This all began with a vintage 1/72 Revell Curtiss Hawk 75A. Your box art may vary.
What's inside the box is pretty basic and hardly varies except for decal options and the plastic being either white or the somewhat hard to find olive drab:
This kit builds up a treat and the one trouble spot is the cowling but a firm hand (and a good clamp) brings it all together.
There's no in-progress shots because the only mods were mistaking the pitot tube for an antenna, adding a pointy spinner on the prop, and swapping out the kit canopy for parts from a Special Hobby P-35. The Seversky canopy fits almost like it belongs there and while the change is subtle, it's certainly got that 1930's style.
The model was painted by hand with the old hairy stick and acrylics, Model Masters Primer Gray mostly.
The canopy was tinted on the outside with Model Masters Insignia Blue and given a top coat of Liquitex acrylic gloss medium.
The cowling and spinner were painted with Model Masters Feldgrau. Model Masters Aluminum was used on the prop itself and the engine was finished in some no-name cheap metallic craft-store acrylic.
The guns were done with Model Masters Gunmetal and the tires were painted with Model Masters Interior Black. A custom mix was used on the exhausts.
Decals came from various sources. The roundels were from a Roundels of the World sheet (thanks a million, Jeff!). The rudder markings were swiped from an Airfix Avro 504 and the codes & placards are leftovers from a Monogram P-36 sheet.
Of the commercially available Curtiss P-36/Hawk 75 kits in 1/72 scale, most favor either the Monogram or the Revell version. While I usually prefer the Monogram kit, one nice thing about the Revell offering is that it's designed to be built either gear up or down so that means you don't need to find thinner wheels to finish it as "in flight".
Here's a couple of "money shots" with a U.S. penny for scale:
I had a lot of fun building this model which took the better part of a week.
I hope you enjoyed the Swedish Flykea Hawk and reading a little more overlooked aircraft history that may make you wonder what might have been but for want of a wrench.
Brian da Basher