1/72 Hasegawa E-2C Hawkeye

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on June 15 2012

 

 

E-2C Hawkeye JASDF 50th Anniversary

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/72 scale Hasegawa E-2C Hawkeye. The E-2C Hawkeye is carrier based Airborne Early Warning (AEW) patrol aircraft. The Hawkeye was originally designed and developed by Grumman Aircraft Corp. (now Northrop Grumman) for the United States Navy. Its primary role is to detect enemy aircraft over vast ranges of ocean and vector friendly fighters to intercept them.

The E-2C is a high-wing aircraft, with a single turboprop engine on each wing, and tricycle landing gear. As with all carrier-borne aircraft, the E-2C is equipped with a tail hook for landings, and it is capable of using the aircraft carrier's catapults for take-off. The most distinguishing feature of the Hawkeye is its 24-foot (7.3 m) diameter rotating dome mounted above its fuselage and wings. The rotating dome carries the Hawkeye’s primary antennas for its long-range radars.

During the famous defection flight of the then Soviet Airforce Lieutenant Viktor Belenko on September 6 1976, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) temporarily lost track of Belenko’s Mig-25. Because of this incident, the JASDF reassessed their target detection capabilities. This led the JASDF to purchase 13 E-2C Hawkeyes that are stationed at Missawa Air Base. The model here depicts an E-2C Hawkeye of the JASDF AEW-601 AEW Group Missawa AB, with the markings celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Missawa AB. 

 

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Construction
This kit was a nice build—typical of a Hasegawa kit, with an excellent parts fit throughout—very little filling or sanding. The cockpit module goes together well and fits nicely into the right fuselage half. Usually I build most of a model before painting. However, because of the paint scheme for this Hawkeye I built this kit in modules: fuselage, main wing, tail section, rotating dome, and the two engines. Building in modules made it easier to mask and paint. Note that I added a lot weight to the front of the fuselage. There is plenty of room for weights just behind the cockpit. You must add weight to the front of the fuselage, unless you want a tail sitter.

Painting
All paints used for this model were Model Masters and Floquil enamel paints. Even though this model depicts a Japanese aircraft, it is painted in the basic carrier aircraft color scheme used by the US Navy: Gloss Gull Gray upper surfaces and Gloss White for the underside of the aircraft. The underside of the fuselage and engines were airbrushed with Floquil Reefer White. The de-icing areas of the wing, tail section, rotating dome, and the props were airbrushed with Floquil Weathered Black. The flap areas were airbrushed with Floquil Signal Red. The rest of the model was airbrushed with Model Masters Flat Gull Gray.

Decals
The decals for this kit were excellent, well printed, easily placed on the model and snuggled down nicely. The kit offers two sets of decals; one set celebrates 100,000 hours of safe flight from Misawa Air Base, the second set celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Misawa Air base.

Comments
This kit was a pleasure to build, the parts fit was excellent. External detail is also quite good, and the decals were super. The overall quality of this kit is excellent, typical for a Hasegawa kit. This was a lengthy build, much of the time devoted to masking, but it was worth it. I was very pleased with the finished model—a very colorful model.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson