Harrier Gr.1 1/72 Hasegawa

[Flying Badger]

As many posts have previously mentioned, I'm building a lot of aircraft for my 1 year old nephew as a child's ceiling mobile (inspired by another Britmodeller who posted pics of the mobile they made).

Mine is themed... A history of aircraft (firsts and famous), so I needed a Harrier.

I've generally been taking "first" to be first to enter into full service (or it gets horribly debateable about which prototype or crazy flying bedstead is the "first" to VTOL etc) so I had an FRS.1 in my stash and thought (for a day or so) that'll do.

Common sense kicked in and I found a Hasegawa 1/72 Harrier GR.1 (very very old boxing) on ebay.

First impressions.... its terrible. The fit is OK in places but some of the detail is WAAAY off! Oh and as for flash? well lets just say "I have enough to save a universe!"

So this WIP will be my build process to bring it back into line.

The most obvious problem is the cockpit..... it doesn't have one! its just a massively out of scale and crude seat and a scruffy panel neither of which bear any resemblance to an aircraft.

So thats my first target - but how?

First off I need a Martin-Baker Mk9 bang seat. I know that the Jaguar had a Mk 9 but that there are slight differences with the Harrier Gr.1 and that in larger scales that this can be noticed... but in 1/72 is this a problem or should I just go with the Pavla seat for the jaguar?

The rest of the cockpit is nonexistent so scratch building it is then.... I can't find any aftermarket resin for the GR.1 for any boxing - have dremel will butcher!

I notice that hertiage models have a GR.1 resin nose (with pit) and a metal bang chair for a very reasonable price but it's a conversion for the italeri sea harrier kit, anyone know if it will fit the Hasegawa kit?

I suspect that that would be the easiest route - even if I had to do a fair amount of butchery and filling to get it all to fit. Even if the nose doesn't fit it may be worth it for the vacform canopy, bang seat and metal detail refueling probe and its only £6ish+P&P so its not that much more than the Pavla seat + a pint!

In addition I make my own photo-etch and I think there is potential to add some extra detail that way - might have to be the way I do the panel.

So anyone wish to comment or offer any advice? Any pointers to other aftermarket resources?

Thanks

The Flying Badger

Edited November 1, 2022 by Flying Badger
Replacing dead photobucket images

[Giorgio N]

I'm having similar problems in my search for accessories for the Esci GR.1. As there is some resin from pavla for the latest Airfix Sea Harriers, my plan is to use some of these parts. Apart from the instrument panel, the consolles and sidewalls of the FRS.1 will look good enough to me in this scale. The panel though is quite different, I'm thinking of making a resin copy of the pavla one and modify it to GR.1 standard.

Re. using the heritage GR.1 conversion on the Hasegawa FRS.1, as I have both this and the esci/italeri kits, I can check if the parts from italeri will fit on the hasegawa one.... assuming that the heritage conversion replaces the italeri FRS.1 front fuselage (that is what esci originally did to allow multiple versions to be made from the same sprues). Alternatively, I am starting soon to make copies of the Esci GR.1 nose cone for a couple of friends, to be used on the italeri GR.3...

Another alternative might be the use of the hase GR.1 front fuselage on the FRS.1 kit, not sure what the fit will be like though.

[Flying Badger]

Girorgio, if you could have a look to see how well matched the Heritage front end is to the hasegawa kit that would be really really helpful.

Also what is the bang seat in the heritage kit like?

Thanks

TFB

Edited November 15, 2011 by Flying Badger

[Flying Badger]

So first up is to open up the cockpit to allow the begining of some scratch building.....

The two fuselage halves with the port side already roughly cut out and the starboard marked up ready.

I am using the Airfix FRS1 kit as a reference (as its reasonable) as well as the few pics I can find online and in books of the GR.1 cockpit

Oh and in addition I've built the nozels, filled the gaps and now painted them with alclad titanium and jet exhaust. I've realised that the front ones need to be less heat coloured than the rear ones so I'll give the front ones a v. thin spray of titanium to lighten them up a bit.

Thats all for now

TFB

Edited November 1, 2022 by Flying Badger
Replacing dead photobucket images

[Giorgio N]

I don't have the heritage kit, so can't comment on this. But as the heritage set replaces the front fuselage on the italeri FRS.1, if the italeri front fits the hasegawa rear, then the heritage will fit this too. Will check later !

Regarding the nozzles, the front one are painted in the surrounding fuselage colour. They get dirty especially where the gasses pass, but the outside more or less stays in the same colour (more or less....)

[Flying Badger]

Heritage kit ordered.... as a basis for more scratch-building if needed.

more once it arrives.

[Dave Fleming]

I remember being terribly disappointed as a 12 year old with the Hasegawa kit as I'd assumed form the box top it would have a two seta option!!

[SaintsPhil]

Ah not seen one of these as a WIP so I'll be watching with interest! I built a GR1 for the harrier GB recently, from the Fujimi kit. I had a stab at adding some detail to the pit, I'll try and cast my mind back to where I got my references...

Threads here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=70950

You might get some ideas, mainly what not to do!! But some of the comments may be useful!

I used a MK9 aeroclub seat I picked up from eBay. It was a tight squeeze in there though, not sure if the Has kit has any more room it looks tight!!

Phil

[Flying Badger]

Thanks Phil,

had a quick read might have a look to see if I can find copies of those books.

TFB

[SaintsPhil]

Don't bother with those books, at least not for first gen harriers! They are more aimed at the later ones!

[Flying Badger]

OK

To be honest what I'll really need is pics of the cockpit of the GR1.

Anyone know how different is it to the GR3?

TFB

[Flying Badger]

Anyone know what the registration number of the first Harrier GR.1 to be delivered to No.1 Squadron RAF (at RAF Wittering) was?

I'm trying to find suitable decals and paint scheme.

Thanks

TFB

[SaintsPhil]

You could try here:

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/aircraft.php?type=1824

[Dave Fleming]

Anyone know what the registration number of the first Harrier GR.1 to be delivered to No.1 Squadron RAF (at RAF Wittering) was?

I'm trying to find suitable decals and paint scheme.

Thanks

TFB

XV746 was the first delivered to No 1 Squadron, on April 18th 1969 - makings & colours would have been gloss Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey over Light Aircraft Grey, 3-colour roundels and fin flash with the No 1 squadron chevron marking on the nose and the Station Badge on the fin just above the fin flash

Some of the early ones carried a 'Hawker Siddley Harrier' text on the port side just below the squadron marking, but not able to find one of XV746 to see if she had.

EDIT - Thinks - the very first ones may not have had the chevron, will get back!! :-)

Edited November 16, 2011 by Dave Fleming

[hacker]

in you guys opinion seeing what the old Hasegawa is like what is the best Mk 1 in this scale?

[Dave Fleming]

in you guys opinion seeing what the old Hasegawa is like what is the best Mk 1 in this scale?

The ESCI AV-8A, or convert back their GR3 (Also available from Italeri)

[Giorgio N]

Guess the best book on these early harriers is the old Aeroguide volume if you're looking for details. I'll dig into my library later and check if this book has pictures of the GR.1 cockpit

[Flying Badger]

Dave

Thats perfect - just the information I was after!

Many Thanks

[Dave Fleming]

The GR3 cockpit wasn't too different from the GR1 IIRC - take away the small boxes for the RWR just below the HUD and a couple of other things and the basics were the same - google Harrier GR3 cockpit brings up a number of images

[thx6667]

There was an IPMS USA article that was reprinted as part of an IPMS "taster" magazine in the 70s, I'll try and scan it for you, some useful pointers to improving the Hasegawa kit.

[SPerx]

FWIW I have just done a GR1 using the Heritage conversion and the ESCI Sea Harrier and the combination worked very well. As I see it the big advantage of the ESCI kit as the basis for the conversion are the recessed panel lines. The Heritage set fits straight on to the ESCI rear fuselage section.

The only snag is that the SHAR had different inner pylons and so a bit of cross kitting, from the near unusable Hasegawa kit solved that issue.

Interestingly, the Fujimi 1:72nd kit appears to have very similar mouldings to the ESCI / Italeri offering.

[Dave Fleming]

Interestingly, the Fujimi 1:72nd kit appears to have very similar mouldings to the ESCI / Italeri offering.

It preceded it by about 6-8 months - not identical, but strangely syncronous in many ways.

[Flying Badger]

Jonathan - that would be really helpful.

Last night I decided that whilst I await the Heritage kit I would like a cast of the cockpit space thats available in the Hasegawa kit so....

First off I dry fitted the two fuselage halves together and then using air drying modelling clay filled the cavity:

Once that was done I trimmed the excess and then gently prised the two halves apart:

This gave me a rougly shaped plug:

I've left this to dry slowly (too fast and it shrinks) and I now have a clay form that I can use to create acurate profiles that I can draw round and cut out of plasti-card to form parts of the new cockpit if needed (the floor being my main concern):

 

 

TFB

Edited November 1, 2022 by Flying Badger
replacing dead photobucket images

[SaintsPhil]

That's a great idea with the modelling clay to get the space envelope! I'll be copying that one!!

I have a few ref books, I'll have a look through for pics.

Phil

[Flying Badger]

Phil,

if you do it helps to damp the plastic with water - helps the clay come out of the two halves without sticking too much and therefore helps give you a more accurate plug.

Once the clay is dry it can be sliced fairly easily with a craft knife - but let it dry or it pinches under the blade if still wet.

Oh and one other thing - use a wet cotton wool bud/Q-tip to wipe off the model as soon as you take the plug out as the clay is perfect for stopping your glue from working properly!

TFB

Edited November 16, 2011 by Flying Badger