Harrier Gr.1 1/72 Hasegawa

[robvulcan]

great work mate,

to be fair this kit aint at all bad really, i used to be unsure of it, as when i was a child i build an airfix gr3 and then bought a novo gr1 i think, when i built it i thought it looked a bit strange, as at the time i though authentic scale model ment just that so i would have expected each model maker to make an accurate model there fore they would look the same, how wrong i was, i guess they both look like a harrier and thats that.

apart from those intakes its prety good. once you got the paint on. but all through my build my eyes were drawn to the sharp cut into the shape were they join the fuselarge rather than looking smooth and rounded .

id love to get my hands on an esci gr1 but i cant find one.

[Flying Badger]

Quick update - no internet connection at home atm until the engineer from the cable company comes to fix it!

Have designed a PE instrument panel and I've painted the rest of the cockpit parts, seat etc. just waiting for an opportunity to get all the PE together and do a batch at once (too much hassel to mix acid etc. all for the sake of one tiny tiny instument panel).

will post pics as soon as the home connection is working.

In the meantime - does anyone have a spare pair of 1/72 RAF 1 Squadron badge decals? The only decals I can find for the GR1 in RAF 1sqn that are in stock are in europe and they want £12 just for postage! I can sort the rest of the decals out based on the kit decals and some aftermarket ones for the GR1 just not the 1sqn badge from below the canopy.

TFB

[Giorgio N]

In the meantime - does anyone have a spare pair of 1/72 RAF 1 Squadron badge decals? The only decals I can find for the GR1 in RAF 1sqn that are in stock are in europe and they want £12 just for postage! I can sort the rest of the decals out based on the kit decals and some aftermarket ones for the GR1 just not the 1sqn badge from below the canopy.

I have a couple that come from an Airfix GR.3 (that I don't even know if I'll ever finish) and again a couple from the infamous SkyModels sheet. Pm if interested !

[Dave Fleming]

In the meantime - does anyone have a spare pair of 1/72 RAF 1 Squadron badge decals? The only decals I can find for the GR1 in RAF 1sqn that are in stock are in europe and they want £12 just for postage! I can sort the rest of the decals out based on the kit decals and some aftermarket ones for the GR1 just not the 1sqn badge from below the canopy.

TFB

Bound to have some somewhere, I'll have a look after tea.

[Flying Badger]

Many Thanks to Giorgio N for the decals.

Still not got round to etching my PE cockpit set.

I'm still working on other areas of her though.... does anyone know what he normal external stores load was for No. 1 Squadron RAF Harrier GR.1 when they first went into operation? Or even a pic?

The kit comes with a series of different options for external stores so Im a bit lost as to which to build in.

TFB

[Dave Fleming]

You could see they with a variety of loads. Some examples:

4 x SNEB/Matra rocket launchers

2x fuel tanks, 2x SNEBs, 1x 1000lb bomb on the centre line

2x tanks, nothing else

2x Sneb (inner pylons) only

2x tanks, practice bomb launchers on outer pylons

[Flying Badger]

Hi Dave - thats just what I was after - explains why all the pics online don't give me a definitive answer!

If they had 2 SNEB and 2 fuel tanks are the tanks on the inner or outer pylons?

Thanks

TFB

[AnonymousAA72]

Hi Dave - thats just what I was after - explains why all the pics online don't give me a definitive answer!

If they had 2 SNEB and 2 fuel tanks are the tanks on the inner or outer pylons?

Thanks

TFB

Inner - usually........

[Flying Badger]

Hi Bill

Thought that would be the case (makes sense from an engineering point of view for weight etc)

Thanks

TFB

[Flying Badger]

Build is slowly trudging on.....

I wasn't happy with the Hasegawa depiction of the auxillary intakes so I came up with a rather drastic plan....

I got hold of a set of the resin intakes and replaced the Hasegawa ones with them, only a small amount of filling was needed at the very back of the inside of the intakes!

 

As you can see in the bottom right of the above the aft section of the hasegawa intakes was kept by cutting them down.

But the big issue is that as this is in a childs mobile it will be posed as if it's in hover mode just before landing. So all the normal depictions of the aux intakes show the lower doors closed and the upper open (as gravity pulls the lower ones down into the closed position). But in flight the airflow from the engines holds them all open! So I used my micro chisel with a fresh sharp blade and began carving out the lower and mid doors so they were all in the open position.

Then I added some plasticard to give a nice clean aft edge to the door openings:

Then painted inside the intakes, reattached the fan disc (which during this process had been rattling around inside the fuselage) and then went about reconstructing the intake fairings from there backwards using the cut down old hasegawa parts:

This pic also shows what I was doing whilst glue, paint etc. dried.... slowly (mind-numbingly slowly!) sanding and shaping the vacform canopy parts to shape.

It was whilst working on the canopy that I looked at the tail and remembered that I had a resin one from the same sea harrier to GR1 conversion set that gave me the vacform canopy.

The tail on the original is OK but its a bit thick and the join for the two fuselage halves on one side of it is a bit scruffy.... so..... I chopped it off and had at the rear with some sanding sticks:

I now realise that the raised panel lines (that I've been slowly rescribing) are not 100% accurate so I'm researching to get a better set - I'm putting the result into a set of vector line drawings I have created of the GR1 as a reference guide.

Oh and the intakes are a resin set I forgot that I had kicking around and they look much nicer than the kit set (with their nasty seams and poorly molded internal vanes) so I'll be painting those up next time I break out the alclads.

My custom photoetch panel and other parts keeps getting added to (added the airbrake most recently) but at some point I'm going to have to call it quits on those and etch the damn thing! Then I can close up the pit with the ready masked vacform canopy parts, which should really move this one along a lot.

More as it comes along..

TFB

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

[Maverick231]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but was this ever completed?

Also does this kit include the option of a 2 seater?

[Dave Fleming]

6 hours ago, Maverick231 said:

 

Also does this kit include the option of a 2 seater?

 

No, the box art caused me to eagerly buy one as a kid, only to be disappointed

[David Womby]

21 hours ago, Maverick231 said:

Sorry to bring up an old thread but was this ever completed?

Also does this kit include the option of a 2 seater?

LOL - I suppose it's not coincidence that finds us both reading this thread today.

 

I have this kit - no 2 seater option in it.   I also have a very old conversion to make a 2 seater from this or the Frog version.

 

David

Edited December 6, 2017 by David Womby
update

[Maverick231]

Ahh Dave I've been looking for one of those conversion kits for a while, any idea were I could get one?

[Dave Fleming]

Better option is the Sword kit, which is complete

[David Womby]

11 minutes ago, Dave Fleming said:

Better option is the Sword kit, which is complete

Hello Dave

 

I can't speak for Mav but for me:  yes, I am sure the Sword kit is the way to go.  It looks lovely but I am trying so hard not to buy anything else and to use my carefully acquired stash.  So I am probably sticking with the Air Conversion Harrier and Hunter trainers that bolt onto the Frog/Hasegawa Harrier  and Airfix  Hunter respectively.   (I also have a Heller T4 in the stash).  

 

It's great to see all the new moulds coming out but I will try to stick with the old (somewhat grotty) moulds that I have for, for example, the JP3, Gnat, Vampire, etc..  Mind you, resisting the temptation is REALLY hard and I have succumbed to a few - Swift, Beaufighter TFX.

 

Regards

David

[Flying Badger]

On 12/5/2017 at 3:35 PM, Maverick231 said:

Sorry to bring up an old thread but was this ever completed?

Also does this kit include the option of a 2 seater?

No I'm ashamed to say it became a victim of the shelf of doom and never did get finished.

 

However... I am rather in need of something aviation based and small to work on for fun to give me a break from the formula 1 cars I have been obsessing over of late. It might just be the ticket.

Time to work out which box it went in when we moved house and hope the mice haven't made a home of it in the garage. 😬

[Flying Badger]

Dug it out. 

 

No mice in residence....

 

It all seems to still be there:

 

 

No instructions (not that they'd be much use) or decals but I suspect those are in my big click lock tuperware of decals (keeps them safe and dry)

 

I also found the folder in my digital archive with the old work in progress photos. So I have spent this evening adding them to my Blogger account and then replacing the dead photobucket images in the above thread. I think I got the right ones in the right places.

 

[Thom216]

Resuscitation in order!😀

[Flying Badger]

I scribed a few panel lines last night and gave them a light brush over with Tamiya extra thin.

The ones I had done on it before look good so far. The ones that are left are mostly on the top of the fuselage where the complex shapes make them more of a challenge. Presumably that's why I put them off 'til last. 

[Hook]

Lovely to see this rising from the dead around Halloween! 

[Thom216]

16 hours ago, Flying Badger said:

..Presumably that's why I put them off 'til last. 

You now have four years of reserves to burn through!

[Flying Badger]

I've continued with a bit of panel line scribing. 

 

Although there are some errors in the previous scribbed lines.... need to fill those in and smooth the surface flat - CA glue is probably the best option.

 

The nose gear forward doors had big gaps and the starboard one was out of alignment because of it. Removed it and realigned it, then inserted a bit of plasticard to fill the gap.

 

 

I've also been thinking about the cockpit. The seat I previously did is OK...

However I already changed the intakes etc. to be posed in-flight I need to include a pilot. The kit figure is a bit rubbish and the stick, ejection handles etc. won't fit between his legs.

I have an Airfix GR3 kit I used for spare parts for a previous Harrier build.... the pilot is OK and might do:

 

However, the seat straps are in the way so I'll need to remove them to get the pilot seated properly

 

The airfix donor kit also has a panel that looks OK, although I'm loathe to use it, as the donor kit is complete enough to be made at some other time. I might just copy it in plasticard

 

The silhouette of my photoetch design fits OK - although I've not done any PE for a few years so I'm out of practice. I'll probably just scratch built it in plastic card.

 

Another area to work on is the aft section of the vac-form canopy. The two cutouts at the back are supposed to be separated from the cockpit interior so I need to scratch something to make up the back wall of the canopy.

 

[Maverick231]

Wow I didn't expect to see this 5 years after asking haha!

 

Good to see her back on the bench progressing nicely!

[Flying Badger]

Panel line scribing is looking much better and I've glued on the resin tail fin.

 

 

Masking up the intakes and getting it ready for primer:

 

 

Also scribed the panel lines on the horizontal stabilisers and the removed flaps

You can also see I removed the side panels and stick of the cockpit ready for re-painting as the current paint is a bit rubbish.

 

Then hit it with some primer on these bits.

 

More later.