The Hawk is a tandem two-seat aircraft and has a low-mounted cantilever monoplane wing and is powered by a non-augmented turbofan engine. The low-positioned one-piece wing was designed to allow a wide landing gear track and to enable easier maintenance access. The wing is fitted with wide-span, double-slotted, trailing-edge flaps for low-speed performance. Integral to the wing is 836 litre (184 imp gal) fuel tank and room for the retractable main landing gear legs. Designed to take a +8/-4 g load, the original requirement was for two stores hardpoints but it was designed to fit four hardpoints by Hawker Siddeley.

The fuselage design was led by the need to get a height differential between the two tandem cockpits; this enabled increased visibility for the instructor in the rear seat. Each cockpit is fitted with a Martin-Baker Mk 10B zero-zero rocket-assisted ejection seat. The centre fuselage has an 823-litre (181 imp gal) flexible fuel tank. The two-shaft turbofan Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour engine is fitted in the rear-fuselage with inlets on each side above the forward wing roots. A ram air turbine is fitted just in front of the single fin as well as a gas turbine auxiliary power unit above the engine. The forward retracting landing gear leg is fitted in the nose.

The Hawk was designed to be manoeuvrable and can reach Mach 0.88 in level flight and Mach 1.15 in a dive, thus allowing trainees to experience transonic flight before advancing to a supersonic trainer. Its airframe is very durable and strong, stressed for +9 g but the normal limit in RAF service is +7.5/-4 g.

The Hawk is designed to carry a centreline gun pod (normally a 30 mm ADEN cannon) and two under-wing pylons. Most Hawks use the two hardpoints but the aircraft is designed to carry four. The RAF has used the under-wing pylons to carry Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.

The Hawk is still in production with over 900 Hawks sold to 18 customers around the world. 80 of the original 178  T.1 fleet have been overhauled with new center and aft fuselages from the T.60 series. First deliveries of the Hawk to the RAF were in late 1976, making some airframes over 35 years old. The RAF is currently taking deliveries of the much less aesthetically pleasing Hawk T.2.

Revell has become probably the most prodigious maker of 1/32 aircraft kits. Unlike some of the other more recent 1/32 kit makers, Revell seems to feel that there is merit in doing subjects that are not strictly WWII. They also do not seem to go for the myriad of variant boxings that one sees from Eduard and Dragon.

This particular kit is one that will resonate more with European modelers than those here in the US. The Hawk is pretty much British in origin, and probably one of the last all-British designed aircraft. To your reviewer's eyes, it is also one of the most fetching aircraft of the last 40 years in terms of just looking sleek and fast.

Understandably, this boxing is for the Red Arrows aircraft and it seems that there will be at least one other boxing as the kit comes with some parts that are not used (like a centerline gun pack). Molded in red plastic, the detailing on the kit is really very good indeed. Now I have to say that I wish they would have used just grey plastic on this as it makes painting other shades quite difficult. This is especially so for white as the decal sheet, comprehensive as it is, does not cover everything needing white paint.

But let us get to some of the specifics. First off, the cockpit is superbly outfitted. The seat looks right and while a resin one will have more detail, I am sure most will be pleased with the ones in the kit. There are decals for the instruments though these sections have raised detail already. Decals are also provided for the seat harnesses, something I appreciate. The canopy can be built open or closed and includes the rear seat blast shield.

Detailing in the wheel wells is excellent and properly complex looking for the scale. Landing gear and wheels are also very well molded. A full engine intake and exhaust are included with the kit with the intakes engine in an engine compressor section. The instructions suggest a light grey for gear wells, intakes, gear legs and wheels. This is correct according to the Aeroguide reference and it is light aircraft grey.

It is nice that the lower wing is in a single piece with the control surfaces as part of the upper wings. In fact, one builds up the wheel wells in the upper wing before attaching the wing sections. Though the rudder seems to be movable, all the other controlsurfaces are in the neutral position. This is typical of the type on the ground. Also typical are lowered inner gear doors. The kit has a separate speed brake that can be posed open, but this is not typical.

As this is a Red Arrows plane, it has the special oil tank for the centerline as well as a different rear fuselage plate that includes the nozzles for the three colors of dye that are injected into the exhaust. Parts not used are two other rear fuselage plates, the centerline gun pod and what looks to be a wing pylon. No stores of any kind nor any drop tanks are included in this boxing.

Instructions are typical Revell AG and on their semi-newsprint paper. All paint colors are Revell with only one shade needing mixed. Construction steps are very nicely done and show any colors needed during that stage. The very large decal sheet provides markings for one plane and serials for all of the aircraft flown during what I have to assume is the 2010 season. The white markings are quite complete and are in sections for the gear doors, which is nice. The white bits on the wing flap actuators will need to be painted as will the roundel blue section of the fin/rudder. I do hope that white is quite opaque as red and blue are a real challenge to properly cover. The decals are very nicely printed and look to be as good as any aftermarket sheet.