Airfix New Tool Harrier GR1 1/72

[Harry Lime]

Following Rob P's wee challange for a head to head build off, I started construction of mine tonight. First impressions when I opened the box earlier were pretty good. Airfix have taken some of the good points of the GR7/9 kit and used similar ideas on this one. They've also made the panel lines a lot finer than on the earlier kit. The decal sheet is outstanding, with the 20 Sqdn bars in perfect register on my copy. I'll be using some Vingtor Harrier Conversion Unit badges to make XV758 as I'll be finishing my Fujimi GR1 as XV778 of 1 Sqdn, so I don't want to duplicate things.

Anyway, on with the show.

As you can see, Airfix have done a pretty decent job on the MB Mk.9. It just needs some straps, an ejection handle and it'll look alright.

I mentioned on another thread about there being 2 flashed over holes on the upper fuselage, you can see them here. This makes me think we may well see a Thai or Spanish option at some point.

As per some of their earlier Harrier kits, Airfix have included the suction relief doors as seperate parts offering either half open or fully closed options depending if you're building in-flight or parked up.

Unlike the GR7/9 kit, Airfix have chosen to mould the nozzles in a way that avoids having to try and clean up seams across the vanes. the seams here should be a lot easier to make disappear!

Well that's all for tonight, should make some decent progress over the next few days as I'm on leave until Wednesday.

Mark.

[Ray S]

Hello Mark, just got this one myself today, and it looks good. I don't usually do jets, but the Harrier is a fave of mine, along with the Lightning. Can't wait for that one now, but of course I'll have to.

Look forward to seeing more.

All the best, Ray

[SaintsPhil]

Nice one Mark, look forward to seeing you progress on this. That seat does look very good, I'm sure a resin one will be along soon as well though.

I've been trying to get one from a shop for the last couple of days but no luck so I'm just going to go for eBay!

[chaddy]

Watching this one with more than a little interest.

[Navy Bird]

Carry on, don't mind me or that crunching sound. It's just me popcorn.

Cheers,

Bill

[Harry Lime]

Hello Mark, just got this one myself today, and it looks good. I don't usually do jets, but the Harrier is a fave of mine, along with the Lightning. Can't wait for that one now, but of course I'll have to.

Look forward to seeing more.

All the best, Ray

Ray,

I'm also looking forward to the Lightning, I'll be dropping hints to the family for Christmas. If I get duplicates, I certainly won't be asking anyone to take it back!

Nice one Mark, look forward to seeing you progress on this. That seat does look very good, I'm sure a resin one will be along soon as well though.

I've been trying to get one from a shop for the last couple of days but no luck so I'm just going to go for eBay!

Phil,

After toiling with the Fujimi horror, this is a quantum leap forward. The only plus point for the Fujimi kit is that the panel lines are much finer.

Watching this one with more than a little interest.

Carry on, don't mind me or that crunching sound. It's just me popcorn.

Cheers,

Bill

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the interest. Bill, I won't mind the crunching sound so long as you pass the popcorn round!

Not much done tonight, so I'll combine it with an update tomorrow after I've spent a lazy day at the bench. Tonight's work consisted mostly of tidying up the wings after assembly. A little light sanding followed by a smear of Mr Surfacer 500, and that's that.

Mark.

[Harry Lime]

A little more progress on this one. After Selwyn had posted some info regarding the straps, or rather the lack of, I went looking for info. I found a line drawing of an early Mk.9 seat in Aeroguide 12 on the Harrier GR.3 and a rather helpful image from Martin-Baker's own website. This has enabled me to add a lttle detail to the seat and provided enough info to go to town on a later model with even more detail/refinement to the seat. As it is, I just want to add enough to busy it up a bit on this build because I want it finished ASAP.

The basic kit seat. Nice, but needs a little extra. However, it's a bit better than some OOB kit seats in 1/72!

And after a little work with folded up tin foil, some whisky bottle foil (a long since finished bottle of Talisker for those that enjoy that type of thing as well!!) and a little punched out plastic disc to represent the buckle. After a quick blast with some paint, a little detail painting and the addition of the ejection handle it should look a little more busy.

The cockpit tub after a quick coat of Dk Admirality Grey and the application of the instrument decals. Not ideal, but looks ok in the end. I look forward to seeing what delights Eduard will come up with for the cockpit!

And for those that would like to see it, here's the link to Martin-Baker's web site,

Mk9

In other news, I've drilled out the small intakes above the engine intakes and modified the small outlets on the upper fuselage. I'll go into more detail in a later update, but that's all for now.

Mark.

[Harry Lime]

I've quietly plugging away with this, with the intention of having it on display at my next club night on 10th Sept. Didn't get much done over the last week as I was on nights, but managed a little progress anyway.

First up, the cockpit was finished (bar the seat, that's being worked on in the background). After picking out a couple of details, a wash was added and then the finish was matt coated. I've ignored Airfix's colour call-outs in the main, as they are quite inaccurate in places. The cockpit should be Dark Admiralty Grey (Humbrol 5) and the seat body/headbox should be black. The wheel wells should also be white and the undercarriage should be a light grey colour (Humbrol 127), not the quoted Humbrol 129. I've garnered this info from various sources including AirDoc 14 on British Harriers, the Harrier SIG website and Harrier by Tim McLelland.

Next up, I removed/filled some of the moulded details on the airframe. Variously, these included the cooling vents on the tail area, the strengthening plates between the jet nozzles and shortening the alternator cooling ducts on top of the engine access panels. I also drilled out the wee intakes above the main intakes for a better look to them.

After that, it was a case of adding the missing strakes forward of the outrigger housings and application of filler after joing the fuselage halves and attaching the mainwings. Most areas have required only a quick coat of Mr Surface 500 to deal with join lines, but I made a bit of a booboo on the underfuselage seam. D'oh!

A few wee bits'n'bobs to finish off with and should have this in the paintshop before next weekend.

Mark.

[DaveO]

Looking great, I must get one! That seat OOB is really very good for 1/72 It looks as though Airfix are really working hard to engineer kits with a good compromise between well fitting components and detail. I've had a bit of a Harrier year and it looks like continuing through the winter now I've seen your post. Looking forward to the rest of the build! Dave.

[Harry Lime]

Dave,

Thanks for the interest, it's much appreciated. This is now in the paintshop and should be finished within the week. I'll add an update later on covering the finished seat and some of the smaller detail refinements to the nosewheel and a few other bits and bobs.

As for continuing your Harrier year, I would heartily recommend you do! Especially if you apply the detail of your big Harrier to this wee gem of a kit.

Mark.

[Harry Lime]

Well it seems I rather neglected to keep this up to date as the build progressed, but this one is now finished! I did some work on the kit seat and ignored the colour call outs from Airfix as they are somewhat incorrect for a Martin Baker Mk.9, the biggest issue being the call out for Humbrol 27 for the seat body when it should be black!

Anyway, here's the kit seat with a few extra details and a lick o'paint,





And here's the undercarriage legs with some fuse wire for hydraulic lines and all painted up ready for some tiny wee stencil decals,



After these wee detail bits, it was off to the paintshop which I neglected to take pics of. Suffice it say, Xtracolour and my airbrush both did what they do best, except I cocked up the Dark Sea Grey somehow and ended up with a matt finish!?! At this point I considered stripping it, but hoped instead that Klear would work some magic and pressed on regardless with the Dark Green. I applied the Klear and it all worked out OK in the end! Decals went on with the usual application of Micro Set/Sol and then it was onto the weathering. I kept this reasonably light and used a range of washes, dry brushing and powders and sealed it all in with a home made mix of Humbrol Gloss and Matt Cotes to try and achieve a scale gloss effect.

This is a wee teaser of the end result,



The full RFI can be seen here,

Harrier RFI

Thanks for watching,

Mark.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Harry Lime

[TempestV]

_{That is gorgeous, I love the early Harriers.}

_{I have one in the pile - if you did another is there anything you would do differently?}

_cheers,

_Chris

[Harry Lime]

Chris,

They do look rather good in the early scheme with the pointy nose, don't they? When I do my next one, I'd pay a little more attention to getting a good fit of the airbrake/rear undercarriage section and I'll pare off a little on the inner surfaces of the wings at flaps/ailerons to reduce the step a little. I'd also replace the wind vane in front of the cockpit with something from the spares box for a more in scale item and refine the detail on the seat a little more.

Hope this helps with your build when you come round to it,

Mark.

[farde17]

Sorry to say this but the seat you have produced is very good but relates to the late 1980s.

Prior to 1981 (aprox) the pilots wore a harness that was put on prior to entering the ac the harness then "plugged" into the seat.

After the harness was replaced there was an issue with the shoulder straps fouling in the seat while the ac was beeing serviced so a mod was introduced to "plug" them into the top box when not in use. Introduced post 1985 aprox.

Mike

[Harry Lime]

Sorry to say this but the seat you have produced is very good but relates to the late 1980s.

Prior to 1981 (aprox) the pilots wore a harness that was put on prior to entering the ac the harness then "plugged" into the seat.

After the harness was replaced there was an issue with the shoulder straps fouling in the seat while the ac was beeing serviced so a mod was introduced to "plug" them into the top box when not in use. Introduced post 1985 aprox.

Mike

Mike,

Thanks for your comment, however I'd disagree with you. As I noted above, I was aware of the mod you mentioned and went looking for specific images and details of the earlier seats. These were sourced from Martin-Baker's own website, Aeroguide 12 and an image of this specific airframe from 1969 which clearly shows the webbing straps hung on the side of the headbox. The image in question can be found in the link below, as well as the link to the MB website page for the Mk 9 seat.

XV758 Nose

Mk9 Seat

The first image in the MB gallery on their page shows the orginal arrangement, the second image shows the seat with the conventional harness/parachute pack arrangement and the 3rd and 4th images are Jaguar seats. The second image I believe to show a seat prior to the fitting of the headbox stowage for the harness lugs.

Mark.