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Hi Harriervites, I've been contemplating the load out options for Harrier GR7 and later, by reading through books and anything I can find online - which not too surprisingly often points me to topics on Britmodeller where people have tended to ask "Is this loadout OK for this Harrier during Operation X?" However, this "research" has made me realise that the options seem to be primarily role based, with the combat roles being: Close Air Support Air Interdiction Reconnaissance The non-combat scenarios seem to be: Ferrying Flight testing Development Air display Despite my lack of professional knowledge and experience, I thought I would stick my neck out and try to list the various options I have seen/heard talked about and invite correction and clarification from the pros/ex-pros/gifted amateurs who seem to frequent this site: Ref Role Name 1 2 L o/r 3 L Str 4 R Str 5 R o/r 6 7 1 CAS GCAS? PW4 CRV-7 BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Sniper DJRP TERMA Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 CRV-7 PW4 2 CAS Anti-tank LAU-117,AGM-65 LAU-117,AGM-65 BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod DJRP Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 LAU-117,AGM-65 LAU-117,AGM-65 3 CAS Brimstone* Brimstone Brimstone BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod DJRP Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 Brimstone Brimstone 4 Interdicton? ? BL755 1000lb LAU 7A, AIM9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank LAU 7A,AIM9 1000lb BL755 5 Interdicton? ? BL755 BL755 LAU 7A, AIM9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod 1000lb Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank LAU 7A,AIM9 BL755 BL755 6 Interdiction AI 1 PW4 PW4 BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Sniper DJRP TERMA Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 PW4 PW4 7 Interdiction AI 2 - Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 PW2 Sniper DJRP TERMA PW2 BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank - 8 Interdiction AI 3 - Fuel tank BOL 1000lb TIALD (no pylon) Gun Pod PW3 BOL, ACMI Fuel tank - 9 Interdiction AI 4* - Fuel tank - Storm Shadow Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod Storm Shadow - Fuel tank - 10 SCAR SCAR - - BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod DJRP Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 - - 11 CAP CAP? - CRV-7 BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 CRV-7 - 12 Ferry Ferry - Fuel tank BOL Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod Baggage pod Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL Fuel tank 13 Training A/A training - - BOL, AIM Aq Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM Aq - - 14 Training A/G training - CBLS - Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod CBLS Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank - CBLS - 15 Development Brimstone test Brimstone Brimstone BOL, AIM 9 Fuel tank Camera Pod pylon Camera Pod Fuel tank BOL, AIM 9 Brimstone Brimstone 16 Development Paveway PW4 Fuel Tank BOL PW2 Camera Pod (no pylon) Camera Pod PW2 BOL Fuel Tank PW4 17 Test First Flight - - - - Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod - - - 18 Test Test Flight - - - Fuel tank Strake/ Gun Pod (no pylon) Strake/ Gun Pod Fuel tank - - 19 Display Display 1 (no pylon) (no pylon) - Fuel tank Strake (no pylon) Strake Fuel tank - (no pylon) (no pylon) 20 Display Display 2 - Baggage pod - Fuel tank Strake (no pylon) Strake Fuel tank - - Abbreviations CBLS CBLS 200 Carrier Bomb Light Store - Pylon fitted PW2 Paveway II 2000lb LGB PW3 Paveway III 1000lb LGB PW4 Enhanced Paveway IV 540lb LGB Gun Pod The empty pods flown as an alternative to strakes, necessitating use of a shaped piece in the LID air dam BOL LAU-138 BOL Chaff dispenser/launcher LAU-7A AIM Missile launch rail LAU-117 Launch rail for AGM-65 air-ground missile AGM-65 Maverick Air/Ground missile Fuel Tank 290 (ish) Gallon external tank ACMI P4A-M Pod Sniper Sniper XR Targeting pod and dedicated pylon TIALD TIALD Targeting pod Terma Terma countermeasures pod + dedicated pylon Brimstone Brimstone anti-tank missile fitted on dedicated triple launch rail BL755 Cluster bomb AIM AIM-9 A/A missile * Planned but never flown as far as I can establish ? Is it? I've tried to put a name to each loadout but I have no idea whether or not this bears any relationship to how they are actually referenced - or indeed if there is any such thing as a standard name. If anyone can clarify this aspect (or even properly define the term "store"!!) I'd be very grateful. I suspect I've got myself in a pickle with the whole Paveway thing. I seem to remember Merv posting (maybe even on one of my referenced links) that the Paveway number was about the guidance system not the size of explosive carried. Feel free to correct me. There are a few roles that I've come across and stuck in the table but am very unsure about. E.g. did the Combat Air Patrol role that the FA.2 used to perform ever get covered by JFH? If I understand correctly, an FA2 would have worn AMRAAMS and guns for this role - none of which for obvious reasons are in the GR7/9's arsenal. Included are some apparently intended GR.9 capabilities that never saw operational clearance, such as Storm Shadow, which may have been fitted to or flown on the development aircraft. In such cases I've assumed that the pods are camera pods and that any missiles fitted are likely to be brightly coloured test versions. Dunno. Phimat? Anyone? Anyway, I hope this turn out to be useful to others. Cheers, Kirk References: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26047-weapons-in-use-by-the-raf-in-172/ http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234927254-helpneed-taild-and-training-bomb-data/ http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/56364-how-do-you-identify-a-harrier-gr9/page-2 http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=67373 http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/hangar/2001/acmi/acmi.htm PS: Tried my hardest with table formatting - sorry if not as easy to read as a nice Word table...

As with many people I'm not allowed chocolate, so for Easter I got a different type of egg: As with the best Easter eggs you get stuff inside: So construction started with painting the inside, the engine baffles, and the seat black: When the paint was dry, the two baffles were glued in and the two halves glued together sandwiching the seat between them: The seam was filled with Mr Surfacer 500 and rubbed down, and then the wings were added: I have come to the conclusion this won't be a very long WIP! This is as far as I have come so far, so it's decision time for the paint scheme. With the probe being on the nose I rather fancy a Sea Harrier in Medium Sea Grey. Or should I stick to one of the box schemes and go two tone camoflaugue?

This Harrier T-bird was built mostly oob from the Sword T.4/4N kit. The model depicts the Harrier early in its service with IN. Note the unusual configuration with 330 gal ferry tanks.(sourced from an old Airfix GR.3 kit) Being a short run kit, it was rough and needed a lot of putty and patience. Some parts and instructions were non-existent. I had to scratch build a few bits just to make it representative of the right mark. On the upside, the kit is peppered with goodies like an Eduard PE fret and resin airbrake interiors. The kit definitely seemed 'inspired' by the ESCI/Italeri single seater from tell tale similarities in parts; not that it's a bad thing. Decals used are from the Model Alliance, but this exact scheme isn't in the sheet. It represents IN651 much later in its life and one needs to be creative with available options to get to this. This was perhaps my most detailed jet to date but I ran out of patience in the end. I am happy with the way it looks in the end but I wish I had handled some silvered decals earlier. Hope you guys like it and let me know what you think.

Hi all, I finished this late last year but not had chance to photograph it yet. This model is a true Britmodeller team effort as various parts for the conversion were suppled by fellow members. Its probably not 100% accurate but close enough for me. The parts for the conversion were as follows: Resin nose & console custom cast by Sean Resin seat from somewhere (can remember!) 65% Lerex suppled by Saints Phil Additional pylons on outriggers scratch built from plasticard! Decals by Skymodels Thanks to Sean & Phil for the above parts, hope you like it!! Apologies for the poor photos :-( I realise now I should have painted the back of the tanks dark green!

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Good afternoon folks, this thing is making we crazy. Working with a model mate on a couple of Harriers that flown the last farewell formation 5 years ago. I'm talking about ZD379 and ZD433, a couple of highly patched jump-jets. Could you please help us finding the best GUNZE matches for the following colors? Dark Sea Grey Medium Sea Grey Camouflage Grey Dark Camouflage Grey Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot Simon

Here is my latest build - the little 1/72 ESCI AV-8A Matador. Obviously this kit has now been superceded by the new Airfix offering, but I picked this up at the October Yeovilton show for very little money and decided to go straight in and build it. In the box it looks lovely, with very fine engraved lines on old fashioned silver-grey styrene. Putting it together is another matter however, and a fair bit of putty was needed due to the very poor fit of the major components. However, once it's together, the shape looks fine. The decals were really tricky with some silvering, and the roundels on the fuselage didn't want to go around the intake contour despite copious amounts of microsol. In the end I had to use a tiny bit of glue to the top and bottom to get them to stay. I built this OOB apart from adding some little seat belts out of paper and used Humbrol and Xtracolour enamels, with pastel weathering and staining.

Hello to everyone! This is my first attempt at this so forgive me of any mistakes. As a very keen modeller through the late 60’s all the 70’s the one kit I always lusted after but could never afford (or do justice to) was the 1/24th Harrier. An older friend bought one as soon as it was released. He kept getting the box out, looking at the massive sprues and it and put it away again, for years we all kept asking where the Harrier was. That friend unfortunately died a good while ago so in some way this build is to the happy memories of Dave Rodgers. After starting modelling seriously again 3 years ago, I decided that it was time to have a bash and tackle the monster - thanks to a sale on Amazon I picked up the newly boxed GR3 for £36. Even though I enjoy using resin and photo-etch we sometimes seem to be heading toward a world where you needn’t worry about painting skills when you can stick in self adhesive pre-painted details. I remember when building flying models in the 70’s ARTF (Almost Ready to Fly) appeared, buy Saturday - fly Sunday; I railed against that a little too, I’ve always been a builder. My concessions to the modern era are cyano glue and acrylics. I always use Mek as a plastic solvent which costs around £10 for a litre. I buy Isopropanol for around £12 per gallon from Amazon. A great Acrylic thinner is 50% Isopropanol and 50% winter car windscreen wash. Anyroad, the kit still is a cracker and is a superb representation of the early tin-wing Harriers. Anyone who looks closely at a preserved GR1 or GR3 will see Airfix got the surface textures and details spot on. In places the early harriers look almost ‘boilerplate’ in construction. The kits surface detail is one thing - interior detail is another, it’s virtually absent. The design and engineering is typical of the era - even having the novelty folding undercarriage and closing doors etc. I decided to avoid resin and etch and built the whole thing in a true 70’s scratch build style. I haven’t had this much fun in years. Please respect copyright of my photographs. Starting the build. I attacked the cockpit tub first (as tradition dictates) .5mm card was used for the raised riveted plates using the Trumpeter riveting tool to detail. I built some switch panels from plasticard with thin slivers bonded upright to represent toggle switches. I dug out as many reference images as I could but the bulk of the ejector seat obscured much of the view; therefore a little artistic licence was used to give the impression of a busy cockpit. Most of the detail is added from plasticard scraps and stretched sprue. Different thicknesses of solder are always good for detailing. After a few coats of paint, glossing and washing the cockpit tub looks suitably grimy! The decals supplied work very well on the instrument panel and are large enough to cut out individually to fit, I use a set of cheap hole punches. I painted the back of the clear moulded radar/moving map screen then the HUD frame was built from fine brass wire. Shadows were airbrushed in to increase the impression of depth when the cockpit was closed up. At the same time I added detail to the sidewalls using tube, solder, fuse wire and plasticard, I cheated a little and got some ideas for the detail from resin examples I saw for sale at the Huddersfield show… The Seat The kit seat is virtually blank and needs a complete replacement/rebuild especially when everyone peers into the huge cockpit of a 1/24th scale model. To ensure a clean fit in the tub I used the measurements of the kit seat to build one from scratch - only the kit headrest was used. Canopy cutters were added to this and the parachute with its straps and cables were added to form the headbox. The parachute and straps are lead foil. The seat itself was a simple construct of 1mm card with details added from scrap plastic and .5mm brass wire and seat cushions carved polystyrene foam, dipped in PVA to seal the surface before painting. The seat straps and canvas cover are lead foil again. All the separate elements were built, painted and weathered before final assembly. You know, those headbox height adjust bars (red at the moment) are scraps left over from an Aurora biplane model from the late 60's... The straps and canvas cover are all made from lead foil, I found scraps of Eduard etch left over from a Chieftain MK5 build that worked very well for buckles etc. The supplied Airfix decals finish it off very nicely. A quick dry brushing with grey and a coat of matt varnish and it's ready for the straps fitting. My first plan was to build as originally intended and have the whole wing removable to view the engine; however as the build progressed it became obvious that I wouldn’t be able to get a clean fit without large gaps. I did away with this original feature enabling a much more solid build and elimination all those awkward wing joints. a pity though as I'd spent over a week detailing and painting the Pegasus, based on one displayed at Cosford. The Airfix Harrier is big, very big so to avoid damage during construction I replaced all the blade aerials with .5mm brass sheet glued firmly into slots cut deep into the plastic. The slots were filled with thick cyano and sanded, I'm determined to use this method for future builds (of all scales). Bits & Bobs The undercarriage wells on Harriers are quite large voids within the fuselage. In 1974 it was more important for Airfix to compete with other manufacturers and add moving components. Of course moulding technology has moved on in huge leaps since then but the 1/24th Harrier was seen as a wonder in it's day. The wells are nothing more than empty plastic boxes in the kit; I couldn't source any clear images of the inside of these areas so I used my 'Artistic Licence' (mine came from Woolworths for 2/6d) to detail the voids. Only the nosewheel bay is clear on a few internet images I found. It wasn't too difficult to drill plasticard and cut into strips after marking the plastic with a riveting tool and then drilling every second hole with a drill made from a 1mm Hypo Needle. A drill made from a hollow needle gives a very clean cut, I grind the end down to a 30 degree (ish) angle on wet and dry paper. The pressure vessels are 1/72 torpedo bodies from a Nimrod. These areas are well weathered to depict a harrier flown from rough ground. The kit mainwheel well has detail on the backside (in the engine bay) so I invented appropriate looking ribbing, boxes and tubing (I only bought the cheap Artistic License) this was then painted and weathered. It was at this point, when the fuselage was starting to fill up that I could test fit the wing assembly and decided to fix the wing in place. I cut out one access panel to show some engine detail as can be seen on the finished model. All the various vents and intakes on the fuselage were cut out and backed with foil from an old electric razor - the fine mesh was ideal. The nose camera had a similar treatment, a lens was made from scrap sprue, mounted on a bracket in the hole and then blocked with foam until painting was finished. The window was afterwards formed from ‘Clearfix’. The kit vinyl tyres look very realistic after a rub down with wet 800 grade paper, turning them a very accurate dark grey. The undercarriage legs are fairly well detailed, the nose wheel benefits from a small bracket for the lamp, some electrical cabling and hydraulic tubes. These were well weathered to represent the dirt kicked up from rough ground and oil leakage. The fit of the huge fuselage halves proved to be excellent, the little filling necessary required my favourite slurry of cyano and talc. I found that a 1mm hypodermic needle was the same diameter as the Airfix rivets and was used to recreate those lost. I cut square and sharpened a short length of hypo tube and glued it into a paintbrush handle. After drawing lines for the missing rivets this improvised tool was ideal for re-cutting the missing detail, initially easy to do, after completing a few hundred the novelty wears a bit thin. The wingtip ‘puffers’ are not really represented and need cutting out and boxing in before detailing, The same applies to the auxiliaries surrounding the main intakes, these are lightly sprung and drop under gravity on harriers at rest. I cut out the engraved panel lines and constructed a long square tube from 1mm card, cut unto short lengths and bonded in they could easily be sanded flush and filled to neaten the finish. The .5mm plasticard flaps themselves were cut to fit and glued in at appropriate angles. Onto the canopy, this is a very thin and crystal clear moulding, the windshield only lacks the wiper which is easily build from brass wire and a sliver of card for the blade. I traced the outline of the detonation cord on a scrap of balsa and pushed pins where the cord bends, it was relatively easy to wind solder around this and then rest it inside the canopy. Using Pledge floor wax I glued the solder in place. I cut 1mm strips of white decal paper to lay on the inside to form the sealant band and dipped the whole thing in Pledge and covered it to dry for a few days. The canopy was them masked, painted and put away for a few months until needed. The fit of the sealant looks uneven because it's on the inside of the canopy! after masking and painting the camouflage it looks very real. The windshield was masked the wiper added and the whole assembly glued in place with pva, it fits perfectly and needed no other work. The most awkward job proved to be the hot and cold nozzles, the kit ones have a joint in the worst place possible and are smooth all over. The real ones have riveted vanes inside and ribbed plates on the outside (strengthening I assume) these were made from .5mm card, bonded with Mek and then wet sanded to blend them in. These took A LOT of filling, smoothing and fiddling to get them looking something like. I painted them with Tamiya Aluminium, fading into Titanium at the hot end and then thin coats of Tamiya Clear Orange for heat staining. The saving grace is that the moulded exhaust halves are very thin and very nicely contoured. The underwing stores needed some extra detailing, mostly small plates and panels, the pylons however are blank, I made beer can tin templates for the panel lines needing scribing, as eight sides needed detailing this was the best method to achieve consistency. The cut-outs for sway braces were there but I needed to add the braces themselves from 2mm square pieces of plasticard drilled to accept short lengths of .5mm brass wire. As with all the other bits, the pylons, rocket launches, fuel tanks and Aden gun packs were painted, decaled, weathered and put away for use. By now I had a box crammed full of sub assemblies, moving to major works on the airframe was a relief! The overall shape is very good and considering the Harrier is one of those aircraft without a straight line anywhere the Airfix surveyors & drawing office did an amazing job in 73/74. The contours are very well captured and the fit of the fin is so good only a line of thin cyano is needed to hide the joint. The final hurdle, painting the beast. I used a cheap black aerosol car undercoat for the fuselage (it looked great all black!) all the seams were checked and luckily only a few needed filling. On a large scale model I prefer a dark undercoat as I paint the topcoats using a very thin mix and spray at low pressure. In this way I can work closely painting each panel from the centre outward. I find this gives me much better control over a weathered finish and avoids the toy like look of weathering that is even and precise all over. The mixture (mostly Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics) were thinned 50/50. Tamiya thins well with my invented mix mentioned earlier. Vallejo needs water to thin it (or their own thinner). I think Vallejo paint has Polyurethane in the mix and Isopropanol thinners create an instant jelly monster in your airbrush that needs Professor Quatermas to remove it successfully. The paint applied in this manner on a dark ground will look alarmingly patchy, it is also quite fragile. The magic happens with a coat of Pledge floor wax (known as 'Klear' in the colonies). One coat immediately blends the colours and darkens the paint to look like the colours on the tin. It also toughens the finish. Another 3 coats and a polish with a clean dry j-cloth and the monster was ready for decaling! Incidentally, most of the painting on this model was completed with a cheap £25 Chinese airbrush (cheap but beautifully made, sprays anything and is easy to clean). My Badger Renegade Velocity has never lived up to it's macho name and has been completely rebuilt twice in twelve months and was out of action for the third time during this build. I'm afraid the airbrush body is made from a hard anodised but VERY soft brass and the needle mechanism was so badly made Badger themselves described it as 'pants' and sent a replacement. The engineering and build quality is worse than the Chinese £25 special; I'll never buy Badger again... The Airfix Cartograph printed decals are superb, dense, thin and in perfect register. They settled onto every contour and panel line to perfection. Two more coats of Pledge on top and the whole was put away for a week to harden. I weathered and highlighted the panel lines and rivets with Flory Models 'Dark Dirt' wash, this is an absolute pleasure to use and is one of the very few recent products that are genuinely innovative and make finishing simpler. After drying, excess wash was wiped away with a new damped J-Cloth & cotton buds dealt with the tight corners. All those sub assemblies were now added with 5 minute epoxy, cyano and PVA for the canopy before a final post shading with Tamiya smoke thinned with 75% pure Isopropanol. After everything set the whole monster had a couple of coats Windsor and Newton matt varnish, this needs a few days to cure properly but is very matt and very tough. The post shading, dirtying process, paint chips were all completed after decaling. Some of the decals were weathered slightly around the edges to depict paint wear. The dark aircraft grey is a self mix and has a little blue added, if you look at period Harrier images, you will find mixtures of both hard and soft edge camouflage schemes, I like the look of soft demarcation and went for that. I have an old publication from 1982 'The RAF in Colour', there are hard and soft edged camo aircraft from the same squadron in the book! The decals needed only a little softening with dilute acetic acid to settle them onto the Pledge glossed paintwork. And there it is, after 39 years and 7 months I finally built and finished the big harrier. I've always been fascinated by the Harrier it was one of the first aircraft I can remember seeing that seemed to have an 'organic' look to it, no straight lines. Those huge intakes and the pilot seemingly sat in a 'pod' in front of the aircraft had a real 'science fiction' appeal to a youngster brought up on Gerry Anderson programmes. Airfix caught the 'hunkered down' look of the early Harrier to perfection. Oh yes, and all the wheels stood on the ground together when finished. The build was aided by, Radio 3, 4, 4 extra, BBC6 Music, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone, Amon Duul II, Hawkwind, Faust, Can, Black Sabbath, Falkenbach, Van der Graaf Generator and far too many other unremarkable heroes to mention. The whole experience was an absolute joy and will always rank as a favourite build, it’s also the first model of mine in 40 years to be on a stand!

I'm building one of the new Airfix AV-8As, and the camouflage pattern carries over to the underside of the wing. The wing leading edge is no trouble to mask, but the wingtip is. There is no convenient panel line to follow, and winging it freehand (sorry) is bound to end in tears. Then the flash of inspiration: Get some 8mm Tamiya tape and put it on the underside of the wing lined up with the outboard outrigger fairing on one edge- Leave some excess on the wing trailing edge. Trim the excess tape from the wingtip. Use the trailing edge excess as a tab to peel the tape off gently. Reapply the tape inboard of the edge of the wingtip, checking against the outrigger fairing to make sure it is straight. The masking follows the curve of the wing and has a regular spacing from the edge of the wing. Finish masking the rest of the wing and paint away. A useful tip, or stating the obvious? It works for me at least, and I hope it does for you too.

So I was in Westfield Shepherd's Bush and saw the modelzone corner in WH Smiths which I had forgotten was there! Needless to say I went in, had a look, and got the new tool AV8 which I had been intending to get around to building, being a big harrier fan. I liked the look of the Spanish scheme so ended up doing that. I used Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan for the upper side and XF-2 Flat White for the underside. I brush painted using the thin paint-large brush-lots of coats method and I think it turned out OK. I went for a clean job to bring out the transfers which I thought were rather nice!

First RFI for ages from me, in fact I finished this kit a while ago but not built much since, I did this as a post-war Falklands based Harrier as I wanted to arm it up with some Aims, think it looks quite mean with these. Aftermarket bits included resin seat, intakes and outer wheels to spruce up the old kit! Anyway, here she is...

Hi Chaps/Chapesses, Can any of you help me with a picture of the latest Radio Set Controller panel fitted to the Harrier? I can only seem to find the Post Mod KT060 variety and I know there was at least 1 later one... Many thanks in advance, Kirk

North wing Model Craft (NMC - http://nmc.amuse-net.biz/index_e.html) is to release a all new 1/48th BAe/McDonnell Douglas TAV.8B Harrier II & Harrier T.Mk.10/T.Mk.12 resin conversion set. V.P.

I thought I'd move beyond my regular "plane at rest on a 6x6 tile" and see if I could expand to a "plane in flight on a 6x6 tile". I've always had an affinity for the Harrier, particularly the GR3 and GR7/9 and remember getting the GR3 as my second kit at the age of about 9 so this will be my subject of this build. Details: Airfix GR3. Eduard PE detailing. Freightdog fin replacement. Trees and base details yet to be sourced. I've done a few sketches of what I'd like this to look like but I don't think my drawing skills are up to much so I'm reluctant to share them here! I want to do a Harrier in arctic camouflage in the midst of a low level pass over the Norwegian countryside. For interest, I'd like to include a road and a mud track as well as a few trees. I was hoping that the trees could be used to hide the wire that will be supporting the aircraft in some way with the jet sitting about six inches above the base and the tallest tree being about two inches tall. The whole thing will have a fine dusting of snow too. So that's the challenge. I've got to finish my Hawk over the next month or so, so I'm still very much in the planning stage at the moment. Any pointers or suggestions would be very welcome! David

Hi, The Airfix Harrier GR9A Starter set with 'aftermarket' decals (that is, I bought the full decal sheet from Hornby, gotta love the stencils) Bits and pieces cut out: and primed:

Evening, Another one now clear of the bench! This is Airfix latest incarnation of the Harrier GR.3, a lovely kit with the only flaw being the fin is slightly too short. There is a resin drop-in replacement now available to correct this, however on my build there's a bit of a tale of woe here! As soon as I bought this I couldnt wait to start it, and decided straight away to cut the fin and extend it with sheet plasticard myself (no resin available at this point). All went well, the fin was corrected using a 1/72 scale drawing, and progress continued apace until I was about to start decalling. When I looked at the paint guide again I realised what the niggling issue was that had been at the back of my mind since the fin surgery........I'd cut out the fwd RWR antenna and hadn't put it back in! Arrrggh.... I ended up taking the fin out of another Airfix GR.3 (yes I bought more than one, and by now had a replacement resin fin!), carefully cutting out the RWR along the panel line and splicing this into a notch cut in my now painted build. Fortunately I managed to minimise the damage to paintwork and a quick re-spray of the top of the fin put me back on track. Anyway her she is out of the box, including the decals, apart from a LGB and a 1000lb bomb from the Revell Tornado GR.1, to liven up the warlord - Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions, good and bad. Thanks for looking. Rgds, Eng

Hi chaps, I'm thinking about modelling dioramas (like this one) and also considering making improvements to flight simulation. It's possibly not the best forum to ask this but I know quite a few of the Harrier nuts on here are genuine forces pros, so here goes: How did routine Harrier servicing work? i.e. Does much take place in the hangar rather than on the pan - e.g. Where are tyre pressures checked? Is oil checked/replenished every sortie? By whom? Does the fuel bowser carry oil or is there a dedicated cart? Is water always topped up? What vehicle brings the water? Ditto hydraulic fluid & nitrogen Is there a specific order in which these things were done? Is there a technician walkaround that occurs before the pilot does his and are they very different? I seem to recall that there is a telephone connection on the wing (in the outrigger bay?) Under what circumstances is this used? Just hot refuelling? That's quite a few more questions than I intended but anything that gives a broad understanding of how this all works would be really welcome. Cheers, Kirk

Harrier GR.7 - ZG474 / 64, 1(F) Squadron, RAF, Exercise Snow Falcon 1, January 2004. 1/48th scale Harrier #24 rolls off my production line. This time it's a GR.7 in the RAF's Arctic camouflage scheme of white over the standard dark sea grey / dark camouflage grey scheme. The jet represented, ZG474, is one of those that participated in Exercise "Snow Falcon 1" at Bardufoss, Norway in January 2004. This was a deployment by 1(F) Squadron, with IV(AC) Squadron taking part in Snow Falcon 2. ZG474 first flew on 28 July 1990 and saw combat service on Operation Wadren in 1993. She was upgraded to a GR9 in July 2006 and withdrawn from service on 1 November 2010. She was one of the jets sold to the US in 2011. In her time, she has served with 1(F), 3(F), IV(AC) and 20® squadrons. Having recently completed a GR3 in the Arctic scheme, I decided I would do the same for a second generation Harrier, giving me the option of a GR.5 and a GR.7. The GR.5 became the Rough Ground Trials build, so it had to be a GR.7 and the two greys. There's an Airfix 1/72nd scale kit that has this aircraft in this scheme, but for some reason gives it the tail (build) number 68 instead of 64. Whilst some tails have been swapped, I've seen no photographs to support the Airfix decals in this instance and all point to the correct 64. Aside from the scheme, it's a pretty standard GR.7 build, with the addition of a resin MB Mk.12 ejection seat, resin replacement nose wheel doors (the kit has them moulded in place) and some Maverick missiles from donated spares. I approached the painting as follows. Unlike earlier deployments, the white looks to be sprayed on the real aircraft rather than brush painted. I toyed with the idea of using a rattle can, but ultimately went for an all brushed finish. The aircraft was primed all over with Halfords acrylic white primer. I then used a pencil to draw the Arctic scheme pattern on the aircraft and rough-striped the grey areas so that I could now reinforce the white primer with Vallejo Model Color White as a top coat (a couple of coats required) and not keep referring to photos whilst doing so. I then masked the white edges using 3M Scotch Invisible Tape cut to shape and also added the masking to delineate the Humbrol Dark Sea Grey and Dark Camouflage Grey enamels. I painted the dark sea grey and then masked that and the white in a similar fashion to do the dark camouflage grey. The three paints were then used as necessary to touch up any dodgy areas (the whole lot I hear some wag cry). Other colours included Life Color Black, Gun Metal, Silver and Light Compass Ghost Grey (FS36375) for the Mavericks and CATR, Precision Paints Tyre Black and Dark Sea Green and Humbrol Ochre. A few coats of Humbrol Clear were used in preparation for decals, which were from a mixture of sources from previous kits and third-party sheets. I did the markings for the Mavericks, CATR and wing-tip slime lights on an inkjet printer. Another coat of Clear then sealed the decals before I used Tamiya weathering powders to dirty her up, sometimes combined with Humbrol Decalfix. I sealed this with Humbrol acrylic matt spray and then a final coat of Vallejo matt varnish. Think that's about it. If you think her back-end looks dirty for a short deployment then you're right, it is, but then again, that's what the photos show - so she must have had a engine that liked chucking out soot! Here she is ... All my Harriers can be seen here .... http://p1127.co.uk/Harrier/HarrierModels/index.html Comments welcome as ever.

Yes, and finally....... Well this is the kit I started some 2 years ago when I returned to modelling. It's been an on and off project, with a few others completed along the way first, and a house move.... Lessons learnt - I can't get Klear to be of any use on canopies - it looks a mess, although I'm please how well (and easily) the decal det cords worked. Hasegawa decals, well the limited use I've had can be good or bad. The kit set broke up just by looking at them - the second set stolen from another kit were much better, but still liable to break if not very thoroughly soaked, but they repaired easily enough. The drop down flaps aren't good. Vallejo light sea grey isn't! reverted to Tamiya colours which were much better, although I didnt fully overcoat the original Even old fat fingers can manage the fiddly bits, and cheat The carpet monster from the odd picking too. My masking still needs some refining, but I was very pleased with the oils wash on the panel lines. Oh and I hate the dusty look photos give the clear parts - I'm envious of the results other achieve. First attempt at weathering with the Tamiya sets - OK, but could be better and some places missed, but tbh, was a bit bored at the end and wanted it off the bench. (The A-10 and F-4 that have been on the go nearly as long beckon!) Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the result as only my second real kit in probably 30+ years, although have to say that in the time it's taken the stash has disproprtionately increased in size! Thanks

Afternoon folks. I decided just after Christmas to start both the Airfix 1:24 Harrier GR3 and the Trumpy 1:32 Lightning - why I have no idea and I won't be doing anything that daft again! I am really pleased with the Harrier despite the amount of filler needed (a whole tube)! I decided early on to do both kits 'in flight' which actually makes the build more difficult as 'closed gear doors' are a nightmare to fit and get to 'look right'. Anyway its been an enjoyable build overall and it is OOB. I used Mr Color for the camo and did this freehand with the airbrush and I think it looks quite effective. Hope you like it Chris

ok so I am most of the way done with the GR3 but the canopy is not good and resisting my attempts to improve it! Same with the engine nozzles. Looking around I can't see much aftermarket for the 1:24 Harriers and I wonder if anyone knew where or who I might get some from? Thanks Chris

There's a special Club Edition boxing of Airfix Harriers for sale, with markings for the first and last ever Harrier markings schemes. Can anyone tell me which kits are inside the box please? If they are the new mould GR.1 and the new mould GR.9, it's a good price. If they're the old ones, I'd be paying a lot for a transfer sheet. Speaking of which, is the transfer sheet much good? Thanks in advance.

It's that time of year again to show off my plastic shelf fillers for 2014. If you're browsing this thread, you must be looking for a cure for insomnia, so I hope this helps … The start of the year saw the "finish" of my "Harrier 20/20 Vision" project, completing the remaining four Harriers. Next year the new phase begins! First up was the Spanish Navy Harrier EAV-8B II (Monogram 1/48th) … … and the other variant flown now by the Spanish Navy, the Harrier EAV-8B II Plus (Hasegawa, 1/48th) … … crossing the Atlantic, here's a Harrier AV-8B II Plus with the USMC (Hasegawa, 1/48th) … … and to complete the set, the Naval Strike Wing Harrier GR.7 (Hasegawa, 1/48th). You can see the complete set (to-date) here. What to do next? Well, it was the 100th Anniversary of the start of the Great War, so it made sense to build some more models of that era and after all, I am a member of the IPMS Great War SIG. First was the RAF SE5a w/Wolsey Viper (Roden 1/48th) ... … and then an Italian Nieuport Ni-17 (Eduard, 1/48th) … … followed by a Fokker D.VII, one of the mounts of Herman Goerring (Monogram, 1/48th) … … and to complete the series, a LVG Roland C.II in a very-unlikely-to-be-accurate rendition of the "Western Front, Summer 1917" scheme in the weekend edition kit (Eduard, 1/48th). Finding the need to escape from the rigours of rigging and super-glueing everything but the right thing, I thought I'd go for some very light relief. Yes, I went to work on an egg! Building one from the box contents was dismissed as being a little boring, so I went for eggsageration with some light scrambling and poached a few ideas from other people's builds ... (right, that's enough of that ). First of all I built "Lady Angela", the name given to the P-47 Thunderbolts flown by Lt William C Diman whilst with the 395th Fighter Squadron ... (Hasegawa Egg Plane) … the next egg was the TBF Avenger which I "converted" into a TBM-3E Avenger "Fire Bomber" with the Californian Hemet Valley Fire Service. A change to the rear cockpit and a facsimilie of the front of the bomb / torpedo bay to represent the water tank completed the customisation ... (Hasegawa Egg Plane) … and the last in this three minute egg mini series was a captured butcher bird, a Focke-Wulf Fw190 flown by Major Jim Dalglish, wearing a suitably bright colour scheme of red and lemon yellow, presumably in the hopes that his fellow air force pilots would not shoot him down? … (Hasegawa Egg Plane) A pick-up-and-drop summer build was the entry for the West Middlesex Scale Model Club's 6 Month Challenge competition. This year we asked to do something with a KIS-5 truck (least, I think that's what it was). Anyway, this is what my glue-sniffing brain came up with, "Keep It Silly Stunts" ... a Revell SE5A completed the set-up ... I then returned to the Harrier fold with a Harrier GR3 in arctic camouflage, but this got stuck on the back burner for a number of different reasons and for some more light relief I decided to team up with Panzer Vor! and do an egg plane/egg ship diorama for the Middle Wallop model show. For the aircraft, we chose the Mitsubishi A6M Zero ... (Hasegawa Egg Plane) And for the ship, the Fujimi Akagi ... (Fujimi Chibi-Maru Kantai series) And this is the diorama they ended up in … sadly Dave's Zero didn't make it off the deck after he soaked the wing in glue to make it stick (or something like that). This will be added soon as he now has a replacement kit. The ship is the Yamoto, another in the Fujimi series and apparently not an easy build. Dave - mine went together easy - you picked the wrong option! It should be noted that SHAR2 was particularly unimpressed with this diorama for some strange reason! Something to do with it not being right and proper! Personally, I thought it was a shame there were only 6 egg planes (2 were mine) on display at SMW2014. It's all getting far too serious at that show! Merry Xmas and Best Wishes to all for 2015. That’s All Folks!

Ok, so this is not a 'traditional' Ready for Inspection thread, and for this I loosely apologise. My rationale for doing this is to hopefully get some feedback from the group and to prevent people from making the same mistakes First, some background. My better half bought me the Harrier GR3 Starter Kit as a stocking filler for Christmas with the intention of it being a practice-run. I initially started painting the model with enamels and a brush and tried out some masking techniques that I'd seen on the forums. I was really buoyed by the neatness of the camo, but not by the finish, so I decided to dig out my old Revell airbrush and give that a go. I stripped the airframe with thinners and used Taiyma Primer from a rattle can to get started. The difference was astounding (by my standards). As you can just make out from the pictures, the camo appeared much neater and I was really pleased with the results. It was far from perfect, but as I said, this was intended as a practice kit. Here comes the kicker...My masking of the underside mustn't have been as robust as I thought and light aircraft grey leaked onto the top of the model. Gutted. As I'd already stripped the airframe before I thought I'd give this one up as a bad job. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll find the motivation to try and save it but for now, it's taking an extended holiday in the spares box. So, for the more experienced of you I have a few questions: 1) Would it have been better for me to spray the underside first, then add the camo colours afterwards? 2) The light aircraft grey seemed quite runny in the airbrush and going on to the kit. Do I need to change my mix ratio, or would people recommend giving it a few passes to build up the coat? 3) Any tips regarding masking and airbrushing straight lines would be very welcome. Here are the offending articles: Camo Detail with unimpressed Labrador http://s166.photobucket.com/user/Marshad13/media/IMG_0034_zps5b6442c8.jpg.html Side view with added bleed http://s166.photobucket.com/user/Marshad13/media/IMG_0037_zps29e303c4.jpg.html Cockpit detail http://s166.photobucket.com/user/Marshad13/media/IMG_0036_zpsd038df34.jpg.html Underside, notice the weak grey. http://s166.photobucket.com/user/Marshad13/media/IMG_0035_zpsbd3826b8.jpg.html Feedback would be very much appreciated. I know this isn't a complete build but for me it was a bitter-sweet process whereby I was really happy with the finish, up until I started the underside! Thanks in advance!!

Evening, folks! This here is going to be my first WIP, so please be gentle. Hopefully it's one that will allow me to pick your brains and feed off the collective knowledge of these forums throughout this quest I have set myself. The plan is that by the end of this project, I will have one of every Harrier variant (in 1/72) to see service in the name of these fair isles. The Harrier has always been a firm favourite of mine, but this year I've been on a major Harrier buzz. I blame the fantastic static display at this years air show at RAF Cosford! Regardless, I have accumulated a small library of Harrier-related literature that is currently fuelling my determination to see this project through. I'm planning on this taking a while, so I reserve the right to decide whether or not I brave trainer variants after the rest are done! Anyway, without further ado, here are the kits I will be working with: Big surprise, Airfix takes up the majority of the stash. In this scale, I really don't think there are any better alternatives available. Here is the roster I am thinking of at the moment GR.1 - either kit decals, or 233 OCU GR.3 - 1 sqn. on exercise on Exercise Cold Winter, Norway 1979 GR.5 - (Revell/Hasegawa Kit w./ Quickboost nose converted to GR.5) - 3 sqn. RAF Gütersloh GR.7 - ZD404 (Lucy) - Afghanistan, 2006 GR.9 - ZG477 1 sqn. as she is at RAF Museum Cosford FRS.1 - 801 NAS 1998 FA.2 - 801 NAS I'm tempted to pick up another GR.7/9 to do in 800 NAS markings to balance out the naval side of things, but we'll see how the rest go first. That's the plan, at least. I've got a bunch of aftermarket goodies lined up that I want to throw at these kits, but I'll be ordering them as and when the project/bank balance permits. To kick things off, here is the first kit I'll be starting: To ease myself into it, I'll be starting on the GR.9 - a nice, clean build that should get the ball rolling. Luckily for me, ZG477 is only just up the road, so I can go and snap some piccies and spend some time with it whenever I want, really. I'll be using the Pavla cockpit and intakes/exhausts for this kit. I've already dry-fitted the cockpit, and it fits beautifully. The kit 'pit is nice for an OOB 'pit, but the Pavla offering really brings the detail that this kit needs. I'll be starting painting shortly, so watch this space! Feel free to offer C&C - I'd rather be told I'm doing something wrong before it's too late to change something rather than after! Cheers Daryl.