silverkite211 Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 No no, you didn't sound ungrateful at all, I just wish tha I had been able to give some info that was a little more helpful. You know, I'm starting to wonder if the decal maker didn't just simply give a couple of spare roundels. Maybe they didn't have enough to fill out the decal sheet so they filled the blank with the extra roundels, since they'd be charged by the printer for a full sheet, whether they used every inch of it or not, I'm guessing. I know decal printers charge for every color used, maybe there is a set price for a particular size sheet as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 22, 2009 Author Share Posted March 22, 2009 I've made quite a bit of progress this weekend, on lots of little bits and bobs. I have plugged the locator hole for the tailplane, and made a smaller hole in this to accept a pin, which was fashioned from a short length of paper clip and attached to the tailplane, the locator tab on the latter having been removed. This should allow me to deflect the tailplanes a little, as seen in a lot of pictures of SHARs when "powered down". I have also created a new blast shield behind the rear exhaust nozzles, as the kit's one was somewhat lacking in detail. It is formed from sections of curved plastic card, which was made curved by wrapping around and securing to a brush handle, before immersing in boiling water to soften and shape it, and then in cold water to harden it again. I have also added a bit of rivet detail to this area: I have also cut out the flaps from the wings at something better representing the correct point, and have filled the old panel line between the flaps and ailerons. I have also begun scratch-building a new, beefier main gear leg, using some bits of the old leg, you can see this in the picture below. I have also added the rubbing plates to the tailplanes, which you can just about see below, as well as the pins to hold the tailplanes on when I attach them: The biggest task of all for this weekend was to remove the upper sections of the intakes, fit the intakes and then re-build the blow-in doors in the open position. While this took a lot of time, it was less hassle than I had expected, and the results are worth it: Also, I'm thinking of displaying this model on a base and making a tow-bar just to add a bit of interest. If I did this, I would probably want to angle the nose wheel slightly to one side. Does anyone know if the nose wheel being offset would mean that the rudder would also have to be offset, or can the two be disconnected for towing (such that the wheel can be offset while the rudder is central)? Also, from which point on the nose gear does the leg rotate? I'd have to make sure I cut it at the right point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 The nosewheel rotates beneath the section of the strut that looks like it has had a couple of tuna tins attached to its side - just above the point where the damper disappears into the strut. When the relevant part of the hydraulic system is engaged, the nose wheel and rudder move together. However, the steering system can be depressuried, allowing the nosewheel to castor freely for towing etc. Between the flap and the aileron, you'll find a small tube - the fuel dump. The bottom segment is covered by the flap as it closes. The rivet detail on the blast deflectors mostly corresponds with the position of the mounting brackets. There is a small raised lip around the GTS intake and exhaust. You might also want to open out the avionics cooling vents in the rear fuselage just ahead of the tail plane. On the Shar the outlets are shielded - presumably against the ingress of salt water. IIRC, these are moulded reasonably well on the Airfix kit. It's coming along very nicely btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Thanks Kirk, you're a great help once again with this build! Those cooling inlets for the avionics bay - are they the ovular ones that are immediately in front of the tailplanes, abaft the tailplane angle markings (don't know the technical term for these!)? Also, when you say they are shielded, what format does the shielding take? I presume that simply having a hole there wouldn't be any good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Does this help? They are cooling outlets rather than inlets - the inlet is in the root of the fin and connects to a heat exchanger then bifurcates (splits) to the outlets on either side of the fuselage. Not entirely sure what the lower ones are - they are on the panel that provides access to the tailplane jack. The FA2 has a ton more LRUs in that fuselage plug for the ( British, ahead of its time [strange, can't find a flag-waving smiley, Mike!!]) radar system so they may well be just additional cooling for these. Think the technical term is "tailplane incidence markings" but I'm happy to be corrected. Happy to help - it all makes for better Harrier models. The more the merrier. 1:24 next please Dave... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousFO98 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Happy to help - it all makes for better Harrier models. The more the merrier. 1:24 next please Dave... Hey Kirk- what about yor own excellent 1/24 build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Cheers Kirk, I've duly opened them up, and added the shroud pieces to them. I've also built the APU cooling vent and the little intakes either side of the intakes on the upper fuselage. I've also added the little lip to the GTS/APU intake and exhaust, and have modified what I had done to the wings to better represent the fuel dump pipe - I had done this previously but it looked rubbish - it looks much better now! I'll get some pictures of these bits up at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnC Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 The FA2 has a ton more LRUs in that fuselage plug for the ( British, ahead of its time [strange, can't find a flag-waving smiley, Mike!!]) radar system so they may well be just additional cooling for these. I agree, a flag-waving smilie would make a great addition to the fine collection of smilies. I know, & for Ann! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Hey Kirk- what about yor own excellent 1/24 build Hmmm. Suffering modellers block on this one at the moment. I was trying to feed in a tiny little square of styrene into the air con outlet and it just kept going wrong so I swore alot and put the damn thing on the shelf until I miraculously regain the skills required to cut and stick plastic. Doing a load of CAD stuff instead for a bit. But thanks for asking - KUTA is often the best cure. Sorry for the thread hijack Dave. I feel guilty now for perhaps encouraging you to more detail than you had in mind. What you have done is looking terrific though... Anticipating the next installment. [Virtual flag waving smiley to indicate fondness for this fab feat of engineering here. And that's 2 people lobbying for it now Mike. Maybe a Britmodeller flag to avoid accusations of jingoism?] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousFO98 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 I feel guilty now for perhaps encouraging you to more detail than you had in mind. What you have done is looking terrific though... Anticipating the next installment. hi Kirk please don't feel guilty - want to see that baby completed it is useful info for later use by others including myself when i get to do my 1/48 Shars - hope you don't mind me interjecting Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 Indeed, Kirk's input has been very valuable, and this model will undoubtedly be the better for it. It's all the little things that make a good model really, obviously that and good craftsmanship/technique. Now, I've not done much more on this today, just a bit of filling, sanding and cleaning up as I'm going to prime the seam lines on the fuselage to see if they need any more work before I attach the wings, as it will probably be more difficult to reach these areas once the wings are attached. However, I do have a couple of pictures of the various vents and the likes that are now added. The first is of the avionics bay cooling system outlet - there is another similar vent on the other side. These were opened up with a heated pin and filed to shape, and small hoods added from plastic card hollowed out underneath and sanded to shape (see Kirk's picture posted earlier to find where on the model to look - it's quite small!): I have also added the auxiliary intakes on the upper fuselage, one behind each air intake - not sure what these are for but they are there, and certainly aren't just an engraved panel line as Airfix chose to represent them. Also visible is the APU cooling outlet just in front of the GTS/APU intake (which wasn't represented on the original model at all), and the thin lip built around the GTS/APU intake and exhaust ducts using some thin plastic card: If the fuselage seams and panel lines don't need too much more work, I might have the wings on her sometime soon, which will be some real visible progress at last - these last few days have been spent doing lots of odd jobs which will make all the difference to the finished model, but don't really give you a sense of progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 (edited) I have also added the auxiliary intakes on the upper fuselage, one behind each air intake - not sure what these are for... Cabin air conditioning system intakes. Edit: Panel lines: there is a spine between the four dorsal engine access panels. 2 parallel lines adjacent to the seam line that you have so nicely removed. Full scale width is about 60mm(?). Edited March 24, 2009 by Kirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 Panel lines: there is a spine between the four dorsal engine access panels. 2 parallel lines adjacent to the seam line that you have so nicely removed. Full scale width is about 60mm(?). I had wondered about that, cheers Kirk! I'll stick that on there before I go and prime the thing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 I've primed the fuselage joints, and, as expected, there is the odd gap or wobbly panel line here and there, but nothing that can't be quickly fixed. Overall, my rescribe job actually looks quite neat - I'm surprised by this as this is my first real full rescribe job. I'll get some more pictures up once I've made a little more progress and have something to show for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 You're doing a superb job on this one Dave, very nice indeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dahut Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Very nice work and pics. I love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 Thanks for the kind words people! I'm just going to take the surface prep seriously here, because with my last model (Phantom FGR.2) I had paint peeling off it left, right and centre when I removed the masking, which came very close to ruining the model. I've have a few ideas to help prevent this happening again, so hopefully if I just make sure I'm really careful and thorough, things should be OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borz666 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I must say you're doing a great job on what seems a pig of a kit! You have more patience than me mate. Keep it up Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted March 27, 2009 Author Share Posted March 27, 2009 Well, I've finally got it ready for priming, and got the topsides done nice and easily. I was doing the undersides when I had a bit of a drama. It's quite windy here and it's picked up a lot in the time the top-sides were drying - the (tray type) box that I was priming the parts in was bodily lifted up and flipped over in the wind, spilling all the bits and bobs onto the flagstones. I've recovered everything, but the airframe has taken a bit of damage where it hit the ground. There doesn't seem to be any serious damage - mostly scuffs and scrapes - so hopefully I can fix this with a bit of sanding and filling - fingers crossed! Still a heart-in-mouth sort of moment though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 Well, I haven't had much free time to get down to modelling of late (at least not while I still have daylight for airbrushing), so the build speed has slowed down a fair bit. Here's a quick update just to say that I managed to fix the damage done when the model went for its first VTOL takeoff and subsequent gear-up landing on the flagstones. A bit of filler and some sanding (and then a bit of re-priming where necessary) sorted it out! I have now painted the lower surfaces in white, but it is all masked off at the moment in preparation for the EDSG, and I forgot to take pictures of it before doing this, hence the lack of pictures at this moment. I have also run out of EDSG, so spraying the upper surfaces might well have to wait until Monday, as the model shop isn't always open on Sundays (though officially they are supposed to be). Should have a picture update to follow on after that's done, and with any luck the masking won't rip the white off the aircraft with this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted April 10, 2009 Author Share Posted April 10, 2009 At last, an update! I have a couple of pictures this time, though they are of dubious quality - perhaps the camera isn't set up properly, so I'll have to have another go soon when I can figure that out. I've got the white and the EDSG on her now, and have yet to paint the details like RWR and radar altimeter aeriel. I also need to paint up the nose cone and nozzles/heat shields, etc.. A long way to go yet, but some significant progress since the last update. I used post-shading for the first time on the EDSG, and although the picture quality is rubbish you can just about see the effect I got. I used slightly darkened Humbrol 79 for the base coat (although this colour doesn't even claim to be EDSG, I always thought it looked something like - the fact it is matt will be rectified by the use of a satin top-coat) followed by post-shading with a lightened version of the colour, such that overall the colour looks something like the original colour "from the can". I'm quite pleased with it for a first go; it definitely lends some depth to the finish without being too stark, which is what I was worried about as I don't want it to have a heavily "faded" look, just to look like it's not brand-new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Things have been moving dead slowly on this of late due to overtime and funny working hours, but I've now made enough progress to warrant another update! The little RWR and radar altimeter aerials have been painted, along with the heat shield and some other minor details. The weathering is now done, though in the following photographs you can't see much of it because of the light - I couldn't take pictures outside as the weather is pants this morning! I have also attached the flaps, though these have not yet been blended in fully, hence the join between wing and flap standing out clean against the dirty aircraft at the moment. I have made the grille over the GTS/APU intake using the flare dispensers from the Eduard Buccaneer PE set, cut down a little to fit the gap - seems to do the job: A shot of the underside (the weathering is more apparent here): A shot of the heat shields aft of the rear nozzles: I have also installed and painted the FOD guards in the intakes: The windscreen has been fitted now so that I could blend it into the fuselage with Milliput - there were large gaps due to my accidental removal of too much cockpit coaming when fitting the Neomega set. I have managed to mess up the vac-form main canopy unit, so I will use the kit item (which isn't too bad anyway) and try to graft some of the Neomega detail onto it. I have also bulged the tyres instead of filing flat-spots into them, as the bulge is quite noticeable on the real deal (low-pressure tyres a la TSR-2 and Jag?): I think these will be better illustrated when on the model, so I'll be sure to get some shots where they are visible on the final result. I have also scratch-built a boarding ladder from plastic card and sprue, this will be attached to the side of the SHAR once the transfers are on and the top-coat is applied: On to the transfers next - in other models I have finished in this scheme, the markings really seemed to bring the model to life, so I'm hoping the same will be true with this SHAR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davec_24 Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 Well, she's finished at last! In a way, I am slightly disappointed with the finish, which isn't as smooth as I'd hoped (bits of stuff stuck in the varnish and the likes - need to enhance my anti-dust techniques for next time, and probably spray the Klear - I brushed it on as this is what I had done on the Phantom, which came out nice...). Short of re-finishing the entire model, there isn't much I can do about it, and it's only really noticeable up close anyway. However, I am pleased with the model's overall appearance, particularly with the post-shading and weathering (the first time I have tried this on a dark colour). I have also tried bulging the tyres, which seems to have come out fairly well, and have made new anti-collision beacons (the old ones were partially removed during sanding, plus the lower beacon was in the wrong place anyway) from pieces of red toothbrush handle - another first, and again the result is quite pleasing. I am also quite pleased with my scratch-built detail which, while not 100% accurate, gives an impression of looking "something like" and certainly beats no detail or a generic set of ribs visible in the gear bays, and no GTS/APU intake or exhausts, and what have you. I left the boarding ladder off in the end, as it stood too far off the ground, and a second attempt at building one - while slightly better - was still at the wrong angle which resulted once again in it being too high (though the only time I have ever climbed up one of those, the aircraft was on tressles and I had to jump a little to get my foot on the bottom rung - they aren't meant to be quite that high when the SHAR is on her own legs!). Anyway, some pictures! I have taken a couple of shots which show the bulged tyres as they sit on the ground: And finally, a few photos of how my efforts in scratch-building the gear and airbrake bays have come out: In all, this model has marked a number of firsts for me - it has been a learning curve but I feel that the lessons learned from it will make for a better model next time... and I have another of these in the stash, so there will be a "next time"! I hope you've all enjoyed watching this build thread, and I hope it's not been too boring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obi-Jiff Kenobi Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Dave, she's a beauty. And no, I didn't think it was boring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Enjoyed it tremendously. Great effort, particularly on the detailing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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