1/72 Hasegawa E-2C Hawkeye

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Mar 31 2010

 

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/72 scale Hasegawa E-2C Hawkeye. The Grumman E-2C Hawkeye is a U.S. Navy all-weather, carrier-based tactical Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft. In short, the Carrier Battle Group eye in the sky. The twin turboprop aircraft was designed and developed in the 1950s by Grumman Aircraft Corp for the U.S. Navy as a replacement for the E-1 Tracer. Small numbers are also operated by other countries, the largest foreign user being Japan. The Hawkeye was originally nicknamed "Super Fudd" because it replaced "Willy Fudd" (the E-1Tracer). Today, it is commonly referred to as the "Hummer" because of the distinctive sound of it's twin turboprop engines.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

About the Kit: 
This is a super kit, well engineered and a pleasure to build. The parts fit is excellent and feature very fine recessed panel lines, almost too fine. The cockpit has basic detail, but most of it is hidden. It was assembled and painted per instructions. Note that the roof instrument panel and decal can be ignored because it will not show through the cockpit windows. 

Construction:
This kit goes together easily because the parts fit is so good. The excellent parts fit allows the fuselage, tail assembly, and rotodome to be constructed and painted separately before final assembly. This eases all the tedious masking needed for the wing and tail leading-edge de-icers. Because the tail section and the rotodome are very heavy, you need to add a lot of weight to front end of the fuselage, else this model becomes a big time tail-sitter. There is ample space in front and behind the cockpit to fill the front end with fishing weights.

Painting: 
All paints used for this model were Model master or Floquil enamels. Landing gear, wheel wells, and the inside of landing gear doors were airbrushed with Floquil Reefer White. The wing and tail de-icers, tail fin, propellers, and glare panel were airbrushed with Floquil Weathered Black. The fuselage, wing, tail section, and rotodome were airbrushed with Model Master Flat Gull Gray (FS36440). 

Decals:
In preparation for decals, I hand brushed the model with a coat of Future and let it dry for 72 hours. Applying all the marking is lengthy, but the decals conformed perfectly to all the bumps and recesses, with the help of a little Micro Sol setting solution. After decaling, I airbrushed a coat of Model Master Semi-Gloss Clear Laquer Finish to finish the model.

Burt Gustafson

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

  

  

  

Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson