Mk.1A Surya Kiran

Gallery Article by Tom Thounaojam on Jan 26 2017

India Republic Day

 

      

O!! Boy what a fun building it, there is no great learning than actually scratch building an aircraft of your dream. Firstly if there are any errors on this build I must first say, sorry. This was more of learning experience. 

It wasn't that I don't like the Red Arrow and make Red Arrow, I really love them, have seen them and awe me in some airshow I have been.  However I wanted to make the Surya Kiran as they came out after a pause of few years. And guess what getting Hawk 100+ 1:72 was a daunting task I couldn't get either Airfix or Italeri, so end up building a one. The major different was the nose. So I completely rebuild it from scratch, lots of sanding I have to say I mean lots. once I got the shape, next was adding details to make it look like Hawk 100+ some other parts were scratch build from styrene sheet. The glue I used was Mr. Cement rather than Tamiya cement, seemed to work well with styrene sheet. Feel like am a plastic surgeon after making the nose. The pitot tube is from safety pin.

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Next challenge was painting, lots of small lines and shape of Surya Kiran (Sun Ray) masking took me good whole days and rest is paint then masked again, unmasked and then painted again. Decals are home printed.

Actually I was quite worried how it will look like in the end, however am quite happy how it turned out.

Happy Republic Day

Tom Thounaojam

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Photos and text © by Tom Thounaojam