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1/48 Kinetic Sea Harrier FRS.1


Calum

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Going to give this one shot. Looks nice in the box. It will be a Operation Corporate jet but haven't quite decided if it will be an all over dark sea grey or the lighter barley grey one.

 

I've got the Eduard Big Ed set, which isn't actually that big, only have 1 exterior and 1 interior PE set along with a mask. I also have a Pavla Resin set and model master probe set.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-01.jpg

 

I first applied the unpainted PE, then following the kit instructions painted the parts (FS36375). 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-02.jpg

 

It was then I figured out the colour callouts in the instructions are not to be trusted (actually I was pretty suspicious to begin with). I think the cockpit is supposed to be Dark Admiralty Grey but I always like to lighten cockpit colours so I choose something that looked similar to the images I have of the cockpit, Mr Color 337 (FS35237) Grayish Blue.

 

I was never much of a fan of coloured PE for cockpit side consoles as it seems a little flat. I do like it for instrument panels though However I'm warming to it especially for small dark cockpits like British jets of the 1970's. It actually looks quite good in this cockpit even more so when the cockpit is actually fitted to the fuselage. 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-03.jpg

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On 11/12/2016 at 10:38 PM, Mick Drover said:

Great start Calum. I'll be keen to see what you think of it. Bruce will probably want to build one now and take it to Canberra next year.

 

Gotta do Sharky Wards jet surely???

 

Cheers,

Mick

Thanks Mick. 

 

Don't know what jet I'll do at this stage but will be a EDSG one and not Wards (he came across is a bit of a arrogant dick in some stuff I read a few years back).

 

And as for Bruce building one... can't see it ...its not a snap tite kit so this is probably a bit beyond his skill level ☺

On 11/12/2016 at 10:52 PM, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

Building the same model at the moment!  but without any PE, here's my 'pit

 

 

 

Watch the fit of the engine intakes - they are interesting!

 

Looking good.

 

Jonners

 

Nice work on the pit Jonners .  I've recently fitted  the intakes ,  they seem ok.

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Fit of the cockpit tub to the side fuselage is pretty good although I did deepen the recesses in fuselage halves with a couple of swipes with the chisel.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-04.jpg

 

Fitment of the engine intake piece required a little more work. The left side fitted well with the piece butting up nicely against the fuselage half.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-05.jpg

 

But on the right I spent a bit of time adjusting things to fit. I shaved down the 2 lugs with the intake locating holes a bit and got a better fit , but still not as good as the left.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-06.jpg

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-07.jpg

 

I found that with some pressure things would line up., The trick is how to maintain that pressure when the glue dries and what glue to use to hold it. In the end I used a liberal amount 5 min epoxy on the right side in the area behind the cockpit  and on the side of the nose gear bay. I clamped it and left it to dry for a few hours

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-08.jpg

 

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HI Calum, looking good. I had the same uneven fit with the intake component too. I found that removing the large lugs on the rear of the cockpit bulkhead ( which key into the nosewheel bay front) and allowing this piece to float in front of the bay - made the fit a lot better.

 

A bit late for you now - but may be of use to others.

 

cheers

 

Jonners

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On 12/15/2016 at 6:31 PM, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said:

HI Calum, looking good. I had the same uneven fit with the intake component too. I found that removing the large lugs on the rear of the cockpit bulkhead ( which key into the nosewheel bay front) and allowing this piece to float in front of the bay - made the fit a lot better.

 

A bit late for you now - but may be of use to others.

 

cheers

 

Jonners

I thinned those down quite a bit but obviously not enough

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16 hours ago, k5054nz said:

Top work so far Calum, but how you manage to shoot your model in The Void is beyond me. That background is mad!

It just a cardboard box lined with paper, I shoot in raw and up the brightness in paintshop pro when doing the photos

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Before I glued up the fuselage halves I'd adjusted the rear gear bay and airbrake bay to fit. . Once I was happy with the fit I finished gluing the 2 halves together. I used MEK as normal and then flooed a layer of CA on the inside.....Unfortunately a bit escaped and glued my finger to the tail ...... another AE.. Doh!!! 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-09.jpg

 

After fixing that up I slid the gear/airbrake bay into place and glued it in place.

I then added the mechanisms for the exhausts/ air ducts. You can add the rear one quite easily but the front one required breaking to fit. Fortunately I found I'd made another stuff up (AE) and assembled it the wrong way. So breaking the piece that joins the 2 from air duct supports allowed me to correct this.This isn't how the instructions have you do it but I was considering not bothering with the mechanism at all and just gluing the supports in place at a particular angle.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-10.jpg

 

Fit of the airbrake area to the fuselage is pretty good. For some reason thow I thought the rear part sat a little proud of the rest of the fuselage... 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-11.jpg

 

It doesn't so a little but of sanding was need to correct the profile

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-12.jpg
 

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Onto the intakes Fit here is was OK, although in trying to improve things I got a bit carried away with the sanding stick, sanding the wrong surfaces and ended up with a large gap on the upper join between the intake and fuselage. This was easily solved by an application of perfect plastic putty.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-13.jpg

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-14.jpg

 

The nose piece seems minutely larger in diameter to the fuselage but could have been due my work in removing the seem. I also deepened the panel lines in the his area as they were a little shallow.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-15.jpg

 

The sharp eyed among you will have noticed the missing window in the lower forward fuselage... This got contaminated with CA glue so I removed it. 'll replace it with some clear glue at the end of the build

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-16.jpg

 

So far the kit has gone together well, however a bit of time has been spent dry fitting most parts, and adjusting  to get a better (and sometimes worse) fit

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-17.jpg

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-18.jpg

Edited by Calum
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Hi Callum, sterling work there chap , it's looking good. 

 

I found the nose cone to be a tad oversized too (which tallied up with a report from a friend). I sanded the mating surface of the nose cone back a little till the diameter matched the fuselage. 

 

Looks like we we have several SHAR builds on the go now. Nice to see so many. 

 

Cheers Jonners

 

 

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On Friday, 23 December 2016 at 2:00 PM, Calum said:

Unfortunately a bit escaped and glued my finger to the tail ...... another AE.. Doh!!!

 

I now know why they call you hamfisted

 

 

I then added the mechanisms for the exhausts/ air ducts. You can add the rear one quite easily but the front one required breaking to fit. Fortunately I found I'd made another stuff up (AE) and assembled it the wrong way.

 

Again, this one entirely yours.  You really should try reading the instructions:D

 

Good progress.  Are you back from The land of The Long White Cloud?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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Next steps..

 

There was a gap between the fin on underside of the aircraft and the fuselage which I filled with some water based perfect plastic putty.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-19.jpg

 

One area that was poorly done was the raised detail for the panel (I assume some sort of antenna (doppler?) ) under the nose. On one fuselage half it was present but on the other it seemed it was only represented by panel lines. 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-20.jpg

 

I had a quick look online and from the few images I saw it seemed like it should be raised on both sides. So I sanded the area flush than using thin strips of ally tape restored the raised detail so it it loosely resembles what I think should be there. This was then given a coat of Mr surfacer to smooth out the bumps and sanded 

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-21.jpg

 

Fit of the wing was OK after some adjusting however I did end up with a gap of nearly 1mm on the front edge on the left hand side - again this may have been due to me being a little to heavy handed with the sanding stick. I filled the gap with some scrap styrene and a little filler.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-22.jpg

 

The area of black filler on the left rear of the wing is there to restore the profile of the fuselage to match the wing.

 

Sea-Harrier-FRS-23.jpg
 

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