Indian (Irish?) Hawks

After a brief hiatus from model-making I decided to begin to attack the 'stash' again (it has grown since my last build - so better to keep on top of things before it takes over the house!) My target this time was to to do one of the alternative schemes for the BAE Systems Hawk.

The Hawk

Typically those members of the British public who have been to an air-show will know of this jet in Red Arrow guise - less would necessarily recognise it in Indian Air Force colours. When first painting it I did initially regret selecting the dull-grey of the Indian AF rather than the rich forest-green tones of the Finnish examples - however this was one of those models where the addition of transfers made the difference.

I had a moment of blind panic and had to check some reference photos when I applied the last few national markings - since the tail flash/wing roundels seemed to be identical to the Irish flag I feared I'd made a one-off Indo-Irish aircraft!

Google images came to the rescue in this case (I have to confess I don't have any photos to hand of Indian Air Force machines - they don't fly over the home counties that often).