Background: Before joining the fuselage, I did add nose weight as a precaution against tail setting, although it may not have been necessary. I also added a plastic card “top” to the nose gear well to provide an anchor point for the gear strut. I thoroughly washed all the kit parts in soapy water to remove the residue from the molding process.
Typical of most
resin kits, the wing and stabilizer joints to the fuselage are simple “butt
joints.” For added
strength, I drilled holes in all mating surfaces and superglued small diameter
brass rod as locating pins and support to reinforce the glued joint.
I did the same with the landing gear struts where they joined the wings
and fuselage. My kit did
suffer with a misalignment of the interior of the engine inlet area causing a
prominent joint in an awkward area. This
could easily have been overcome with an engine inlet cover, but I wanted to show
the engine face, so chose to do the sanding and filling.
I did add a tailpipe from the spares box, rather than struggle with the
joint in that area. I also added an
antenna to the top of the fuselage and pitot tubes to the stabs. The box photos, instructions and decals depict several of the early all-white Hawks, including “Southern Cross.” I used the gunship grey and white “tuxedo” scheme worn by at least one of the Hawks in the Iraq war and depicted at the Northrop Grumman web site: www.is.northropgrumman.com. With a 19 inch wingspan and 71/2 inch long fuselage, it’s an impressive addition to my growing collection of 1/72 UAVs. Summary: Happy Modeling, Chuck Holte Colorado Springs |
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Photos and text © by Chuck Holte