Lindberg & Hawk

This is for those of you who track the heritage of kits. I know Lindberg & Hawk are now one. I’m wondering if with all these Lindberg re-issues are some of the Hawk kits mixed in with these? I was hoping eventually Lindberg would re-issue the Hawk kits with their original Hawk box art, but looking at what is coming out and seeing what subjects Hawk did, it appears that some of the recent re-issues may actually be some of the old Hawk kits.

Many of my earliest modelling memories are of building Hawk kits, so if they come back I’d like to grab a few even though they were mostly in 1/48 (I usually do 1/72) and may not be in their classic Hawk boxes.

If they are mixed in I’d love to know which are the Hawk kits, as I remember them, they were pretty decent for the time.

Thanks

Some of the 1:72 kits you’re remembering were I believe rereleased by companies such as Accurate Miniatures, visit their website as well as Lingberg’s and Hawk’s to see what kits are available.

Aaronw: I believe the Bulldog, Fury, Boxkite, Gladiator and Avro are old 1960’s era Pyro kits and were very good for their day. Except for the Gladiator, most are probably the only ones available in that scale. The VTO POGO and X-3 look accurate in outline but lack interiors and complete decal sheets. All can be turned into nice models with scratchbuilt details and aftermarket decals.

The 1/48th Lysander is, presumably the ex- HAWK, I believe the Laird Turner and Gee Bee racers may be ex-Williams Brothers kits.

Hope that helps.

Testors churned out the old Hawk kits, some with a little dressing up, for many years as well.

I thought most of the AM re-issues were Monogram kits. So far it appears the Hawk line is being used to sell diecast mostly.

I know Lindberg’s catalog is filled with a lot of defunct companies products, I don’t mind that at all, some offer the only injection molded option for the kit. All I have to go by is looking at the subjects that Hawk had done and looking at Lindbergs current line up, beyond that I have no idea.

It does help knowing that many of the kits I thought might be Hawk re-issues probably are not. It is kind of good news as maybe there is still hope that they will get re-issued under their own name at some point which would be more fun for me, I have fond memories of the screaming hawk head next to the diamonds.

Remember the NMF P-51?

I remember doing a chrome plated P-47, was the P-51 done that way too?

Yes I do!

They did most of the Hawk 1/48 line in NMF. I loved my old NMF Thunderjet!

Yeah, I remeber the Jug too… Think I may have had it but I’m not sure… Long time ago… Didn’t Hawk do a 1/48th Razorback/bubbletop kit once? IIRC, it had the parts to make it one or the other… I had a helluva time deciding which to do… I went ahead and built it as a razorback, then a few months later when I didn’t have any money and wanted to build a model, I tore it down and re-did it with the bubbletop… I did stuff like that a LOT back then, 'course I was about 12 or so…

I’m sure I will forget some kits, but in 1/48 Hawk made:

T-33

F2H Banshee

Mig-15

F-84 Thunderjet

P-51D

P-47D Razorback or Bubbletop option

Lysander

F-104

U-2

F-5A

OV-10A

I remember seeing chrome or NMF kits on almost all of them…

Oh man, I forgot all about the Hawk “Lizzie”… I did their Lysander WAY back when…

Ah yes, I knew I forgot something…

F8F Bearcat

And I really must say that their NMF birds were ahead of their time. Their was tonal difference in panel areas. It was not a single metal coating as you would see on car kit chrome of the same era.

I just picked up a brand new Lysander by Italeri at my LHS-it is the old Hawk mold, and there is a small “Testors” logo on the box.

In 1/48 scale, Hawk also released a Cessna Skymaster in this line, in both chrome & non-chrome versions, as well as the and the Lockheed T-33 in in its naval variant, the TV-2. I loved the chrome Thunderjet, even though its fuselage was completely hollow & you could see all the way through it when viewed head on…