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1:72 Fujimi BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1


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Mathematics solution has been duly worked out, and geometric proof submitted to Mrs. Guinan my 10th grade math teacher. Unfortunately, she can't possibly still be alive (she was my mother's teacher too!) so independent confirmation is lacking. However, it would appear that all five tyres will now contact congruent planes. 

 

The outriggers from both the Fujimi and Hasegawa kits are too short. Aha, I thought in a moment of false elucidation - my anhedral is off. But wait, the Fujimi wing top is one piece, the anhedral is as it was moulded. And I can't really bend the wings down anyway. I just need some taller outriggers.

 

Quickboost to the rescue - their resin outriggers (designed for the Airfix kit) are just about the perfect height. Huh. I think this is better than sanding a chunk off the bottom of the main gear tyres. Plus, the Quickboost outriggers are three piece, not one. The main strut includes the fork and tyre along with the smaller cover. The actuator strut is separate as is the main, larger cover. Being resin, the detail is a bit sharper. Time to get these babies painted up! 

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Here is a quick photo to show where we are while I'm waiting for the new outriggers to dry. As you can see, the silly outriggers aren't needed anyway, she sets just fine! I think the nose high attitude looks about right.

 

IMG_1002

 

IMG_1003

 

I think the inside of the intake is OK. I probably brought the white a bit too far inside at the bottom, but I won't tell if you won't. So what about the shelf behind the cockpit? I can't tell from the photos what colour it should be painted. My inclination is to paint it Dark Admiralty Grey like the cockpit, but in some photos it looks like EDSG. Anyone know for sure?

 

I opened up the Fujimi canopy. This will sound strange, but I'm going to use the windscreen from the Fujimi kit, and the sliding portion from the Hasegawa kit. I like the shape of the rear edge of the Hasegawa one better. Hasegawa had raised detail on the inside of the canopy to denote the detonator cord - I sanded this off and polished the inside prior to dipping both clear pieces in Future. I'm going to use the photoetch detonator cord from the Eduard fret and that will be added later. I'm going to have to use card stock to build up the inside at the back of the canopy where the detonator control box is, as neither of the two kits supply anything in that regard. The control box will need to be scratched, too. It's too obvious to leave out.

 

LOTS of work yet to do...

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Another one of those silly questions - I painted the PWR (?) on the front of the vertical fin and the radome at the end of the tail Gunze Radome Tan. I'm not sure that's a good colour to use. I think there are a couple of patches on the bottom of the ventral fin which should be the same colour as these two as well. The Hasegawa instructions say to use Middlestone, while Fujimi says Tan. Hmm...notice I ignored both of their advice. They almost look metallic in some photos, especially on the bottom of the ventral fin. Thoughts?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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They can look a bit metallic, but they are (If I recall) raw fibreglass, but who knows what other components! They weather with age and can look anything from a solid yellow to the coppery colour shown below. I'd go for a dirty tan colour!

 

XZ499-059.JPG

Edited by Dave Fleming
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As Dave says, anything from tan to brown, they are the fibreglass covers for the fwd and aft RWRs. The same colour is used at the bottom of the outrigger fwd fairings

The IFF and 2 radar altimeter aerials in the lower aft fin are black, as is the tail bumper part.

 

Must admit I though the cockpit and rear decking were a mid grey, lighter than the EDSG. 

 

Superb work there Bill

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On ‎03‎-‎01‎-‎2017 at 01:01, Dave Fleming said:

The gun pods have a hole at the back and a little centre brace - see Graham's photos:

 

http://p1127.co.uk/Harrier/HarrierGR3/slides/XZ997-W030.JPG

 

Some other useful shots:

 

http://p1127.co.uk/Harrier/HarrierGR3/index.html

 

 

 

The idea of using the Hasegawa wings on the SH FA2 is an interesting one, must dig one out - my last FA2 was an ESCI/Heritage conversion which was a pig.

The brace is a handle for pulling the rear section of the gun pod off.

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Funny old thing, Scimitar/Richard on here has just very kindly sent me a 1983 SAM magazine for the Victor content in it, but it also has a review of the newly released Fujimi Sea Harrier, seems it was the bees knees at the time. 

Can scan and send on if interested - far too late to read to see what you're getting yourself into, of course!

Edited by 71chally
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13 hours ago, chrish said:

Fantastic build; I'm learning loads.

 

Thanks, I'm happy to be of some help. I'm learning loads, too, that's one of the best things about posting WIPs here on BM. There are so many subject matter experts that can chime in and guide your way. It not only helps me learn more about the subject I'm modelling, it also makes the model better. Win-win as they say.   :) 

 

1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Funny old thing, Scimitar/Richard on here has just very kindly sent me a 1983 SAM magazine for the Victor content in it, but it also has a review of the newly released Fujimi Sea Harrier, seems it was the bees knees at the time. 

Can scan and send on if interested - far too late to read to see what you're getting yourself into, of course!

 

I'd love to see that article. I'll send you a PM with my email addy.

 

Back in 1983 I was still subscribing to the worst hobby magazine of all time, Scale Modeler. I think this was just a US publication. Then Finescale Modeler came along which was so much better that Scale Modeler perished soon thereafter. To be honest, I no longer read Finescale Modeler either as I think the content is getting pretty stale, as least as far as modelling techniques go. Same old stuff, over and over. "New in this issue - how to make your 1:72 panel lines look like they have tar in them!"   :doh: 

 

39 minutes ago, woody37 said:

Don't she look sweet in her new paint job?

 

cant wait to see her decals on Bill :)

 

Me too - putting stickers on is one of my favourite parts. Along with assembly, putty, sanding, gluing, painting, and displaying.   :) 

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I'll have an update soon - things are moving along!   :)

 

In the meantime, I've been fondling the Special Hobby Sea Harrier FA.2. As I mentioned before, this is obviously a derivative of the Hasegawa kit, the similarities are numerous. My first concern was the wing - would the Hasegawa FRS.1 wing (which includes the vortex generators) fit the SH fuselage? The answer is yes, it's a near perfect match. The only modification that is needed is to lengthen the slot in the fuselage for the wing tab. Or you could shorten the tab I suppose...but either way it fits nicely. A couple of easy mods to the FRS.1 wing, and one of the shortfalls of the SH kit is fixed.

 

Many folks have complained that the front end of the SH FA.2 doesn't "look right." (Let's face it, though, the front end of a real FA.2 doesn't exactly look right!) I compared the front fuselage pieces between Hasegawa and SH, and the SH part matches the outline of the Hasegawa part without its radome. The FA.2 radome is supplied as a two piece affair in the SH kit, and it attaches to the forward fuselage in the same place as the FRS.1 radome. Is that the way it was done in real life? There were no other extensions or modifications to the shape/size of the forward fuselage? 

 

I have the Pavla resin FA.2 nose designed for the Airfix kit, but it is too large in diameter to work with the SH kit. The Pavla radome has a circular cross-section where it attaches to the fuselage; the SH is slightly oval with the vertical dimension being about 0.5 mm larger. Who's right? Probably doesn't make much difference, 0.5 mm ain't much.

 

SH correctly has the mid-fuselage extension. What's weird is the the plastic is a different thickness in this area, so if you hold it up to the light you see a distinct dark band. I'm not going to speculate what that means.   :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I know the Hasegawa FRS.1 is too short in the nose (something about them mixing up the fuselage length without probe and the overall length including probe?) so I'd regard the SH kit with suspicion in that area too.

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On 1/13/2017 at 16:44, Col. said:

I know the Hasegawa FRS.1 is too short in the nose (something about them mixing up the fuselage length without probe and the overall length including probe?) so I'd regard the SH kit with suspicion in that area too.

 

If Hasegawa confused the length with and without the probe, they'd be off by 13 mm according to the drawings I have. So I think that's just an urban legend. I found this photo that compares Hasegawa (top), Fujimi (center), and ESCI (bottom) and you can see that the Hasegawa kit is short, but it ain't that short:

 

IMG_1742

 

By my measurements before I assembled the Fujimi fuselage, Hasegawa is short by 2-3 mm tops. I think the bigger difference is that the bottom of the nose turns up too much on the Hasegawa kit. That makes the radome diameter smaller than it should be. But I'm not the expert!   :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

EDIT: Oh, just to make sure I get this right - for this scheme, the cold nozzles should be EDSG, correct?

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Thanks for the comparison photo Bill. Very informative.

As for the nozzles; yes sir that's correct.

Edited by Col.
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On 1/12/2017 at 11:41 AM, Navy Bird said:

 

Back in 1983 I was still subscribing to the worst hobby magazine of all time, Scale Modeler. I think this was just a US publication. Then Finescale Modeler came along which was so much better that Scale Modeler perished soon thereafter. To be honest, I no longer read Finescale Modeler either as I think the content is getting pretty stale, as least as far as modelling techniques go. Same old stuff, over and over. "New in this issue - how to make your 1:72 panel lines look like they have tar in them!"   :doh: 

 

Ah yes, the olde Scale Modeler. I remember that magazine, and then the amazement of the first issue of FSM I got my mitts on (I believe it was the May '89 edition). But then, from the mid-90's to 2001 I had the pleasure of being stationed in Germany with the US Army and was exposed to the non-US modelling publications and...my mind was blown by the quality, both of publication and content. Never looked back. I still pick up FSM to quickly leaf through when I come across it at the store but nothing between the covers ever grabs me the way those old issues did. They seem to be much of the case of "how often can we re-warm the same leftover pizza". Sad really that there are no publications from the US that stand with those from across the pond.*

 

*: Aerospace Modeler Magazine was a great attempt, unfortunately succumbing to the great American past time of divorce proceedings bringing about financial ruination.

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10 hours ago, Col. said:

Thanks for the comparison photo Bill. Very informative.

As for the nozzles; yes sir that's correct.

 

Thanks Col.!

 

9 hours ago, woody37 said:

I think I might crack on with an A4 & Sea harrier build this year having seen this, totally inspired :)

 

Yes, definitely - we want to see you tackle a Falklands Dogfight Double! What scale?

 

4 hours ago, SmashedGlass said:

Sad really that there are no publications from the US that stand with those from across the pond.

 

So true. I just wish the UK magazines would print the photos a bit larger.

 

2 hours ago, NG899 said:

Very quickly...

Cockpit colour - Matt DSG works fine in this scale.

Rear decking colour - Gloss EDSG.

 

So the above looks ok to me :)

 

Crap, I just painted the rear decking with Dark Admiralty Grey (I use Gunze Dark Sea Grey as a substitute). I guess I have to paint it back!   :doh:

 

 

OK, who was the chap at MOD or FAA or Hawker who decided it was a good idea to put the fuselage roundel on top of the intake blow-in doors? I seriously need to have a word with him!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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45 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

OK, who was the chap at MOD or FAA or Hawker who decided it was a good idea to put the fuselage roundel on top of the intake blow-in doors? I seriously need to have a word with him!

A word? He needs his head kicking in at least! :dalek1:I reckon he did it on purpose just to upset us modellers, in which case he succeeded big time!

 

Martian

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Thanks, mates. What I was asking about was the fixed portion of the deck. Sounds (and looks) like I should go with EDSG for the fixed portion and DSG for the sliding portion.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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