rainstel109

Had a quick look and yes, the lever is there so I've painted the yellow and black stripes. Cheers for the heads up mate.

Nah mate, they're glued in position, I was going for a sort of "cluttered" look on the back pad though I did consider stowing them.

Ok, really not happy with the bang seat, just didn't "look" right so I did it again. I think the result is a lot better than the last one. [/url]

Cheers for the info mate but its a bit late as the seat is virtually finished. I've not gone for total accuracy, just summat a little more lifelike in appearance than the original although I can apply a couple of your suggestions. the leg guide can be fabricated and fixed and the headrest color can painted as well. I realise the seat squab part of the harness is a bit of a fantasy but like I said, its better than nowt.

Ok, I started on the bang seat by spraying the base black then painting the back pad then seat squab. Gave it a wash (it looks better in real life than it does in the pics btw), then started to add the harness. This is not easy for an old git with dodgy eyesight and shaking hands, so its taken me a long time just to get this far. .

Progress report again. I got the front air dam, rear airbrake and gear nose gear doors fitted, completed the outrigger wheels and doors, little bit fiddly but they fitted ok never the less. I then the whole model a couple of coats of Mr color matt acrylic varnish and finally got the masking tape off the windshield only tho find the HUD came away with it! Still I wasn't entirely happy with the HUD anyway so I've got a chance to redo it a bit better and refitting isn't a problem either as theres plenty of space for access. The next job is the bang seat. I've a got a "wolfpack" item here which is nicely detailed but the straps are molded in with the rest of the seat which to me, looks odd, so i've decided to remove the existing straps but cutting them away and the rubbing down and adding a set of my own straps being cannibalised from a pair of tornado seats. I'm not looking for 100% accuracy here but something that looks a bit better than the wolfpack offering.

ooo...thanks for those pics mate, helps enormously, could've done with some more of those earlier on, can't seem to get any decent pics of what I want/need on the interweb.

A question here for your good self AjD, is the color of those gunpod endcaps lichen green or a lighter shade? I ask 'cos I can't find a definitive pic clearly showing the correct shade.

Absolutely right, it was the leg angle, compression is fine. I've since been able to er....remove the leg completely and refit it after removing a little of the rear mounted u/c door (turns out it was fouling on the fuselage and pushing the leg forwards) looks a lot better now thank gawd. Heres a pic of the now corrected nose leg.

Right, finally got her up on her wheels. Only fly in the ointment here, is the noseleg extension, it appears a bit too tall, it needs to be more compressed. Unfortunately I can't do anything about that now as its firmly in place. I suppose it could be depicted totally empty so the nose leg is extended a bit Assembly was really straight forwards with no problems at all. Edit: It was starting to "REALLY" bug me that the nose leg was positioned incorrectly, so I managed to get out and fix it at the correct angle . pic to follow later. .

Update time again. I don't mind admitting that this model is certainly causing me a few headaches.Turns out a lot of the stencil decals can't be used 'cos they're different on the Nato green camo versions, so..I had to hand paint the don't walk stencils, and cobble together the solid yellow arrows for the noce. I also managed to scrounge up the words "rescue" and "rettung" which these arrows had on them (thank god for the scrap box, the words were from a 1/48 F4 phantom decal sheet believe it or not). I also sprayed the two blue stripes to the fin flash as well. I managed to find a couple of clear pics of the canopy/windshield framing which show there to be a sort of "brass" colored strips screwed to the framing, so I've tried to reproduce that as best I can. I've also scratchbuilt upper fuselage aerial as the kit part is so overscale, its ridiculous. I'm now at the point of inspection prior to giving the whole thing a coat of Mr color matt varnish. Heres hoping I don't find anything else that needs sorting, theres been a couple of occasions when the kit nearly ended up on the shelf of doom!

Just caught up with this thread, lovely work in the pit mate, looks real nice.

Ok, got a bit more done over the past few days. I've been working on the decals which turned out to be a bit of a pain. All decals available for a Harrier in this scale, 1/32, are for a grey version as near as damn it, and as this is in green camo, the real things have different color stencil markings. Stuff like the "don't walk" stencils are solid red not grey, the "rescue" arrows below the cockpit are "solid" yellow, not just a yellow outline, so at the very least these are proving a bit of a prob.The rest of the decals were cobbled together from the scrap box and kit. Still, I'm making progress though albeit slowly. I'm also going to have to "modify" the fin top stripes as theres two pale blue stripes top and bottom of the green red and yellow triangles and think of some way I can lighten the "blue" on the sqdn insignia forwards of the front engine exhaust nozzles.

Right, I actually found a closeup pic on the web showing the canopy/windshield clearly, and it appears that the "pale tan" color is external on the both items and looks like a form of tape believe it or not. It also shows the internal pressure seal too. Edit, ignore that, the pics of an AV8-B

Ok, finally got the Harrier looking summat like I wanted it to (but not entirely). I've managed to darken the top fuselage a bit more but also gave it a scuffed look, more hard edged than soft, took a bit of time as I found working with a dark color is a bit tricky, a combination of airbrushed darkened nato green and black pigment powder worked fairly well here, though this will soften a fair bit when the matt varnish is applied and the different areas of glossiness is evened out (this is why contrast decreases after a matt varnish coat is applied.) I've also managed to highlight the underside to a fair degree, I just lightened the lichen green with white and sprayed between all the washed panel lines, looks a bit better than before. Next, decals are going on! One thing I would like to know is what color was/is the canopy/windshield framing? It looks like a sort of coppery color but I can't make out wether its metallic or not, any info here would be appreciated. Cheers, Tel

Right, update time. I'm finding it really difficult to achieve the "look" I want using normal the methods I use, so I'm having to wing it as it were. basically the Nato green is very dark which means limiting the contrasting tones to brightening the green only as opposed to darkening and lightening. This tends to limit the options so I tried washing in dark dirt then black, overspraying again, then using abteilung oils as a pin wash to try and stain the base color various tones of white, black, dark green and yellow. Its got to the point where I can't "see" the model, I need natural daylight and its dark by the time I can get to it. Also I need to get a layer of satin varnish to even out the finish, this should reduce the contrast between the colors (due to some areas being more "glossy" than others and hence appearing darker). I'm slowly getting there but its gonna take a bit more time and effort. As said I'll see how it looks when I've got a coat of varnish on it and report back

I use a combination of Phil Flory washes, usually dark dirt first, then I'll go over again in certain areas in "Abteilung" oil paint thinned with ordinary odourless turps. I'll then use Phil flory's pigment powders to give a a sort of sharper edge to the lighter areas of the paint and to add even more staining. I'll do a sort step by step affair and post up pics as I go which you might find a bit more useful. One thing I do is never use any form of "johnson clear" or similar product, can't stand the stuff meself. All washing, water based and oil based is carried out over the bare paintwork as theres no damage that occurs to it that I've found, the only varnish that I use is applied right at the end after the decals have gone on. I use exclusively Mr color, the old gunze sangyo acrylic paint and it seems very resistant to abuse meaning theres no need for a protective barrier of varnish.

No mate, theres no preshading at all, I find that it just gets obliterated after I've done all the post shading, so its not worth doing. I need to "see" model in daylight so have a better idea as to how to proceed as I'm tempted to do a little more post shading in darkened Nato green just to add a little more contrast to the green, also I'm finding that my eyes are being drawn towards that area behind the cockpit with the "V" shaped formation lights, that area just doesn't "look" right to me, looks a bit contrived, so I'll be adjusting that as well. I'll start with a water based wash, Flory's "dark dirt", and see how that goes then I'll probably highlight certain areas using a an oil based wash to accentuate the flying control surfaces and add a bit "staining" while I'm there. I've still got the underside to do as well before I attempt anything else, so I might do the remedial work to the wingtips, etc, before I do that, shouldn't take too long. Again thanks for the info, please keep it coming as I'm really working in the dark here and need all the help I can get, lol. I'm curious to see what the score is with the pylons and ordnance as the kit parts apparently are totally wrong.

And now it looks like this. I've blown over the model in the base Nato green which when dry I'll attack with a number of different washes, both water and oil based to try to add even more textures to the paintwork.

Bit late now mate, I've moved on to the next stage unfortunately. I've already started the post shading but I reckon I can do something along the lines you've highlighted afterwards. the model now looks like this: Thanks for all the info so far, its appreciated mate. I'm just about to start blowing in the base Nato green color now to even out the contrasts.

Go on then I'm waiting with baited breath

Ok carried out the corrective camo work as best I can, heres the pics. I did the wing leading edge strips, also on the elevators, "curved" the rear fuselage demarcation edge on the both sides and re-profiled the lower nose color as near as the kit would allow. Newxt up is gonna be a fair bit of post shading to try and add a bit of contrast to the two greens.

Well, wadya waiting for! Can I also suggest a certain Green color?

Thanks for the pic of the nose underside mate, I'll be looking at correcting that if possible, Also, I think I know what you mean about the slight curve at the rear fuselage camo and the narrow underwing strips in Nato green, I'll probably end up doing those as well. Like I said, I had no drawing to work from and did the camo from I could find on the web which isn't a lot when doing the green scheme. Again, thanks for the info.

Er...yep, the doors don't fit here as well. No real biggie but theres a fair of superglue holding them in place.