Italeri’s original 1/48 Hawk T.1 has been re-released, with markings for four special schemes. CHRIS CLIFFORD reviews the contents.
Back in the day, Airfix’s BAE Hawk from 2003 was the only realistic choice if you wanted to build the T.1 in 1/48 scale, until the advent of Italeri’s attempt five years later. The former kit lacked interior detail somewhat, but Italeri’s offering is better on that score. China’s Hobby Boss entered the fray in 2014 with its own 1/48 T.1, and while the standard of moulding is fair, it has shape and accuracy issues.
Having been re-released several times, Italeri’s tooling has now returned to the market minus its photo-etched brass fret, which supplied instrument panel facings and ejection seat harnesses. The defining feature of kit 2813 is that it comes with a generally excellent decal sheet, enabling a quartet of special anniversary liveries… but there are issues with some of the markings (more on that later).
Above: While the panel lines and rivets are reasonable, Italeri’s Hawk T.1 fuselage has a nose that’s appears too short.
Above: No moulded detail is present on the cockpit tub side consoles, there being decals provided to replicate switches, buttons and the like.
As for the styrene parts, the l…
