I'll keep the historical background brief. Needless to say, the Hawk has been the most successful trainer that Britain has had since World War II. In fact, it rivals the Hunter as to it's popularity overseas. Despite a general post-war history of producing aircraft that did not do well on the foreign market, the Hawk has been an aircraft that has done very well.

A very adaptable airframe that can perform both training and light strike missions with equal ease, the Hawk is suitable for those air arms who can handle some sophistication in terms of maintenance as well as those other more established countries that are looking for a capable and efficient trainer/strike aircraft. After at least 25 years in production, the Hawk is still coming off the lines.

THE KIT

To this author, the Fujimi Hawk is not a new kit. Back in the mid-1980s, when this was an inexpensive kit, several of them were built and thoroughly enjoyed. This was in my 'build a model from every country that has an air force phase, and even then, the Hawk was a great way of doing a bunch of different countries. The kit itself is relatively simple and not encumbered by plug-ins or teeny bits. The cockpit is a simple tub, two seats, sticks and instrument panels. Detail level is relatively low in terms of side wall  and wheel wells. In fact the wells are not boxed in on the wing.

There are the usual problems with ejector pin marks on the inside of gear doors and on the gear legs, but typical of the times. I should mention that detail is engraved so you don't need to shun it in that accord. Things under the fuselage are a gun pod, rocket pods and wing tanks. The plane looks darn odd with the wing tanks as they are for the outer pylons. Most of the ones I did I filled the holes in the lower wing. The canopy is a two piece affair without the blast shield for the back seater.

This is not a T.1A or even a series 60 variant as there are no Sidewinders and the additional small wing fences are not included, so one is pretty well limited to doing an early variant. If you want little pieces and the later versions, then you'll have to go for the Italeri kit as even the Matchbox and Airfix versions are the very early ones.

Instructions are quite good providing 5 construction steps. Colors are given as needed in generic terms and Gunze color numbers. Since this is one of three boxings and is dedicated to the weapons trainer version it offers two aircraft in the Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey wraparound scheme. The small decal sheet offers XX 288 from 63 Sq and XX192 from 234 Sq, both RAF aircraft. The red seems a bit bright, but otherwise the decals are well printed. One thing about ancient Japanese decals is that they seem to hold up well over time.

CONCLUSIONS

I'm unsure if this kit is currently available or not. My thoughts that Fujimi went out of business have been proven to be incorrect so it is quite possible that one can find this one in Japan or on the swap shop tables. It really is a fine little model and one that not only be quickly built, but looks good when you finish.