Navy Bird

I hear you. I'm usually pretty anal about the organization of my workspace (nobody would have guessed that I'm sure!), and I just got a new paintbrush rack so I can line up all my brushes in descending order. And besides, I had to figure out where the ants were coming from. Although I failed in that last regard, I can tell you that I know where they're going - right into that nice little ant hotel, never to return. What's odd is that it is in an old Floquil spare bottle. I have a vague memory of a bottle of paint leaking in transit, and I guess I must have put the remaining paint into a spare glass bottle. Other than that, I have no idea. Yikes! You sound like a reincarnation of my mother! 🤶 Cheers, Bill

You could use plastic card, etc. to detail the internal structure. Just a thought. Cheers, Bill

Quick update - the FA.2 had a probe mounted on the leading edge of the vertical tail as can be seen here: Although Special Hobby provide this in styrene it looks rather like the Blob That Ate Cincinnati™. I figured there had to be another way, so I rummaged through the Island of Misfit Fiddly Bits and found an unused turned metal pitot from Master that looked reasonably close. I fashioned a fairing of sorts, added it to the tail, and drilled a 0.010 inch hole to accept the pitot. I popped in the metal bit and I think it will work. In any event, it looks better than the Blob. Also note that I had to drill a hole to accept the port tailplane - for some reason Special Hobby left that out of my kit. It's no doubt hanging out with those other holes from Blackburn, Lancashire. Cheers, Bill PS. Note also added a hole for the RAM air exhaust. The windscreen is on, and I've blended it into the fuselage. I'm now doing some minor work on the intakes, and then it will be time for paint. Luckily, in my rummaging around, I found a bottle of Hataka Roundel Blue. I have no recollection of ever buying it. PPS. Most importantly, I cleaned my workbench. Much better now.

Here is the best shot I could find of the overall colour and the roundel. They both look the same to me. In fact the decal sheet that comes with the kit is designed so that the blue in the roundel is the underlying colour - there is no blue printed as part of the roundel. Note that the roundel has a black outline. https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/352809 I have about 30 photos of ZH809, and how light or dark the colour looks seems to depend on the lighting. Not a surprise. Cheers, Bill

Thanks John. I have PE for all the blade antennae, but I may have to skip adding the silhouette. Cool idea though! Works for me. I've noted that there are two of these vents in that area, which can be seen here: The photos I have of ZH809, "The Admiral's Barge," show this same configuration. As I get closer to painting, there seems to be some confusion here and there about which colour blue was used for this anniversary scheme. Special Hobby say Insignia Blue - nope, don't think so. First, the Mr. Color reference they cite is a US colour, and second it's way too dark. Other web sites say Oxford Blue (which also looks too dark to my eyes), so I'm going with Roundel Blue. Any naysayers, or folks who actually know? Cheers, Bill PS. Of course, I don't have any Roundel Blue at the moment, so I guess I'll have to fake it. I think I used Mr. Hobby H322 (Phtalo Cyanine Blue) as a surrogate on my Lightning.

Thanks Nick! Essentially, they are just white discs. Is there any discernible detail on them? I searched for GPS aerial discs and everything I found was just a white disc. Cheers, Bill

Gawd, I hate these in-progress photos. The model looks so nasty - but trust me, once it gets some paint on her, she will come to life. So, what's new? I added the HUD in anticipation of the windscreen being attached. I added the "bulge" on the nose gear doors (it's amazing what you can do with an old bit of resin radar dish). Three scoops of various sorts ended up on top of the fuselage just aft of the cockpit (these resin bits came from the Pavla set). The old Hasegawa kit furnished the two ventral strakes on the underside, as well as the fuel dump(?) just below the cold exhaust on the starboard side. I drilled out the small intake at the base of the vertical fin and added a bit of PE mesh over the top of the APU intake. Lastly, the Eduard PE set provided the turtledeck details and the HUD frame. I think I have the nose profile where I like it. I guess I won't be completely satisfied until the paint goes on. I still need to drill out the holes on the inboard wing roots in addition to the RAM air exhaust on the side of the rear fuselage. Question: Photos show two "bright" circular spots on the spine, one just aft of the cockpit and one in front of the vertical tail. What are they? This photo seems to show these items proud of the surface by a bit. Dangerously close to painting. Be afraid. Cheers, Bill

Thanks Giorgio. The wings fit like a glove - it is obvious that Special Hobby cloned used the Hasegawa FRS.1 kit as inspiration for their tooling. Thanks James. I'm just about finished with the nose job, and its outline now seems to match the drawings I've managed to find here and there. I'm sure it's not perfect, but I think it's better. The real radome doesn't look like it was designed with the rest of the aircraft - which, of course, it wasn't. It has a bit of that bulbous look. The problem with the kit is that the forward fuselage is a copy was inspired by the Hasegawa kit, and the underside curves up too much at the front. I would like to see someone (like Arma Hobby, Eduard, or one of that ilk) do a real, up-to-date, modern tooling of the FA.2 in 1:72. Lordy knows we need one. Thanks Charlie. I'll be anxiously waiting for the P.1A . Drop me a PM, I'd love to see the pix. I almost bought the old Frog kit off eBay but changed my mind at the last minute. Hopefully Martin can move the schedule up a bit. I looked for the P.1B on eBay and it's only on the UK site. I think I have to send a note to Martin to get a postage estimate. Boscombe Down Aviation Collection has been dutifully added to my must-do list. Which has recently grown quite large.... Cheers, Bill

Exemplary sheet styrene work, Guv. Don't forget the interior rivets. Cheers, Bill PS. On second thought, forget the rivets. I won't tell anyone.

So here's what Special Hobby thinks is a finely detailed inner structure underneath the air brake (I've posed the shot with the same area grabbed from the Airfix Harrier GR.1 kit): You'll also note that the wings are a somewhat different shade of grey. They've been Hasegawa-ized. Here's what I came up with for the air brake internals: It'll work for me. As I get older, I get a little less picky. I don't think I need to do anything with the gear wells as once the struts are installed you won't be able to see anything. And, remember that the nose gear doors are moulded shut. If they were open I would need to get the card stock going up there too. Here are those Hasegawa wings again - you can see how good of a fit they are. You'll also notice that the navigation light on the spine has disappeared. It will show up again sometime towards the end of the build, and it will be mounted off-axis as it should be. Finally, I have begun to reshape the strange proboscis on this baby. I think the odd "bulbous" look is due to the forward fuselage components that clearly owe their heritage to the Hasegawa FRS.1. You may recall that the underside of that kit turns up too quickly towards the front, resulting in the forward fuselage being a bit short (although it is nowhere near the often web-reported scale foot - and I have photos to prove it). I'm going to build up the area where the radome meets the fuselage with putty, and sand/shape to match the photos I have. Or something like that. I should have taken a "before" shot so you can see how weird it was to begin with. Oops. Eclipse Addendum: No luck to see the corona, the sky was clouded out big time. However, it was definitely cool how quickly it got dark, and also how quickly it got light again. When it got dark, it was just as dark as night around here. The crickets and other bugs that like to chatter at night came out in full force. When it got light again, the birds went crazy with their chirping. It was like a Hitchcock movie. Totality lasted for three and a half minutes. The next one visible from here is in 2075. I'll only be 120 years old, so I've got something to look forward to - more clouds probably. Cheers, Bill PS. Needless to say, yesterday there was not a cloud in the sky. Perfectly clear all bloody day. Go figure. 😕

OK, best I could do trying to Lilliput my way into the intakes and paint the shiny spinny thing: I think I can put a hold on the FOD covers. Which is good, because one thing I like about Harriers is the ability to look inside and see the front of the engine. Meanwhile, I finished up the wing mods, and am about to embark on the fuselage assembly. One thing I noticed regarding the wing fences - the fences are perpendicular to the ground, rather than perpendicular to the wing centreline, i.e. "normal" to the wing surface. I did the same with the fences I added, as I really did not want to replace the moulded-on fences. I don't think this is especially obvious in 1:72 scale - I didn't even notice until now that my Fujimi FRS.1 is the same way. Strangely, they seem correct on the Sword T.4. On a completely unrelated note, I've always wanted to see a total solar eclipse. As it turns out, the path of the eclipse on April 8 goes right over my town. I've looked at several different weather models, and it looks somewhat sketchy and somewhat promising relative to the cloud cover. For sure, it will be a partly sunny/partly cloudy day, and I can only hope that the eclipsed sun will poke its way out in-between the clouds. Perhaps all you folks who helped my biopsies come back negative can help push the clouds out of the way! Cheers, Bill

Who will be the first to convert it into the mock-up for the Vought VFX proposal? Cheers, Bill PS. Probably me.

Adventures in Ginormous Gobs of Grout, Part 27 I have spent enough time on the internals of the bloody intakes. There are other things I need to do with my time, like puttying the rest of the crazy thing. Anyway, here are some photos that show how I'm leaving the intakes. As you can see, I kinda built this bass-ackwards. The portion of the forward fuselage that is inside the intakes needs to be white, but unfortunately I forgot about that in my haste to glue something, anything, together (apologies to Todd Rundgren). I tried to mask off the engine fan blades, but nothing I tried worked. So I threw caution to the wind and just sprayed some white paint. The fan blades now need to be painted by hand (should be fun guiding a paintbrush inside the intakes) and the instant skill re-applied. Once I have that done, I'll try and get another photo. Harrier Wing Metamorphosis, Part FA.2 Next, I figured I'd take a shot at modifying the Hasegawa FRS.1 wings into Special Hobby-esque FA.2 wings. This involves removing a couple of vortex generators, removing and reshaping one dog tooth from the leading edge, and adding a wing fence. The first two mods can be accomplished in a minute or so, but fences aren't my cuppa tea. Heck, I even hired some guys to fence in the back yard. But I suppose digging post holes is different than trying to stick a wee bit of plastic onto a wee wing. First, I cut out a bit of card stock, and added a small opening to match the leading edge profile. I wanted to leave it like this, but my grandson said it looked funny. So out came the sanding sticks and after a few swipes here and there I had a reasonable facsimile of the inboard fence. According to photos, the inner and outer fences are larger than the one in the middle and that's sorta what we got. You can see the finished mods on the port wing compared to the stock FRS.1 starboard wing. I think this was a lot easier than trying to add the vortex generators and fences to the Special Hobby wings. A lot easier. Some more fun adventures are coming up. For example: Special Hobby moulded the nose gear doors shut, which is OK as I've seen photos with them closed when the aircraft is on the ground. But SH forgot the bulge in the doors, so I'll have to figure something out. There is no detail of any kind in all gear wells, and the air brake well too. Card stock, where are you? I'll be using the Hasegawa gear struts as they are more sharply moulded than Special Hobby's. This bird seemed to just have the ventral strakes, no gun pods. The navigation light on the upper spine needs to be moved off centreline. I forget what they are, but the small holes at the leading edge of the wing root need to be added. The intake at the bottom of the fin needs to be drilled out. All antennae will be replaced with PE. Lots more PE to come... Still looking for the probe for the forward edge of the fin - it's shown in the instructions but I must have lost it. Those pesky auxiliary intake doors need to be added in their partially open positions. Arghh... And the bulbous W.C. Fields nose cone looks like it needs to be reshaped. Cheers, Bill

This look better? Not perfect, but I think it's closer. All I did was set the black and white points. In other words, areas that should be black are set to 0,0,0 and areas that are white to 255, 255, 255. Everything else adjusts accordingly. (The Insignia Blue areas end up 7,14,43. A bit dark perhaps.) Hopefully when FM (or whomever) prints these sheets they'll be correct. I'd love a T-Bird Spook in my collection! Cheers, Bill

I'm afraid I must decline, as Mrs Bird has been occupying that spot herself ever since Baldrick upset her rutabagas. It was vehementer turbabat. Cheers, Bill

I deny everything. I'm more of a putty man nowadays anyway. Cheers, Bill

Any technique that allows me to recover from a total bugger-up with a dental pick sounds pretty good to me. Thanks James. It looks like it will be more work than I expected, but that's not unusual for a short run kit. The newest generation of Special Hobby kits look very, very nice - I wonder if we could encourage them to revisit some old favourites like this one? It's not like there's a plethora of 1:72 Sea Harrier FA.2 kits. Thanks Giorgio. I'm having a lot of fun with the intakes. It's tough to reach the internal seams - they are so obvious to the eye, but I need smaller fingers. 🖖 Thanks John. I used to build 1:48 and 1:32 all the time, and an occasional 1:24 (that wasn't a car). I realised I would quickly run out of space to display them all, so I switched to 1:72. I think I made the switch in 1986 or thereabouts. I stayed in that scale because, at the time, there were so many obscure and forgotten types available. Then I discovered short run and resin kits - talk about obscure subjects! Heaven! Until, of course, you actually have to build a few of them. But I'm getting better at it. Cheers, Bill

Well, if you're aiming at excellence, I suppose it's alright. Cheers, Bill

Much, much work to do. This is the rough state of the panel line wash. Quite a few spots to touch up and then I can hide most of it with a thinned down coat of white. Not sure this will be worth all the trouble. Trust me, the plane is white - the poor lighting is making some weird shadows. Why did you pick such a big model, says the guy sitting on my shoulder. Cheers, Bill

Prepare for some nasty photos, but rest assured the supposed Navy Bird Magic will either a) make a nice model out of this mess or b) score a three-pointer by binning it from the other side of the studio. First, the shiny, spinning thing upfront: The blades are Tamiya Titanium with a light wash of instant skill. I assume the real things are some kind of metal. Oh, the inside of the intakes are definitely white on this special anniversary Harrier. Fuselage together, some putty here and there (but not finished yet) and the mal re-formed intake housings in place: In addition to blending the outside of the intake housings to the fuselage (not too bad of a job now that I've bent them into shape) but also the inside trunking needs to be done. That is a real mess. Maybe some FOD covers are in order... Special Hobby say to put "weight" (unspecified amount, you figure it out) upfront - I've never had to do that with a 1:72 Harrier. I wonder if it's necessary with the FA.2 because of the extended rear fuselage. Plenty of room ahead of the cockpit, so I'm not worried about that. Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this. Cheers, Bill PS. The nose cone looks a bit wonky in situ. But then, so does the real one. I just don't think the wonkiness is the same. I'm afraid some re-shaping will be required. PPS. I'm compiling a list of Special Hobby boo-boos. Quite a few already, some not so easy to fix. Arghh.

Where is my chair? Actually, I need an analyst's couch - I've built far too many short run kits. Love the work on your previous two-seat Harriers - looking forward to the Raspberry Ripple version. I was lucky that Nils still had a copy of the Qinetiq decal sheet in his vault. Also, I don't recall any fit problems with the Freightdog intakes, although shrinkage could always come into play. That's what I tell wifey anyway. Cheers, Bill

Thanks. I added some leftover photoetch to the sidewalls as well, so some of what you see is not part of the resin. ***** Gawd, I love Special Hobby/MPM/Azur/Frrom etc. etc. The intake housings don't align well at all with the fuselage. I decided to use the kit parts as none of the aftermarket resin bits would work without substantial modifications to the intake trunking. Plus, the auxiliary intakes that are normally open when the plane is at rest have been moulded open, and all I need to add are the small doors. However, to use these intake housings, I had to immerse them in boiling water and then scald my fingers spreading them out (bending them actually) hoping I can get a better fit. What I have now is better, but will still require some filler and sanding. Ah, filler and sanding! I think they were a folk rock duo back in 1965... Cheers, Bill

Thanks Colin. It's at least a few steps up from the old Lindberg, Hawk and Aurora kits with only a cockpit floor and an easy chair for the pilot. Although those were easier to paint. Thanks James. The seat turned out better than I was expecting, and the Eduard photoetch instrument panels are always nice. I think it's the resin sidewalls from Pavla that bring it down. I didn't realise how poorly cast they were until they were affixed and painted. Oops. Thanks. Never too many Harriers! I'll try not to muck it up! Never too many Harriers! I'll try not to muck it up! Never too many Harriers! I'll try not to muck it up! Never too many Harriers! I'll try not to muck it up! Cheers, Bill

OK lads and lassies, let's do some model building. Nothing major so far, but at least it's a start. First, a little card stock, some tiny drills, a razor saw and the next thing you know you've added the APU exhaust that Special Hobby left out. To be fair, so has every other kit in 1:72 that I've seen. Hmm...looks like my "smart camera" focused on the wrong end. How about this one? Gawd, these close-up shots of seventy-tooth scale stuff look nasty. I used the resin cockpit and ejection seat that came with the kit, but tarted them all up with Eduard PE (designed for the Airfix kit, so some trimming required here and there). It doesn't look too bad if you don't look at it. Sidewall gubbins came from the Pavla set, I think. Note that the supplied turtle deck is simply a flat bit of styrene. Luckily, the Eduard PE set has some goodies to put there. First, though, the forward and main fuselage halves need to go together. That will do a nice job of ensuring that prying eyes can't see the lame cockpit - oh, and give me a bunch of seams to putty and sand. Pure modelling joy! Special Hobby have you add some modesty panels to the inside of the fuselage so you can't see through the exhausts. I can see where this is required if you use the kit parts (see-through exhaust housings with PE vanes), but since I'm using resin exhausts I don't think they're necessary. However, I added them anyway because, well, they were there. Of course, Special Hobby had the identifying numbers wrong in the instructions and even after I figured that out, the panels still didn't fit. Should have let them out.... By the way, this kit is a bit of a curate's egg. Some of it seems quite nice, and other bits - well, to be polite let's just say not quite so nice. I've only seen this kit and the one from Airfix, and oddly enough I would prefer this one. The forward fuselage on the Airfix kit is too wide, resulting in a canopy that looks squished. It just looks weird. Hopefully, I can make this one un-weird. Cheers, Bill

Perhaps it was my build of this kit? Not my best work by a long shot...and not AZ's best work either. Anyway, my answer to your question is on the first page of my WIP. The instructions from AZ are wrong. Cheers, Bill