1/48 AMG Hawker Hind.
This is the newish AMG Hawker Hart finished as an Irish Air Corps Hawker Hind. The Hind was an improved version of the Hart that featured a more powerful RR Kestrel engine, a tail wheel, and the cut down rear gunners position from the Hawker Demon. Hinds were also designed to use truly ugly “rams horn” exhausts. I started scratchbuilding these and then stopped when I realized all Hinds didn't feature them. The standard exhausts preserve the plane's great lines. I bought this kit from a vendor at the last show I attended in November of 2019 and intended to build it out of the box as an RAF Hart. Unfortunately, the kit decals feature miscolored roundels. The blue is way too light. Rummaging through the decal dungeon produced a couple of Max Decals Irish Air Corps sheets. I purchased these with the intention of doing an Irish Lysander a long time ago. The sheet also featured markings for the Hawker Hind which I used.
The kit itself is phenomenal. It's one of the most detailed and best molded 1/48 kits that I've ever built. One weird mistake is that it features exhausts for a 14 cylinder engine. Cut the rearmost exhaust tube off and position accordingly. It's an easy fix. The only other small modification that I made was replacing the kit's tiny and fragile looking tail wheel assembly with that from an old Otaki Spitfire. It's about the right size and a lot stronger.
I also wasn't sure about the PE oil cooler assembled from 7 cooling fins and 16 tiny washers. I replaced the plastic posts that hold them together with brass rod and it all worked. I'm still shocked that I didn't lose a washer.
I painted the model with Tamiya AS-12 silver straight from the can underneath, with Xtracolor dark earth and dark green topsides. All other paints were Humbrol enamels. Rigging is stainless steel wire, antenna is EZ line.
I hope AMG sells a lot of these, and continue with more great subjects . It's a great kit.
I also posted some in progress pics over at the Aircraft In Progress section.
Thank you for bringing this beautiful model here John. It certainly looks like a fabulous kit and your model is unique because I don’t recall seeing one in that livery.
Thanks, Pedro!
Beautiful! I love between-the-wars biplanes (and monoplanes), so I'm going to check this kit out.
You won’t be disappointed.
For those interested, Pheon Decals has a Demon sheet originally created for the Aeroclub vacuform, that solves all the problems associated with the kit decals. I modified mine to be a Demon (mostly involved making another gun tray on the right side.
And yes it is an excellent kit.
3 attached images. Click to enlarge.
That is one quality build.
Thanks, Haslam!
Great work John!
Thank, Dale!
Yes indeed, it is an excellent kit - likely the best kit out there of a Hawker biplane. You did it full justice, @j-healy, with this interesting and unusual scheme. Great result.
Thanks, Tom. Your build was a great help to me. Yours, mine, and FSM’s are the only examples that I’ve seen built of this kit. If they aren’t building them, I hope they’re at least buying them. I’d really like to see AMG or DoraWings do a 1/48 Vildabeest.
You've done a great job with this kit, John, very unusual markings included, definitely liked. But, I hope you don't mind me making a suggestion with the tags on your post. Anyone looking for your article in the future is going to find it very difficult to find, if you could add AMG, Hawker and Hind to your post it would be very helpful.
Thanks, George. Good point. I’ve never much paid attention to tags. Thanks for the tip.
Very nice build, John
Not so common to see an Irish aircraft.
The rigging also turned out great.
Well done.
Thanks, John!
Beautiful looking kite
Thank you, George!
This is an amazing build, John.
Congratulations!
Thanks, Spiros!
John,
For something that is so dull and drab, your build is really a thing of beauty. Kind of like a black swan that you don't notice until it takes to the air. Some great work in the rigging and on the wind screen. Excellent paint job along with that one photo that shows the silver underside which really stands out.
Some strong work going on in the Hart dept.
Two thumbs up.
Thanks, Stephen. It was an interesting project.
A rarely seen built kit. For an AMG it turned out great! Good choice to do an Irish and not a British one, Irish markings are also rarely seen.
Thanks, Reinhard. It’s really a top notch kit. I’m tempted to build AMG’s Flycatcher or Polikarpov R-5.
+1. The Flycatcher is one of my all time favorites.
All of the above, great job!
Thanks, Robert!
John, @j-healy
You have built a magnificent looking machine ! I don't ever think I have seen one like this wearing Irish markings. This is a very sleek and elegant looking plane. Your painting is spot on my friend. Now bring on that Flycatcher ! 😉
I still have one of the Lindberg kits of that one... I'll bet the new tool version is a night and day difference. Thanks for posting this beauty for us to enjoy.
I definitely pressed the "liked" button.
Thanks, Louis!
Awesome build, John (@j-healy). I will also add my kudos for picking Irish markings, which I also have never seen on a model before. Anyone who can build a plane with more than one set of wings is my hero.
Thanks, George! I built a lot of Aurora biplanes as a kid and went through a serious 1/72 WW1 phase in the 80s. I learned a lot from Windsock Magazine and Ray Rimell. Practice, practice.
Really fine build, John. The paintwork is precise and the details crisp. The rigging and alignment of biplane elements look perfect. Also, that oil cooler sounds like a model in itself -patience of assembly really pays off, I guess. This is only the second model I have ever seen in Irish markings. The roundel colors harmonize very nicely with the RAF style camo. Nice that you found the decals on hand at just the right moment.
Thanks, Colin. I really hit no bumps in the road with this one. Sometimes it all works as designed?.
Well done John, she actually looks good in brown. Nice job.
Thanks, Tom! It’s hard to make this plane look bad.
That is one fine looking flying machine. Great rigging!
Thanks, Eric!
This is a beautiful kit, nicely done your build looks great. The rigging is spot on! ?
John
That is a beautiful result of a pretty aircraft in great markings !
Brian
I just stumbled across this. Lovely work, John!