While most eyes are on the MiG 21 releases, Eduard have been quietly producing some excellent photo etched sets for the Revell 1/32 BAe Hawk Trainer.

Contents.

Contained in the semi resealable packaging are:
1 x photo etched fret.
1 x A4 double sided instruction sheet.

The photo etched set utilises some of the kits parts and includes enhancements for the:
-Undercarriage and undercarriage bays.
-Air brake and air brake bay.
-Wing vortex generators.
-Panels on the fuselage.
-Cannon pod.

Undercarriage and bays: Although the level of detail in the kit is very good, there is always room for improvement. This set provides detailing parts for all the undercarriage legs. An example are the PE struts between the front oleo and the undercarriage doors. Some surgery is required to the inside of the two larger front undercarriage doors so that PE panels can be attached. The distinctive pattern on the inside of the main gear doors of Hawk are replaced with much better looking PE detail parts. Also the excellent looking PE wheel rims will provide a touch of realism to the main wheels. Also useful will be some plastic rod or wire from your own stock for some of the parts. It's not that Eduard are skimping on some detail, they realise it's sometimes better to use none PE parts in places. Some of the PE parts require bending and some detail is made up from multiple PE parts.
Air brakes and bay: both the airbrake and the bay have four PE parts to attach. They are only used if you are displaying the airbrake open.
Vortex Generators:there are seven vortex generators on each wing. The kit vortex generators must be removed and replaced by the tiny PE parts that will also need folding. I suspect because of the size of these parts, Eduard have supplied 18 on the fret. Perfect food for the carpet monster.
Panels, vents and things: there are a few panels on the fret, particularly for the upper fuselage around the tail, stabilisers and jet pipe. The two APU inlets are very nicely done. The vent is included on the PE outline of the ram air turbine doors. The recessed door outline for the ram air turbine is not the correct shape on the kit, the Eduard version is much better. Another distinctive feature of the Hawk is the box like structure over the jet pipe and Eduard will have you remodeling this area with PE parts and your own plasti card. There are some PE panels to fit on the upper fuselage alongside the rudder. I am not completely convinced by these as they sit on top of the fuselage surface. The plate that is attached on the upper edge of the moving stabiliser between the stabiliser and the fuselage is also included.
I am a bit disappointed that there are no blade aerials included with this release, Eduard might have a separate release for these planned.
Aden 30mm Cannon Pod: just a couple of small parts to add, one of which is a vent at the back of the pod.
Instructions: are on two sides of a A4 sheet. The black line drawing help enormously as well as the symbol based guides. There are no colour references for any of the parts, so you will need to find some references.

Conclusions.

The kit has some great detail included, as it should being a very recent 1/32 release. These PE parts from Eduard will help bring out the detail even more. There are some very subtle raised detail in the way of rivets and panel lines. I really like the effect of the inlets for the APU and the cannon vent. Note that on the images the fret is slightly discoloured in areas. This is just the result of the annealing process and should not affect the surface for painting. Not a release for the beginner, because as there is some complex folding involved and the use of some very small parts.