While most agree the Supermarine Spitfire is one of Britain’s most beautiful aircraft, the Hawker Hart was a between-the-wars bird that gives the Spit a run for its money.
Arsenal Model Group (AMG) has released a 1/48 scale Hawker Hart Mk.I that does this beautiful aircraft justice. With crisp, petite surface detail, and scale thickness trailing edges, AMG has designed its kit to allow production of the many Hart variations, and some optional parts show up in this box. Decals for three schemes are included, along with numerous tiny photo-etched (PE) details.
Mostly plastic parts comprise the Hart interior, including fragile sidewall tubing. Many parts require great care when removing them from the trees. Errors and unclear illustrations complicate construction, not only for the interior, but throughout the model. Luckily, the challenges are mitigated by a relatively simple interior.
The instrument panel builds from PE and clear film with printed detail. The gun mounted in the cockpit should be aligned with the external gun trough, not as it is shown in the instructions.
After powering through the interior, the quality of the kit started to shine. All the external cowl features fit beautifully, and the molded lower-wing spar solidly mounted the wings and fit great.
While leery of the three-piece fuselage design — two halves and a lower section — I found their fit outstanding. The upper-wing spar looks flat, but it has subtle dihedral. Be sure you attach it correctly.
Separate rudder and elevators can be posed, but the slots for the PE control horns are molded closed. I cut the horns in half and attached the two sides separately. Crisp PE also makes up a wonderful nose-mounted oil cooler. The mounting posts are small and hard to trim to fit into holes in the PE parts, so I replaced them with model-railroad bolt details.
Alclad II aluminum went on the doped fabric areas, and I airbrushed polished aluminum on the metal panels. I applied the decals before final assembly; they went down perfectly, only needing a touch of solvent where they crossed onto control surfaces.
To attach the upper wing, I aligned the interplane, or N, struts and glued them to the lower wing first. Then I inverted the model and cemented the upper wing. Leaving the rudder off until later allowed the model to sit firmly on its back during this stage. Next came the cabane struts, followed by the landing gear struts; I left the wheels and tail skid until last.
I rigged the Hart with EZ Line elastic thread. The kit doesn’t include a rigging diagram, so you’re on your own to find references. It took a little over 23 hours to build the Hart, with excellent results. Great fit, beautiful surface details, and nice decals won my Hart, despite the poor instructions.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the November 2019 issue.