Kinetic HAWK 127 LIF.

This is my latest (completed) effort.

It's the 1/32 Kinetic Hawk 100 series kit modified to a 76 squadron RAAF Hawk 127 LIF (Lead In Fighter trainer).

Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with the kit it is definitely not a 127 as the destructions would have you believe.

Starting with the cockpit, the seats are pretty basic and are really next to useless. I bought a couple of the Aires Mk-10 seats for the Tornado and modified them into Mk-10 light seats for the 127 as they are very close. I made my own harnesses from aluminium strip and spare buckles and added a few stencils from spares.

I then turned my attention to the cockpit itself. The 127 has a glass cockpit designed to reflect the F/A18 it's to train for so I bought the Eduard PE set and modified the rest with wiring and various compartments and panels scratchbuilt to suit.

The fit wasn't too bad but many panels, ECM pods and aerials needed to be either added, relocated or replaced. I also re-riveted the aft fuselage with raised rivets as per the real thing.

I pre-shaded with the trendy "black base" method and mottled it with various colours prior to painting.

The kit was then painted in Mr Color as recommended but most of the decals were useless as they were the wrong shade. I painted the national insignia with homemade masks and sourced others from the spares box.

I also sanded off the awful molded on detcord on the canopy and replaced it with vinyl.

I made some FOD covers out of card and used various RBF tags, some homemade, some aftermarket to add some life.

I also stuck a couple of aftermarket Sidewinders on the wings as the kit ones were fairly rough.

Hope you like it.

25 additional images. Click to enlarge.