WIP BOOBY Harrier GR3 Airfix 1/72

[It's a disease]

Now I have your attention here's my review.

Work In Progress, Built Out Of Box Yesterday!

First look, nice crisp detail in line with new toolings from this firm. Construction starts with the cockpit, a 4 piece seat and 4 piece tub go to complete the cockpit along with some decals. It builds up well but needs a little cleaning up first, nothing major, two ejector pin marks on the rear plate need filling. The instructions suggest fitting the ejector seat but I think it needs to be left off so the seam along the top of the rear panel where it meets the fuselage can be addressed if necessary. Then we move on to the air intakes, these look complex but fit together well, the bottom half has detail which goes to form part of the nose gear well, this is also apparent on the rear of the backplate in the cockpit.

Next up, the fuselage halves, all work so far fits into these pieces so it is a logical step. The piece that is the main gear doors and air brake well sits deep in the fuselage and there was a step, it was necessary to sand around the perimeter to allow it to protrude slightly to give a flush fit. This also occurred with the wing section, it sat too high, the highlighted area was sanded a bit to give a flush fit. The red box highlights two vents (one has been removed) these are for the GR1 which is the same basic kit, the GR3 has additional sprues to bring it up to spec, the blue box highlights the vent to be removed if you are building a GR1. This is called out in the instructions and is correct. One note, the yellow arrow highlights an unsightly mould line, this was sanded smooth, I scribed the lines that may have been lost as I went, as it got closer to them disappearing I opened them up again with a scalpel.

[Val]

Will be watching this enthusiastically. Great detail so far

[It's a disease]

The intake assembly, if you follow the instructions as I did, you are left with a difficult join to deal with. Parts D6/D5 should be fitted to the fuselage without parts A6/A7, then skip forward to assembly stage 19/20/21, this should leave a nice opening for you to get in and clear up the intake join, then go back and fit pieces A6/A7. Parts D2/D3 need an angle sanding so they conform to the fuselage section (yellow arrow) also two ejector pin marks inside D6/D5 need sanding off. It is worth noting that Airfix have provided both closed and at rest flaps for the intakes. The sum of yesterdays effort. Most of the smaller pieces were assembled, drop tanks nose/tail cone. The tail surfaces were removed and cleaned up. The Aden cannon housings have a misshapen female side, either cut part off the male side or open the hole, the red box highlights this. The blue square, I sanded off a small area to give the cartridge ejection slot something more like an opening, minor detail which will probably go unnoticed. Finally for the wing halves some more sanding! This time I took some off of the outboard tips to get a flush fit on the wingtip, there is a pronounced step here similar to the wing/fuselage joint. A dry run of the rest of the pieces complete yesterday looks to be promising. Holes will need to be drilled in the fuselage to accept the Aden gun pods, a mark denotes each hole on the fuselage pieces.

[It's a disease]

Cheers val.

[heloman1]

Interesting, I'll follow with interest.

Colin

Edited July 29, 2014 by heloman1

[Paul J]

Very interesting. I have just completed one for my self just to pass the time. I went for the GR1 and finished it as a 1 squadron with full D type roundels as I like the period for markings. I'll follow your build for when I get around to going for the GR3 though it may well help. I missed the bit about the vent to be removed for the GR1 and so mine still has it. Oh well.

[It's a disease]

Very interesting. I have just completed one for my self just to pass the time. I went for the GR1 and finished it as a 1 squadron with full D type roundels as I like the period for markings. I'll follow your build for when I get around to going for the GR3 though it may well help. I missed the bit about the vent to be removed for the GR1 and so mine still has it. Oh well.

This is the GR1 kit with two extra sprues,

one has sidewinders, recce pod, the little aerial (that appears on late type GR3s centreline halfway down the top of the fuselage T shape) and two different nose cones, one with laser?, one without.

The second sprue has centreline stores rail, rails with sidewinder fit, refuel probe, tail radar, and the correct tail fin for a GR3 (with ECM)

Other parts on these sprues are the second aerial behind the cockpit top centreline and the pitot for the nose.

Don't worry about the vent it's minor, nice that they included it though! I have the GR1 also, I got both at the same time so a direct comparison has been made, decals, minor adjustments on the instructions and the extra sprues, that's the difference. Really I think the breakdown of the kit is excellent, you should be able to model most GR1/3 airframes right back to the prototypes, aftermarket will be all over this kit I think.

I'm sure this will be reboxed with some new, more modern markings. The reason I think that is because of the mysterious T shape centreline aerial. If they put Norway training scheme in the box I would buy another few!

Interesting, I'll follow with interest.

Colin

Hello, you're welcome and thank you. Edited July 29, 2014 by It's a disease

[It's a disease]

Yesterday work started on the intake assemblies. These were fixed at the front inside the cowling with regular poly cement, the cowling and flap pieces were joined together with a little touch of liquid poly and the rear of the intake (the flap piece for the most part) was fixed with cyano, I did it this way so when I held the piece in place it was free to adjust, quickly lining up the rear section to the fuselage, once the cyano sets I can just leave it alone until the rest of the glues set up, I put the glue on slowest drying time first. Then I can begin with the filling, I used milliput, the tools I used were a cocktail stick and a coffee stirrer, this was left to harden for an hour or so then the joints were cleaned up some more. Today I'll finish off sanding these parts, then it's off to paint. . .

Other tasks complete. All of the things that were stuck together Monday were cleaned up yesterday, also the holes were drilled out to fit the gun packs to the fuselage, while I had the drills out I also opened up the barrels for the guns. So finally you reach a certain point and trial fit your subject, here we can see the harrier take shape.

Finally a behind the scenes trip, these are the tools I've used to get this far, all that is missing is a cutting mat and some water. Excluding paint and related products these tools will see me through this job I think.

I'm not entirely convinced that the skip forward method of fixing the intakes together will work? I will know when I build the GR1.

[It's a disease]

Yesterday work carried on with the intake nozzles, lots of time gets spent here, the outsides are profiled to conform to the fuselage the insides are roughed out with a round file and then sanded. I had a look at the Aden gun pods again, while there was a hole which I drilled it didn't look very convincing so I drilled a second slightly larger hole to give a more realistic impression. Final sub assemblies, the piece that makes up the undercarriage and air brake was fitted. All the parts I have ready are now sitting in the box lid, I can finally get on to painting.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92891884@N04/14793079105/

(High res. bits in the box)

Aden comparison, top picture one hole, bottom picture second hole, this should be more like a countersink, I went in just a touch too much.

I started off with painting the intakes, I masked off the area to prevent excessive paint build up around the outside of the pieces, you can see areas where the airbrush doesn't reach, these were dotted in by hand and a final mist was applied to even up the colour. Second, I painted the rear exhaust nozzles/deflectors in gun metal. Then finally I moved on to the basic colour for the cockpit, this was also masked off. (The grey vent still has some evidence of the round file)

All about paint, first off, the picture shows the main fan, after the gun metal had dried I dry brushed with chain mail, once fitted it looked a bit funny so I flooded between the fan blades with black ink then dry brushed again, each stage took two or three goes to get a decent build up of paint. It is worth noting the fan after paint is a very tight fit, the back flange of the piece was eased.

For the colours, the green/grey were a custom mix of tamiya colours,

Dark sea grey, XF83/XF24 @ 70:30 plus XF1 (several drops)

Dark green, XF61=XF58(70%) XF81 (20%) XF3/XF1 (a few drops each, more yellow than black)

Interior, XF 25 straight.

Also used, black ink and chain mail from the games workshop range. Black XF1 was sprayed into the rear of the intakes where the fan sits to darken up the area, I also covered the ejector seat at this time.

Edited July 31, 2014 by It's a disease

[eng]

Nice work so far mate. Have you seen Spencer Pollards build of it in this months Model Aircraft Illustrated? Rather nice.

Eng

Oh and kudos for the way you drew attention to your build sir!

Eng

[It's a disease]

Cockpit day, basic painting here, first I use a very thin mix of black paint at about 5-10% paint. Wash in the shadow areas, then wash in the drop shadows with black ink, before this dries blend together with the original base colour to smooth out the contrasts. Set this aside to dry, also I pick out the consoles etc. with black ink. (at this time I moved back to the intakes) Once fully dry re apply the original base colour, dot some paint on and move it about with a clean dry brush, repeat until satisfied, allow to dry at each stage, it's kind of random painting. Then I add some Humbrol yellow (Matt 24) this is my airframe primer colour, add chips and some random spots, blend this in with a clean dry brush, you are sort of dry brushing but not quite, finally add some chain mail in a similar fashion. Once dry this was glossed ready for decals.

Back to the nozzles, basic steps again, sand smooth, this time I filled the scratches with primer, sand back, add primer, sand back etc. also the front lower corner had a chip, this was filled with primer allowed to dry and shaped. Both areas were painted again, I also put paint on the gun packs, stores rails and drop tanks, these items were glossed along with the cockpit ready for decals.

While waiting for the gloss to dry I thought I'd try and find some parked harrier pictures to try and ID some RBF (remove before flight) tag locations, I have some RAF type from Eduard that I want to use, I got them for a chinook but there will be plenty left, this project will have these and it will be another first for me product, we shall see how that goes? One thing I keep stumbling across is the incorrect fin, at first I thought it was lack of the RWR block, the Airfix tribute forum has a well detailed account of this issue, according to them it is 1.763mm short from the top of the RWR to the fin tip. You have three options here, the simplest first, do nothing about it, or, buy a replacement,, freightdog do a direct replacement for £3, final option, hack job! I looked at the part, if you cut along the panel line above the RWR sensor, follow this line back and up then across the top of the rudder to separate the piece (this line is on the piece, separate as you would for ailerons/flaps etc.) what I found is, step the cut piece up and back keeping the line at the front of the fin, glue where it meets just forward of the rudder, you are left with two parallel 1.8mm runs, fill in with spare plastic that is 1.0mm thick, this gives you a bit extra to work with. Hopefully I can shape this today. (Yes I realise it is now 0.037mm higher overall but only Mr Vernier knows)

[It's a disease]

Nice work so far mate. Have you seen Spencer Pollards build of it in this months Model Aircraft Illustrated? Rather nice.

EngOh and kudos for the way you drew attention to your build sir!

Eng

Cheers, no I haven't, Mr pollard and his publications did teach me a great deal though, when I first got back into modelling I bought that type of publication regular, I found all I was interested in was the new release section at the back, internet provides better coverage. There was a generic modellers one which covered tanks etc but I forget the name now, military in scale maybe? I found that was better for me as I build more than aircraft but if an article grabbed my attention I did pick it up, also flypast was my first (2nd) choice. The only magazine that was always bought was practical Fishkeeping, off topic but that was where my attention was 8-10 years ago as I just got into erm, Fishkeeping! That's my serious hobby.

(About boobys, I'm immature! A 35 year old child, what else can I say?)

CHEERS!

[It's a disease]

Fridays effort.

First job, the fin. I quickly cut the rough shape with a scalpel and roughed it with a flat file. Once near to the shape regular fine grade sandpaper was used to bring the shape closer. I used zero paints micro filler/primer to deal with the fine scratches/gouges that remained. This was applied with a cocktail stick, the paint is cellulose based and is very stinky and quite a chore to clean from the gun, for the amount I need here it really wasn't worth the trouble, I did mask up to protect the panel lines I wanted to keep (waste of time not necessary with a cocktail stick) while each coat of paint dried I worked on the cockpit. A comparison has been made with a GR1 tail fin.

Cockpit work, the gloss has had overnight to dry, I still use Humbrol enamels (standard practice for decals to prevent silvering is to gloss coat the job to give an even substrate) The decals themselves are just slightly large, they look good, registered perfect and are definitely an improvement over Airfix past! It is necessary to cut dangerously close to the print, the main instrument panel has a black outline which needs to be removed. Revell decal soft was used throughout. Once dried the complete interior was dry brushed with (games workshop) fortress grey, this has the effect of picking out the edges, adding highlights, evening up the blends some more and softening the yellow. Top right picture, complete cockpit after Matt coat. Bottom right picture, after dry brushing, no matt coat. I also use games work shop 'ard coat (it's what they call gloss) I use it to stick down corners etc. it's a water based acrylic. Tweezers and a peg are used to float the decal in regular tap water and a scalpel and scissors for cutting.

View of the intakes, lots of work but I'm happy with these. A comparison of the tail fin. Ready for glue, now I have the essence of an aircraft and it looks just like a harrier!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92891884@N04/14804695154/

(High res image)

Edited August 2, 2014 by It's a disease

[It's a disease]

Forgot to add these images, dozy caffeine depleted dunce!

Cockpit complete, looks ok, being hyper critical I'd say add a decal for the fuse board and another for the combing console. These are really visible. I think it's great looking but those points are my honest opinion.

[It's a disease]

Saturdays work,

Undercarriage. The nose gear rear door is in need of some work. In keeping with an out of box build I used the original doors to construct a new representation of the real thing. The door (open position) is removed from the nose gear leg, then I use a file to form a rough shape on each side. Separate these with scalpel. Using the closed position doors, first cut a relief to accept the new rails then separate the single door from the set. Finally, fix these together. The new legs are a little thick but a gentle sanding should reduce these to a more acceptable width.

Undercarriage/air brake bays. These were painted in the same fashion as the cockpit. I mixed my own faded white using XF57 (25%) and X2. This time I dry brush with (games workshop) skull white. The only thing here worth noting is the gap through the nose gear bay, this was filled using 0.5mm/0.20" sheet, sanded a bit to close the gap uniformly. The gap tapers and extends through the vertical at the rear of the bay.

High res. image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92891884@N04/14794119436/

[It's a disease]

Sundays work.

The aircraft looked like this in the morning, I cleaned up the joints and rejoined the panel lines where necessary. There is still some minor filling along some parts of the seams where I will use the micro filler paint and cocktail stick method again. That technique happened on this kit, it worked well and I will use it from now on. A quick look in the nose gear well. The new plastic can be seen filling the join, this seems to be a common issue with this kit in both Gr1/3 guises. The nose cone and tail cone needed a little attention to get a flush join, basically they need sanding on the jointing face to get an even line all around the circumference, it's minor but worthy of note. The tail plane is complete, the elevators have been cut in half to fit later, I did this because there are decals to be placed behind/near the leading edge, as it is a fully moving surface the joint line would be natural.

Not a lot happened with the kit so I thought I'd try to realise some kind of achievement. This is a new technique for me, this is my first effort at DIY seatbelts. For the pad I doubled up some tape to give a better thickness, the belts were fixed point to point with super glue. Working from a reference picture I added bits to build up a representation of the busy belt system. Spare parts of the kit were used to form the buckles and clasp, I used piece 1, a fin type thing, this was sanded thin and cut into suitable sized "buckles" I used stretched sprue to replicate the seat release. This was fixed into the sprue gate of the fin type thing, I drilled 2 suitable sized holes to accept the piece. First I tried to fix then form but this failed so I formed the piece using the cocktail stick then separated the bit I needed, this was fixed with regular poly then superglued into position. The clasp is from the air brake full open pneumatic actuator.

THANK YOU Monty, this is something I would not have thought of. I think it should be quite convincing under paint.

Edited August 4, 2014 by It's a disease

[Tim Moff]

Which micro filler paint do you use? Need to re-think how I fill, just using putty at the moment.

[It's a disease]

Which micro filler paint do you use? Need to re-think how I fill, just using putty at the moment.

(Sorry about the size of this answer, hopefully it covers everything)

I used zero paints micro filler/primer, this is a recent product for me, this is the second thing I've used it on. Regular primer can be used for smaller marks. I used "paint colour" for a while, just splurged some in and waited, acrylic is good for this but needs to be thickened.

I got into this product while trying to achieve a proper shine on my car and bike kits. Somebody told me all about the correct system for automotive kits, it also involves micromesh cloth, again that product makes such a difference to the finish, not so important on 1/72 as the finish looks right but for 1/24 the paint looks wrong I think.

Read post #13. (It's more than just pretty pictures! ;-))

I got mine from hiroboy.com I think it's the best model website for cars and bikes. The only thing is, now it is required to have special delivery as a dangerous product. One pot is quite expensive, I think delivery costs more. If you can find other things from them to boost the order then it isn't so bad but special delivery rates still apply as the order contains dangerous products. (Blame the terrorists)

This is the first aircraft I've used it on and it is also the first time I tried the cocktail stick for application. It's a new tool for me and one which I will definitely be using again in the future!

Do you use solvent type putty or milliput? Solvent based types are aggressive on the plastic often destroying more than they save. They are good for some small work as it really sticks to the plastic. Milliput takes a while to take hold and doesn't bite into the job in the same way as solvent types, it never becomes one with the job. It does stick though and it is good, otherwise I wouldn't be advertising it as such.

I'm happy this is raising questions, I read a few reviews and realised I do some things quite different, it's my first ever review type build thing so I hope it is ok?

[It's a disease]

Mondays work.

I got some paint on the seat! It is a major improvement and it was free. The seat has two decals so it has been glossed ready for them, once they are fitted it will be given a matt finish. Also finished cleaning up the remaining parts. Finished bodywork so now I'm pretty much ready for paint, I just need to fix aerials and minor pieces. (Yes I know, the belts are the wrong colour)

[Selwyn]

Mondays work.

I got some paint on the seat! It is a major improvement and it was free. The seat has two decals so it has been glossed ready for them, once they are fitted it will be given a matt finish. Also finished cleaning up the remaining parts. Finished bodywork so now I'm pretty much ready for paint, I just need to fix aerials and minor pieces. (Yes I know, the belts are the wrong colour)

Quick observation, What time period are you modelling your GR3? If its pre 1981 there were no long straps on the seat as a combined harness system was used on GR1 and GR3 upto this date.

Selwyn

[It's a disease]

Hermes Air Group, Operation Corporate. That's handy info I guess? (Hopefully this is correct, because it's the seat I'm fitting)

What model seat goes in the earlier type? I think the ref I used here was a MB12b. I did find some info pointing toward the mk12 seat. It was second hand information though.

I'm intested to know (you always post on harrier builds so you must have been near them or be a damn excellent modeller with a stack of reference)

What info do you have on the gr1 circa 68, that's my next job using the Gr1 boxing of this. All I have is a serial, I'm intested in the chute pack in particular.

Edit, my mistake it's a Mk 9 I used for reference, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234936521-martin-baker-ejection-seats/

Picture courtesy of julien (from the far side)

Edited August 5, 2014 by It's a disease

[It's a disease]

Martin baker Mk9 ejection seat. Built from box using reference picture, DIY mods using masking tape and bits from the gr3 kit.

[Selwyn]

Martin baker Mk9 ejection seat. Built from box using reference picture, DIY mods using masking tape and bits from the gr3 kit.

Your strap arrangement looks very much like a MK10 seat not a Mk 9. The harrier GR1/3 always had the Mk 9 seat they just changed the strap system in 1981.

Long straps are OK for corporate but don't have the stowages for the buckles each side of the headbox as these were a post 1982 modification to the seat.

Look here http://www.martin-baker.com/_pdfs/history_development_mk1-mk10_ejection_seats.pdf to see the pre long strap arrangement, Scroll down to pg 38 to see. Its labelled as a Jaguar seat but the Mk 9 and its strap system was common to Harrier and Jaguar. Compare it to the long strap version on Page 36. Mk 10 is on page 39 as a further comparison.

Selwyn

Edited August 5, 2014 by Selwyn

[It's a disease]

Mk 9 seat (Martin-Baker archives)

I do not own the rights to this image, reference purposes only.

[Selwyn]

Mk 9 seat (Martin-Baker archives)

I do not own the rights to this image, reference purposes only.

Looks like MB redesigned the headbox at some time probably from lessons learnt on the Mk 10 as the box seems to be a similar design to that Mark10. I can tell this is definately not a Harrier seat as the Personal Equipment Connector (PEC) (oblong shape with a handle!)is on the wrong (Left hand) side of the seat pan for this aircraft. IIRC the Jaguar had the PEC on this side so its probably a later Jaguar seat. The Long strap stowages were attached on the side of the headbox on Harrier seats not on the top as seen here.

There were detail changes made to a Generic seat mark to fit the specific aircraft installation so the seat would be a Mk 9A or B etc etc to differentiate them. |The Seat headbox used on a Harrier GR1/3 was subtly different to the front seat of a T2/4 and the Rear seat of a T2/4 was different again, they were all different sub marks of the Mk9.

Selwyn

Selwyn