The Águia-Pescadora Brazilian Navy Fighter/Attack aircraft of the 1990's

[Gondor]

So I have eventually decided to start of rather put fingers to keyboard about this build which is inspired by Spinner's depiction of an Indian Navy Sea Hawk

INAS SEA HAWK FRS51.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This was built by Dizzyfugu as depicted HERE so obviously it time to be Monty Pythonish and do something different.

This build, as the title says, will for a Brazilian Navy example. With the obvious operator already taken by Dizzyfugu who else operated a carrier and might be interested in a more modern and reasonably priced multi-role aircraft?

I picked Brazil 

Contributing factors being that it operates an aircraft carrier  Not many know about this and less about what aircraft they operate 

So what's the basis of the inevitable hackfest that is about to start?

The obvious two ingredients are the Italeri T-45 and the Matchbox Hawk 200. I will be borrowing using parts from an Italeri Hawk 100 to enhance this build, either directly or as a guide for scratch built replacements.
The fuselage will be slightly lengthened as I intend to use the whole lower fuselage of the T-45 so that I can get the complete nose undercarriage bay as is and simply move the cockpit forward and slightly higher to accommodate the radar in the nose. I may copy Dizzyfugu's cockpit methodology but I am defiantly using my own way of reproducing the RWR on the front of the fin.
I downloaded a set of 1/32_nd plans for a T-45C which I have scaled as close to 1/72 as I can reasonably get and these will be the basis for improvements to the wing and tail surfaces along with anything else that is generic to a sea going Hawk.

So more to come and lots to go with this build, and hopefully quicker than most of my previous builds.

Gondor

[Pellson]

Another example of how good ideas shouldn't be seen as "taken" by the first model employing them. I'll be watching this with interest, as I'm certain Thomas will. Among others.

[NARSES2]

Another example of how good ideas shouldn't be seen as "taken" by the first model employing them.

Totally agree 

Looking forward to this

[Gondor]

Not much physically done with this build just been planing and sorting out ideas.

The biggest problem I have been dealing with is the position of the nose undercarriage leg. With the Goshawk a naval nose leg similar in look to an F-18's nose leg was shoehorned into the underside of the forward fuselage. This has meant that the majority of the front fuselage, at least the underside of it, is taken up with the undercarriage it's wheels and the "T" bar that connects the aircraft to the catapult.

Comparison wise the original Hawk and the Hawk100 have the same positions for their undercarriage, nose or otherwise which gives me a good base line to compare the Goshawk and Hawk200 undercarriage against.
The Goshawk's nose wheels appear to be a whole two scale feet back from the nose with roughly the same for the Hawk200.  So you might think that it's easy, just chop off the cockpits from each kit and swap them over. Not the way I build it isn't. I prefer to put as much real world engineering into a build as possible so as there needs to be more undercarriage bay for the aircraft to stay as a naval aircraft then it stays which means I have to find somewhere to put the radar 

As I see it I have a couple of options to resolve the problem. The first is to simply move the Hawk200 cockpit further forward which increases the aircraft's length, never good for a carrier based aircraft. Secondly, I could re-profile the nose so that the radar is higher up the nose with the lower part of the radar beam looking down over the nose undercarriage bay. Thirdly I could move the nose undercarriage further back by two and a half scale feet which is the distance between the front of both the Goshawk's undercarriage bay and the Hawk200's nose undercarriage bay.

To help me make a decision about this problem I looked out my Fujimi 1/72 A-4M and TA-4J kits as that is what the Brazilian Navy has actually operated. Both are several feet longer than a lengthened T-45 so it should fit onto any aircraft carrier deck lift that either of the A-4's did, it's also going to be easier to modify the hump behind the cockpit that moving the nose undercarriage bay or re-profileing the nose.

So that's roughly worked out, next thing is to think of how to upgrade the wing to the squarer T-45C wing with it's slats and flaps rather than the T-45A which is basically a Hawk wing.

Gondor

[ysi_maniac]

Just perfect idea and execution.

[Pellson]

Man, you're complicating things. I love it! 

[Dizzyfugu]

Looking forward to some hardware results (esp. the paint scheme). The Brazilian Navy is an excellent choice, a navalized Hawk would make a good and plausible replacement for the vintage Skyhawks.

The kit combo has lots of potential, but bashing these two kits is not en easy task, despite being basically the same aircraft.

[Gondor]

Looking forward to some hardware results (esp. the paint scheme). The Brazilian Navy is an excellent choice, a navalized Hawk would make a good and plausible replacement for the vintage Skyhawks.

My thoughts exactly which is why I went for them.

The kit combo has lots of potential, but bashing these two kits is not en easy task, despite being basically the same aircraft.

After watching your build I know that.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Man, you’re complicating things. I love it! 

I'm merely trying to consider what Boeing would would have to consider if they were approached to do this. A lot of the problems that I am going to encounter with the wings is that no-one makes the correct C wing so I have to make all the changes myself. I want to build a real T-45C at some point so this part of the build will be good practice.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Made a few decisions about how I will go about actually cutting up the fuselage of the Hawk200 so I have marked where the cut lines will go, then use what is cut to mark where to cut the T-45 fuselage. I have also decided after a fairly frustrating search of Wikipedia to find this page which I have now bookmarked as it should prove useful.
After looking at the list and with the fact that the aircraft is based on the T-45 rather than the Hawk, I have decided that this aircraft will be the F/A-45.
I should probably need a hug-me jacket as I have just decided to do the airbrakes in the open position. However this does allow me to use the RWR and Chaff/Flare pod from the Hawk100 kit as part of the rear fuselage with only having to cut out where the airbrakes will go and to come up with the interior, the airbrakes will simply be cut around from the T-45 kit then fitted after thinning and opening up the holes in them. Sounds simple enough..... Nurse can I have my pills please...

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well that's a good idea scuppered 

Italeri decided to change the shape of the rear fuselage below the tail surfaces so there is a bulge at the top of the Hawk100 exhaust area which would impact on my plans for the open airbrakes on this model. Probably for the best as if the Brazilians are buying from Boeing they would not be using the British RWR and the Chaff/Flare system would probably be differand too. I can still plan to have the airbrakes open on the T-45C as I have an Italeri Hawk T.1 in the stash which can donate it's rear fuselage as it looks the same minus the air brakes of course.

Gondor

Edit: While looking for Aviation Workshop's re-boxing of the Hawk, which I found to be the same Hawk100 by Italeri, I found another T-45 Goshawk. So this will be sacrificed to the modeling gods to help with the airbrakes on my T-45C while the Hawk T1 will be used with this build.

[Gondor]

Small update



The above picture shows the now two parts of the T-45. I am hoping to use the cockpit combing to give more detail and intrest than the one supplied in the Hawk200 but as we are talking about a Matchbox kit that won't be difficult.



Talking about the Matchbox kit, here is the remains of the kit and roughly all of it that I will be using.



Here are the nose and fuselage roughly fitted together. I deliberately made my cuts on what I imaging to be the scrap plastic side so that I can whittle things to fit which still needs done, but you get the idea.

Gondor

[Pellson]

Small update



The above picture shows the now two parts of the T-45. I am hoping to use the cockpit combing to give more detail and intrest than the one supplied in the Hawk200 but as we are talking about a Matchbox kit that won't be difficult.



Talking about the Matchbox kit, here is the remains of the kit and roughly all of it that I will be using.



Here are the nose and fuselage roughly fitted together. I deliberately made my cuts on what I imaging to be3 the scrap plastic side so that I can whittle things to fit which still needs done, but you get the idea.

Gondor

As said earlier - you're not taking the easiest route.. And I'm really intrigued to see the project move on.

[Captain Canada]

Nice work ! Always loved that pudgy, tough looking machine !

[Gondor]

Things have moved a bit further forwardthis evening. I have removed the cockpit combing so that the T-45 item can be used as well as it's cockpit interior. The top of the "hump" has been added to the T-45 fuselage which leaves a bit of a gap to fill but not a huge amount.
To expedite the build I decided not to do anything to the airbrakes, I am going to save that pain for a later day with the T-45C but the wing modifications will take place as will the tail surfaces which are too short in span.

Gondor