Official Harrier GB

Casper that came out really well ,nicely done Sir!

Casper~ I love how it came out. The build looks awesome. Nicely done. Sorry I missed out on most of the build but I haven't really had the time lately to do much.
Your build is now posted on the first page.

Scorpiomikey

Very very nice build. Can you post a photo of it next to another smaller scale? (eg a 72nd spit if you have one) Just to show the difference in size.

Ok, just to show the difference in scale, here is the Sea Harrier 1/24 next to an F-16 in 1/48

Quite a size difference, huh!!??

Cheers

Ok, I'm calling the Sea Harrier done. This kit really did show it's age, not great fits on joining parts etc. Lots of flash, ejector marks etc. But it did spruce up ok with the Flightpath set (despite the not-so-clear-instructions included). I gave the plane a not so subtle oil wash, I wanted to show a bit of battle grime and the elements out on the aircraft carriers deck.

Cheers

Slow progress on the Harrier. getting all of the geeblies sorted slowly.

AIMs turned out well. I'm getting better at airbrushing gloss white but it's still a PITA! Did the tips in magnesium, makes a nice contrast. Next decaling for them;

Cheers

Entering the home stretch on this build. Got the decaling done and started to attach the greeblies. A lot of those on this bird. I have almost finished the exhaust nozzles. Got the rear exhaust plates to Alclad in magnesium, I have painted the AIMs white and then they will get a gun metal tip. Then it will be time for weathering and shading.

Cheers

OMGZ, this thing IS a monster! I have finished the painting, touched up with a good brush on the areas where it was hard to get in with the air brush. Nose and tan/black masking's done. Next a gloss coat in prep for the decals.

Cheers

This bird is such a marathon to paint. Two hours and I've got the top done and half of the underside. I can't believe I ran out of paint, used up one and a half of Mr.Colour H333. Time to pay a trip to the LHS tomorrow.

Cheers

Slowly getting towards painting. Canopy finally attached (the brass sure looks nice but is a total PITA to install on canopy plastic!!!!), cockpit masked off. Just some more greeblies to fit, also completed the vortex generator replacement in brass on the wings.

Cheers

Fuselage almost complete. There were some very nasty gaps whee the intakes join to the fuselage. Lots of Tamiya putty this week!

Cheers

So the stage that I have been putting off for as long as I can is the canopy. As nice as the Flight path set is, the instructions leave a lot to be desired!

The front canopy section has a raised section just where it meets the front of the fuselage. The Flight Path set contains nice sill details with riveting. It however does not mention how to apply the new sill to the clear plastic part.

So I had a think about this and there is a secondary brass part that fits on top of the front of the sill. I thought that this simulates the 'bulge' in this section so I decide to saw off the front part of the canopy.

A disaster! A poor sawing job, the blade kept bouncing and making a new cut and finally the glass snapped in a very conspicuous place.

Lucky there are 2 front canopy parts in this kit. The second part seems to be a bit messier in its molding but Future should help with that. So I carefully scribed the cut outline first and made very slowly but slightly firmer strokes. A much better result.

PHEWW!!! A botched canopy can ruin a model. A test fit with the brass sill confirms that this will work just fine.

Also got the first external fuel tank done. Note the brass sway braces, they really help with the detail.

Cheers

First Sidewinder. This almost took 3 hours of work to assemble! I think I'll only do 2 of these are fit the external fuel tanks as well.

Cheers

Some work done on the front wheel

and the inside of the airbrake

Slow work but it's starting to come together

Cheers

Slow progress but slowly coming together.

Cheers

Don't worry , you was not alone with fuselge gaps relatively for the scale, the nose gap of the italeri gr3 was more than your giant

good work Casper

My first exhaust nozzle with PE. 1 down, 3 to go. A bit fiddly but worth the effort

Got the engine fitted inside and glued the fuselage together. Quite a nasty seam underside as you can see

Cheers

Looks like you've had a lot of progress on this one. I really like how your CP turned out. It looks very busy.

Some more work on the Harrier. Fusing the cockpit section onto the rest of the fuselage. This is being glued only on the starboard at the moment but it's necessary to temporarily tape and hold the port side so it makes a better match. There are many gaps in this kit already

Cheers

Haven't got much done this week. It has been a bit of a rough week here. One of our chihuahua's, Lychie, died this week. He was very old, 16 but much loved and will be truly missed.

Got some work done on the intake doors. This is tough work but the PE fits nicely and when painted should give a very realistic look to the plane.

Cheers

PS. My avatar will be changed to honor Lychie for the time being.

Cockpit almost done. I think it must be the most work I've done on an office so far. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Cheers

Great updates

Sometimes scratchbild pieces are not avoidable even if not planned to do LOL

Here it goes. My most tedious project of the year.

I took it and just primed it the way it is. Most pieces either missing or have fallen off. I can see there is going to be a lot of scratchbuilding involved in this one.

Nice work on the engine. How much of the engine are you gonna let show?

I've started to add some extra piping and wiring to the engine but at this scale it's going to need a lot more.

Cheers

So more on the Airfix puzzle. Flashing galore on this kit, also ejector pin marks on almost every piece! We get spoilt building Tamiya, Dragon, Eduard and Trumpeter kits a lot of the time!

I decided to finish the engine parts off in Alclad lacquers. The black undercoat helps with creating depth in the detail of the parts.

Some more work done on the cockpit. Far from finished, possibly the most detailed office I've ever worked on.

Front view;

Front view with coaming;

Rear view and starboard sidewall;

Nearly finished the ejection seat just waiting for the harnesses to dry.

Cheers

What surgery needed bad point for airfix!

Great work Casper waiting for more

Time to get out the mini saw.

Need to remove the cockpit. I think this kit was originally a GR.3. The instructions ask to hack this front section off and replace it with the FRS.1 version.

The tape help remove a clean area

Not quite a clean fit for the new piece but putty will help that

Cheers

Nice work so far casper. The IP looks great.

I agree with you, all that left over stuff can go a long way.

Here's the IP, just a bit of touching up to do on the paint job but essentially it's there. It will look better once it's under the coaming with the HUD attached.

Cheers