ChocksAway

If no-one wants the Harrier decals when they buy the sheet, I'd be interested. Drop me a PM. Thanks in anticipation.

I don't have the answer, as can be seen by my build of the FRS51, IN623, but I did have a stab at getting it close. As scotthldr has said, there has been a number of different schemes used, though I found dating photographs made it impossible to determine when each was introduced and superseded. Harrier SIG members will see the fun I had with this when they read my "More Tails to Tell" special schemes document. I'm pretty convinced that the latest scheme is a single grey excepting the radome and I think most of the FRS.51s have now been painted in this scheme. The light colour temperature varies so much across the photos I've seen that it's difficult to determine the best photo from which to make a prediction, in the absence of definitive information. In the end I used Life Color's acrylic Light Compass Ghost Grey (FS36375) and their Light Gull Grey for the radome. You'll also see that there are different colour radomes, as occurs with the USMC AV-8B II Plus fleet. Giorgio - you may want to have a look at other Indian Navy / Air force aircraft because they appear to be standardising on one particular grey and therefore the same grey? I've seen various names for it including "low visibility grey" but never an FS or BS reference number. I don't suppose that really helps, but good luck. It will be nice to see another one in this scheme.

Interesting what-if and lovely model Personally, I'd prefer to see it without all the junk in the background - it detracts unnecessarily from the model.

Giorgio N - as and when, no rush, just curious as not seen a reference to that before. NEW 1/48 scale Harriers - ooh, yes please, but I guess there's no compelling reason for manufacturers to do one currently - and unfortunately. There may be demand amongst us Harrier nuts, but how wide it would spread is hard to tell. Though I have to say if my experience of people visiting G-VTOL is anything to go by, the Harrier is a long way from forgotten. If I had a £ for every comment along the lines of "why did they get rid of them", I'd be looking at tax avoidance! Sadly though, that might not mean fellow modellers want to make one. 1/32 seems to be the new 1/48 for a number of us. Back to wing filling on the venerable Airfix FA.2 - 1/48th of course.

Air dam later removed? Why? When?

My latest Harrier ... RFI Thread ... an AV-8C with VX-5 "Vampires"

Thank you chaps, your praise is appreciated. Better get on with the next one now.

The Nightmares will end in July 2013 - VMA-513 - Decommissions For those of you interested in USMC Harriers, you may or may not know that USMC unit VMA-513 "The Flying Nightmares" officially decommissions on Friday 12th July, 2013. They have already completed their last flights this week. The Nightmare were the first USMC unit to receive the Harrier in April 1971. The Harriers and pilots are being dispersed to other USMC units. Equally good news, the USMC are looking at certain upgrades to the Harriers to keep them flying until 2030 according to some recent press stories. Here's an oldish story now (Sept 12) about how/why the Italian Navy managed to retain their Harriers when we didn't.

Harrier AV-8C - 158706 / XE-27 of VX-5 "Vampires", US Navy Air Test & Evaluation Squadron, September 1981 After a brief interlude away from Harriers (see here if interested), I've returned to complete the latest model in my Harrier Project - that of a Harrier AV-C flown by the US Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron, VX-5 "Vampires", operating out of NAWS China Lake, California. I've seen a couple of photos of this aircraft and thought it would be nice to build, showing as it does the aircraft in the low visibility colours worn by the AV-8Cs (and the AV-8As late in their service life) and a Harrier flying with a US Navy unit rather than the US Marines. It's also sporting an asymmetric dummy AGM-122 "Sidearm" missile (a converted AIM-9C), presumably as part of one of the first air test trials referred to here. I didn't have a Monogram Harrier AV-8A kit, and I wouldn't use the Tamiya version, so I used an Airfix Harrier GR3 and set about converting it back - or is it forward or sideways? - to the Harrier AV-8C. For you modelling experts out there it's easy: just saw off the LRMTS nose; remove the RWR from the front of the tail fin and reduce the height of the tail; throw away the rear tail cone (or use as base for new one); and chuck out the kit seat (which you probably would anyway). Add a GR.1 / AV-8A nose minus the camera fairing as it was removed (I had one in resin from previously), find a Stencel seat (I used a Harrier AV-8B one - tut tut, but close enough), add the RWR mods to the tail cone and wing tips, find / create the large blade aerial, pitot tube and, if adding gun pods as I did, create some plasticard strakes to go on them. No air dam was required as these are not open when the aircraft is at dispersal. Depending on your penchant for detail, various cockpit and instrument panel mods are required. I used some Heritage Aviation dropped auxiliary door intakes and nozzles. The rest of the build is pretty much the usual mods I do to the Airfix kit - as ever, I used Nick Greenall's Harrier SIG guides as a base for my efforts - and this detail has been covered elsewhere before. She's brush painted of course, using Life colour's acrylics: "Dark Green" (FS34079) and "Dark Grey" (FS36118) for the upper surface camouflage and "Light Gull Grey" (FS36440) for the undersides. I doubt these are the real colours, but as you will see, I was trying to mimic the weathering on the aircraft, so an approximation was good enough for me (Purists and Harrier rivet counters can tut loudly here). I left off the final coat of paint (these normally require 4 / 3 / 4 coats respectively for me) so creating a patchy / weathered appearance, though sadly some bits just might look like dodgy painting. My fellow members at West Middlesex Scale Model Club will no doubt say that was not deliberate, just usual for my brush work and I should stop making excuses. The aircraft carries a single dummy AIM-9 as per the photos I have. Not having full views from all sides, there's been some interpretation! I used the new Humbrol Clear in preparation for the decals. I found this best applied sparingly with a wide flat brush - the Humbrol video shows it done with a small round brush, but I found it simply pooled on the aircraft and it was really difficult to get flat. This is especially true anyway if you over-load the brush, whatever the size and shape. Aside from a few stencils from the spares box, I made all the low visibility insignia, unit markings and serials myself. I still haven't mastered this home decal making, but these were better than my last efforts (problem = getting ink to sit / spread evenly). Weathering from Tamiya powders, Zig brushables, pencils and old smudged up cotton buds with various colours on! The MDC was done with a gel silver pen on the inside, the template mask taped to the outside. Not bad, could be better. I rounded off with a spray of Humbrol matt varnish to seal the weathering and then Vallejo matt varnish brushed on to get a good flat finish. Does it resemble the real thing? In spirit if not in practice ... Enough waffle (sorry), here she is ... Comments welcome, as ever. More photos of this model, and the rest of my Harrier collection, can be found here for those who find themselves struggling with insomnia.

Nice one.

Thanks for the feedback chaps - very kind. Actually you almost need the opposite. Just squiggle away - apparently the best thing is to avoid crossing lines.

John Have a look at the Harrier SIG modelling guides by Nick Greenall for the FA2 and then decide if you really need to use the AV-8A. Personally I'd keep the AV-8A for a GR1/AV-8A/C/S.

I thought I'd have a break from Harriers for a while and build a few models from my 1/144 collection. I also completed a build of the Space Shuttle for some friends. I did an Egg Plane for good measure, at the same time as the Eindecker build. Here's how they turned out ... The Dragon / Italeri 1/144th Intruder A-6E. Nice little kit, but the decals I had were completely knackered and many went on in little pieces. One for the dustbin of history perhaps ... Next up is the Airfix 1/144th Space Shuttle (yes I know it's in the wrong place as not an aircraft - well most of the time not, anyway). Built from out-of-the-box for friends - this is done as Discovery ... A lovely little P-51D Egg Plane and my first attempt at a rattle can paint finish (with a touch of the lived-in look) ... And last but not least, having seen an artist's impression of Flt Lt Alan Pollock's unauthorised flight through Tower Bridge, I thought I'd see if I could replicate it. I downloaded and printed a card model of the bridge and combined that with the Revell 1/144th scale Hunter. I made up a few decals - well, I made up a lot of things in this build. The black blob is the Loch Ness monster - she's hiding a glue blob that removed the ink from the Thames! The caption headline is "Oh Pollock! I think my wings look big in this" ... Comments welcome as ever. Back on the straight and narrow again now with a build of a 1/48th scale Harrier AV-8C flying with VX-5 "Vampires".

This is my second attempt at a WW1 aircraft in 1/48th scale and I finished it shorty after hearing of the sad death of John Day, a member of the Great War Display Team, and whose flying, along with that of the other team members, was responsible for generating my interest in building WW1 aircraft and joining the Great War Special Interest Group. Hopefully the team will carry on and pay tribute to John by doing so. The model is the Eduard Weekend Edition of the Eindecker E.II / E.III and is built out-of-the-box. I managed to put one of the decals in the wrong place on the wing, but other than that, no major construction problems. The only addition is the rigging, which is knitting in elastic. The markings on the aluminium were achieved using a silver gel rollerball. Hand painted in acrylics and finished with Humbrol matt varnish from a rattle can. I doubt it looks anything like the real thing, especially for colours - it is an E.II 68/15 flown by Lt. Bruckmann, AA Gaede, in late 1915. (This is also in the Wingnuts boxing). If it's supposed to be doable in a weekend, then I need 4 day weekends. This is how it came out ... and here's a few photographs of mine of the Great War Display Team in action - I recommend trying to get to see them at an airshow. It's a great display. Comments welcome as ever.

Here's the Great War Display Team's tribute to John Day who sadly died in this crash. http://www.greatwardisplayteam.com/john-day-1944-2013.html

I agree with Bill, XV742 fits into the category of "the exception" and likewise I have not seen an RWR tail with a pointy-nose GR3. XV760 has an RWR tail and a pointy nose - but by then she's in Royal Navy colours, a gate guard and may even be two airframes knitted together, You can find shots of this oddity here. You;ll have to do one of these or go, as Bill said, with a Spanish / Thai Harrier in this configuration, as I did with mine here

Signed, but I expect to win the lottery before I see it happen, sadly. Perhaps the airshow organisers in the UK could focus some effort on the Spanish or Italian navies to show us one of theirs (done before) or even for the USMC to do a double act - an F-35B and AV-8B II Plus in a dual hover over the display centre-line at IAT 2013. Now that would be a photo opportunity (and a case for some serious ear defenders).

I'd recommend Pro Arte Prolene One Stroke Series 106 Brushes - these are the ones with the flat ops - for all flat surfaces. Smaller curved parts I would use their Round Series. I'd echo most of the tips and advice. I would add: Be patient - if it doesn't cover as you would expect, don't force it. You can always add another layer later. After cleaning the brushes (I use Acrylics 90% of the time) - air dry them - there's no need to wipe them and add the risk of getting tissue / cloth fibres embedded between the bristles. Practice - not all paints behave the same way - so use the inside unseen areas of kits to see how you need to apply that particular brand - or even pot! Hood and Shar2 have seen the results in the flesh (as may others when seeing my models on display with West Middlesex Scale Model Club), though you can find photos of my brush work here on BM). It's not brilliant, but it's much better now I've switched to the flat top brushes.

Rick Have a look at the Harrier SIG build notes for this kit here. As Dave A points out, the instructions are mis-leading, and even vary between the Revell and Hasegawa instructions! Having done a few now, I find that sometimes you have to delay glueing the bellmouth to the fuselage as sometimes you need to wedge some scrap card between it and the fuselage to get the right shape to fit B5 - the aft cockpit panel. Tape that in place - there should really be no need to trim it width or length wise. Add the lower wings separate from the top wing. Dry fit top wing and LERX and LERX fillet. You may wish to experiment with K4, glue to LERX or glue to fuselage - there's no right and wrong, as the Harrier SIG Kestrel Formation builders found out when we made 17 of them. Hope that helps?

Lovely.

The latest ... an AV-8B II Plus from the Italian Navy ... RFI Thread

Thanks chaps for the feedback. Sorry, I did not take any photos. Briefly, I cut the main and auxillary flaps from the top wing and the main flap part from the bottom wing (includes slicing into the fairing). Join the main flap parts and add an angled extension of plasticard to represent the rest of the flap hidden by the auxillary flap. Some internal strips of plastic may help with shape maintenance for the main flap. Blend in with filler. Cut the fairings to cater for desired angle of flap - you can file them down (or replace) so one slides inside the other (I didn't bother and cheated). Use plasticard to shape and fill fuselage gap next to flap - some more strip is required here to outline the fuselage fairing area (again I ignored this). If necessary, add a spacer between main flap and aux flap to keep them apart. I used my reference photographs of dropped flaps to get as close as I could to the real thing - and their use makes the above notes make sense. It should look something like this ...

Revell - #4061 - here's a link on the Revell site to the instructions Roden also do one - #R045 - I have it in the stash More practise with Google required!?

Selwyn Thank you for the update on LAG GR3s - I'm happy to confess I got it wrong. There may even be other examples. As with all these things, I guess there's the problem of change management. In the mid-70s, if the RAF decided to go from the DG/DSG/LAG to DG/DSG scheme, I don't suppose they would have immediately painted every aircraft in the new scheme. Why XW916 escaped the paint sprayers I don't know. BTW - I don't think it was XV738, as I have photos of her in wraparound in 1978. I've got some more photos to look at since I did this document, so I'll see what edits I can make and re-publish. Thanks again for pointing out the gaffe. Shows again the importance of evidence from official and reliable sources - which I try to use whenever I can!

Thank you. As to the base - it is home made. 5mm acrylic rod sunk into an acrylic stamp block (search for "acrylic stamp block" in a well known search engine) and look for a company name that Reggie Perrin would find handy for his mother-in-law jokes!