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Ultimate Harrier GR9/T12 book coming soon!


Dave Fleming

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Double Ugly have just announced their latest book in their Fox Two Details and Markings series on the BAE SYSTEMS Harrier GR9 and T12


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The result of several years of research, this looks like it will be the ultimate book on the Harrier GR9 and T12. Brand new scale drawings, many never before seen photographs and the most comprehensive walkarounds available as well as extensive colour schemes information. If you are interested in the Harrier, this is a must have book.


The book is in the final stages of production, but all being well, there will be bound demo copies on the Harrier SIG and Wingman Models stands at Telford to browse - come along and see just how good this is!


Pre-order info is here




Dave
Edited by Dave Fleming
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Seen their full page advert in the new SAM and thought it looked like something I'd like, they have a similar publication on the Buccaneer too which I also want.

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  • 1 month later...

If its anything like the Fox two Tornado book, it will be great.

Looks like the MOD are still worried what may be in the book :whistle:

From the website

DEAR CUSTOMERS – AFTER 12 WEEKS WITH BRITISH GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES, WE ARE STILL WAITING OF THE APPROVAL OF THE BRITISH MOD TO PRINT OUR LATEST PUBLICATION. AS WE ARE UNABLE TO FOR SEE WHEN WE WILL EVENTUALLY RECEIVE THEIR 'OK', WE HAVE TO DELAY THE RELEASE OF THE BOOK TO THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2015. WE HOPE FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. IF YOU HAVE ORDERED OTHER ITEMS TOGETHER WITH THIS BOOK, WE WILL NOW UNDERTAKE PARTIAL DELIVERIES AND WILL SHIP THE HARRIER BOOK FREE OF CHARGE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

Shaun.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Shaun,

Just to add (one of) the author's perspective...

The reality is that the photos aren't really a concern as the project and its limits were approved through UK and US channels before work began two years ago. Where serving individuals are involved though, the MoD has to go through a process to check the content with a fine tooth comb. For a book of this nature that's quite a complex job!

Anyway, the good news is, we had approval come through two days before Christmas so the wheels are in motion to have this go to print in the New Year. I only hope people like it as it's been quite a journey to get it to this point!

Happy New Year to all!

Andy

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Some of you may have seen the demos on display at the Telford show in November but here's a small preview, exclusive to BM...

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Best wishes to all for 2015!

Edited by AjD
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

The latest note on the Fox Two website states:

DEAR CUSTOMERS! AFTER A HIATUS OF FOUR MONTHS WITH THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WE FINALLY RECEIVED THE OK TO PRINT OUR HARRIER BOOK. THIS SHOULD TAKE PLACE DURING THE NEXT 14 DAYS. HOPEFULLY WE WILL BE ABLE TO DELIVERY YOUR COPY BY THE END OF THIS MONTH – THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE, WHICH WE HIGHLY APPRECIATE!

Cheers

Nick

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Good evening everyone,

Andy has just told me that the book went to the printers... today!

We hope that copies will be available for sale on The Aviation Bookshp stand at the Fleet Air Arm Museum model show on Saturday 21st February; where Andy and I may have to do some book signing...

Hoping to see the books and you there!

Cheers

Nick

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  • 3 weeks later...

Released last Wednesday.

http://www.shopofphantoms.com/rhino/Pulsar/en_US.Shop.displayShop.8152./ft002-harrier-gr9-t12-in-the-21st-century

Thank you to anyone who was hoping to order it and has been patient over the last month or so. Especially at Telford when it didn't quite get there in time. Simon Watson will have it on the Aviation Bookshop stand at Yeovilton on 21st Feb.

If anyone on BM decides to buy it I would be really interested to have some 'ready for inspection' style thoughts on it. I hope we've got it right for the majority but this site has always been a great forum for feedback so whether good or bad I'm sure we would find that useful in case we decide to do this again. We may not of course if it's all bad!

Thanks all.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Picked up a copy of the book yesterday.

Excellent piece of work Andy and Nick, well done.

Not had a real chance to read through it, but after the first flick though I'm impressed!

The plans look great, nice work. Interesting to read the differences in the published dimensions and your measurements? The same was said when they measured a real Tornado in FT001.

Highly recommend to late Harrier modellers building that super detailed project.

Shaun.

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Thank you Shaun. Some really nice words.

Indeed, we were super careful when taking those measurements and it was interesting to see that after I finished drawing the plans the Hasegawa 1/48 scale kit fitted really rather neatly over the top. Well done Hasegawa...! Funny as well that we ended up making the same sort of comment as Andreas made with his IDS/ECR book as you say. It's not the first time I've seen figures quoted wrongly in official publications as if mistakes are made once they're usually reproduced, even in official docs, as people seem to prefer to 'copy and paste' instead of grovel around measuring an airframe from scratch. Fair enough in most cases!

Anyway, I'm pleased you like it and thanks for coming and saying hello at Yeovilton. It was really nice to meet in person.

Andy

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Hi there Kirk,

Yes indeed. Somewhere in the region of Page 100 if memory serves...man I've spent too long staring at that over the past few years! There's photos of the various configurations of the right hand side of the GR.9 cockpit, including the fleet-standard Capability C+ ACNIP comm fit and also of what would have become the norm if the jet had survived as we also included a Cap EB photo to show how they would have looked once the secure comms panel was incorporated.

As a random addition to the random question (which was a good one by the way!)...you'll also find shots in there to show how Cap EB would have added to the arrangement of external aerials so my hope is all of your needs would be met. If not, you know who to direct complaints to!

Hope that answers your question.

Andy

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(and notwithstanding the US Navy manual that used a GR7 drawing to illustrate the dimensions of a AV-8B!)

Just goes to show, it's easier to use what you have than take the time to find what you don't!

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Hi there Kirk,

Yes indeed. Somewhere in the region of Page 100 if memory serves...man I've spent too long staring at that over the past few years! There's photos of the various configurations of the right hand side of the GR.9 cockpit, including the fleet-standard Capability C+ ACNIP comm fit and also of what would have become the norm if the jet had survived as we also included a Cap EB photo to show how they would have looked once the secure comms panel was incorporated.

As a random addition to the random question (which was a good one by the way!)...you'll also find shots in there to show how Cap EB would have added to the arrangement of external aerials so my hope is all of your needs would be met. If not, you know who to direct complaints to!

Hope that answers your question.

Andy

Aggghh!! Resistance is futile. Must. Buy. Another. Book.. Help!!

(Reaches for wallet in a manner similar to that of Dr. Strangelove)

PS/ Been reading the AV-8B Natops flight manual a great deal lately. Would I be correct in thinking that the UK software is more similar to H4.0 (but obviously without the radar support) than C1+?

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Kirk,

Sorry...! A relative of mine who has a bit of a thing for books (not aviation based sadly) was recently told by his significant other that he's now to operate under the rule of one in, three out! He now spends most of his time looking for loopholes in that legislation!

As for software standards, I'll avoid delving too deep in to this on an open forum for a couple of reasons, a) because I'm no software engineer and B) because the discussion of this in the book has been cleared for release and I don't want to step outside of that inadvertently. However, in a nut shell...

UK software standards were constantly evolving and would have continued to do so if the aircraft hadn't been retired when it was. BAe of course made the initial software installation and in the early days the SMS was broadly the same as the AV-8B. With world class test and evaluation units the UK very quickly went its own way and 41® continue that tradition of excellence today. So the weapon system was once similar and that in-built basic functionality is the reason why the Laser Maverick integration trials were conducted on the GR.7 (Page 220-something in the book's weaponry section). We just didn't take the variant much further but the capability was proved by utilising software installed for US use. Fast forward to the GR.9 and you're now looking at a new SMS plus many other features and software drops designed by UK teams, with support from BAE Systems; which have no commonality to our American cousins. So in avionics terms a very different jet.

I shall now stop for fear of boring people stupid but much is in the book. Sorry again...!

Cheers,

Andy

That face with sunglasses was not intentional by the way! Software quirks! How ironic...

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Thank you Shaun. Some really nice words.

Indeed, we were super careful when taking those measurements and it was interesting to see that after I finished drawing the plans the Hasegawa 1/48 scale kit fitted really rather neatly over the top. Well done Hasegawa...! Funny as well that we ended up making the same sort of comment as Andreas made with his IDS/ECR book as you say. It's not the first time I've seen figures quoted wrongly in official publications as if mistakes are made once they're usually reproduced, even in official docs, as people seem to prefer to 'copy and paste' instead of grovel around measuring an airframe from scratch. Fair enough in most cases!

Anyway, I'm pleased you like it and thanks for coming and saying hello at Yeovilton. It was really nice to meet in person.

Andy

Have had a good look though the book this week, great piece of work. I think you have covered all areas and angles.

I've noticed a lot of things from the book which I've never spotted before, great reference for Harrier GR9 builders.

You and Nick are to blame for me restarting my 1/32nd build this week, and realising how much Trumpeter got wrong! :shrug:

Thanks for putting the effort into producing the book. :goodjob:

Highly recommended :thumbsup2:

Shaun.

If this is ONLY the GR9 can i assume that there are no Green GR7 pics?

It's all grey jets in the detail section, but most detail would be the same for the green GR7s. Interesting to see in the open air brake pic in the book, is that the manufacturer plaque is labeled "Harrier GR5"!

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Hi Shaun, Thanks for the feedback and sorry(?) to be the catalyst for the re-start your GR9 build. I've been blamed for worse!

Hi Kirk, I'm getting close to the '1 in 3 out rule' being applied myself - more for space and self-editing reasons than anything else. This one has avoided detection so far; I hope you like it when you get it. I back Andy's comments on the avionics, if we'd done more detailed comparisons with the USMC marks than we have done, we'd probably never have got it past officialdom.

Hi IV(AC)Plumb, Sorry, we had to draw the line somewhere so, no, in this one there are no green GR7 photos. There is a 4-view of a GR7 in two-tone green scheme. As it was had to 'beat' the publisher up from the original 208 to 240 pages to get the book as we thought it should be. Thankfully, he didn't take too much beating, just a few lagers! ;-)

Cheers

Nick

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Sorry, only just seen this. From memory, there is one green GR.7 of 3(F) Sqn and one T.10 of 20® Sqn pictured...but I doubt that's quite the total you were hoping for!

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