Revell 1/32 Northrop Hawk weapon system

The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK is an American medium range surface-to-air missile. As a backronym, some consider HAWK to stand for Homing All the Way Killer. The HAWK was initially designed to destroy aircraft and was later adapted to destroy other missiles in flight. The missile entered service in 1960, and a program of extensive upgrades has kept it from becoming obsolete. It was superseded by the MIM-104 Patriot in United States Army service by 1994. It was finally phased out of US service in 2002, the last users, the US Marine Corps, replacing it with the man-portable infrared-guided visual range FIM-92 Stinger. The missile was also produced outside the US in Western Europe and Japan.

Although the United States never used the Hawk in a combat situation, it has been employed numerous times by foreign nations. Approximately 40,000 of the missiles were produced.

Janes reports that the original systems single shot kill probability was 0.56, I-HAWK improved this to 0.85.

Similar Soviet systems are the SA-3 and SA-6.

This is not a new mold kit. In fact, I don't think it was originally a Revell kit. Seems to me that this may well have been from either Renwal or Adams as both companies were bought by Revell when they went out of business. Oddly enough, I don't recall having ever built this one, though I've had several of these in the old 'History Makers' box from the early-mid 1980s. Both were sold for far more than I paid for them without ever taking off the shrink wrap.

As I look over these sprues, I'm impressed at how great the parts look. There are small tags on each part that has the part number. A few bits have fallen off the sprue, a common occurrence with these older kits where a sneeze will often dislodge a part. I found only a teeny bit of flash on a couple of pieces. The only sink mark I found was on the chest of a couple of the figures;  none on the rest of the bits.

The kit has the missiles molded in white and the rest of the parts molded in olive (to make painting easier, no doubt). There are basically two major assemblies. One is the radar van with its two narrow beam transmit and receive antennas and the other is the actual launcher itself with space for three missiles. Both of these are designed to have their loads move in azimuth while the launcher also can be built to vary in elevation as well. The missiles all have moveable control surfaces. It also appears that the ground support braces for the launcher are able to be moved into a towing position. Having built many older kits like this (well, they were new back when I built them), the hinge areas on these features are usually quite fragile so one will inevitably end up gluing them solid in one position or the other.

Instructions are not reprints of the original. They are typical RoG  with 34 construction drawings that include the painting and decaling information needed in each drawing. Of course, only Revell paints are listed, but thankfully, no mixing is needed this time. It is nice to have new decals for this old kit and the ones provided are 'printed in Italy' which means Cartograf. Though the box art shows red fins on the missiles, the instructions would have one side painted OD and the other white, so grab your masking tape for this one.

Always nice to see these old kits coming back. The box top says only 5000 copies and while Revell may think that is limited issue, any more, that is pretty well a standard run so finding one in the next 6 months or so shouldn't be that much of a problem. I'm sure that younger moldelers may find this to be a fussy build and it may not be the greatest fit but it will provide a nice model for those willing to put in the effort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawk_missile 

October 2009

Thanks to me and 'store credit' for this one.

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