Harry Lime

Not soon enough!!

Nice looking model there, certainly something a little different. A well executed eye catcher that one!

I think I broke the internet. Or at least I couldn't PM you Steve without Britmodellers servers apparently going AWOL according to IE!!! According to A Seperate Little War, NT225 wasn't converted to Mk XVIII standard and it survived the war to be sold off on 20th Nov 1945. However, NT224 is listed as being shot down on 7th Dec 1944. Hope I've not put too big a spanner in the work...

I'm gonna crack out the popcorn for this one. Having a bit of fun doing some scratch building on one of these myself as you've seen, until the missus flogged the camera!

I thought I'd update this WIP since I've managed a few hours on this project recently only to discover SWMBO has gone and flogged the digital camera. Her excuse? I never use it coz the camera on my Iphone is good enough. What! So, if you'll bear with me, once I've bought myself a new camera I'll be able to update with pics again. However, in the mean time it is now assembled and looks like a hawk. The canopy needs to be attached after detailing and the airbrake is ready for its detailing. The new nose doors have been made and the main ones are still to be cut and assembled as are the FOD covers. This weekend should see a big move towards completion. The only problem I'm having with this build is that I'm developing a bit of an unhealthy obssession with the hawk! I've been going through my decal bank and have reached the conclusion I can cobble together the markings for XX231 in the overall blue scheme. With CMK soon to release some undercarriage detail sets, the Kuivalainen(Eduard!!) etch set and some resin/white metal seats and the ease with which these new Airfix Hawks go together, I feel the ultimate 1/72 scale Hawk build coming on. Eventually. Right after I finish the other 4 projects on the bench as well. And then build my contributions to the group builds I've signed up for. And then finished my one man history of the Harrier. So tune in for the next Hawk some time around 2015!!!

Frank, your pics are a treasure trove of inspiration! The only problem I have with them is that I've already got 5 projects on the bench and couldn't possibly start anymore as a result of being inspired by these pics. But DO NOT stop posting under any circumstances, or I'll have to adopt some drastic measures...

Ummm, shouldn't this one be edited and locked just like his other post?

Frank, please keep the pics coming! These are an absolute goldmine of esoteric types and schemes long since forgotten.

Frank, you'd better keep these pics coming! Absolutely outstanding stuff.

Nice build, look forward to seeing it complete. And I'll second the book recommendation, it's pretty much all you'll need when building a RAF Sabre.

Also, didn't the 100 Group B-17's have the H2S radar mounted in place of the chin turret? If so, I don't see anything that passes as a chin turret/H2S housing on that pic. Looking at all the theories and evidence being bandied about, I'm putting my money on the French connection.

Don't get a Martin Baker Mk7 seat, they're found in Phantoms. For a Harrier GR5/7/9 you need a Mk12 seat.

Outstanding pics! Thank you very much for sharing these.

I'm with John Aero on this one, very definitely Martin Baker Mk9 and the style of head box is consistent with the Jaguar. But please tell me you are not thinking of using them, they are dire!!! Mark.

Morning Rob. Kirk pretty much answered your question bang on. Fuel tanks and empty pylons would be the order of the day on this one, again all the pics I've seen on this particular GR7 show no other fit at all. Pretty much what you'd expect for a display aircraft!

The gear legs are gloss Light Aircraft Grey. Funnily enough, I ditched the kit SNEB rocket pods too! They are not so much representations, but more of a parody of rocket pods. And I'll second the above post, the Mk9 seat is the right one for all the original Harrier GR1/GR3/T2/T4.

Nice build here, I built the original boxing days after it first came out in the 90's in the 2 tone green scheme. I bought the kit in my local Beatties, but unlike the company my kit still survives to this day! A quick bit of advice for you, if you're building the 20 sqn display version, you'll need to put on the LIDS on the underside not the cannon housings, as all the pics I've seen show this particular fit. Hope this is useful to you. Regards, Mark.

Alreet SaintsPhil. I'm also building that exact same boxing of that kit and doing it as a GR1 too, so I'll share with you some advice. Be prepared for a LOT of filling and sanding. The fit is pretty bad, but it can be overcome in a lot of places with plasticard shims and a lot of dry fitting and checking. The intake trunking fit though is not correctable without a lot of remedial work, so you could do like I am and fashion some intake FOD guards out of plasticard and save yourself a lot of hassle. The Harrier Inside and Out is a great reference book for the Harrier GR5/7/9, but is a bit bereft of stuff on the early Harriers. I would recommend Aeroguide 12 on the Harrier GR3/T4 and the AirDoc on the RAFG Harrier force. In fact, the AirDoc one is so crammed full of quality images, it's pretty much the only one you need for early Harriers! I don't have the Warpaint so can't comment on it, but if it is anything like the other Warpaints I do have, it'll probably be pretty useful. Would the decals you're using be the Aztec ones by any chance? If so, they are pretty bloody good aren't they?!

Thanks for thos top tips, noe here's one more from me. Use old nuts and bolts. We've all got them sitting around in sheds/garages/toolboxes and some of them will never get used for anything again, unless you stick them in the nose of something. Not so useful for small things in 1/72 as there ain't much room, but in bigger scales this is a pretty cheap way of avoiding a tail sitter.

You're a bit good at this model making malarky, aren't you Tiking?! I'm not an armour modeller, but I think the stuff you've put on here is pretty bloody good! Inspiring stuff mate.

Right, I think I need to sign up to this as I have 4 Fujimi FG1/FGR2's in the stash and should build at least one of them. I think I'll plump for XV582 when on the strength of 43 Sqn as on Modeldecal sheet 64. I hope this isn't treading on anyone's toes with this choice.

If this gets the number of people it needs, I'd be in with a 1/72 GA11 conversion. So I'm in!

Sorry to put the cat amongst the pigeons, but a quick trawl of UK Serials reveals the WZ550 serial to belong to a Vampire T11, not a Sea Vampire T22 which it seems to be masquerading as. I know that essentially the two are pretty similar so this may not be too much of an issue, but it seems Sea Vampire T22s were allocated serials in the XA*** range.

Ummm, I think we need to stage an intervention here, this man is clearly in need of proffessional help!!!

Yup, the landing gear and interior faces of the gear doors should be white. As for the slightly too pointy nose, no one has produced the definitive Tornado kit in 1/72, but the Italeri one is widely regarded as the best of the bunch. For the tanks, check your references as to which ones you need to put on your kit as they were swapped about a lot depending on operational requirements.