Italeri/Esci Harrier GR3

[AnonymousAA72]

GR3 listed in FUTURE RELEASES at £8.50, Interesting schemes including IV Sqn - Cottesmore/Hermes 1982!!!

[sniperUK]

Already in one of the modelshops in Belfast.

[fatalbert]

I picked one up yesterday,this is one of my favourite kits of all time

i have several esci harrier kits in my stash,the GR3 is my ideal harrier.

[thx6667]

Just need the old ESCI HAR 1 back to complete the set.

Lovely kits.

[Dave Fleming]

From memory 4 Squadron did deploy onto Hermes post Falklands to carry out some validation work

[tjn]

I've not long picked up the Hasegawa gr.3 with markings for a no.4 sqn aircraft - is this a repop?

[Geoff_B]

I've not long picked up the Hasegawa gr.3 with markings for a no.4 sqn aircraft - is this a repop?

Not of the Hasegawa kit, this is the ESCI GR3 kit, which is probably the best of the Harrier GR3 kits done in 1/72

G

[TEZ]

From memory 4 Squadron did deploy onto Hermes post Falklands to carry out some validation work

....however their home base was Gutersloh

Andrew

[Jazzie]

And my mate picked up one today at Perth MS. He has raved on about the Esci Harriers for years and was tempted back into the fold with the Harrier today!

[Armadillos]

For me the question is raised or recessed panel lines??

[Dave Fleming]

For me the question is raised or recessed panel lines??

Recessed.

This is the best GR3 on the market, and was always the hardest of the ESCI kits to find.

Only needs a new seat and removal of a couple of bumps under the wings and the SHAR wheel tie downs (except where fitted!)

[datguy]

It builds up very nicely. I finished this one earlier this year.

It does benefit from a new seat (I used Aeroclub). New intakes to include the auxiliary blow-in doors are worthwhile. Mine are from Heritage Aviation and took some extra work to get them to to match up for fit and finish. I have not seen the Pavla replacement intakes. The Pavla set also includes new jetpipes, which would be nice. I found the ESci kit to have difficult seam placement on the jetpipes (but not as bad as those on the Frog/Hasegawa GR.1).

As with all Harriers I've built, getting all the wheels on the ground proved a challenge.

[Armadillos]

Well doesn`t like too bad at all from what you`ve built there Datguy.

But £8.50 seems alittle steep or am i just being a cheap buggar?

[thx6667]

The Esci Har/SHARs are the best 1/72 versions out there, knocking spots off of the inaccurate Hasegawa kits, and better fitting too. The Fujimi kits come in at around second place. Strange times back in the 80s as within the space of about 12 months ther were three all-new GR.3s released.

[DamienB]

£8.50 for the best GR3 kit... well it's rather pricier than it used to be it has to be said. But the Fujimi kit is the only real competition.

The Pavla nozzles are a waste of money, they're identical to the kit ones from what I've seen (datguy - I don't recall any seams on the nozzles and looking at my built-up examples, no evidence of any work to remove them?); similarly I wouldn't bother with new intakes, it's a simple job to hacksaw off the top doors and then put plastic card strips back on in between the hole for each door, and more plastic card for the drooped doors. A bit trickier to go the whole hog and drill/cut holes through to the interior surface of the intake, personally I didn't bother.

The only faults I can remember in the kit are no evidence of the undernose/tail puffer outlets and, given Italeri's 'Falkland' titling on the box, the lack of the undernose bulge for the transponder fairing fitted to the Op Corporate jets. But all in all this is a fab little kit. I've still got an original Esci one in the stash, complete with groundcrew figures!

[Armadillos]

Ye have to say my first experience of Hasegawa was their Sea Harrier FRS 1 and its certainly far from impressive!!

[Giorgio N]

£ 8.50 is quite expensive but has to be said that the GBP/euro exchange rate is not as it used to be. I used a rough 1.5 euro per GBP last year every time I bought stuff from the UK, now it's 1.27. Bad news for UK lovers of the italeri harriers, but good news for me and other european lovers of UK produced aftermarket and printed material..

Economics apart I'm very glad this kit is back in the shops. I can see a standard 3 squadron and a winter 1 squadron in the future !

I hope the GR.1 will follow: the hasegawa GR.3 is not too bad but their GR.1 is terrible. And I've some spanish and USMC decals in the stash..

Giorgio

[PHIL B]

But £8.50 seems alittle steep or am i just being a cheap buggar?

I thought it was just me. I can't help thinking Italeri are getting more expensive and fast. Their SHAR1 is now £7.75 at Hannants. Wasn't it £6.50 not so long ago? Also, their 1/48 Hawk was announced at £9.99 2 or 3 years ago and now its coming out at £19.99! Does that mean it'll be twice as good? Are they making polystyrene out of milk these days? That's going up at about the same rate.

Phil.

[AnonymousAA72]

I thought it was just me. I can't help thinking Italeri are getting more expensive and fast. Their SHAR1 is now £7.75 at Hannants. Wasn't it £6.50 not so long ago? Also, their 1/48 Hawk was announced at £9.99 2 or 3 years ago and now its coming out at £19.99! Does that mean it'll be twice as good? Are they making polystyrene out of milk these days? That's going up at about the same rate.

Phil.

Italeri kits were often cheaper than many other manufacturer's - for a good reason - some were ok (some NOT!!) but maybe a bit basic. The kits issued over the last few years have shown improvements on older kits - of course the SHar and GR3 are ex-Esci tools. I seem to recall that the Italeri Hawk was as much to compete directly with Airfix as anything else. An Italeri Hawk issued (more like 4 or 5 years ago!) would have been worth £9.99. I think that we may well see a lot more plastic for our money in 2008!!! Hopefully!!!

[tjn]

Are they making polystyrene out of milk these days? That's going up at about the same rate.

it does leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth doesnt it. ahem.

tbh, I was thinking the same thing as the Hasegawa gr.3 only cost me £7. which is rather more than I'd expect to pay for the Airfix one.

[Richard E]

The only problem I found with my Italeri (nee Esci) Sea Harrier is that I had to cut back part of the cockpit coaming so the cockpit was the correct length. Does the GR3 suffer from the same problem?