Search the Community

One of the two Sea Harrier models I managed to finish this week - 1/72 Italeri (ex-ESCI) BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1 ZA177 "77" of 800. Naval Air Squadron, HMS Hermes Air Group, Falkland Islands, June 1982. Old ESCI kit is simple and needs some work, but it's quite accurate. I`ve used Eduard PE set (poor), Pavla resin air intakes (awful) and exhaust nozzles (awful), Pavla resin gunpods (even more awful and innaccurate), Pavla resin MB.10H ejection seat (poor), Airfix AIM-9Ls (good after some work), Master Pitot tube (nice) and DP Casper/Xtradecal/Airfix decals. Painted with Gunze Mr.Color (335 Medium Sea Grey and 334 Barley Grey, brightened). A couple of photos taken in daylight: And now a few photos taken under artificial light: Thanks for watching!

I have been on and off this build for around a year and half. Every time I felt I was close to done I would screw up something and came close to making it a paint mule a few times if not trashing it. The discontinued Airfix kit has some nice detail in parts and is puzzlingly lacking in others. I scavenged my spares box to try and overcome some deficiencies and before I screw it up again by overcorrecting, I think this is good enough and will call it done. Apart from bits and bobs from the spares box, since I was building an Indian Navy bird, I used Magic Matra missiles from an old Heller Mirage 2000 and used my pin vise hand drill to make holes in the tailpipes of the missiles. Colors, wash and clear coat are Tamiya. The decal instructions said that this airplane, IN618, was heavily weathered by 2005 and the extra dark sea gray had worn down to a dark sea gray. Decals are a mix of the ones that came with the kit and Model Alliance Indian Navy SHAR decals though the roundels are from the Italeri SHAR boxing. This build could have been better but for my overcorrections and impatience. Regardless, I hope y'all like it. I do hope the new tool SHAR from Airfix out in the winter is much better. I have high expectations. LLAP 🖖🏼

One of the two Sea Harrier models I managed to finish this week - 1/72 Airfix BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1 XZ457 "14" of 800. Naval Air Squadron, HMS Hermes Air Group, Falkland Islands, May 1982. Airfix SHAR kit is a total disappointment. If you think that wide panel lines are its biggest drawback, you are wrong - this kit has so many different issues that it could cover 5 other kits with them! Although it's easy to assemble, it takes a lot of work to fix all the bugs and it still won't look as good as the old ESCI! Airfix, it`s time for a new SHAR, at least as good as your GR.9!!!... I`ve used Eduard PE set (poor), Pavla resin air intakes (horrible! - don't buy them EVER) and exhaust nozzles (awful), Pavla resin gunpods (even more awful, horrible and innaccurate), Pavla resin MB.10H ejection seat (poor), Aires Quickboost outriggers for FA.2 (nice) and Master Pitot tube (nice). Decals are from the kit and they are the best part of the whole set. Painted with Gunze Mr.Color (333 EDSG, brightened). A couple of photos taken in daylight: And now a few photos taken in artificial light: Thanks for watching!

Here's a couple of cheeky pics of my recent build, The Kinetic 1/48 BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1 More pics when I've had chance to take some more.... @NG899 Many thanks for all your help Nick..👍

Dug this out of the stash, with the intention of a fairly quick and easy winter build. How wrong I was, this is a pig of a kit and after reading all the various build threads, decided it was not going to beat me !! First of all, purchased the Pavla Sea Harrier intakes and nozzles ( £6) and although designed for the airfix kit, they just about fit but as you can see, took a lot of filler and sanding. No detail for the empty front wheel bay but this will be sorted later and the same goes for the rear however as someone pointed out, the main undercarraige doors can be shut on the real thing, when the wheels are down. This is a preffered option for me !!. I also elected to paint up the Pegasus, as the kit shows that you can have a removable panel, in order to display it. Fit of this panel was awful, so I closed it up and added yet more weight with some filler. The kit cockpit and seat are basic, so I just added bits n bobs from my spares box to give an impression of a Martin Baker seat. The pilot will be getting added at the end ( again after some serious cosmetic work ) Aden cannon fitted by eye, as there are no locating marks at all. Canopy tacked on meantime and masked and the sanding has begun before first coat of primer. First coat of primer added and shows up what work is required still, with regards any sort of detailing and or panel lines. As of today, this is where I am at. Spent ages sanding and still some small problem areas to work on but this model has given me the chance to try out a new tool. The Tamiya rescriber in the background has been used for the first time and is very sharp and cuts through the plastic easily ( sometimes too easily ). Getting the hang of it but this is not an easy model to scribe, for a beginer, due to my lack of experience and the complex curves of the model. It has been a case of mark carefully once, scribe once, muck it up and apply more filler and start again. Still ..... keeps me occupied The panel lines are not accurate but neither is this model. That's it for now, all the best and happy modelling ...

So this build was more emotional than trying to make a great model. I even remember a little squabble with my older brother over this kit as kids. Back in the early 80s this was the second kit I ever built. Revisiting this kit now I just wanted to do a decent job of building it again the way the younger me could not. I tried my best to stay true to a straight OOB build including the decals. The underside of the fuselage however is just too bare and I added bits and bobs from the spares box - mainly leftovers from Airfix and Italeri SHAR builds. Enjoy and comments are always welcome Paints are all Tamiya. I also took a picture of it next to my last Airfix SHAR build to compare experimenting with Tamiya field blue for this build vs gunship grey used on the Airfix. I added the Aden gun pods (Airfix) from the spares box as the underside was too bare and the strakes made it look more so. And one with the Airfix Thank you for looking