Miles M.2F Hawk Major 1:72 – scratchbuilt
Hi Everyone! This is my scratchbuilt 1:72 Miles M.2 Hawk Major, more specifically an early „F” version. I have a plan - near on the top on my modeling „bucketlist” - to collect all the „Macrobertson” entries (and maybe a huuge diorama ). This little plane is one of them. Surprisingly no mainstream kit exists of the type (and I havent found the Alliance version – which is a „H” anyway) so I took a deep breath and made my own one. I used an 1991 plan/drawing from Aeroflight (made by Alfred Granger) and backdated some details based on photos of the actual aircraft (the plan is about a Miles M.2H but this is an F without the flaps and different style wheel pants and sexy race car style windshields).
The Hawk Major was designed as a successor to the Miles Hawk by F.G. Miles. Main changes were a de Havilland Gipsy III engine, metal (instead of wood) engine mount, and trousered undercarriage. The prototype (designated M.2F Hawk Major) was first flown in 1934 and went on to second place in the 1934 King's Cup Race at an average speed of 147.78 mph. A racing version was developed as the one-off single-seat M.2E Gipsy Six Hawk with a 200 hp de Havilland Gipsy Six engine. The production Hawk Major had the 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major engine. The civil Hawk Major proved popular with private owners and clubs as it was aerobatic and a delight to fly, quite fast, simple to maintain and looked modern and ‘sporty’. By temporary drag-reducing measures, such as fairing one of the cockpits, fitting undercarriage ‘trousers’ or wheel spats and the fitting of a coarse-pitch propeller, it was very competitive in air races of the 1930s; such as the annual “Kings Cup” meeting. This particular plane was used by New Zealander pilot Malcolm Charles McGregor, and his navigator/partner H.C. (Johnny) Walker. They flew their M.2F Hawk Major, ZK-ADJ (named ‘Manawatu’) from London to Melbourne in the 1934 Macrobertson air race and came in at 5th place and posted the fastest time for a single-engine aircraft; 7 days and 14 hours. It was the only open-cockpit aircraft to finish the race. ZK-ADJ was damaged beyond repair in a crash at Maxwell in 1946 and parts were used in a rebuild of ZK-AEQ.
I built the model mainly from plastic sheets (curver areas sandwiched and sanded to form) and I used some modified parts from a scrapped old FROG Miles M14. I painted the plane with Tamiya TS-17 decanted with a few drops of white to achieve that „silver doped” color often seen on pre-war planes. The decals are my own too. I made resin copies from all parts so I will build some Hawks int he future and I plan to make the beautiful Speed Six version and the sporty Sparrowhawk also. Hope You like it and as always all C&C are welcome.
Cheers and Thank You,
Gabor
53 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Anyone who scratch builds is, in my book, a "real" modeler - unlike [most] of us who merely glue pieces of plastic airplanes together. You've done a really nice job with this one, Gabor - well done, sir.
Thank You Craig! There are such kits out there that scrathbuilding seems quite easy when You work with them 😉 I thing it's just an another level of difficulty - the kits spare us lot of time. I'm far from the real "hardcore"scratchbuilders whose making their arts for years - I have always too much aeroplane in my head to just focus on one for such a long time 🙂
V cool, Gabor! Always enjoy your scratchbuilds.
Thank You Rob! 🙂
Very nice Gabor. Amazing someone would think of flying that thing from outside London to Melbourne.
Thanks Tom! Yes they were real brave people - to me the whole idea of the "Macrobertson" is amazing 🙂 and seems to me contemporary people loved it more than today's Formula One 🙂 Crazy folks!
Another beautiful build Gábor! I applaud you for scratch building to acquire a subject you want that doesn't exist in any other form. Way more work than I'll ever attempt!
Thank You Greg! For my luck this is a single engined monoplane 😉
I feel like go Wroooom when I see your little gem. Very nice build indeed. Seeing a civilian aircraft on the web always make me smile a bit extra.
Thanks! Civil aeronauts ruled the Golden Age - they were faster braver and crazier than military guys back then 🙂
Anytime I see a scratchbuilt I think "this man is a boss of modelling".
Great and delicate job.
Thank You! 🙂 It's just about effort and time (and stubborness 🙂 ).
Gabor, this is gorgeous !, A real beauty that captures this era very nicely !
Thank You Terry. Art deco on wings: lots of silver, small windscreens and those wheel spats... who could resists? 😀
For 'scratchbuilt' read 'genius'.
That's too much 🙂 Thank You!
Amazing work!
Thank You!
Hat off for a beautiful scratch build!
Did you scratch build the hull of the airplane too, or was that the old Frog model?
Thanks. I can use only the wing fillets from the kit and the extreme nose (with some modifications), because the Hawk has a different - much smaller and lower - spine and the fuselage more rounded in profile at the cockpits (which are closer to each other and the openings are smaller/different - if You look closely You can see that the front cockpit a bit lower than the back).
This kind of fuselage is quite simple anyway; despite the spine and cocpits it can be build as a simple box construction.
A little beauty Gabor !
Lovely work and subject!
Thank You! 🙂
Incredible skill to produce a unique aircraft! inspirational!
Thanks! 🙂