rainstel109

Right, made loadsa progress now, so much I forgot to take some pics. I completed the base color paintwork, washed the model twice, corrected a loadsa errors and started decaling.My only problem was the "yellow hammer decals" they are extremely delicate and you guessed it, some of then broke up without that much effort so i had to resort back to the kit decals, tghe main one that broke was the yellow stripe that goes on the left hand side of the fuselage, it literally separated into about 4 pieces unfortunately. Bit of a bummer but at least I had the kit items to fall back on. Heres some pics of the progress so far. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

oops double post

Ok, managed to get the main bit of paintwork done, not much more to say really. I've masked and sprayed the horizontal stabilizers aluminium and I'm going to do the dark areas on those tommorow so pics of those will follow. Heres a pic of the model so far, incidentally I used a "whole" jar of Mr color grey paint on the upper surface and three quarters of jar on the white so far.

Ok, managed to get the main bit of paintwork done, not much more to say really. I've masked and sprayed the horizontal stabilizers aluminium and I'm going to do the dark areas on those tommorow so pics of those will follow. Heres a pic of the model so far, incidentally I used a "whole" jar of Mr color grey paint on the upper surface and three quarters of jar on the white so far.

Just had a look at that close up pic of the nose and, god's teeth, that paintwork 'orrible in that pic. Fortunately its the flash reflecting all the imperfections in the paintwork and hopefully it'll disappear when the matt coat is applied.

Ok boys, first blunder of the build and its a goodun! In a nutshell, I forgot to mask the forward part of the windshield and sprayed the whole thing gloss black direct onto the clear part! Now, luckily I found out a coupla hours after I did this and was able to remove the paint which came off surprisingly easily using a cotton bud soaked in IPA. Obviously the paint hadn't cured or I'd be looking at a lot of work to put right. Got away with it this time though but I think the edges around the masking tape will have to be removed, bit of plastic polish should put that right.

Finally having fought me way through all the rubbing down, filling, riveting and masking, I can now start getting some paint laid down. Heres a pic. More pics to follow as more paint goes on.

Ok next update. I've spent most of the last few days fitting the wing outer panels which need shimming with plasticard to get the correct upward angle of 12.5 degrees (which they rouhgly now to within a degree I reckon). Not an easy job and fairly time consuming. I fitted the tail, no probs there at all, just the mating surfaces need a bit of filler so no biggie. I also completed the nose cone and intakes this morning, rubbed down and re-scribed. I'll then fit the windshield, i/p shroud, and inspect to make sure these parts are ok. All I need to do then is clean, dry, inspect the model tomorrow and correct any errors I find (theres probably loads I've missed). Once thats done I'll mask and spray to prepare the surface for the white coat.

Shaun, I've had a look at the remnants of the "Air frame" decals I've got when I did my GR.7 and I've got the complete decals required to do ZG858 along with the stenciling also, just drop me PM if you'd like 'em.

Really cracking on now, I've fitted the locator pins to both stabilizers, built up the wing internals (no probs at all there), rescribed the fuselage and redid the rivets where needed and fitted both upper and lower wing surfaces, You can just about see the two screws just frowards of the wheel wells that hold the upper wing to the lower wing. Once the glue has hardened, I'll start the rubbing down and rescribing again where required (Oh joy!)

I ran into an issue yesterday which was the fact that the horizontal stabilizers are in one piece and need to be installed as one unit. This makes masking for spraying awkward and is liable to damage (my clumsiness really). So I opted to remove both stabilizers from their mounting bracket which was then fitted into the fuselage tail section and screwed in position. The two upper plates were then fiited next (these are the oblong shaped items sitting above the semi-circular piece). This means that the stabilizers can be position how anyone would want to, this is a kit feature, moveable stabilizers, quite which I don't see the point of as its not a toy and once set they'd be glued in position. I've still got to drill and mount a pair of locating pins for the stabilizers to enable me to fit them back onto the original mounting assemble. I've also cleaned up, polished and washed the kit and I'm now just letting it dry prior to "possible" spraying of certain bits.

I've doing all the rubbing down and rescribing of the fuselage BDR, and I've come across the first real issue with this kit. Virtually the entire spine area of the fuselage has a molding problem. Instead of where the panel lines should be,, this total area was slightly raised so it needed sanding back down, rescribing and the all the rivets redone. It looked like the molds weren't fully clamped together and the plastic deformed or the molds themselves might be getting a bit worn/ deformed. Either way, there was more work than I initially thought. Also, the small panel that has to be fitted behind the pit is way undersize and I had to fill the gap with plasticard, so maybe this kit is starting to show it's age. Bottom line though, its no biggie and easily corrected but not expected. I've also had to redo most of the rivets anyway as they all looked a bit shallow and clearly define

I just checked out the fit (or non-fit) of the intake trunks and I now see what the problem is that people have been complaining about........they're 'orrible! So, I'm going to use a pair of Quckboost FOD intake covers, a cheaper option than using the seamless intakes that are available and a lot less work, I don't even have to paint and fit the engine compressor parts. Also, again, can anyone here point out to me which BDR panels have to be removed please, I don't want to remove a panel that was fitted as standard by mistake if possible. Cheers. Edit: Nevermind about the BDR panels, I found a build on the web that highlights which ones need to be removed, basically all of them

Really managing to crack on now. I've fitted the rear of the RIO instrument panel and "threaded" the cabling and manipulated these lead wire cables to try and replicate the F4-J version. Theres not very many pics of this area for J versh, but I found enough to give a basic layout, and while the result certainly isn't totally accurate, its similar enough to be passable. Thank god for lead wire, wasn't around a few years back when I'd done this in the past. The wire is a bit overscale but it makes it easier to work with and the effect is more pronounced. Its also been drybrushed to pull out the detail/ layout a bit better.

Cracking on a bit now. I've drilled a small hole in the cockpit panel forwards of the where RIO's instrument panel will be to enable me to attempt to feed some of the cables from the rear of the instruments, the rest will be "teased" into position to resemble the wiring loom/s that were evident behind the pilot's bang seat. I've already drilled the kit part out to take the lead wire and fitted a couple of different diameter wire to the backs of the instruments.

Can somebody here tell me which of the fuselage/ wings BDR moldings need to be removed/ rubbed down as I reckon its all of these slightly raised panels, but I might remove one that was supposed to be there. Cheers, Tel

Right, I finally managed to get some work done on this, flipping shift work. I got the main cockpit components painted and fitted. I used the kit parts for the sidewalls/tub, etc and the Eduard p/e for the instrument panels, just need now to see if I can add few other touches like oxygen hoses, wander lights, etc to make the pit look a bit "busy"

Ok, having just finished (virtually) the harrier GR.7, I'm going to have a go at one of these, something I've always wanted to build so nows the time. I'm going to do it in the colors of the "Jolly Rogers" scheme as I've always liked the black with flashes of yellow colors and I think it'll make a nice change from my usual choice of greys and greens camo schemes. I've got the Eduard brassin bang seats, and cockpit detail set for it already, and I'm still waiting for the "Yellow hammer" decal sheet to turn up from the States which I'll post pics of when they arrive. Heres the obligatory box shot of the kit and other bits and pieces:

Well, for what its worth, everyone here had to start somewhere and I reckon that their standard was a lot lower than it is now, and I deffo include myself in that statement. Also, the guys here will help with any build in terms of suggestions, assistance, advice, techniques, etc, its just a case of building something as best you can and take that advice along the way, and the more you build, the higher your standard becomes. give it a go, you might be surprised now well you do. Looking really nice now Shaun, liking that landing gear, looking forwards to more updates.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys, kinda makes building the Harrier worthwhile.

Thanks for the comment mate, and again thanks for the info you provided, it help a lot.

I might later on when funds allow it and depending on what I want to load on it.

Finally got this one finished. It wasn't a difficult build, it just needed a fair bit of correction work done on it. I've read that trumpy just took an AV8-B, made up few different parts, bunged' em in the box and called it a GR.7. I decided to do a Nato green versh as I hadn't seen one done in this scale before and most people tend to go for a grey version as you at least get a fair decal sheet for one I suppose, although a GR.5 has since appeared while I was building this one, and very nice it is too. Heres a brief spiel of what I used: The kit itself obviously. Eduard p/e set in the cockpit. Decals were a mixture of the "model alliance" final Harrier flight (deffo worth getting if anyone fancies doing on of these). Custom mixed paints, exclusively Mr Color (the old Gunze Sangyo) Wolfpack bang seat. Heres what I did: Scratchbuilt aerials, yaw vane, heavily modified upper beacon (it was round not triangular), hand painted "no step" stencils, heavily modified ordnance pylons check out my build thread for details here, scratchbuilt chaff/flare dispenser, scratchbuilt GPS antenna (white disc on top of fuselage), extensively post shaded (awkward 'cos the green is fairly dark) washed in Flory black wash. A quick note about the yellow arrows on the nose below the cockpit, these were cobbled together from a 1/48 FGR phantom as these had the words "rettung" and "rescue" which the Nato green harriers had also, rather than just the word rescue. Then also solid yellow, not just the outline. I've still got to fit the pylon sway braces btw. Heres the pics:

Yes mate, I've finished the model as best I could (sausage fingers and poor eyesight not with standing). Pics now up in the "ready for inspection"

Nah, 1/32 tamiya Phantom F4S, and if I can get the markings sorted, it'll be done in RAF grey/green