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Quick question for the Harrier/Shar experts out there. After looking at literally dozens of pictures and references, as far as I can tell, after upgrading from FRS1 to FA2 there was no change to the canopy on the Sea Harrier. Could anyone confirm or deny this assumption? Looking at getting another Kinetic FA2, but as I'm a bit kack handed with masking canopies up, I was looking at getting the Eduard masking set, but this has been discontinued, however, the FRS1 set is still available, and looking at the design of the canopies in the kits that I have, they look exactly the same. So it would be just as easy to use the FRS1 set on the FA2 kit😄

Planning to build and paint this Sea Harrier, alongside my Airfix project. Bought at SMW2008 for £10.40 (probably from Hannants, probably IPMS discounted.) As this option. I've already build an 801NAS FA2, and am building Airfix Satan 1 - 800NAS. Decals and parts. I'll contact Phantome to ask to see his photos. It doesn't sound a great kit, so might shape my decisions.

Evening all, As a virtually exclusive 1/72 modeller, it takes a pretty special kt or subject to sway me to the darkside of 1/48, but when it's a new tool Harrier, and a naval one at that, it's a bit of a no brainer really. Having picked this up at Yeovilton, I couldn't resist cracking on with immediately, and have spent the last couple of days trimming, sanding and dry fitting. What I;ve found so far is that Eduard and Tamiya can lure into a false sense of security as far as new tool kits are concerned, and while this kit from Kinetic is very good, it does have it's foibles, or at least mine does. I'm finding every mating surface needs a good few swipes of a coarse sanding stick to remove any flash or chamfering along the edge to achieve a good fit with it's opposing piece. I've been paying particularly close attention to getting the fit of the cockpit and nose gear bay assemblies to fit snugly, primarily to achieve a smooth join between the inner intake faces and their respective fuselage sides. This has necessitated a spot of grinding and trimming of various areas of the kit as detailed below, with my Dremel making a rare appearance to help speed things along. Essentially, I found that the nose gear bay assembly sat too far aft, and needed to come forward a bit, hence the work above. The results are below, and while the gaps may still not look great, they close up well with a bit of pressure that I obviously couldn't apply in the pic. I'm hoping this compression during cementing will fully close the gaps, or at least limit it to a straightforward filling job. I've also had a quick look at the wing fit. Early fettling suggests in general it's not bad, but will require the removal of more material from the fuselage locaters. I fear the rear join will result in an unavoidable filling job to smooth out the step. I've laid down the base colours in the cockpit- Xtracolor Admiralty Grey- and will proceed with detail painting and washes. Thanks for looking, more soon Cheers, Shaun

Afternoon Guys, Today I have my attempt at Kinetics FA2, brush painted with Humbrol Acrylics as I was too impatient to wait for my airbrush to arrive. It was completed before Christmas, however I came back from the rig last week to find my Girlfriend had very kindly "tidied up" which resulted in all my started and completed kits being chucked into an empty picnic basket, so today has been spent sticking weapons and under carriage back on. Pete

which is the best kit airfix 1/72 sea harrier fa2 from the airfix club box with a gr7 or the xtrakit harrier fa2 as i have just purchased both and was wondering which one will look better with the 800 nas special scheme many regards paul

Has anyone had their hands on one of these yet? http://luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KI-K48041

Hi all, First completion of the year for me and a welcome return to 1/72 scale with one of Airfix's lovely new Harrier tools. This is built OOB, with hindsight I probably shouldn't have put a wash through the panel lines as they are a bit heavy, but hey ho such is life!! Next up will be the even newer GR1 & GR3 as i'm having a Harrier fest at the moment! cheers simon

The Last of the Last (of the Last?) Sea Harrier FA2, ZH813 / 006L, 800 Naval Air Squadron, November 2005 This 1/48th scale Airfix Sea Harrier FA.2 marks the 75% completion point of my Harrier Project - 15 down, 5 to go, before I have to start on phase 2 in order to keep the addiction going. The subject chosen was ZH813, operating as 006L of 801 Naval Air Squadron when deployed on HMS Illustrious in November 2005. As far as I am aware, but I've been known to be wrong many times before, ZH813 was the last Sea Harrier, in fact the last Harrier, to be delivered from the UK production lines into service, even including second generation Harriers. This makes her the last Sea Harrier and the last Harrier (new builds, not including refurbishments and upgrades). Perhaps you could even add "of the last" again, as she may be the last all-British fighter we ever make? Certainly Jamie Hunter thought so when he titled his book "Sea Harrier - The Last All-British Fighter" (Ian Allan 2005). I think ZH813's maiden flight was 12 December 1988 and she was delivered on 18 January 1989. She was withdrawn from service in March 2006 and later ended up at the School of Flight Deck Operations (SFDO) at Culdrose as DD13. A pretty short flying career considering the money invested, but we will not go there in order not to raise the blood pressure. So, is there anything novel and exciting to say about this Sea Harrier build, other than it's the less commonly seen FA.2 variant due to rarity of supply of the kit? Well, not really, aside from demonstrating that modellers like me really could do with a modern version (coming, yipee) in order to make something look more like the real thing. For the record here's what I did... ... I replaced the kit seat with a resin ejection seat from Pavla. Likewise, I used dropped intake doors resin intakes and nozzles from Pavla. Heritage Aviation supplied the 190 gallon tanks (these were poor quality resin - lots of air bubbles, I should have sent them back) and a pair of resin CBLS obtained from a fellow modeller. The dummy 1000lber on the centre line, the pylon and the strakes were from a Tamiya GR1/AV-8A kit which is being robbed for spares. As ever, I used Nick Greenall's indispensable Harrier SIG modelling guides as a base for my efforts, trying to do as much as my skills allow or I think is worth doing. What I didn't do is create a front undercarriage bay nor move the front compressor blades forward, nor add the detailing inside the CBLS as this is all hidden or not noticed by the majority. I omitted the MDC on the canopy after multiple attempts to try and do something without a decal. (What we need is someone to do MDC decals for 1st generation Harriers in 1/48th scale). Whilst I choose real life examples to imitate, I don't try to replicate, as if you need telling. In particular here, she probably looks a bit more weathered than in real life at that stage and the decals are a shade too pink, though the kit ones are probably a shade too red. In the end, I decided to go with pretty in pink (Sorry Nick). I'm sure she will mellow with age. Decals were predominantly from the Harrier SIG's "Sea Harrier End of Era" sheet with a few kit ones used as and where necessary. Weathering is my usual mix of Tamiya powders, zip brushable pens and pencils. I coated with the new Humbrol Clear pre and post decal application. Humbrol matt varnish spray can was used to seal the weathering and a coat of Vallejo matt varnish brushed on as a final finish. This is how she turned out ... Comments welcome as ever. You can see a few more shots of this model and all the others by clicking on the "My Harrier Project Models" link in my signature. Next on the production line will be an AV-8B II NA.