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Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1/AV-8A (A04057A) 1:72 Airfix The Harrier is an iconic (in the truest sense) example of what was possible when British Aviation was at its prime. It was a revolutionary design back in the 60s, and has seen many improvements and even a complete re-design in the shape of the Harrier II, which saw McDonnell Douglas get more heavily involved, giving the US Marines their much beloved AV-8B, and the British the Gr.5/7/9, all of which had new carbon-composite wings, massively upgraded avionics and improved versions of the doughty Pegasus engine, which was always at the heart of this legendary design. The majority of the public probably missed this because they still look very similar, but the pilots certainly appreciated the upgrade, helping keep them at the leading edge of aviation, although they probably would have preferred the supersonic Harrier that the British Government cancelled in their infinite wisdom. The Harrier is a taxing aircraft to fly due to the high pilot workload, and requires the best pilots to do it justice in the hovering flight mode particularly, where the pilot must control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets in the nose, tail and wingtips, even before having to do anything trivial like avoid obstacles or land. The original Harrier to reach service at the very end of the 1960s was the GR.1, which still bore a substantial familial resemblance to the prototype and the earlier Kestrel, having a pointed nose and relatively confining canopy that hadn't yet been ‘blown’ to improve the pilot’s ability to move his head around to gain better situational awareness. The following GR.3 had a more powerful engine, the peculiar looking laser tracker in an extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). With the re-development of the aircraft into the Harrier II, the anteater nose was phased out and the new composite winged GR.5 with massively improved avionics, engine and other systems took over the mantle. The Harrier II was retired early in British service, leaving a gap in their capability, and affording the US Marines with a huge supply of “spares” that has enabled them to field more aircraft. After a long gap due in part to the delays in the JSF project, the Harrier has now been replaced by the F-35B, which is known as the Lightning II and even has some carriers to fly from. Fancy! The Kit Originating from a retooling of the Sea Harrier FRS.1 in 1:72 by the then-newly revitalised Airfix, this is a reboxing with newer parts that were added along the way to depict other variants such as the GR.1, the earliest operational Harrier in British service, and the AV-8A in US Marine service. The kit arrives in a small red-themed top-opening box that has a digital painting of the aircraft in a hover over the aircraft carrier Ark Royal during initial trials. Inside the box are six sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet, instruction booklet printed in colour with profiles on the rear pages, plus a separate glossy sheet with the British and US stencil locations on either side of the page. Detail is good, and the engraved panel lines don’t seem worthy of any of the negative attention it received on initial release. Either someone at Airfix has done something to the moulds, or the furore was entirely unjustified. Other details are well rendered, such as the ejection seat and the prominent first compressor phase that is close behind the intake lips. Construction begins with the Martin Baker seat, which is made from the centre section plus separate side panels, and decals for the headbox stencils, using a different centre section for US Stencel SEU-3A and British variants, then adding the appropriate seat pad for the nation. The cockpit tub starts as a floor with moulded-in side consoles and rudder pedals, to which the rear bulkhead and a couple of decals are added to the consoles, then the seat is inserted onto the launch rail moulded into the bulkhead, adding the control column and instrument panel to the front, applying a dial decal to the panel after painting and before installation. You then have a choice of seating the hands-on-lap pilot figure into the cockpit or not. Your choice entirely. Attention then turns to the intake trunking, which is made in two halves that join within the fuselage later. They are each made from inner and outer faces, and are inserted into the relevant fuselage half, while a scrap diagram shows how they should look. The cockpit, fan face and rear gear bay that also has the air-brake bay moulded to it are trapped between the fuselage halves, removing the flashed-over holes in the underside if you are using an Airfix stand. With the fuselage closed and the seams dealt with, the elevators are placed into a depression in the tail, to be held in place by a fuselage insert that will allow them to be offset up to 19° in either direction, and remember that they have anhedral, or droop, or you’ll end up with the world’s weirdest Harrier. The tail fin with moulded-in rudder slots into the top of the insert, and a two-part tail bullet slides into the tubular fairing at the very rear of the fuselage. The wings have anhedral too, and the top is moulded as a single part with a portion of the upper fuselage moulded-in, adding the lower surfaces on each side, which leaves a gap to accommodate the fuselage. First however, if you are building an AV-8A you need to drill out a 0.8mm flashed-over hole in the centre wing to fit the big aerial later. With that done as appropriate, the wings can be lowered over the fuselage and glued into position, taking care to align the fuselage to the centre to minimise clean-up of the joints there. The Pegasus engine gets its air through a pair of ear-like intake trunks that are found either side of the fuselage, with blow-in doors all around the base to allow more air to be drawn into the short trunk when on the ground or moving at slow speeds. These are supplied as separate inserts on a curved carrier, with two types that depict the engine under forward power and all the doors flush with the cowling, or for on the ground and switched off, where the upper doors droop down slightly under gravity’s influence. If you wanted to depict your Harrier in a hover, or with the motor running on the ground however, you could take a sander to the parked door part and incline all the doors so that they appear to be “blown in”. The completed intake lips are mated to their bases either side of the fuselage, sliding over the interior trunking, which is usually painted white. This completes most of the major structural components of the model, with the easily broken off parts left to add. You have a choice of pylons under the wings, depending on what you intend to hang there, with silhouettes of the intended weapon next to each one for your assistance. The choices include a cylindrical Matra rocket pack with a conical tip, a Sidewinder, and a smaller four-pack LAU-10 rocket pod, one of each under each wing. Under the belly go the two-part Aden cannon packs, with one sat on each edge of the fuselage underside. These have the additional job of preventing the jet efflux in the hover from washing under the belly and reducing stability, so you often find a Harrier that doesn’t carry these packs instead has a pair of strakes to keep the airflows separate for longer, which is demonstrated by the AV-8A. A clear light is fixed in a recess in front of the air-brake bay, and a blade antenna on an oval base slots into a recess on the side of the fuselage under the forward exhaust, with a pair of ribbed heat-resistant plates glued to the rear of the hot exhausts as they're called, even though you’d need extensive surgery if you put your face in front of either hot or ‘cold’ exhausts. Speaking of exhausts, these are made from front and rear halves, with the twin baffles in each one moulded integrally to the fronts, thanks to the part being positioned parallel to the upper mould’s retraction direction. Careful alignment of the front and rear halves will result in a lot less work than if Airfix had taken the more usual route and moulded the part split down the centreline, especially important at this scale. You can of course deflect the exhausts downward for hover if you wish, or anywhere in between for some VIFF action. As is now usual with modern Airfix kits, the landing gear can be posed up or down, with the gear-up version the simple option, consisting of one part per bay with engraved panel lines simulating their parts. If you intend to put your gear down, the nose leg is moulded in two halves that trap the wheel in between them, with one bay door moulded-in, and the other two attaching to the sides of the bay with the help of a scrap diagram that shows them from the front, and another that shows the correct location of the leg from the side. The main gear leg is a single part that accepts two wheels on the short cross-axle, and has one door fixed to the front of the bay, a small diagram showing the height of the wheel in relation to the fuselage from the side. Because of its bicycle configuration, we’re not done with the wheels yet, as there are outriggers at the wingtips for this early Harrier – they moved inboard with the redesign to Harrier II. In flight the legs fold into the wing to minimise turbulence, with each one is represented by strut, fairing and wheel moulded as one part. The gear-down option is also moulded as one, but the individual components are more visible due to separation, and are angled toward the ground to stop the expensive aircraft from toppling over. If you are putting the wheels down, you have a choice of leaving the air-brake flush with the fuselage, or in its part-open position with a short strut setting the correct angle. The brake can only be fully deployed when the aircraft is in the air, as it opens beyond the length of the rear gear, which is depicted by using a longer strut, so it’s important to remember this during the building process. The weapons for the wing pylons are all included on the sprues, beginning with the Matra rocket pods, which are made from two halves plus the perforated cone at the front. The AIM-9s have an extra part for the perpendicular fins, and the LAU-10 Zuni pods with a capacity for four rockets are also made of three parts. The RAF decal option only has the Matra pods to play with, until its capabilities were expanded with subsequent upgrades. There are also a pair of large capacity fuel tanks that are built from two halves each, and these are generally fitted on the inner pylon. It’s time for the final small parts on the upper surface of the model, starting with the clear HUD on the moulded-in coaming, then gluing the windscreen into position over it, and making up the canopy with styrene rear section to pose open or closed. There is a wind-direction sensor in front of the windscreen, and one small blade antenna behind the canopy, with another recess next to it that will need to be filled. For the US version there is a tall antenna that locates in the hole drilled earlier, and next to it is a clear ID light, finishing the model by inserting the two-part nose cone, which has a probe moulded into it at an angle, which looks bent until you insert it in the nose and it aligns with the direction of (forward) flight. Markings There are two decal options for this early Harrier, one each for the RAF and US Marines, the latter getting a bright and complex camouflage scheme that is quite eye-catching. From the box you can build one of the following: No.1 (F) Sqn., RAF Wittering, England, embarked on carrier trials, HMS Ark Royal, May 1971 VMA-231 ‘Ace of Spades’, US Marine Corps., Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, USA, 1983 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion Harriers are great, and this is a good kit of a Harrier/AV-8A in this scale, with plenty of detail that includes finely engraved panel lines that appear finer than earlier lighter grey plastic moulded releases. Whether it’s an optical illusion or the moulds have been tweaked, I honestly couldn’t say, but the pictures speak for themselves. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Harrier GR.1/GR.3 2-in-1 (K48060) 1:48 Kinetic via Lucky Model The Harrier is an iconic (in the truest sense) example of what was possible when British Aviation was at its prime. It was a revolutionary design back in the 60s, and has seen many improvements and even a complete re-design in the shape of the Harrier II, which saw McDonnell Douglas get more heavily involved, giving the US Marines their much beloved AV-8B, and the British the Gr.5/7/9, all of which had new carbon-composite wings, massively upgraded avionics and improved versions of the doughty Pegasus engine, which was always at the heart of this legendary design. The Harrier is a difficult aircraft to fly due to the high pilot workload, and requires the best pilots to do it justice in the hovering flight mode especially, where the pilot has to control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and also make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets, even before having to do anything like fight or land. The original Harrier to reach service at the very end of the 1960s was the GR.1, which still bore a quite striking familial resemblance to the prototype and the earlier Kestrel, having a pointed nose and relatively confined canopy that hadn't yet been ‘blown’ to improve the pilot’s ability to move his head around to gain better situational awareness. The GR.3 had a more powerful engine, the peculiar looking laser tracker in an extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). When the GR.3 was transported to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new Sea Harriers, they were refitted with new pylons that could carry Sidewinder missiles with all the necessary cabling and avionics changes, so that it would be able to replace any SHAR losses if they were to occur, as until that point the Harrier was mainly used in the Ground Attack/Support role in the RAF. With the re-development of the aircraft into the Harrier II, the anteater nose was phased out and the new composite winged GR.5 with massively improved avionics, engine and other systems took over the mantle. For the most part, the general public don’t really see them as different machines, and the media’s constant reference to them as “jump jet” makes the corners of eyes twitch for those wot know. The Kit For many years modellers of the Harrier were crying out for a good quality new tooling in this scale, and Kinetic have put a lot of effort and research into making our dreams a reality, firstly with the two Sea Harriers, then the two-seat trainer Harriers in ‘tin-wing’ and later composite winged versions, all of which we have reviewed here in the past year or two. Once the original metal wing had been tooled, the natural progression was to tool the early Harriers, which was always Kinetic’s stated intention, although we weren’t too sure on the order in which they would arrive. Kinetic's new kit is a thoroughly modern tooling, benefitting from a lot of extra detail that just wasn't possible back when the older toolings were made. It arrives in the Kinetic Gold box with a rather nice painting of a GR.3 on the front with seven sprues inside in a mid-grey styrene, plus one in clear, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a large decal sheet. The instruction booklet is in portrait A4, and the painting and markings diagrams are at the rear in greyscale. Don’t fret though, as you can pick up colour copies from LuckyModel’s website. Some of the sprues date back to the Sea Harrier FRS.1, with others coming from the trainer Harriers, plus a couple of new sprues including a new fuselage with optional LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Spotter) nose parts, and of course the early single-seat fuselage. Construction begins with the cockpit, and there is plenty of detail packed into this small space. The tub has moulded in side consoles with plenty of raised details, instrument panel, side consoles, rudder pedals and control column also present, along with a two-part HUD that is made completely from clear parts. The Martin-Baker ejection seat is well detailed too, and has two side parts with raised rivets, two seat cushions, a head-box topper, and pull-handle between the pilot's knees for emergency exits, plus the tube housing the rocket motor in the rear. The pilot sits right in front of the engine, and the rear bulkhead with moulded-in detail attaches to the combined intake trunking/nose gear bay. The intake narrows to a circular profile via a short lip, into which the engine front face is inserted, which has the prototypical ring toward the outer edge of the blades. The single main gear bay is built up from two sides to maximise the moulded-in detail, and the rear air-brake bay is a combination of four parts with the thick ribbing moulded in to allow the brake to be posed open or closed, with the aid of a separate jack. These are placed inside the fuselage, which can be closed up after the stubs for the four vectoring nozzles are built up, along a linkage that ensures all nozzles move in unison. You'll need to be frugal with the glue here if you want to be able to VIFF your Harrier after building, or simply glue it at the desired angle. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done, with lots of moulded in detail thanks to some slide moulding, leaving only a fine seam down the centreline to scrape away before they can be installed on the previously mentioned stubs, with the ribbed heat-resistant panel behind the aft "hot" nozzles. At this point the intake lips with their blow-in doors are built up from an inner and outer skin, and a choice of closed doors for flight, or "drooped" upper doors when the engine is inactive. There are some slight sink marks present in the door parts, so check yours and fill the depressions where necessary before you install them. The wing upper surface is full width, with the top surface of the fuselage moulded in, with the detail well done that captures the curve nicely - there are two in the box, so ensure that you choose the right one. The lower wings are added before the assembly is placed on the fuselage, as are the flaps and ailerons with their actuator fairings, PE wing fences in the leading edge, and clear wingtip lights. The tail is completely separate, with single parts making up the elevators with separate swash-plates, and a two-part fin with separate rudder, all of which fit into the fuselage in the usual slot and tab manner, taking care to get the correct anhedral to the elevators. The bicycle landing gear has tyres made from two halves that enclose a single piece hub, with one wheel at the front, and a twin set at the rear, with a couple of clear landing lights on the nose leg. The bay doors are supplied with moulded in hinges, so should have a good solid attachment to the bay sides, and detail is again good. The two outriggers are each single parts, and have detailed painting instructions next to them, which seems to be the case throughout the instructions, happily. The nose has either the tapered cone nose with clear lights and pitot probe fitted, or the extended LRMTS with clear lights, moulded-in pitot and a PE panel with blade antenna on the top for one specific decal option. There’s no clear option for an open “eye” for the tip of the nose, so if you’re going for that look, you’ll need to snip the tip and put some clear plastic in the hole and maybe some eyelids. At the rear the tail faring is fitted with an insert on the underside, and a choice or curved or contoured tip, depending on your decal option. There are a host of antennae and sensors around the airframe, some of which are optional depending on the decal variant, so take care when applying them. The end result is a Harrier that fairly bristles with antennae! The canopy has been moulded without slide-moulding, as it doesn't have the characteristic blown-style of later marks, so there's no annoying seam on the centreline. It fits on a separate rail part that some people seem to loathe, but as long as you're careful of your choice as well as quantity of glue, it should go together just fine, and don’t forget to apply the decal for the det-cord canopy breaker early on. The windscreen is similarly well moulded with a raised windscreen wiper, and also has some nice delicate rivets, plus the asymmetric fairing at the front that houses the wiper gear. On the lower boat-tail fairing, there is a part in PE that can be applied if you are going to use your own decals, but it isn’t used with the supplied airframes. Nice of Kinetic to think of us, and do check your references. No Harrier (or modern fast jet, for that matter) is complete without some additional tanks to extend its range, and/or some kind of war load, and Kinetic have been their usual generous selves as far as this kit is concerned. A full set of pylons are included, with additional detail in the shape of separate shackles that fit into the bottom of each one, plus the 30mm Aden cannon pods that are synonymous with the mighty Harrier slung under the belly, and a pair of strakes (D22) on the sprues just in case. In addition are the following weapons for you to choose from: 6 x AIM-9 Sidewinder A2A missiles 2 x Drop Tanks (Large) 2 x Drop Tanks (Small) Plus these items that will end up in the spares: 4 x AIM120 AMRAAM Beyond Visual Range (BVR) A2A missiles 2 x Sea Eagle Anti-Ship Missile (ASM) A full complement of stencils is included for the supplied munitions, with their placement given on the markings section at the rear of the booklet. Markings Kinetic have included a generous seven sets of markings in the kit, and from the box you can depict one of the following: Harrier GR.1 XV788/M – 1(F) Sqn., RAF Wittering, 1970 Harrier GR.1A XV788/M – 1(F) Sqn., RAF Wittering, 1970 Harrier GR.3 XV795/05 “The Intruder” – 1(F) Sqn. Belize City Airport, Belize, 1975 (LMTRS not fitted) Harrier GR.3 XV787/02 “Hot to Trot” – 1(F) Sqn. Belize City Airport, Belize, 1975 (LMTRS not fitted) Harrier GR.3 XV760/F -233 OCU, RAF Wittering, 1977 Harrier GR.3 XZ997/31 -1(F) Sqn., Operation Corporate, HMS Hermes, 1982 Harrier GR.3 XZ997/V IV(AC) Sqn., RAF Gütersloh, West Germany, 1992 The decals have been designed by Crossdelta for Kinetic and printed by Cartograf, so quality isn't an issue. Register, sharpness and colour density are excellent, with all but the smallest weapons stencils legible with the aid of magnification. Conclusion A thoroughly modern tooling of the first generation of this superb and gleatly missed aircraft. There are a couple of sink marks, some ejector pin marks to fill, and some seam lines to scrape, but we're modellers so we shouldn't be too shy of exercising our skills. Plus, Kinetic's designers have kept these to a pleasant minimum to keep us happy. Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

AV-8A Harrier USMC (K48072) 1:48 Kinetic via Lucky Model The Harrier is an iconic (in the truest sense) example of what was possible when British Aviation was at its prime. It was a revolutionary design back in the 60s, and has seen many improvements and even a complete re-design in the shape of the Harrier II, which saw McDonnell Douglas get more heavily involved, giving the US Marines their much beloved AV-8B, and the British the Gr.5/7/9, all of which had new carbon-composite wings, massively upgraded avionics and improved versions of the doughty Pegasus engine, which was always at the heart of this legendary design. The Harrier is a difficult aircraft to fly due to the high pilot workload, and requires the best pilots to do it justice in the hovering flight mode especially, where the pilot has to control the throttle, direction of the airflow, and also make minor adjustments to its attitude and altitude with the use of puffer jets, even before having to do anything like fight or land. The original Harrier to reach service at the very end of the 1960s was the GR.1, which still bore a quite striking familial resemblance to the prototype and the earlier Kestrel, having a pointed nose and relatively confined canopy that hadn't yet been ‘blown’ to improve the pilot’s ability to move his head around to gain better situational awareness. The GR.3 had a more powerful engine, the peculiar looking laser tracker in an extended nose fairing, as well as many sensor, avionics upgrades and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM). When the GR.3 was transported to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new Sea Harriers, they were refitted with new pylons that could carry Sidewinder missiles with all the necessary cabling and avionics changes, so that it would be able to replace any SHAR losses if they were to occur, as until that point the Harrier was mainly used in the Ground Attack/Support role in the RAF. With the re-development of the aircraft into the Harrier II, the anteater nose was phased out and the new composite winged GR.5 with massively improved avionics, engine and other systems took over the mantle. The US in the form of the US Marine Corps overcame some obstacles at home to purchase the Harrier as they saw its potential for close air support, and also later for close in air defence. The main noticeable difference from RAF machines being the large aerial on the spine. The early Harriers suffered a high loss rate for the USMC as the aircraft was unlike any other to operate. MC continue to operate their next generation Harriers even buying up the UK Harrier fleet to provide a source of spares in a controversial move once those aircraft were retired. The Kit For many years modellers of the Harrier were crying out for a good quality new tooling in this scale, and Kinetic have put a lot of effort and research into making our dreams a reality, firstly with the two Sea Harriers, then the two-seat trainer Harriers in ‘tin-wing’ and later composite winged versions, all of which we have reviewed here in the past year or two. Once the original metal wing had been tooled, the natural progression was to tool the early Harriers, which was always Kinetic’s stated intention, although we weren’t too sure on the order in which they would arrive. Kinetic's new kit is a thoroughly modern tooling, benefitting from a lot of extra detail that just wasn't possible back when the older toolings were made. It arrives in the Kinetic Gold box with a rather nice painting of a GR.3 on the front with seven sprues inside in a mid-grey styrene, plus one in clear, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a large decal sheet. The instruction booklet is in portrait A4, and the painting and markings diagrams are at the rear in greyscale. Some of the sprues date back to the Sea Harrier FRS.1, with others coming from the trainer Harriers, plus a couple of new sprues including a new fuselage with optional LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Spotter) nose parts, and of course the early single-seat fuselage Though the USMC Boxing all the parts for the RAF Harriers are in the box. Construction begins with the cockpit, and there is plenty of detail packed into this small space. The tub has moulded in side consoles with plenty of raised details, instrument panel, side consoles, rudder pedals and control column also present, along with a two-part HUD that is made completely from clear parts. The instructions have different seats for different decal options; The MB seat is well detailed, with two side parts with raised rivets, two seat cushions, a head-box topper, and pull-handle between the pilot's knees for emergency exits, plus the tube housing the rocket motor in the rear. The Stencel Seat has its top pull handle seat cushions and PE belts The pilot sits right in front of the engine, and the rear bulkhead with moulded-in detail attaches to the combined intake trunking/nose gear bay. The intake narrows to a circular profile via a short lip, into which the engine front face is inserted, which has the prototypical ring toward the outer edge of the blades. The single main gear bay is built up from two sides to maximise the moulded-in detail, and the rear air-brake bay is a combination of four parts with the thick ribbing moulded in to allow the brake to be posed open or closed, with the aid of a separate jack. These are placed inside the fuselage, which can be closed up after the stubs for the four vectoring nozzles are built up, along a linkage that ensures all nozzles move in unison. You'll need to be frugal with the glue here if you want to be able to VIFF your Harrier after building, or simply glue it at the desired angle. The exhaust nozzles are very nicely done, with lots of moulded in detail thanks to some slide moulding, leaving only a fine seam down the centreline to scrape away before they can be installed on the previously mentioned stubs, with the ribbed heat-resistant panel behind the aft "hot" nozzles. At this point the intake lips with their blow-in doors are built up from an inner and outer skin, and a choice of closed doors for flight, or "drooped" upper doors when the engine is inactive. There are some slight sink marks present in the door parts, so check yours and fill the depressions where necessary before you install them. The wing upper surface is full width, with the top surface of the fuselage moulded in, with the detail well done that captures the curve nicely - there are two in the box, so ensure that you choose the right one. The lower wings are added before the assembly is placed on the fuselage, as are the flaps and ailerons with their actuator fairings, PE wing fences in the leading edge, and clear wingtip lights. The tail is completely separate, with single parts making up the elevators with separate swash-plates, and a two-part fin with separate rudder, all of which fit into the fuselage in the usual slot and tab manner, taking care to get the correct anhedral to the elevators. The bicycle landing gear has tyres made from two halves that enclose a single piece hub, with one wheel at the front, and a twin set at the rear, with a couple of clear landing lights on the nose leg. The bay doors are supplied with moulded in hinges, so should have a good solid attachment to the bay sides, and detail is again good. The two outriggers are each single parts, and have detailed painting instructions next to them, which seems to be the case throughout the instructions, happily. The nose has the tapered cone nose with clear lights and pitot probe fitted. At the rear the tail faring is fitted with an insert on the underside, and a choice or curved or contoured tip, depending on your decal option. There are a host of antennae and sensors around the airframe, some of which are optional depending on the decal variant, so take care when applying them. Finally the large spine aerial prominent on the AV-8A needs adding. The end result is a Harrier that fairly bristles with antennae! The canopy has been moulded without slide-moulding, as it doesn't have the characteristic blown-style of later marks, so there's no annoying seam on the centreline. It fits on a separate rail part that some people seem to loathe, but as long as you're careful of your choice as well as quantity of glue, it should go together just fine, and don’t forget to apply the decal for the det-cord canopy breaker early on. The windscreen is similarly well moulded with a raised windscreen wiper, and also has some nice delicate rivets, plus the asymmetric fairing at the front that houses the wiper gear. On the lower boat-tail fairing, there is a part in PE that can be applied if you are going to use your own decals, but it isn’t used with the supplied airframes. Nice of Kinetic to think of us, and do check your references. No Harrier (or modern fast jet, for that matter) is complete without some additional tanks to extend its range, and/or some kind of war load, and Kinetic have been their usual generous selves as far as this kit is concerned. A full set of pylons are included, with additional detail in the shape of separate shackles that fit into the bottom of each one, plus the 30mm Aden cannon pods that are synonymous with the mighty Harrier slung under the belly, and a pair of strakes (D22) on the sprues just in case. As has been mentioned the rocket pods included with the kit (Not for the USMC options anyway) represent something of an airshow fit with the rockets protruding from the tubes, something not seen operationally. In addition are the following weapons for you to choose from: 6 x AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles (However these would seem to be later model ones) 2 x Drop Tanks (Large) 2 x Drop Tanks (Small) 4 x AIM120 AMRAAM Beyond Visual Range (BVR) A2A missiles 2 x Sea Eagle Anti-Ship Missile (ASM) Most of this it would seem for this boxing will end up in the spare bins, and the question to be asked is why no US Specific weapons were included? A full complement of stencils is included for the supplied munitions, with their placement given on the markings section at the rear of the booklet. Markings Kinetic have included a generous seven sets of markings in the kit, they show all the Harriers the same colour, however they were delivered in British Standard colours to the USMC. The first ones being gloss while the later ones were matt. When the USMC went to toned down markings the aircraft were re-painted in FS colors. From the box you can depict one of the following: Harrier 158975 - VMA-513 Det B 1982 Harrier 158976 - VMA-513 1974 Harrier 159259 - VMA-542 Det B 1977 Harrier 158710 - VMA-542 Det B 1977 Harrier 158962 - VMA-542 Det B 1981 Harrier 158955 - VMA-231 Det H 1980 Harrier 159240 - VMA 231 CV-42 USS Franklin D Roosevelt 1977 The decals have been designed by Crossdelta for Kinetic and printed by Cartograf, so quality isn't an issue. Register, sharpness and colour density are excellent, with all but the smallest weapons stencils legible with the aid of magnification. Unfortunately the profiles in the instructions are black & white with low contrast and not very clear. There are no colour profiles available as there were for the GR.1/GR.3 I would say Kinetic really need to improve in this area. Conclusion A thoroughly modern tooling of the first generation of this aircraft. There are a couple of sink marks, some ejector pin marks to fill, and some seam lines to scrape, but we're modellers so we shouldn't be too shy of exercising our skills. Plus, Kinetic's designers have kept these to a pleasant minimum to keep us happy. It is a shame a bit more thought was not put into the USMC boxing, and the lack of colour profiles is a disappointment. Still highly recommended though.. Review sample courtesy of

Hi Ladies & Gents,I have entered a buddy build on Facebook that has been organised by a chap called Martin Lamont, it is called the "Hawker Harrier 50th Anniversary Buddy Build".Now I want to build a variant of all the types of Harrier flown by the RAF and RN, i would like to build these in the order that they entered service. So after building the Harrier GR.1 that can be found on here, I decided to enter the 1/72 Airfix Harrier GR.3 into the buddy build.Here are the traditional box, instructions and sprue photos:Sprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSprue shots and instructions. by Neal, on FlickrSo that is the introduction to the build, I will post up the same updates here as I am doing on the buddy build. And to start that off I did a bit of video for you.Thanks for looking and all feedback is welcome!

Kit manufacture: Airfix N° A73009 Scale: 1/72 Type: Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1 Extras used: None OOB Paints and colours used: Primer AK Black Primer and Microfiller, Paints MR Hobby Aqueous H332 Light Aircraft Grey, H331 Dark Sea Grey & H330 Dark Green, Humbrol Clear Gloss, Oil pin-wash Other info: I built this kit for the #brit72 group build held on Facebook, the kit went from primer to finished in a matter of hours in order to get it finished for the deadline, you can find the build thread here 20180103-01.jpg by Neal, on Flickr20180103-02.jpg by Neal, on Flickr20180103-03.jpg by Neal, on Flickr20180103-04.jpg by Neal, on Flickr