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[Andy M]

My wife inspired me to build this model after watching a Red Arrows video.
 She said 'why dont you try flying 6 at once?'
 A bit difficult!
 But, that was all I needed to start thinking about building a Hawk, definitely my smallest rc plane project so far. A quick bit of picture resizing on my laptop gave me a size where the board will just fit in.
 Wingspan is 145mm, compared to 224mm for the T38, its really tiny. Looks about 1/48 or so, need to do some measuring.
 2mm depron wing/tail/horizontal bits and 6mm fuselage top and bottom. 1mm depron fin. 4 part model looks pretty good once it is painted, no mistaking what its supposed to be. Still not sure whether to leave cockpit white or paint it blue or black?
 Weight is low though, the bare airframe weighed 1.88g, the painted airframe weighs 2.13g. The radio board weighs about 6g then motor and battery on top of it, its going to be a lot of weight (relatively) for the tiniest of wings......
 I do have a plan to help with this problem, whether it will work is a different question.
 These little models are pretty rough close up, but its a grainy material, the sanded bits soak up 3 times more paint than the unsanded bits. From a small distance I think they look pretty good, slightly further away and you cant see them. 😁
 Tiny amount of depron, the 6mm  fuselage bits came from my extensive scraps collection and the rest came from my new stock.
 I enjoyed building this, It looked good as soon as I traced it. The pictures I used were full colour, I had thought about getting 2 sides and a top and bottom printed out to stick to the depron but I figured the weight would be higher than painting. And you cant have rounded edges. I also wondered if it would be possible to print straight onto the depron? I imagine it would take ages to dry as its not absorbent, also, I would have a cut edge in white that would need painted with a matching red, so I just painted the whole thing, I was worried about the roundels but they turned out not bad, for me anyway. I have ommited the fuselage roundels as the horizontal part cuts right through it, the bottom part of roundel would be on the horizontal bit of fuselage. I may add these, but its hardly noticeable, and a bit late, I should have thought about that earlier. Ah well, it is what it is, as my friend always says,. Also missing is the Royal Air Force lettering, no way I can paint it neatly at that size.
Now if I could just get some smoke happening, that would finish it off nicely. 😁
 

[Andy M]

I mentioned a solution to the high wing loading..... Here it is, share the weight between 4 planes. Total weight for the 4 painted airframes is 8.5g, I need to add 1mm carbon joiner rods to join them up and to work the controls, and  the rc stuff. Its still looking as if it will be fairly light, even with the other bits. I really need to order a batch of 1mm carbon rods, not many planes in my fleet have their control rods made up yet. I will try to get as many as I can to use the same pushrods, then they can get swapped out with the control board. I liked the formation with 2 planes at the back, this would allow me to control 2 outer ailerons as a delta. But the diamond is still a possibility.
 This is definately an experimental model, although I saw a similar glow powered version in a magazine (which I have searched for with no success. 😩)
 Anyway, without any clues, tips or ideas from that article, I am just making it up as I go along.

[Andy M]

Here is how much 2mm depron went into my 4 hawks, I would definately get 9 for a diamond formation out of a full sheet. (620x 390mm for 2mm sheets)
 I will see how I get on with 4 of them first.
 I have so many projects lined up for the depron. I have an urge to re-create an airboat I built years ago, this time in easily stored micro format.
 Following a test last night, the 1mm depron turns out to be virtually the same weight for a given area as the 2mm. A 1mm wing would be the same weight but half the frontal area of a 2mm wing though, I am trying to save my 1mm for special projects as I dont have much of it, and sheets are smaller too. Nice stuff to work with, just wish I had more.
 Smoke on, go! Dont know how long the cotton wool would stay attached if it was on the finished model(s?) but not bad for a quick attempt, a bit more care and it would look better, will get some photos of it against my blue dust sheet.

[Andy M]

Here is the model I am basing my hawk(s) on. I remembered it as being red arrows but havent found any like that. Anyway this is similar to what I am hoping to do.

[RST]

Reminds me of the little "chucky gliders" my parents bought me each time we visited east fortune museum way back in the day.  Thinking about it the local newsagents used to sell them also I think -some had little "windmill" propellors on the front on a relatively large plastic clip-on affair?  Gosh I'm not "old" but old enough now. I would never have thought powered or r/c is possible now. They used to keep me and my brother happy enough back then as they were.  No USB port so I guess they're long obsolete now!

[Andy M]

My friend has some plantraco radio gear which is super micro, he was thinking of doing something of a similar size to what you are describing . It has coil actuators and a tiny receiver. For me, smallest I have is the wltoys F949 board. I will be doing well to have my 4 hawks lift the weight between them.