Classic Kit: Hawk 1/48 Lockheed T-33
This is the HAWK which was first issue in 1958 and Testors last issued it in 1989. It is marked with Caracal decals for a Langley AFB hack. The cheat line should be blue and not black, but that's what Caracal provided, and like many mistakes I did not know it until after the fact.. I'm sure many of you have built it. It is straight forward in assembly. The only thing I did was blank off the wheel wells, and since I did that the kit landing gear would not fit. So I used landing gear from the Monogram P-80. I tried to get a very smooth finish on the fuselage. For paint, I used Tamiya white and Mission Models aircraft gray. So here is the T-33 from HAWK built mostly out of the box. The beauty of the T-33 is the number of paint schemes applied to this aircraft, most are very colorful.
Love it, David!
Excellent paint job!
Thank you Spiros! It was fun to build and went together in no time.
Nice, I love the classic kits!
Thank you Rob. Although I have piles of new kits I always gravitate towards these kits of my youth.
Nice work. Great scheme. I built one of those that had silver plating along time ago.
Thanks! Yes I have the F-84 in chrome plating and with today's alclad it would be no trouble fixing up the seems and respraying.
That's a wonderful "retro" build David! Very cool indeed. 🙂
Thank you Gary. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Looks great! An excellently built kit from long long ago .
I appreciate your comment. Thanks.
A sixty three year old mold/kit was the gate keeper of things to come. Hawk made the Lysander and a Bearcat too. They too where a lot more serious in making kits that represented the real thing and where geared more to an older audience back in 50s and 60s. Before, the digital natives came along, the pencil pushers and slide rulers and artisans could make kits that can last the test of time.
They also, made a U-2 before, U-2 and Bono where U-2.
Cheers to the classics.
Ah yes the U-2A that the USAF did now want HAWK to produce. HAWK even got the color of the plastic right, a dark blue-black. Here's a rescue kit I made several years ago. Thanks
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Great job on this build. I like the way you made the main canopy fit with the windshield, I remember these two pieces not matching up at all. I built this kit twice many years ago back in the 60’s and late 70’s, donated my last one to the Airframe and Powerplant school I went to earn my licenses 40 years ago. David, your build looks great!
Hey Bob,
To me the canopy work is one thing I try to get right. The hardest part was mating the canopy to the lower frame without having that tell-tale seam where the clear plastic meets the framework. It took some effort but I managed to hide it. Thanks.
Looks great, a nice blast from the past! Years ago I did their plated F-84G, still got the instruction sheet.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thank you.
I had all the chrome kits, P-47D, P-51D, T-33 and the F-84 and I think there was a Bearcat in Thai markings. But somehow got tube glue all over the pieces and they never looked as good as the picture on the box. 🙂
You make that old kit look a whole lot better than I remember it was.
Thank you Tom. I remember the built up photo on the box and I could not believe it was a model with all those cool stencils. It has always been a favorite.
Very well done David, nice paintwork and decalling.
Thank you Anthony!
another nice clean build. Well done.
Thank you Greg!
Hi David, I remember this kit very well, although mine was chrome plated as were the P-51, Thunderbolt & U2. I remember the latter as the plating decided to discolour on one side of the fuselage, which made it look interesting to say the least. Hawk kits always seemed to have the right look about them, to my mind & your T-33 continues the tradition. Beautifully built!
Thank you Tony,
I always thought the same. Their Mustang is wonderful too. Thank you for your comments.