¹⁄32

Hawker Hart in 1:32 scale

historical background

In 1926 Air Ministry invited a tender to design a bomber airplane with the metal construction and maximum speed of 160mph (258kph). The competitors were Hawker, Avro and de Havilland.

Hawker's construction was the only biplane powered with Rolls-Royce F.XI, water cooled V12 engine (it later become known as RR Kestrel). According to technical specifications it had a metal framework made of steel pipes covered with aluminium sheets and fabric on the fuselage. Wings girder was made of steel with aluminium ribs with fabric cover. Crew was of two members: pilot and bomber-gunner. Its armaments was .303 Vickers machine gun in the fuselage and Levis machine gun manned by the gunner. Airplane could carry a load of 520lbs (240kg) of bombs installed on the racks under the lower wing.

A prototype was flown for the first time in 1928. The production series had 525hp RR Kestrel IB V12 type V engine. Its speed was 184mph and range of 470 miles. It was faster and had and greater manoeuvrability than most of contemporary fighters, keeping still in mind that it was a bomber. A total production ended with 992 machines build.

Hart entered service in the 33rd Squadron in February 1930, replacing bigger and slower Hawker Horesleys. 12th Squadrons switched from Foxes to Harts in January 1931. Harts were sent to the Middle East during the Abyssinian crisis in 1935/36. It was also used in north-western British India. Four Harts of the Swedish Air Force saw combat as dive bombers in Finland in 1939/40 used the volunteers F19 squadron. Although obsolete at the outbreak of World War 2 Harts were kept in service but mostly as a trainers till 1943. Hawker's plane proved to be a very successful export machine as it was used by Royal Egyptian Air Force, South African Air Force, Estonian Air Force, Rhodesian Air Force, Swedish Air Force and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Silver Wings model kit

On the 3rd of December I become an owner of the 1:32 scale resin kit of Hawker Hart released by Silver Wings. Without any hesitation I moved on side all other kits I was working on and started this kit.

Since the very beginning everything fitted without any unpleasant surprises (I can not say that about all other resin kits which had in my hands). I can surely say, taking full responsibility, that this is the product of the highest quality. Culmination of the assembly process was attaching of the upper wing. All struts and braces of the upper wing mid section can be glued first to the fuselage and then all you have to do is just to put on the upper wing – it fits perfectly. Its symmetry to the lower wing remains so much correct that fitting of the inter-plane struts is just a formality. It's the first time in my life that in the resin kit this assembly process was so straightforward.

Text by Ryszard Holak