Hawker FGA.50 Seahawk MLD (Trumpeter 02826 FGA.6)
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Hi all,
Here's my build of a Seahawk that served in the Royal Dutch Navy, a.k.a. Marine Luchtvaart Dienst (MLD).
Starting in 1957, 22 Sea Hawks were transferred to the MLD and assigned to VSQ 860, intended to serve as aircraft for the aircraft carrier "Hr.Ms. 'Karel Doorman".
VSQ 3 was also equipped with Sea Hawks for training purposes from the Naval Air Station Valkenburg (MVKV).
At the end of 1960, it was decided that Hr.Ms. 'Karel Doorman' would be equipped for anti-submarine warfare. This task required completely different types of aircraft and the Sea Hawks had to disembark and were all stationed at the MVKV. In 1961, VSQ 3 was decommissioned, while VSQ 860 continued to fly until 1964.
The Trumpeter kit is really straightforward to build except for the fitting between the front-end and the back-end of the fuselage, which needed a lot of filling, sanding and rescribing of panel lines. As there was no option for a Dutch version, I made use of aftermarket decals from DutchDecal. Transformation from a FGA.6 to a FGA.50 was quite easy as both versions are very much look-alike except from some minor details as antennas and such.
For the rest it is a strict OoB build. I decided to close the canopy as it is not very much detailed, so not much to see anyway.
Weathering is minimal, the Seahawks were kept pretty clean by the MLD.
Hope you like it.
Beautifully done, @alfred, and I really like the colors in that paint scheme!
Thanks, Robert! @robgenev665
Definitely liking this, Alfred @alfred
A beautiful addition to your growing Dutch aircraft collection.
Did you use the aircraft which is on display in the National Military Museum in Soesterberg as an example.
Thanks so much, John! @johnb
I used the scheme of the following decalset
https://ipms.nl/artikelen/recensies/decals/dutchdecal-dd4808-ned
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Excellent Seahawk, Alfred!
Thank you, Spiros!
@fiveten
Really nice. Never seen one built
Many thanks, George!
@blackadder57
Yes, Seahawks are quite scarce on this site.
Looks great! Seahawk is a nice, small, elegant bird.
Thanks so much, Greg!
@gkittinger
Yes, she sure looks elegant.
Really neat Seahawk Alfred. There is a nice example at Duxford and I have one in my stash. One day, one day
Thanks for your kind words, Guy!
There’s one at N.M.M. at former AFB Soesterberg on display as well.
@thom
Well done, Alfred. The Seahawk is a beautiful plane.