Space: 1999 Catacombs- Hawk

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Catacombs Model Gallery
Hawk

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The Hawk featured only in the episode War Games. The sleek warships annihilated Moonbase Alpha's Eagle fleet and devastated the base.
This is the Mark IX Hawk. The eight previous versions and the formidable performance of the warship suggests there must have been a space war in the late 1980s or 1990s. The episode Rules Of Luton talks of a global conflict in 1987 which may be the war that produced the Hawks. Alternatively they may be a relic of the cold war technological race, shooting down ICBMs in Ronald Reagan's Star Wars vision of hunter killer satellites. David Hirsch proposed that they are a development of the Intercepters (from the series UFO) designed to protect Earth from attacking alien ships. The technological resemblance to the Eagles shows the Hawks were on the winning (American?) side.
The nose cone is very Eagle-like, although only the top has the characteristic viewport insets. The design is more sleek than the Eagle, emphasised by the pointed nose, and also more angular. The line of latches around the spine of the Hawk indicates the command module is detachable. Latches around the rear section suggest it can also be ejected from the central section. From the size of the spine, the command module is the only part that contains crew. The two windows indicates a two man crew like the Eagle (pilot and gunner?). There is no obvious hatch or door; perhaps the top panels are access hatches.
The ship's large single rocket with side boosters indicate this is a fast, manoeuvrable craft. The side boosters point outwards, allowing fast lateral movement. Eight vertical boosters on the underside of the ship allow powerful upwards manoeuvres and perhaps landing. There are no corresponding rockets on the top or side, only small attitude control rockets laterally.
The Hawk has no obvious landing gear and may be an entirely space-based craft. The vertical rockets suggest operations in at least lunar gravity are possible, although atmospheric flight might be a problem for the unaerodynamic design.
The main armament seems to be the cylinders at the end of the stubby wings. They flash like machine guns, with no visible laser beams; perhaps, as in real life, projectiles are more effective than laser beams. The rectangles hanging under the wings suggest missile launchers, although no missiles are seen. Alternatively the dots along the front ends of the wing and rectangles may be conventional lasers.
The Hawk is shown in its post-War Games colours (with black viewport notches- in the episode they were white). The rough finish of the orange paint is obvious. The Hawk shown is the smaller 30cm Hawk. For more information and pictures of the slightly more detailed 61cm Hawk see the Cybrary Hawk Exhibit. The Airfix/MPC Hawk is described in the Catacombs Merchandise Guide. Also in the Catacombs Reference Section are the Starlog blueprints.
Martin Bower's original design:
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	The Hawk featured only in the episode War Games. The sleek warships annihilated Moonbase Alpha's Eagle fleet and devastated the base. This is the Mark IX Hawk. The eight previous versions and the formidable performance of the warship suggests there must have been a space war in the late 1980s or 1990s. The episode Rules Of Luton talks of a global conflict in 1987 which may be the war that produced the Hawks. Alternatively they may be a relic of the cold war technological race, shooting down ICBMs in Ronald Reagan's Star Wars vision of hunter killer satellites. David Hirsch proposed that they are a development of the Intercepters (from the series UFO) designed to protect Earth from attacking alien ships. The technological resemblance to the Eagles shows the Hawks were on the winning (American?) side. The nose cone is very Eagle-like, although only the top has the characteristic viewport insets. The design is more sleek than the Eagle, emphasised by the pointed nose, and also more angular. The line of latches around the spine of the Hawk indicates the command module is detachable. Latches around the rear section suggest it can also be ejected from the central section. From the size of the spine, the command module is the only part that contains crew. The two windows indicates a two man crew like the Eagle (pilot and gunner?). There is no obvious hatch or door; perhaps the top panels are access hatches. The ship's large single rocket with side boosters indicate this is a fast, manoeuvrable craft. The side boosters point outwards, allowing fast lateral movement. Eight vertical boosters on the underside of the ship allow powerful upwards manoeuvres and perhaps landing. There are no corresponding rockets on the top or side, only small attitude control rockets laterally. The Hawk has no obvious landing gear and may be an entirely space-based craft. The vertical rockets suggest operations in at least lunar gravity are possible, although atmospheric flight might be a problem for the unaerodynamic design. The main armament seems to be the cylinders at the end of the stubby wings. They flash like machine guns, with no visible laser beams; perhaps, as in real life, projectiles are more effective than laser beams. The rectangles hanging under the wings suggest missile launchers, although no missiles are seen. Alternatively the dots along the front ends of the wing and rectangles may be conventional lasers. The Hawk is shown in its post-War Games colours (with black viewport notches- in the episode they were white). The rough finish of the orange paint is obvious. The Hawk shown is the smaller 30cm Hawk. For more information and pictures of the slightly more detailed 61cm Hawk see the Cybrary Hawk Exhibit. The Airfix/MPC Hawk is described in the Catacombs Merchandise Guide. Also in the Catacombs Reference Section are the Starlog blueprints.
Martin Bower's original design: .