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1/48 Sea Harrier FA.2


dswoofie

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OK, finally I get to have a look at doing my Telford build. Good job as it's only a month away now :o

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I'm going to be doing the Airfix 1/48 Sea Harrier FA.2 in an in-flight display. It will be in the colours of the 25th Anniversary scheme of 899NAS... like this... Shiny Shiny!

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So, what about the kit. Seems OK on shape, but it is a bit of a mix and match. The Fuselage is a new part added to the old FRS.1 kit, so you get a mix of recessed details on the fuselage, and raised on the wings. Also the plastics are very different in textures. The fuselage is in the same fashion of the 1/48 Lightning & Buccaneer, nicely recessed and detailed but a bit soft. The wings are in the mid-80's hard plastic used by Airfix and are rougher in mould quality.

Here's a couple of shots of the comparison between the fuselage and the wings...

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Right, onto the cockpit. As it'll be closed up with the pilot in there, I'm not too worried about the details. I'm replacing the seat with an Aeroclub white metal one, and adding some belts onto the pilot. Other than than it'll be out of the box. Here's the parts to start with.

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Progress soon (hopefully!!)

Karl.

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Mmmmmmm, the admiral's barge ^_^

Really looking forward to seeing thios one come along Karl, it'll be a beauty in those colours :thumbsup2:

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Haha!

OK... here's the progress so far. The cockpit will be OOB using the parts displayed above, apart from the addition of the Aeroclub white metal seat... I painted up the pilot and the seat, and added some belts so that the pilot looked like he was at least strapped to the seat, and also put the ones on the headrest area. Nothin' special, but it fills up the cockpit! I hate painting figures so don't laugh...

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Should be able to finish off the pit and close the fuselage up today...

Karl.

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OK, not a lot of progress, but I'm pleased as I've managed to re-scribe all of the wings without making a mess :D

Fuselage is all closed up, just need to tidy up and rub down the seams...

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Although it's hard to see, here's one of the re-scribed upper wing halves...

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Very happy with the results of that.

Karl.

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I hate painting figures so don't laugh...

Karl.

Laugh about what Karl? Thats way better than anything I could do, I like him alot :thumbsup2: Seat is rather impressive too :worthy:

Bex

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More progress... but not a lot yet!

I've removed the second lumpy thing on the top of the wings (static dischargers or something like that??) and also filled in and shaped the sawtooth in the wing leading edge. Nearly missed that the FA.2 has that re-shaped!

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I also fitted in all of the undercarriage doors and the airbrake. There was some issues here as the doors needed sanding down to fit in the holes provided. Not a great fit at all, no matter what you do with them! But then again they are probably designed more to be open, not too much to put right though.

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After a little filling and sanding I've shaped them all off, and now they are filled. I just need to do a bit more tidying up of them, and re-scribe the doors in there.

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At least it's moving along again anyway!

Karl.

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You're battling with some 'orrible sink marks there lad... well done! :thumbsup:

You also did a good job painting the pilot... could have removed his mould lines though! :tease:

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You're battling with some 'orrible sink marks there lad... well done! :thumbsup:

You also did a good job painting the pilot... could have removed his mould lines though! :tease:

Nah... he's just got a bloody good iron has this fella! :bleh:

They appear a lot more in the pic than to the eye... they were 'toned down' but obviously not enough. He'll be tucked away in the cockpit anyway :lol:

Yeah, there's some interesting sinky bits isn't there.

Karl.

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Right, it's starting to look like a Sea Harrier now :D Wings and tailplanes are on, as are the intakes.

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There are a number of areas that will need some work, namely the upper and lower seams on the wing joins...

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That lower one looks a pain to get at with the exhaust pieces sticking out over it... and it's quite a bad one too. This pic doesn't show what a trench it really is!

The nose will need a little attention in re-shaping too. It's slightly bigger than the fuselage and sticks out at the edges. Nothing that a little careful sanding won't sort out. Again, this looks better in the pic than on the model!

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Then there's the intakes! These also are larger than the shape on the fuselage, so will also need to be sanded back and re-shaped to match. Doesn't bother me too much as I'm doing it in-flight, so the blow in doors can all be filled and re-scribed as they will be closed. I'm really glad now that I haven't got to mess with them and do the opening of them :lol:

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All in all it's chugging along quite nicely now. Just plenty of filling and sanding to keep me occupied for the day today.

Karl.

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OK, after a fair amount of sanding stick use, and a load of CA as filler, we've progressed some more!

One of the other things I had to sort out was the blow in doors on the intakes. These just looked poor on the kit, so I decided to fill them and re-scribe the doors... Here's what you get on the kit, which is some funny semi-recessed shapes.

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After a quick fill and re-scribe I'd got this. These still needed to be cleaned up at this point and we're quickly rubbed over with a sanding stick to fill them with dust so they would show up.

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Not exactly a perfect representation, but closer than the kit offering.

And then there are the other parts that have all been sanded and re-scribed... The top details of the fuselage all re-scribed and blended with the re-scribed wings.

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The underside details filled and sanded, with the undercarriage doors scribed in. Most of the sink mark are also filled too.

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And the finished intake doors.

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And the overall picture at present...

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It all still looks a little rough as the CA filler is semi-transparent, so the old still shows through. I've got some more bits to work on there, and then it'll be time to plop on a little primer to see how it all looks then.

Karl.

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Finally some more progress but it seems painfully slow with how fast Telford is approaching :o

OK, the tail boom... the end cap needed a bit of filling and re-shaping...

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After a little work it now looks like this...

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I've also scratched some strakes for the undersides as the kit only gives AMRAAM rails or the gun pods... a couple of strips added to the front undercarriage door too...

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And also extended the coaming on the cockpit and added a little detail in there...

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And the overall picture... outrigger wheels are on, just all the little bits to stick on now really, then it's paint time. Got to get cracking now as time really is ticking by quickly!

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Karl.

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One thing I did notice Karl is that the RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) at the aft end of the tail bullet is a little less pointed that you've made it in side view. The actual antenna is the same as the one on the forward facing fairing on the tail fin above the pitot. It's pretty much a rectangular block with equally radiused edges all round.

Wing scribing looks top notch, btw. What's your tool of choice?

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