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The Kinetic Harrier T2/4/8 is a lovely model, and builds to a very nice representation of the ugliest of the Harrier family. However, it is not perfect, and benefits from some tweaks. This was the second one I built, after I suffered a bad reaction between the oil paint thinners I used for weathering and the Alclad varnish on the first. As I had had several problems with the paint, I decided to start again. The second time I spent more time checking fit, and got a much better build much faster. Some of the following have been covered in other (better) builds, but I decided to list all the changes I made. Some were to improve fit, others to improve accuracy. I'll come the only real error of accuracy at the end. I normally don’t care too much, but I spent several years working on Harriers and wanted a good model of one I was lucky enough to fly in - even if I was very air-sick. Most of these fall into the "you must be mad" category. The main wheel bays roof should have 2 indentations to fit the Harrier's enlarged wheels over the earlier P1127. I just scraped some indentations out of the thick plastic. The main wheel bays benefitted from a lot of check fitting and adjusting, both as an assembly and then when fitting to the fuselage. The easier solution would be to position the wheel doors almost closed - they drooped an inch or so on the ground but could be unlatched to open fully for maintenance. The rear cockpit did not fit well, with a gap between the interseat area and the port fuselage side. First time round I thought it was my mistake, but the second time I reduced the width of the port rear shelf to fit the fuselage side better. Result, no gap. I added a plate with 3 holes to the port sidewall of the rear cockpit to simulate the fibreglass liner. The throttle and nozzle control levers are far too small. I added larger ones using wire and plastic rod. The wing tip reaction nozzles on top are too wide (spanwise) and shallow. I reduced the width by 1mm using plastic strip, and then cut out the middle to make it deeper and simulate the rotary valve. The LRMTS nose should have bulges for the laser door pivot points. I added a small disk of plastic card to each side. There has been a lot of discussion on the inner wing pylons, which need the nose profile straightening. However, the pylons are also too long. I cut each pylon in half horizontally, then moved the lower portion forward 2mm, cut the nose at 45 degrees and cut 2mm of the rear. This also ended up with the right profile still on the wing underside. The tailplane pivot is 4mm too far forward. Kinetic have assumed that the fuselage bump is due to the pivot , but it is really there to allow the tail plane actuator and front spar to fit at max incidence. I moved the pivot back on the fuselage and tailplanes, opened up the area in front of the pivot and added some basic structure and actuator. This allowed me to show the tailplane at typical resting incidence. The tail plane tips needed a quick reshape from a sanding stick. I opened out the APU inlet and exhaust, and added the ducts and inlet mesh. The exhaust had a separate inner liner added as well. I filled the wing leading edge sawtooth depressions on the underside. I added additional bulges to the gun pods, drilled out gas ports, then added small plugs to the fronts to simulate the wooden cones that were fitted when the pods were not fitted with gun - to save weight. I added 5 thou plasticard shims to the horizontal part of the joint where the wing attaches to the aft fuselage. This raised the rear of the wing, and with a clamp pushing the wing down I got a joint that needed no filler. The only problem I could not fix entirely to my satisfaction was the intake. The engine fan is too small, and this throws out the intake shape in subtle ways. From what I can find on line, the Pegasus 103 fan was 115 cm diameter, so should be 24mm. The Kinetic fan is 21mm across, so 3mm too small. The picture shows the Monogram fan for comparison (on the left). The result is that the intake slopes in too much - I modified the forward portion it to be closer to the original profile using plastic card inserts to replace the intake trunking. The result is that the intake slopes in too much - I modified the forward portion it to be closer to the original profile using plastic card inserts to replace the intake trunking. This makes the blow-in door intakes shallower, which is more accurate - they should be visible from the front. The rear of the intake and fan can't be fixed easily, but the undersize fan is not too noticeable and I did not feel like building a new one. At the end I added Flightpath's CBLS - very nice if fiddly. Decals came from several Xtradecal sheets as well as Kinetic's, and the codes and serials were home-printed. Finally, here are a couple of pictures with an earlier member of the family - Monogram's Harrier GR1 backdated to a Kestrel. Roll on the Kinetic GR3…