1/72 Matchbox Bae Hawk

Gallery Article by Juan Manuel Valea on Aug 23 2010

 

First of all I want to thank to all the people that make ARC, specially the administrator, who by stealing time from other activities ( even modelling) allows us to enjoy every day models from around the globe. Thanks a lot.-

That said I introduce you one of the last models I made. Being mainly a figure modeller I rarely do planes, but from time to time I return to the discipline in which I was first introduced to modeling many years ago. It is a Bae Hawk in Finnish colours, made by Matchbox.-

It has a new cockpit made from scratch, an Airfix pilot volunteer for the driver spot, also some details were added to the rocket pods and to the gun. Some panels that were missing were added, but I kept the Matchbox "mad trencher" style of panels because it is kind of the brand signature.-

Its airbrushed using Tamiya and Model Masters acrylics, pre shaded, decals from the kit, some Future and a coat of Testors Matt spray barnish to seal everything.-

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

The base is a printed section of Tarmac, glued to a wooden base, and the "grass" is heavy sand glued to the base and coloured with acrylics.

Lastly I want to say that I enjoy a lot building this model, and that matchbox kits are a blast to build. I love the multi colour approach given to the kit parts, and with a little effort they can make decent reproductions of the real thing. My advice considering they are still easy and cheap to find through the web, go and fetch some, I surelly already have. 

Best regards from Argentina.

Juan Manuel Valea

Photos and text © by Juan Manuel Valea