rainstel109

Cheers for that boys, but be gentle with the critique, lol, it is my first attempt at a Harrier in this scale, and only me second (the first was 1/48 and built years ago).

Its now finished! I'll post up some pics in the gallery later on.

Nice work there mate, I also like the figure. On a sidenote, are you going to have this model at Hornchurch Expo in March?

Finally got the pylons done, painted, washed, and decals applied. Once the outboard ones are fitted, I'll refit the wing/pylon "bulges". just need to wait for the decals to harden/dry and I'll give them a coat of matt varnish.

Right, I've just completed all other pylons and the white areas show the extra bits that were added. Again the outer pylons are missing the"scalloped" profile that the real things had but they were/are very shallow and not as pronounced as the others. just need to spray and weather and they're good to be fitted. Probably find theres something else to do while I'm in there that I forgotten, lol.

Right, I've done all I can with these outer pylons. I have no idea if they're accurate but at least they're far better than the original kit parts and tend to tally up pics I've seen of these items. I had virtually no reference drawings to go from except for the ones provided by other members here without which I wouldn't have been able to get even this far, so thanks again chaps. The pics show what the mods were by the use of plasticard and all work was carried out "on the fly" as it were, add a bit, offer it up to the kit, add another bit, offer it up again, take a little bit off, offer it up yet again, add nauseum until I got the buggers to give me a reasonable fit. The fact the pylon to wing mating faces are angled compounded the modifications even more and there was a few times where I got the pylons mixed up with the correct wing, due working with the model upside down! Still, right or wrong, they're going on after being sprayed and weathered, so there. Above, on the left is the original part.

Heh..tell me about it! All the pylons are going to need a bit a surgery, some have got to be plaked at the upper surface so they meet the wing with no gaps at all. The situation here atm is, how far do I go with this? how much extra work am I prepared to do, etc? Like I said its turning into a marathon rather than an enjoyable build.

Ooo...thanks for that pic mate, I'm also pretty certain thats an outboard pylon too as its got the downward angled upper rear profile to allow full aileron movement. I've seen this shape outline in numerous pics but they're all from a distance and don't show any detail or shape, you can just about make out the chamfered upper profile.. They're also always in shadow so you can't see anything else of interest. You by any chance have a pic of pylon area towards the leading edge of the wing do you perchance? That would confirm the shape of the pylon at the mating point. I personally reckon that theres hardly any "scalloped" profile there at all. It looks like I'm going to have to insert a "plug" somewhere to extend the pylon a bit at the rear, and this confirms "Dave Roof's" comment that these items are way too short (assuming its the same as the AV8-

Rigth I don't mind admitting that this kit is slowly grinding me down, but if I put it away to take a break its gonna end up on the shelf of doom! I've been doing some digging around the web for pics of the areas of these pylons I need to have a look at, but there isn't any unfortunately. In all pics I've seen so far that area is in deep shadow and I can't see a thing, so I've had to use a bit working out, speculation, educated guesses, etc to get the shape and size of these pylons. having worked out roughly what these dimensions are, I can now see what all the fuss is about, they are a total fantasy! The pics IV(AC)plumb posted here, cheers mate, some very useful info there, are of some help though, showing just how close the pylon wing fit is, the top/front part of this pylon almost appears to come out directly from below the leading edge, rather than all the other pylons which have a gap, so...taking all the info I've got, I've modified the r/h pylon to how I think it should be, and its still a fair bit too short btw, heres a pic showing the kit part on the left and the modified one on the right. Theres also an angle change of the base of the pylon, to the back of the rear cutout which I've noticed on the real thing so I've tried to reproduce that as well. All I've got to do now is modify the other three pylons to make them look better than the original, oh joy!

Heh...I thought about the handed thingy, both pylons are the same length as their opposite number on the other wing. Also, going by Dave Roof's thread, he says that the outer pylons are short by a scale length of about 1.5 feet! This I can confirm going by the few pics I've managed to see on the interweb, and they are deffo way "too short". they even have a champfered rear profile to allow the aileron free max movement otherwise they'd foul on the pylons, least ways thats how it looks. So, they're too short, have a gap on the wing mating face, and no cutout to allow fitting to the wing! I've corrected Dave Roof's name in me post btw .

I see what you mean that the pylons should fit flush with the wing (theres a slight cutout from the rear of that bulge in the pylon that shouldn't be there, but you can see that the extreme rear of the pylon is resting on top of that wing bulge, so pushing the front of the pylon upwards (if the model was sitting right way up, not inverted).

Okay, anyone fancy a laugh? So there I was, happily sanding down and cleaning up the outer pylons having done a bit of corrective work on 'em when I though, lets have a test fit. So having done that, this is what I've got: Now, it could be me and I've misread the destructions, or missed something fundamental but there is no way in a month of Sundays that those outer pylons are gonna fit! Its as if theres a cutout at the rear of them thats missing, they're way too long, or they're for a different kit. Comments?

Cheers for that mate.

Ok, I'm now starting on the pylons of which some need to have the "noses" re-profiled, they appear too blunt to me and more than likely re-scribed around that area. Now I read on "Dave Roof's" thread about the AV8B that the large pylons that hold the aux fuel tanks (I think) do not have the curved shaped cutout at the lower rear part (see pic). I'm not sure if this applies to the GR.7, so if it does, I'll need to get rid this cutout by filling in and planking with plasticard. Can anyone confirm this for me. Cheers.

Nah mate, All the pics I've got of ZD409 while painted green show no flight refueling probe fitted, but one was fitted when it was painted grey (along with the "green" tinted upper beacon which was also clear when in the green camo).

I'm liking that paint job Shaun, as said before, its deffo going to great under some wash.

And yet another update. I decided to scratch build the yaw vane, so I finished and fitted it today, just need to paint the rear "fin" part a dull silver and I'm good to go. Not enirely happy how it came out but its a lot better than the kit part. I also fitted the pitot tubes while i was working on the nose section. I tidied up the paintwork in certain areas as it'd got tarnished with me fingers. And that is the main bit finished! just the pylons to do and I'm basically done.

Theres certainly some nice alternatives there mate, only problem is the cost starts to go up quite a bit unfortunately. In view of that, I might consider just leaving the pylons empty until a later date, or try and modify, if even possible, the existing kit parts (unless they're totally incorrect that is)

Unfortunately I can't do anything about the doors and steps at this point as I'd end up ruining the finish, good bit of info about the mavericks not being used on green aircraft though.

Thanks for the info mate, its appreciated. I've got a pic of ZD409 at Leuchars airshow when painted "grey" and it deffo shows the white GPS aerial fitted (I don't know wether these were fitted retrospectively when re-painted though, maybe you could clarify that for me), also it shows the upper beacon lens coloured "green", was this a modification or something other as most of the pics I've seen show this lens to be clear? Wrt to the ordnance fitted, thats the kind of info I need, just need to find the relevant parts in the box to fit them after I've had a good look at the pylons and see if theres anything I can do to the kit parts to improve their accuracy. Also the paint finish on the model isn't quite a full matt finish, its got a slight "satin" element to it already, but I can certainly "grubbify" the rear fuselage a bit to simulate exhaust staining, a pic of this staining would useful mate, hint, hint Again, thanks.

I might be interested in a pair of those myself for later on.

I've just been browsing some pics of the nose yaw vane and strewth, the kit part is still oversize and thats after a fair bit of thinning down. I'll have to remove it, scratchbuild it or modify it, it can't stay as it is, it looks totally wrong.

Ok, approaching completing the model minus the pylons and ordnance, yay! Its been a bit of a pain so far what with all the mods and corrections I had to do and that doesn't include the decals which were a separate issue. I heavily modified the kit supplied upper beacon to give it a triangular appearance as at the very least, the kit part was bulbous in shape and nearly unusable. Not easy for someone with less than normal eyesight and fingers like a set of Fyffe's finest. I scratchbuilt all the aerials, the main mid fuselage one, the tiny one next to the yaw vane and the one under the nose just forwards of the nose gear bay. While I was there, I thinned down the yaw vane as it was so thick (as were all the other items) otherwise they'd look ridiculous to me and have a scale thickness of about 6 inches! If I've got the yaw vane colors wrong, can some kind person furnish me with the correct ones please? I fitted the canopy mirrors and gave the transparency one last polish with a lint free cloth normally used to clean yer glasses. Last will be the pitot tubes which are atm drying after painting and they'll be fitted later. Next will be the pylons and armament. I'd like to not use the fuel tanks and use bombs, missiles, etc but I'm not sure of the accuracy of the supplied kit parts considering how inaccurate the rest of the kit is. Any info here would be appreciated.

I've managed to get a bit more done on the Harrier over the past few days. I completed the canopy and set to work on the engine nozzles. I assembled them, rubbed down and polished the plastic surfaces and gave 'em a coat of gloss black as an undercoat which I'm still letting harden up prior to spraying the metallic finish. I also gave the model an inspection for flaws in the paintwork (which were many that I failed to see first time round) and dry brushed certain areas to pick out any detail that needed to be picked out. I also fitted the nose clear part, bomb aiming sensor I think it is, which when the nozzles are finished, I'll set to work on the pylons.

Right, I'm going to ask a question here "before" I start working on them , can anyone here let me know what the errors with the kit wing pylons, fuel tanks and ordnance? Are they too short, too long, too fat, too thin, etc. I've heard they're significantly incorrect in some areas, so any info regarding these would be appreciated, cheers. Secondly, is it worth getting my hands on the Flightpath detail set?