Cimmerian

little typo there - I think its "yoke" "control yolks" made me giggle. "on final approach to target .... ewwwwww yuck! "

Update! So disaster struck and I completely lost my mojo for a good month Couldnt get into it at all. Im probably not going to make the group build deadline and I was going to enter this into the compo at Scale Model Addict, which I will also miss . Never mind - better late than never i suppose. So here's where we are ATM: I got the quickboost nose (which didnt fit at all, but more on that in a sec) and the eduard PE. Ive already put the ventral intake mesh in place and needs some cleanup. (Any tips people have for fitting PE flush with the kit surface would be greatly appreciated!!! ) The resin nose was a good mil or so larger in diameter than the kit nose, so I glued a couple of small nuts together and threaded a screw through them. I glued this to the end of the nose and used this to expand the nose vertically after cutting away some material. then I put in some cocktail stick braces sideways to get some extra width. The fit was much better, but I still needed to sand quite a bit to get it flush. The plastic on this kit is very soft, and when I was using the screw the side ripped !! I had to patch it up as you can see below. I also cut out and reshaped the gun vent as you can see here, Im going to make a new one later as the real one is raised out slightly from the surface. Heres what probably lost me the mojo : endless sanding!! Im going to be displaying this model in flight, so I had to raise the gear doors. I gotta say this was extremely tricky and glad it came out the way it did. I will need to do some rescribing to get the door lines back in in place. But I can concentrate on details once the fuselage halves are together. The intakes where all sanded down on the insides also as the FOD doors will be raised also. I also eliminated the seam along the rear of the intakes toward the engines. Careful positioning while gluing and then plenty of filler was in order. The nose wheel bay was filled and scribed. Still lots of cleanup to do though!! Made a start on the cockpit too: and I got this little chap: gonna try and get him sat inside Doesn't look like much progress I know but there's some quite hard work there lol! In the meantime ive been working over the decals in Photoshop and turning them into masks. Ill post some details on that later. Thanks for looking!

nice! strange coincidence that you posted this as I just saw a few of these on the cheap at TK Maxx today !

I have the model alliance sheet with michelle left over from my lucy - perhaps a trade? PM me

cool! Id like to see how you tackle various aspects of the build since Im doing the same kit. Im going for "in flight", are you gonna do the same like those bad boys?

Thanks again all - I really appreciate it !! Thanks Shaun, I was thinking about it, but I got a pile of kits next to me I want to get stuck into so it might not happen. Theres a resin TIALD pod I had my eye on, and the Paveways also. things are just tacked for now so you never know. Harrier experts might inform me, but I noticed that the LGB's seem to go on the innermost pods and the fuel tanks go on the third out, at least in some pictures I saw, so if anyones planning on doing this note the tanks wont fit the pylons on the hase kit. Cheers dave, funny you mention that since I didnt go for my usual future/tamiya flat base mix, I tried Vallejo's matt varnish. Seemed to work quite well although I had to make multiple passes before I started seeing results. I thinned it with tap water a little. I took my time, as Ive ruined kits right at the end doing the varnish !! Cheers, Lee

Word Up. More progress: So ive put together a few pieces. Im trying to be methodical - the fit is quite terrible so Im thinking how this will best go together with the least amount of the dreaded putty and sand shmozzle. So I started by removing the unwanted plastic to make way for the resin unit, then attaching the two upper fuselage halves together. I started by pinning the very top of the join with superglue and kicker, then adding pastic weld. Once this had dried I moved on and did the same process at the LERX ends of the join. I tried to keep the two pieces as flush as poss while doing this, but its quite hard ! Not too shabby, I knew I wouldnt be able to get away with it, but there will be a little of the ol' fill/sand/scribe party going on here. Main thing it that there is a rather obvious change in contour along the top the fuselage, I dont think theres much I can do about that without major putty work. Ill think about it. I then moved on to the nose and added the pieces there, which was the hardest part: Hmm. Im seeing a lot more detail on these pics than I can with my puny vision. Serious shmozzle here. Im going to need to go back and clean up that forward canopy rim too. That black stuff you see is Filla-Glu black. Im in love with the stuff atm , It sands easy and is the best filler for scribing over Ive found so far. Lastly, started on the intakes, which had some nasty ejector pin marks in them: clean them up as I want the fod covers UP if I go in-flight. Yes Metallicus, in between modelling I pick up the axe and shred, a lot of the time its metallica too Back with more soon

seriously though - real nice - I had one of these on the bench for ages and abandoned it as I just couldnt get the canopy to fit very well. Maybe it was just my kit. Bought another one though, its in the whack stack how did you paint the figure - the vinyl doesnt seem to take paint too well.

Obi-Wan ... has taught you well. Indeed you are powerful as the emperor has forseen.

VAT !?! Thats hilarious! Well, my doughnut was well nice - no reheat required !

Ok update time! So managed to get the harrier finished and she's in the ready for inspection section for those interested. I took reciept of the wolfpack resin cockpit : Now bear with me as this is the first time Ive attempted a resin set on a kit - Im used to OOTB builds but the kit pit is really lacking on this one. Here's a mini-review Niceley protected, in separate bags Nice full-colour instruction sheet, they even tell you websites and books they used as reference! The main office - decent detail, however Im not sure what to do about the dials and MFD. might have a stab a creating some decals for these. A Couple of shots of the main tub. Ejection seat - probably the best detailed piece of the set Some odds n' sods. looks like a replacement pitot tube there. Nice little photoetched hud frame. Set looks nice to me - I didnt know if the eduard colour etched set would be appropriate for the NATO upgraded MiG, even though I would have prefered to slap the colour etch on, seems a lot easier to me! Next ill be ordering the Aires burner cans and probably to smaller etched fret from eduard. Ill post details when /if I get them. Im thinking of how to present this one, I like to do 'in flight' but not sure Ill find a pilot to fit in that seat. Suggestions welcome! If not Ill probably have to get the wheels bays and spend more cash In the meantime, Ive been doing a bit of gluing. The fit on this kit is legendary - even in hell! (points for those who get the reference ) Next post Ill detail what Ive been up to - maybe tonight, as im at work so I should really be doing some work lol, but it is friday after all. Greggs is calling me, coffee and an iced ring doughnut Later

thanks! Alas yes, its the decal - Ive seen people replicate the chord with fine wire and such , but I wasnt feeling up to the challenge

wow thanks for the kind comments friends!

Hey chaps, For your viewing pleasure - I present you my recently completed Harrier. This was built OOTB from the revell (hasegawa) Kit. I originally intended to make an accurised model of ZD404 "Lucy" but I have to admit my patience waned with this model and thus I slapped it together toward the end and put the ordnance that was in the box on there. I only tacked it on with Krystal Kleer so that if I change my mind later on I might get the TIALD pod and some Proper bombs to put on it. I stole the pilot from a revell Phantom C/D kit and modded him a bit with a large visor kind of like the harrier pilots have. I bought the Model alliance decals for this and chose the lucy - simply because well, shes lovely init Pics were taken with my wife's point and shoot so sorry for the quality. I know theres a lot of experts on the harrier here and its a hot topic on britmodeller so please forgive the fictitious loadout and myriad other inaccuracies! PS my first build posted on BM, so please be kind ! Later

PS that was AFTER i took the time to sand and polish the seam out of it

Hey - I had the exact same issue with the canopy on my harrier I just finished this week! I contacted Revell and I got a letter a month later saying the kit was out of production. I got a bit cheeky - I then emailed Amerang (hasegawas distributor in the uk) and told them it was the canopy from the recent GR9 hasegawa release. I had a new canopy arrive at my door within a week. Heres a pic from what mine looked like, the canopy sits well outside the frame its meant to sit on:

Haha god it was a while ago now. I think it was the 'Vile' album tour lol. Well - funny you should mention the maiden as certain members are known to frequent a pub near me. Ive never seen them in there but a friend of mine had a lockin there once with Janick and Brucie. I did however meet Doogie White in there once. lol!

crumbs what a smashing build! PS I once had the pleasure of shaking the hand of the "corpsegrinder" at a cannibal corpse gig.

How Convenient! I just got this in the post: I would love to join in if I may. Just gotta get this bloody harrier off the bench and Im in. Want to get the resin burner cans for this and the eduard photo-etch too if its appropriate for the slovakian version.

The BoP supposedly is 1/350 - as to the Reliant's scale and the other AMT movie era stuff, - beats me!

I was in modelzone yesterday and they had the repopped reliant and BoP (with landing gear) in there: £51.99 and £41.99 respectively.

Thanks for the review Mike - Ive been itching for one of these! One question though - Are there no clear parts in the kit? Or are they going for studio scale stylee with no canopy etc. Ditto - the recent revell offering left a lot to be desired! Having just built the 1/72 Interceptor Im all over the fine molds starwars stuff , very nice - Have a little piccie - hope you dont mind: That Falcon in my stash is winking at me now

And Im having a lot of joy looking at it ! Special stuff - top drawer mate

Very nice indeed - you got the light level perfect IMO, just right for the scale effect.

Indeed - there has been many sometimes heated discussions about the TMP enterprise paint scheme. Head over to hobbytalk - there are some good threads going there about it. Also - this chap's scratchbuild is very good: http://galaxyphoto.com/ent_g_imag/ent_aztec_web/index.htm Oh, and nice arboretum Tablo! Looking forward to this one!