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Airfix 1/72 Sea Harrier FRS.1


Stephen

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Is it me or Airfix provides the good ol' WWII pilot here ?!?

That Laurent is exactly what I thought - the instructions show a jet pilot with separate arms - or is that the paint colour call outs? - will have to check page 1 of this thread again! He definately looks very WWII though!

Cheers

Simon

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That Laurent is exactly what I thought - the instructions show a jet pilot with separate arms - or is that the paint colour call outs? - will have to check page 1 of this thread again! He definately looks very WWII though!

Cheers

Simon

Yep, it is the paint call outs! For the money it does seem excellent value but for the nit pickers there are faults - which can of course be corrected. In my opinion the nose gear hub is wrong - raised nuts? I think they are quite subtle in reality whereas the main gear bolt heads are far more prominent, also, aren't there two lights on the nose gear - or is that just on the FA2?

I must say that Airfix do seem to have a liking for prominent panel lines. I reckon they are the same on 1/48th as they are on 1/72nd. I suppose its case of filling with tamiya primer as per Jay Laverty a few SAMs ago? Same goes for the new Hawk and Canberras so this is obviosly now 'Standard Airfix' but it is another SHAR and the decals look great so Airfix are definately going the right way - roll on FA2!

Simon

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Yep, it is the paint call outs! For the money it does seem excellent value but for the nit pickers there are faults - which can of course be corrected. In my opinion the nose gear hub is wrong - raised nuts? I think they are quite subtle in reality whereas the main gear bolt heads are far more prominent, also, aren't there two lights on the nose gear - or is that just on the FA2?

I must say that Airfix do seem to have a liking for prominent panel lines. I reckon they are the same on 1/48th as they are on 1/72nd. I suppose its case of filling with tamiya primer as per Jay Laverty a few SAMs ago? Same goes for the new Hawk and Canberras so this is obviosly now 'Standard Airfix' but it is another SHAR and the decals look great so Airfix are definately going the right way - roll on FA2!

Simon

And I should have read the thread on the FA2 - sorry, its late, I should have gone to bed! - anyway 1 FRS1 and 1 FA2 ordered from E-Models at £7.19 each - stunning!

Simon

Snor, snor, snor.......

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Vladan,

I've got to write and say thanks for the pics and discussion of canopy specifics; very enlightening and of great assistance.

Thanks also to Nick (NG899) for his focus on XZ457/14; it's good to know the finer details of an aircraft's employment. I might have to take you up on your offer of more information, assuming of course I can identify only one to replicate.

Cheers,

Andrew.

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There should not be a step anywhere on the frame - they should just have engraved the frame boundaries.

If Airfix try to mould the canopy with scale framing separated by fine engraved lines only, half the modelling public would complain that the canopy was too hard to mask. If they raise the framing enough to show through masking tape clearly enough to allow easy trimming, the other half will complain.

Either way Airfix will get hung by someone.

My guess is that they believe those intent on scale framing will also be sophisticated enough to use sandpaper.

Shane

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And I should have read the thread on the FA2 - sorry, its late, I should have gone to bed! - anyway 1 FRS1 and 1 FA2 ordered from E-Models at £7.19 each - stunning!

Simon

Snor, snor, snor.......

Both kits now acquired and, yes the pilot figure does look rather silly! Wonder where it was mastered? China I presume? and then manufactured in India, according to the box.

A few things I noticed. Wings and fuselage on the same sprue and, obviously, different for the two versions. The other sprues seem to be the same though and, I suspect, common to the GR7 as I noticed a fuselage centre line pylon and, of course, neither SHAR includes bombs - pity for a Falklands FRS1 maybe? - and the centre line pylon isn't mentioned in the instructions although the undesurface drawings clearly show where the 2 holes are!

Also, the FA2 sprue only has 1 pair of AMRAAMs and an extra pair would have been nice - although I think the fuselage ones got a bit hot and bothered in practice?

One warning - be very careful how you handle the sprues. The FRS1 fuselage sprue includes the pitot. This has 3 injection gates and is really very fine. Sadly however, mine is broken, I suspect because the box is so packed. One of those cases where, in the good old days, it would have been held to the sprue by only one gate and then probably fallen off the sprue and so not got damaged!

Was right about the nose gear - the FA2 doesn't include the upper (red) landing light.

Airfix would also have you believe that the cockpit interior is black whereas its actually a very dark grey for the FRS1 and light grey for the FA2 I think the FRS1 may be EDSG, but maybe DSG - NG899 will know!!

The kit does include a nose yaw vane, and not badly done either! Decals look great. Pity theres no attempt at a HUD. Despite all that, it only costs £7, compare that with e Xtrakit and the SH version, tremendous value and an excellent starting point- when is someone (NeOmega?) going to do a detailed resin seat to go with the MB Mk IX of the earlier Harriers?

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Just building the FRS.1 at the moment. Fit of parts generally very good. Plastic needs a bit of care in cleaning up sprue gates as these are fairly thick in places.

The intakes need a little sanding to get a nice smooth finish but nothing to throw the toys out of the cot about. One area needing carefull assembly is the rear undercarriage bay and airbrake. These need a little trimming and sanding to get it all into place. The odd little joint that need filling but overall I'm impressed with how smoothly its all going together.

I noticed a few comments about the canopy etc, but guys lets get it all into perspective. We have a new mould Sea Harrier with very good levels of detail for £8.00. How much would Hasegawa have us forking out for a similar kit? £20.

All it needs is a new Neomega seat and Airwaves cockpit parts and you have a really nice FRS.1. Weapons, obviously some will have to come from the spares box but overall its great to see Airfix turning out thise type of kit.

Not perfect to some, but....................we are modellers not simply kit assemblers!!!

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as mine are on the way and i have some spare time at work tonight to do some resaerch, can somone please tell me exactly what aircraft are supplied for both the 1 and 2 i.e. ZA176?

thanks

Here's the decal sheet (copied from this post above.....) for the FRS1

Decalsheet.jpg

Interesting choice for the 801 NAS Shar ...XZ191????? Surely that should be XZ491? Or ZA191? XZ191 is a Lynx AH7! Still easy enough to correct.....(The decal I mean, not converting it to a Lynx..........) apart from that it looks like a nice decal sheet....

Airfix's "Think Tank" missed that one!!!! :blush:

Edited by Bill Clark
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thanks Bill, thats just what i needed

I still would prefer a decal variant AND a structured instrument panel, so we have the choice. Such a small additional part wouldn't make the kit more expensive ;)

Alex

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hi all

this is the first time the twin launchers have been supplied in a 72nd scale kit but look at pictures before glueing as the rails are offset on the central block and not symetrical as airfix would have you believe .

who's with me "lets have a " t " brid airfix ......

happy modelling glenn..... :D

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  • 1 year later...

Here you go Daz

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43158

hth

looks like you were correct mate

1. The seat frame should be Dark Admiralty Grey, use Dark Sea Grey 164 with a small dash of white added.

2. Use the 164 mix for the cockpit tub, instrument panel and control column below the handgrip. The centre of the seat headrest is matt black but its top should be Dark Green 163 like the seat cushions. As the kit's pilot wears WW2 vintage flying gear I won't mention the colours needed there, they are the least of his problems!

3. The colours of parts 2A and 3A depend on the scheme being modelled: for A and B paint them Extra Dark Sea Grey 123 overall, for C use Light Aircraft Grey 166. The same applies to the insides of parts 14B and 15B in stage 8, except that for scheme B, where the white undersides overlap up into the intake by approximately a scale 4 inches (10cm). FRS.1 intake interiors were only ever white on the 809/899NAS aircraft finished in the Medium Sea Grey / Barley Grey scheme in 1982.

Edited by walrus
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