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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

Hello all, I've decided to build somewhat of a tribute to recognise the drawdown of 13 years of Op Herrick by building some of the equipment that was used in the conflict. Multiple builds in multiple scales, not all will be aircraft though! This is what I've decided on so far: 1/144 C-17 1/72 C-130J 1/48 WAH-64D 1/48 Harrier GR-9 1/35 Jackal 2 I'll add all the builds to this thread instead of starting several. First up will be the C-17. Comments and suggestions welcome. Dave

This was supposed to be my entry for the Harrier GB but because of a last minute paint disaster it didn't make it. Finally finished it tonight, mostly OOB but with extensive scratch building in gear bays and to ejection seat. Cheers, Liam

Time to start another build; I had a browse of the model catalogues online, and decided on a Harrier. I have recently been able to sit in a couple of GR.3 cockpits at a couple of museums; the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection in Wiltshire, and Aeroventure in Doncaster: I was born in March 1982, just as the Falklands War was kicking off..so I thought it would be good to do a Harrier from that conflict. Also, the Harrier GR.3 was the first Airfix kit that I made completely, fully painted and decalled 20 years ago; it was this one, given to me as a present in a starter set, with glue and brush and paints supplied: So, I had a look around the web and in my local town centre (Reading). I found lots of the new tooling GR.3 in Hobbycraft, and one in the WH Smith/Modelzone, both selling it for £15. There is an old-fashioned model shop in Reading, and they also had the kit, priced at £12.60. I bought it from there; a nice bargain, and I much prefer to give the business to the small model shops before they disappear. Anyway, here is the box: 3 of the sprues: 3 more sprues and the clear sprue: And the instructions and decals: Being a new tooling, the parts are very well produced, and should mke a great build. I have done the new tool Vampire and Me109 recently, so this should be equally enjoyable.

Kit manufacture: Airfix (club boxing with Harrier FA.2) Scale: 1/72 Type: Harrier GR.7 Extras used: Tape seat belts, not that you can see them. Paints and colours used: Tamiya Dark Sea Grey (on top), Xtracrylix Dark Camo Grey (underside), Tamiya mainly elsewhere, Citadel Silver and Gunmetal for the metal bits! Weathered with Flory Dark Dirt, Glossed with Alclad and Matte coats were with Xtracrylix. The build is mentioned here, in very little detail: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234964266-airfix-148-seafire-fxvii-plus-special-guests/#entry1684720 So this is a Harrier Gr.7 scratch built out of milliput, Vallejo filler and Tamiya putty. I filled the gaps between the fillers with the Airfix Harrier Gr.7 kit (old tool). This is one of the first models I started when I got back into the hobby 2-3 years ago, and has only now been finished. As it was the old tool, I decided I'd use it as a practice kit (filling, sanding, weather etc), but encountered so many problems, it frequently got placed on the shelf of doom... In truth, the fit was actually pretty good over all, but where it didn't fit, it was a nightmare (air intake, wing roots underneath), particularly the canopy with was too wide. I must commend Airfix though, I broke the first canopy trying to squeeze it onto the model; they sent me a replacement FOC in the post within 2 days. Top work that. I left some missiles off, basically the weapons were an additional item to the original tool of this aircraft (I guess) and as a result did not fit on any of the pylons. The weapons that are on there I drilled out and fitted with a tiny copper rod, but I lost interest by the time I got to the missiles.... So, here she is, tips and constructive criticism greatly appreciated. I think the one thing I did learn from this practice kit was that if there is a nice, new tooled, highly praised kit (Airfix, Revell/Has) for just a couple of quid more, don't bother with the old one! But I'm fairly pleased with the end result. Many thanks, Val

Now I have your attention here's my review. Work In Progress, Built Out Of Box Yesterday! First look, nice crisp detail in line with new toolings from this firm. Construction starts with the cockpit, a 4 piece seat and 4 piece tub go to complete the cockpit along with some decals. It builds up well but needs a little cleaning up first, nothing major, two ejector pin marks on the rear plate need filling. The instructions suggest fitting the ejector seat but I think it needs to be left off so the seam along the top of the rear panel where it meets the fuselage can be addressed if necessary. Then we move on to the air intakes, these look complex but fit together well, the bottom half has detail which goes to form part of the nose gear well, this is also apparent on the rear of the backplate in the cockpit. Next up, the fuselage halves, all work so far fits into these pieces so it is a logical step. The piece that is the main gear doors and air brake well sits deep in the fuselage and there was a step, it was necessary to sand around the perimeter to allow it to protrude slightly to give a flush fit. This also occurred with the wing section, it sat too high, the highlighted area was sanded a bit to give a flush fit. The red box highlights two vents (one has been removed) these are for the GR1 which is the same basic kit, the GR3 has additional sprues to bring it up to spec, the blue box highlights the vent to be removed if you are building a GR1. This is called out in the instructions and is correct. One note, the yellow arrow highlights an unsightly mould line, this was sanded smooth, I scribed the lines that may have been lost as I went, as it got closer to them disappearing I opened them up again with a scalpel.

A couple of shots I took on the way up to Waddington last week: Harrier GR.7A ZD469 'Christine' by tony_inkster, on Flickr Harrier GR.7A ZD469 'Christine' by tony_inkster, on Flickr Harrier GR.7A ZD469 'Christine' by tony_inkster, on Flickr Harrier GR.7A ZD469 'Christine' by tony_inkster, on Flickr

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

Hi all. Welcome to my summary of the year. For me 2013 has been a funny year I was sick for the first 5 months but it give me plenty of time to model. Its been a great modelling year for me and I got to meet many people of here attending my first shows at Cosford and Telford WOW the model shows Rock as do the people I have had a lot of inspiration this year and modelled more that ever. VULCAN B2 XM650 Well I have been making many of these Dragon 1/200 Vulcan's Here we have XM650 XM605 Vulcan B2 again Dragon 1/200 made the same time as XM650 XH558 1992 Vulcan B2 This is another Dragon kit Made to represent XH558 In 1992 I changed some of the decals and made my own too to make the entrance door script and the old large dayglow orange ejector seat triangles. I also tried very hard to get her camo pattern as close to accurate as I could. VX777 AVRO 698 PROTOTYPE 2 AVRO VULCAN. Dragon 1/200th kit again but heavily modified wings, engines, tail, tailcone. decals from xtradecal. XA900 Vulcan B1 Extensively modified Dragon 1/200th Kit modified wings engines tail and tail cone. XH498 Vulcan B1a again and extensively modified Dragon 1/200th mainly wings and engines but the tail cone tip is different to the others. My old Dragon Vulcan B2 XH588 which I added new decals modified the tail etc and basically refinished. XJ783 Vulcan B2 This is another Dragon 1/200th with modded tail cone. XM599 PIT ROAD 1/144th Vulcan B2 in intermediate 60s/70s scheme Lovely kit this. XM606 Vulcan B2 70s scheme Dragon 1/200th kit again Can't get enough of it (noticed lol) XM575 Vulcan B2 Dragon 1/200th no mods HARRIER GR9 Revell 1/144th finished on New Years day 2013.. Lovely little kit. My ongoing upgrading and modding renaming renumbering Hornby A4s Most the paint is original Hornby but numbers/letters come from Foxx Transfers, Nameplates from Model Masters and Foxx again. Gloss from Humbrol rattle cans Minor paint variations by me. Mallard 4468 as preserved in the 60s onwards Sir Nigel Gresley 4498 As preserved in the 60s Bittern 4464 as preserved today Peregrine 4903 Mallard 60022 with Andrew K McCosh 60003 TORNADO Revell easy kit from the early 90s bought for my by my mum and dad. I decided to stick it together and paint it up one weekend for a quick bit of fun. Airfix DRAKEN Whiff repainted this year into a fictitious German scheme just for the hell of it. No story for this one I am afraid other than I had spare paint and decals I liked. SPITFIRE MKVb 1/32 Hobbyboss Must be the best model I have made and my dads Christmas present. Finished with base at 3.30 AM on Christmas Day with a pint ! T34 My first ever Tank This is the Armour fast OOB. HARRIER GR3 Matchbox. For the Very good fun Obsolete Kit GB The Jaguar still is not finished but might well be before the year is out. Cheers to Col Enzo and Mish with the GB it was great fun. XH535 Vulcan B2 GWH 1/144TH Kit on a QRA Pan dio Based on Waddington made for Precision Ice and Snow for the Telford IPMS show. That was a lot of fun. FOXBAT Hasgawa 1/72 made for Precision Ice and Snow at IPMS Telford and for the Obsolete Kit GB LANDROVER In the snow Diorama. This was My First ever Diorama and Made for the Review I did for Precision Ice and Snow and Also Displayed at Telford IPMS. Going to Telford and Cosford displaying the models and meeting people was the Highlight for me. This was the 2 Tables. Precision Ice and Snow Telford. and Cosford impromptu showing next to Canberra Kids Table. It has been a fantastic year for me. Ups and downs with health and family stuff but there has been more modelling than I have ever done. This post has shocked me to be honest and its great to look back and see what went one. I hope you like the photos Some of the Models here have not had their own RFI yet and some models are not featured here that I have made this year but this is the main highlights. Cheers to you all and have a very happy 2014 Happy New Year ! Rob

Well, as luck would have it I've decided to make my Harrier next so would like to be included in this GB if I may. The actual kit is for a SHAR but I've decided to build it as a GR3 as this interests me more. Everything that I need is in the box so far as I can see, I've managed to download the GR3 instructions from somewhere, and Airfix will sell me the appropriate decals for £8 so it's all good. Opening the box I confess to being a bit apprehensive at the sheer amount of plastic in there, much of which seems to be off the sprue and rattling around loose. The kit is well know for being very basic in some areas such as the cockpit and over detailed in others (think rivets). I'm going to do some "busying" in the pit with an emphasis on the spirit of the thing rather than strict accuracy and may well do a bit of filling of the rivet detail although I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I actually kind of like it. I made a start on the ejection seat last night, will post some pictures later.

Following Rob P's wee challange for a head to head build off, I started construction of mine tonight. First impressions when I opened the box earlier were pretty good. Airfix have taken some of the good points of the GR7/9 kit and used similar ideas on this one. They've also made the panel lines a lot finer than on the earlier kit. The decal sheet is outstanding, with the 20 Sqdn bars in perfect register on my copy. I'll be using some Vingtor Harrier Conversion Unit badges to make XV758 as I'll be finishing my Fujimi GR1 as XV778 of 1 Sqdn, so I don't want to duplicate things. Anyway, on with the show. As you can see, Airfix have done a pretty decent job on the MB Mk.9. It just needs some straps, an ejection handle and it'll look alright. I mentioned on another thread about there being 2 flashed over holes on the upper fuselage, you can see them here. This makes me think we may well see a Thai or Spanish option at some point. As per some of their earlier Harrier kits, Airfix have included the suction relief doors as seperate parts offering either half open or fully closed options depending if you're building in-flight or parked up. Unlike the GR7/9 kit, Airfix have chosen to mould the nozzles in a way that avoids having to try and clean up seams across the vanes. the seams here should be a lot easier to make disappear! Well that's all for tonight, should make some decent progress over the next few days as I'm on leave until Wednesday. Mark.

Sorry I'm late to the party but I've been very busy building a stupid amount kits for another group Matador... GR7

Harrier GR.1 XV798. This harrier crashed in Germany and was used by Rolls Royce for testing an engine they were developing for a supersonic version of the Harrier. This airframe is now at the Helicopter Museum in Weston. Pics thanks to bootneck.

These Images were taken when Harrier T.8 ZD991 was in open storage for Everett Aero at the former RAF Bentwaters.

This is my very first Group Build! I originally intended to just do a 1/72 Hasegawa USMC AV-8B+ in the newer Gunship Grey scheme, but decided to add the new 1/72 Airfix GR.7/9 kit too, simply because I couldn't help myself when I saw it in the hobby shop - it really is a nice looking kit. I hope it's OK to show both builds in this topic, but I am perfectly willing to split it up if required by the Group Build rules. The plan is to use Wolfpak VMA-513 decals for the AV-8B+, and a combination of kit, AM, and home made decals to depict GR.7A ZG471 as it appeared in Operation Herrick in 2008. I purchased resin nozzles for each, as they were reasonably priced, and anything that eliminates 8 seams to fill is alright by me. I don't even remember buying the PE set, but here it is nonetheless. I don't have much experience with PE, so this will be another first. Thanks to SaintsPhil and Mish for getting this all set up - really looking forward to it!

To take my frustration away from trying to fix the Windows in my Airfix Fiesta RS, I've turned to one of my Hasegawa GR7s OOB for light relief Can anyone advise on the square hole left in the bottom of the nose cone assembly. I can't see from the instructions anything that fills this and looks lit it will leave an ugly void. What am I missing please?

I have just started building a series of 1/72 first generation Harriers; GR.1 & 3, SHAR 2 and a twoseater. One very visible area on Harriers are big air intakes (I don't like intake covers on my models). I found several excellent photos of these in the walkaround section here on BM (Thank you!) which answered a lot of my questions. The only remaining question now is, what is the actual colour of the inside of the intakes, white or a very light grey? TIA

If you are going to use the Eduard PE for your Airfix 1/72 Harriers (either the GR.1 or the GR.3), be aware that there is an error in the instrucions (guess how I found out ). DON'T remove the moulded throttle quadrant on kit part A9 as indicated in the Eduard instructions. According to these, Eduard PE part 3 is the new throttle quadrant. Well, it isn't. Close examination shows that it is the panel to the rear of the throttle. Besides, don't use the two throttle leavers, Eduard PE part 19. They bear no resemblance to the real leavers at all.

Spanish Harrier #3 Harrier EAV-8B II Plus, 01-919 / VA.1B-29, Escuadrilla 009, Arma Aerea de la Armada Espanola, (Hasegawa 1/48th) The latest model in my Harrier build project (#18, 2 to go) is the Harrier EAV-8B II Plus variant flown by Arma Aerea de la Armada Espanola – the Air Arm of the Spanish Navy. The first EAV-8B II Plus was delivered to the Spanish Navy in January 1996. They received eight new-builds in total, with Construcciones SA (CASA) in Spain completing the final assembly in conjunction with McDonnell Douglas. A further five EAV-8B II Plus were remanufactured using EAV-8B II donor aircraft (01-904, 01-905, 01-906, 01-910 and 01-912). The aircraft are flown by Escuadrilla 009. This build uses the Hasegawa kit plastic straight from the box, with just the addition of a Maverick air-to-surface missile (kind donation from fellow BMer). The model shows the current camouflage scheme of Dark Gull Grey (FS36231) over Dark Compass Grey (FS36320). It is brush painted with Lifecolor’s acrylics and I used Series Españolas decals. The model is weathered using Tamiya powders, artist pastels and Zig brushable pens. Vallejo matt varnish was used to flatten the finish. This is how it turned out ... All feedback welcome as ever. Next in for a rolling vertical landing will be a USMC AV-8B II Plus

After a bit of a break I've managed to finish 2 in 2 days! I don't normally do 1:72nd stuff but these new tool Airfix kits have really caught my interest, so I found myself walking out of the model shop with this. And then I even started it, just as a little 'aside' build as I got on with other stuff. Picked it up every now and then and did a little bit more, until completion today. It's a bit of a blast from the past as I well remember when Airfix released their original Harrier back in the late 60's when I was a kid. I've always liked the early pointy nose version with its glossy paintwork and 'D' type roundels, so that's what I did! Now where is it going to sit on the shelf with my 1:144 Airliners and 1:32 WW1 stuff? It's an Airfix kit so we must put the pilot in! It was fun, on with the Lightning F2.A Next! Thanks for looking Johm

Hi everyone, Finalising my February releases (all 1/72), some of which will be on sale at the Huddersfield show. Those marked with an * may be ready a bit late for the show, but will be listed on website once in stock; - Lancaster 'Blockbuster' bomb set - Lancaster bulged bomb bay doors - Hurricane Fabric wing 20mm underwing cannon set - Hurricane five spoke wheels (for Airfix fabric wing kit) - Sea Harrier FA.2 fuselage pylons and AMRAAM missiles* - Harrier GR.9 TERMA pod* - Harrier GR.3 Blue Eric modified gun pod (collaboration with Combat Decals) - Hawker Hunter P.1109A conversion/decals (collaboration with Airdecal re-print) All above items are for Airfix kits, except P.1109A that goes with Revell base kit. Thanks Colin

I started this build when this kit was first released, but only finished it about 2 months ago. I scratchbuilt a few extra details that Airfix omitted, as well as added some semblance of the harness to the seat. The details I added were the retractable step on the starboard side, the fuel vent on the same side and the standby VHF aerial on the lower rear port fuselage. I also added the missing strakes on the outrigger wheel fairings and used a Master metal pitot tube to replace the kit plastic one. Decals were mostly OOB, with the serials being cut up and rearranged to get XV758 and the Harrier Conversion Unit emblem coming from one of Vingtors excellent Harrier sheets. On with the show, Here are a few detail shots showing some of the little details I added, Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at this as much as I enjoyed building it. If you've not built one of these yet, I can highly recommend one. I'm currently building the GR3 with a couple of Freightdog resin bits and some Eduard etch and really enjoying that one too! Mark.

Dijimos Cobra, dijiste Harrier! (You say Cobra, we say Harrier!) Harrier EAV-8B II, 01-903 / VA.1A-15, Escuadrilla 009, Arma Aerea de la Armada Espanola, (Monogram 1/48th) The latest model in my Harrier build project (#17, 3 to go) is the EAV-8B II variant flown by the Arma Aerea de la Armada Espanola – the Air Arm of the Spanish Navy. The Spanish Navy named the AV-8S the “Matador” and the EAV-8B II the “Cobra”, but we all know it as the “Harrier”, of course. Irrespective of how they refer to the aircraft, they have logged over 50,000 flying hours with the Harrier. The Air Arm received their first EAV-8B II (note “E” denotes “Espana”) in late 1987, receiving 12 in total. Five were later remanufactured as EAV-8B II Plus aircraft, four went through the SNUG (Spanish Navy Upgrade) Programme (01-903, -907, -909 and -911) to become EAV-8B II Plus equivalents (minus the APG-65 radar) and three EAV-8B II have been lost in accidents. All are based at Rota when not deployed. This build uses the Monogram kit plastic straight from the box, with just the addition of a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk fuel tank which now acts as a baggage pod. The serial chosen is 01-903 / VA.1A-15, the oldest surviving EAV-8B II and recently upgraded via the SNUG programme. It’s likely that the four aircraft pushed through the SNUG programme will be retired shortly due to budget constraints, leaving the Spanish Navy with a radar-only EAV-8B II Plus fleet of Harriers. The model shows the original camouflage scheme applied in the late 80s and early 90s of Dark Compass Grey (FS36320) over Light Compass Grey (FS36375). She is brush painted with Lifecolor’s acrylics and I used Series Españolas decals. The model is weathered using Tamiya powders, artist pastels and Zig brushable pens. Microscale’s micro flat matt varnish used to flatten the finish. With the canopy open, I added the “drop-down” step from the intake – something that’s guaranteed not to survive a trip or two to the model shows with the West Middlesex Scale Model Club. Officinados will note that the stencils are the wrong colour for this scheme, but I chose to ignore this minor detail due to the difficulty of trying to produce my own. The “weathering” is based on the real aircraft – obviously the car wash had broken down. This is how it turned out ... All feedback welcome as ever. Next arrival at the hover pad will be an EAV-8B II Plus.

Hovering with the “Flying Nightmares”, VMA-513 Harrier AV-8B II Plus, 165006 / WF01, VMA-513, USMC (Hasegawa 1/48th) The latest model in my Harrier build project (#19, 1 to go, can I/you believe it?) is the Harrier AV-8B II Plus variant flown by the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Now forming the backbone of the USMC Harrier fleet, the first AV-8B II Plus was delivered in March 1993. 165006 was delivered in October 1995 and was the last of the new-build Harriers delivered to the USMC, the remaining AV-8B II Plus aircraft were “remanufactured” AV-8B II aircraft that were withdrawn from service to be pushed through the remanufacturing process. In all, the USMC received 27 new builds and 74 remanufactured AV-8B II Plus Harriers. VMA-513, the “Flying Nightmares” disbanded in July 2013 as part of the transition to the F-35B. This build uses the Hasegawa kit plastic straight from the box, with just the addition of two resin Mk.83 unguided bombs. The model shows the aircraft when she was flown as the VMA-513 Unit Commander’s mount WF/01 in the Harrier Tactical Paint Scheme of Dark Compass Grey (FS36118) saddle and Dark Gull Grey (FS36231) over Dark Compass Grey (FS36320), circa 2009. She is brush painted with Lifecolor’s acrylics and I used the kit decals. The model is weathered using Tamiya powders, artist pastels and Zig brushable pens. Vallejo matt varnish was used to flatten the finish. The “saddle” is probably darker than real-life and I’m not convinced of any of the greys used – that Arizona sunshine soon fades the paintwork. The blue tail is a guess as well. What the hell, it’s only a model. This is how it turned out ... All feedback welcome as ever. LAST, but not least, from the production line is the GR.7A flying with the Naval Strike Wing as part of Joint Force Harrier.

Hello guys, i m making this thread to ask for some help and opinions those, who were dealing with the following few kits, to help me decide (namely it ll be airfix 1/24 harrier, airfix 1/24 hurricane, trumpeter 1/24 hurricane or zero or trumpeter 1/32 harrier). So the thing is, i always had the dream to build some big kit and the idea keeps growing in my head, so in the end i decided to go for one (then back to my 72´s , bcs of space problems ). Now, i was browsing web last few days, reading loads of reviews and still i cannt chose the final one kit for which i should be going, so you might be able to help me. I think i should say, i dont mind to do some scratchbuilding(actualy i do want to do some scratchbuilding even!), bcs it ll be probably my only big kit (or at least for long time), so i would like to make it as detailed as possible, but cannt spend too much to aftermarket (the 1/24 herritage and other accessories are not available in my country and with shipping it would cost 2-3x the cost of the kit..). I dont want to do too much panel lines rescribing but that shouldnt be problem with the chosen kits i hope. But i would like to make the kits as much opened as possible so i m trying to chose which one ll be the best base for this. As i mentioned earlier, the final few are : Airfix 1/24 Harrier (else shar or gr.3) there are few things i dont know (and cannt find answears around) about this kit: -is the engine base inside looking at least a bit like the real one or not at all? -i did read the kit has stuff like retractable gear, free canopy to go up and down and so on - does these parts still looks okish or was it changed too much from original, to get the functionality? -and main question, i did read it was gr.1 at first, so the gr.3 and sea harrier have new parts for front part, but bcs its newer, the rivets on rest of the plane are somehow more rough - is the diference big or is it easy to fix with lets say a bit of sanding or so? there is no local shop around with this kit on stock so i cannt check these details, ll have to order it from eshop, so i m asking bcs probably someone around did build this kit already so he(she) could know all this stuff (if i ll ask the guys in the e-shop, they ll tell me its all totaly great, awesome, pink ponies and teddy bears all around, just to sell it.... ) Trumpeter 1/32 Harrier Gr.7 as there is no other 1/24 harrier on the market(or i dont know about any), i wouldnt mind to go for this kit. i did read quite good references for this one, so have just one question: -how is it with engine by this? is there any or i would have to go full scratch? Airfix 1/24 Hurricane Mk.I this was originaly my favourite (hurricane was one of my first kits when i was kid and i fell in love with it since) and i did read some good references on it, saw the sprues in local shop and it looked quite good, so here is just one question - if i decided to go for 1/24 hurricane, should it be airfix or trumpeter ? Trumpeter 1/24 Hurricane Mk.IIc at first 1/24 trumpeters were out of table for me as it costs like 2x more than the airfix here. but recently i saw one in sale, being just like 30% over the airfix. the sprues looks good as well, but i m still now sure if i should go with airfix or trumpeter Trumpeter 1/24 A6M2 Zero recently saw review of this kit and it seems like another great kit.. So this is it, i know the harrier vs hurricane vs zero is more up to me, but if anyone with experiences from these two kits could help me with decision airfix vs trumpeter, i ll be realy thankful for that. By the way, i know there might be some patriotic "problem" with airfix being your home horse, but i dont mind:) I just cannt decide myself so more opinions is always welcome thanks