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Airfix Harrier GR1 in 1/72 - Norway


Murray

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Hey guys, just an update on one of my latest builds. An Airfix Harrier GR1 in Norwegian winter camo colours. I've only seen a painting of a GR1 in winter camo and a small grainy picture on an Xtradecal sheet. It's not finished yet. I used the normal dark sea grey and green combo, then applied some maskol over the green then white washed over the green. The majority of the Harriers that I've seen in this colour scheme were GR3's - their whitewash in tatters. Still have to do the decaling (does anyone know if they would remark the stencil data on over the white wash? If you could let me know I'd be massively grateful!) I'm going to paint the roundels on, the dark blue of the roundel would look out of place I think, then just sticking the landing gear and rocket pods on! 

The Airfix kit is pretty good, very good at it's price point. The panel lines are crisp and it has good wheel well and cockpit detail. My only complaint about the kit is the edges of some parts are a little over rounded. So this leads to some nasty joins, namely the nose cone and the... thing sticking out the very back I have no idea what it's called. I'm reasonably happy with how it's turning out, only thing is that I made a harness out of greenstuff two part putty, I must have crushed it and not noticed, then it dried. It sort of looks like the pilot would have been held into his seat my an enormous sausage link. What do you's think? Anyone got any experience in snowy GR1's?

 

Cheers!

 

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Not loving the fat seatbelts but everything else looks fantastic :goodjob:

Some thin masking tape or plastic sheet would have made more effective seatbelts or even going with the Eduard etched brass detail set. The worn paintwork effect is wonderful and looks realistic. Well done.

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8 minutes ago, Col. said:

Not loving the fat seatbelts but everything else looks fantastic :goodjob:

Some thin masking tape or plastic sheet would have made more effective seatbelts or even going with the Eduard etched brass detail set. The worn paintwork effect is wonderful and looks realistic. Well done.

Same, they looked pretty good right up until they got squished. Even had buckles! I probably will just stick to using tamiya tape in the future. Thanks all the same man!

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No worries :) 

Forgot to say, with regard to the stencils, only national and unit markings/codes were painted around so any stencil data on the green areas would have been covered by the white from what I understand.

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In the cockpit the long seat straps are totally wrong for the GR1 Aircraft.

The long straps were retrofitted onto GR3 T2/4 aircraft in 1981 and never featured on GR1 aircraft.  The strap system used was a combined harness system, the pilot wore a jacket affair and two short  lift web straps went from the seat over his shoulders and attached  to the jacket in the upper chest area using a koch fastener  system.

 

If you download this http://www.martin-baker.com/_pdfs/history_development_mk1-mk10_ejection_seats.pdf  martin baker manual (a very good read by the way!) scroll down to  the picture of a mk 9 seat on page 38, although a Jaguar version of the Mk 9 seat, you can see details of the strap system used on all RAF Harriers  (and Jaguars!) Prior to 1981.

 

Selwyn

Edited by Selwyn
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2 hours ago, Col. said:

No worries :) 

Forgot to say, with regard to the stencils, only national and unit markings/codes were painted around so any stencil data on the green areas would have been covered by the white from what I understand.

Excellent, cheers man!

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2 hours ago, Col. said:

No worries :) 

Forgot to say, with regard to the stencils, only national and unit markings/codes were painted around so any stencil data on the green areas would have been covered by the white from what I understand.

Thanks, that might just allow me to finish my winter GR.3...

Sorry about the derailment Murrodels!

Your Harriet looks bloody excellent so far !

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3 minutes ago, Selwyn said:

In the cockpit the long seat straps are wrong.

The long straps were retrofitted onto GR3 T2/4 aircraft in 1981 and never featured on GR1 aircraft.  The strap system used was a combined harness system, the pilot wore a jacket affair and two short  lift web straps went from the seat over his shoulders and attached  to the jacket in the upper chest area using a koch fastener  system.

 

If you download this http://www.martin-baker.com/_pdfs/history_development_mk1-mk10_ejection_seats.pdf  martin baker manual (a very good read by the way!) scroll down to  the picture of a mk 9 seat on page 38, although a Jaguar version of the Mk 9 seat you can see details of the strap system used on all RAF Harriers Prior to 1981.

 

Selwyn

My mistake, interesting about the jacket though! Nice one thanks, will be sure to give it a look over.
Cheers!

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7 minutes ago, Christer A said:

Thanks, that might just allow me to finish my winter GR.3...

Sorry about the derailment Murrodels!

Your Harriet looks bloody excellent so far !

Thanks man! I'll see how noticeable the mutant seat belt is once the canopy is on, maybe take a dremel to it and sort it out. Good luck with your GR3

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  • 2 months later...

Hey guys! Been some time since an update, I started a new WiP thread for this build because I'm an idiot. It showed some roundel painting....

 

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And most recently I masked up the tail markings...

 

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Which will get a lick of paint tonight in the same red/blue as the roundels.

I was wondering, does anyone know whether the plane serial number on the sides of the fuselage have a greyed in box? Or was it painted around when the whitewashing went on? 

 

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Grey box....

 

Harrier_GR3%20XZ974%201SQN%20CAG.jpg 


Whitewashed around? Thoughts?

I'm aware they're not GR1's. But it seems to be used to pretty interchangeably between them. 

Cheers! 

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My understanding is that the serials were whitewashed around, leaving a box, sometimes it looked quite rough though.

 

There are some nice pics on the net of GR.1s in winter scheme, will try and find a link

 

Nice looking build going on there!

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3 hours ago, 71chally said:

There are some nice pics on the net of GR.1s in winter scheme, will try and find a link

 


Really? The vast majority of  whitewashed harriers I've found are GR3's. I've only seen a painting of a GR1, I must not be looking hard enough! 

Thanks!

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Sorry, for some reason the pictures in my mind were of GR.1s but they are in fact 3s, http://www.alamy.com/search.html?qt=RAF Harriers in snow camouflage&imgt=0

 

By way of apology I've tried looking around, but you're right, there isn't much out there on the web, these threads contain some small images http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?104636-Post-Your-Harrier-Pictures

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?111514-Photos-of-Harriers-in-Norway-please

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205117867

 

Despite that side illustration of '09, the white paint was hard edged and brushed on, I've never seen in photographs the serial number being applied over the white temporary paint.

Generally speaking, where the white was applied the areas around the roundels, serials, and sometimes unit markings and codes was just painted around.

 

Edited by 71chally
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There are definitely pics of whitewashed Gr.1s in my reference library, I'll try to dig through them tomorrow for you.

 

 

The white wash was painted around the serials, so usually there'd be a green box around the serial, but it was not masked off, so very rough.

 

 

 

 

Matt

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On 08/03/2017 at 7:23 PM, 71chally said:

Sorry, for some reason the pictures in my mind were of GR.1s but they are in fact 3s, http://www.alamy.com/search.html?qt=RAF Harriers in snow camouflage&imgt=0

 

By way of apology I've tried looking around, but you're right, there isn't much out there on the web, these threads contain some small images http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?104636-Post-Your-Harrier-Pictures

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?111514-Photos-of-Harriers-in-Norway-please

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205117867

 

Despite that side illustration of '09, the white paint was hard edged and brushed on, I've never seen in photographs the serial number being applied over the white temporary paint.

Generally speaking, where the white was applied the areas around the roundels, serials, and sometimes unit markings and codes was just painted around.

 

 

Hey! thanks for these links. They confirm what Mrobeson (massive thanks) sent, so I'm going to box around the 'K' at the top of the tail above the fin marking, as it is white. The registration number on the belly is going on straight over the top as if it'd been whitewashed around. Sorted! 

Thank you both! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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