Clear Prop 1/48 Curtiss Hawk H-75N

Started by Tom Cleaver · 28 · 3 years ago
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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I received my kit from Clear Prop this past Friday.

    The entire kit oozes quality from the nice boxart through the solid box everything comes in, to the superb molding of the parts. Surface detail is on the same level you find on the Eduard Spitfires, P-51s, Bf-109s, Fw-190s and Tempests. Molding quality is similar.

    Parts fit is excellent. It's clear to me from what I have done so far that there won't be any filler used anywhere. The final two shots are the basic fuselage sub-assembly and wing sub-assembly set together - as you can see, fit is superb.

    Overall, I would consider this the absolute best kit of any version of Hawk-75 available in any scale.

    The only "extra" I am using is a resin H-75/P-40 series seat, and that's because I have it. The kit seat is a bit thick, but sanded down thinner it will be excellent.

    I note they are also doing 1/72 versions, and I suspect their 1/72 kits are to this 1/48 kit as Eduard 1/72 Spitfires or Fw-190s are to their 1/48 "big brothers."

    Clear Prop is definitely a "presence." They're going to do all versions of the Hawk-75 series.

    7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Still looking for a decent Hawk 75 kit, Tom @tcinla.
    Definitely will follow your thread.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Looking superb, @tcinla!

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Looking forward to the rest of the build, Tom (@tcinla). I have a couple of Clear Prop kits which I haven't started yet, and they seem to be very complete and well done.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I was hoping to see this one come around sooner or later. I’m following along

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    So, here's some shots of the cockpit tub and assembly of the kit.

    There is one change I will do the next time - that is: assemble the whole engine and do not attach it to the firewall; assemble the multi-part cowling around it (it's designed to attach to the cylinder heads, so this works); then attach the entire engine/cowling subassembly to the firewall. This allows you to position it perfectly. If you do it separately as I did here and the instructions tell you to do, there is a high likelihood (ask me how I know) of not getting the engine attached in perfect position. This will make assembly of the cowling difficult! Doing it the other way makes the whole thing easy.

    While I did get the cowling assembled this way, and it looks OK, when I hold that area with my hand, I can feel the left side and right side are just slightly "off" in alignment. Not enough to make me tear it apart, but enough to sit here and figure out how not to do it next time (and there will be a "next time" as they release different versions).

    Overall, this is one of the nicest kits I had done in awhile. It is easy to assemble (if you use "the secret of the cowling"), pretty much anybody should be able to get a really excellent model from this kit.

    10 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Nice progress, @tcinla! Had the same cowling issue with the (lesser) kit of the 1/48 Hobbycraft Otter and I had to struggle a bit...

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Getting along nicely, Tom @tcinla
    Thanks for mentioning the cowling issue and how to overcome that.

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Interior looks great, Tom (@tcinla). Multi-part cowlings can be a real curse. The ones on the Ki-54 I am building were tough to get right, and needed a lot of work. It looks like your cowling came out great.

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    Christopher C Tew said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Well, I can see my unfinished HobbyCraft kit sailing toward the garbage can right now. My carved up and reworked cowl can't touch this one, let alone the incredible surface detail. Thanks for sharing the cowl construction tip and your great photo show!

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    Marcus Vinicius Teixeira Borges said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Following with interest Tom.Have the Hobbycraft on the bench...

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Here it is painted.

    I used Tamiya paints: XF-72 "Brown JGSDF" for the "light earth" color; after the first coat, I gave the cup a brushful of XF-3 Flat Yellow and went over in post-shading, then added in some XF-2 Flat white and went back over the surfaces directly in sunlight, to get sun fading. The Dark Brown was XF-79 Japanese Linoleum Deck Brown, with some yellow again, then some light grey for fading. The Dark Green was XF-11 "JN Green", with some XF-26 "Deep Green" for fading. The lower surface was painted ZF-66 "Light Grey," with some XF-2 for post shading. All applied freehand with my Paashe-H with the #1 fine tip, at 15psi in the compressor.

    The surface detail really "pops" with paint on the model. When it comes time to do a P-36 in polished aluminum, that model is going to be incredible.

    This may not be the really "popular" Hawk 75 sub-type, but it's such a beautiful kit and the result is going to be one of the nicest models in the collection.

    It's only about 2x the cost of a Hobbycraft H-75N if you can find one on eBay, but it's about 100x better.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Looking superb, my friend @tcinla!
    What a nice camo!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    This tri-color scheme looks great, Tom @tcinla

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Interesting hints Tom. I’m sure a second build will prove your idea about the best way to handle the cowl alignment, there’s nothing like building the same kit twice to get the best of it.
    As for the livery, my two cents is that the Thai version will be the most popular build, but for the reason you mention, the Argentinian shinny NMF should be something else… so 30’s sort of speak