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Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3 - RAF Germany, 1980 (Airfix 1/72)


jrlx

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  • 2 months later...

Hi again,

Last night I finally started this build.

Here's the box and runners (not sprues, as Ced pointed out in his on-going Spitfire thread):

y4mjW20oxUA3lG-8IiIDiZ06LokaOk0Om1gkh3A9

IMAG3404

 

Those who have been so kind as to follow my threads know that I'm unable to build anything simply OOB... so, here's the Eduard PE set for the Airfix GR.3. It's made up of two frames.

 

The first one has the pre-painted details for the cockpit:

y4mGivln-Cf7SQ02NgiiqJ4MjGCNUQGJeUNmyKOM

IMAG3405

 

The second frame has various details for the exterior:

y4mZdxHGdrTePO9dAQVLJtqkE9SMp_UepF_dgGjr

IMAG3407

 

Finally, this is the decal sheet, which looks very good (I believe it's printed by Cartograf):

y4mSiRmioB6zHwOBgmSwNZHWtwumqVgo8CgMSWhZ

IMAG3408

 

Last night I started by cutting the seat parts off the runners. Here they are before cleaning the remains of the gates and moulding lines:

y4mXfMs6Mk7i6irqTA7Q3kMLMqIJtoax25lIF888

IMAG3729

 

I also cut the cockpit parts: instrument panel, base, control column and rear bulkhead:

y4mm18f52revZq-yHv3GeEuSNGw3UEmn2ROli0r2

IMAG3730

 

The moulded detail for the rudder pedals and throttle levers was removed, as these will be replaced by PE parts as shown in the PE instructions:

y4mpjOsadYHHPEEvIY9ZBMaUvPmYFiN_gF6mmkek

IMAG3731

 

Next, I cut the wing parts off the runners and cleaned the gates' remains. There's some really nice surface detail here:

y4mQcEqrg4Zz3S7M_90RWbm3RDSlGIV7_cxByei7

IMAG3732

 

The air intake parts followed. I still have to remove the ejector marks off the inside of the tubing:

y4mM69klFmPIZmKGqecu5-tCc5OwM8wcgBN8eO42

IMAG3733

 

The fuselage halves were also removed off the runners and cleaned:

y4mIxZHB2PsZqwVmlN5jQedg4flW6NzxsQleulY9

IMAG3734

 

Then, I test fitted the fuselage and wing parts. Everything seems to fit very well:

y4mHXU3jlWrCGlTiuvbXSCmfUZHidaGJkaPpk4vq

IMAG3735

 

y4muofBi8gtb7zRjuRDbJzuMT-Ld8KWZRcFUlTYu

IMAG3736

 

Finally, here are all parts already prepared:

y4mNUxu0fgF6gIxjx9N8fzd06ur5aprQ3VS2G3I6

IMAG3737

 

I'll have to make this build progress in parallel with my Ju 88 build, as their respective GBs will be finished in just over a month.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

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Glad to see you starting this one Jamie. A Harrier is always most welcome in this GB so far as I'm concerned :D

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Thanks, Col.! Much appreciated!

I find the Harrier a superb aircraft. I have most of the Airfix boxings in my stash and look forward to building them all :)

Cheers

Jaime

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Thanks Tomoshenko! PE complicates the build but I think the added detail is worth the extra effort :)

Cheers

Jaime

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Hi again,

Last night I did some more work on the Harrier.

First, I removed the ejector marks inside the air intake tubing. For that I used a half-round file, followed by nº 500 and nº 800 grit wet & dry. This was done very carefully, in order not to damage the surrounding areas. It took me about an hour to complete. Here's the result:

y4muhBIHE-uSxQbjegC-1t4bxJXQNa5ls8KULvp8

IMAG3739

 

Then, I dry-fitted the air-intake sub-assembly in the fuselage. There seems to be a vertical gap, which will need some putty. This will be confirmed when the parts are actually glued together:

y4mJD-6ByYHDSseMF68ZOFb9oW1O-f0S5xNptw9f

IMAG3740

 

The cockpit base and rear bulkhead were also dry-fitted:

y4mvyH-79_JBkmlSX9SGB5ornMeQJ4PBHVOcdjNw

IMAG3741

 

As can be confirmed in the following picture, the rear bulkhead doesn't completely hide the ejector mark on the top right of the cockpit wall. So, I'll have to remove that mark:

y4moQTPyA_8KwSzbXD9ruFJYsvmwP21uESbVXhzS

IMAG3742

 

The turbine face was removed off the runners and cleaned:

y4m8H1RhmhRLXD5MwzBn6O9S4fPkgjDd1xO5T3qR

IMAG3743

 

The air intake bell parts were also removed and cleaned:

y4m6WD5q0n5NZVSjiUYMT-04bSsC2NbJyEGv0yvH

IMAG3747

 

Here's a view of the air intake tubing, dry-fitted on the starboard fuselage:

y4mQqxx-yfASgXJAEwjQo-OZ_Jkjiuv1nxJOua6I

IMAG3744

 

The air intake bell was dry-fitted as well. There are some small gaps on the top and bottom joins that will need putty:

y4mIzcyyYN3Pz6y_rMyToycODi-xRcq_ST-ghto_

IMAG3745

 

This is a front view of the inside of the intake. This shows that I'll only need to paint the inside of the tubing. I still need to check references to determine how the inner lip of the intake was painted (external camouflage or inner colour?):

y4m95EvwbnDJ8xC6o9y4sG-_45_l3xwBIpvsRqzS

IMAG3746

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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Looking good Jaime.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with the self-adhesive PE. I've seen a few negative comments, but have just used my first set and found it to be very good indeed :)

Cliff

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Cliff, Teeradej,

Thank you for the kind comments and interest.

I've used self-adhesive PE before and it works well but, now, I always put a drop of CA even with the S.A. stuff, as I've read they tend to lose adhesion with time.

Cheers

Jaime

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Hi again,

Here's an update of work done during the week. I concentrated on removing moulding marks and detail that doesn't belong to this version of the Harrier.

I started by removing the ejector pin marks on the cockpit walls that aren't completely covered by the rear bulkhead. Here they are, marked with a pencil:

y4mh3cM5kkSDOCpx-Wjx_ClB7wa7v13kF14zgsmI

IMAG3749

 

I used the tip of a half-round file, followed by 500 grit wet & dry, to remove the front of each mark, that would remain visible after installation of the rear bulkhead:

y4mGJsblArAycbmhiLPQofFYZUfGm_wlGMQYl3Sx

IMAG3750

 

Next, I had to remove the two moulded details on the top of the fuselage, as shown in the instructions:

y4mZ3bnteLk-i-DBCW-mhagLeaY07mOlM4_ziQYN

IMAG3751

 

In the following picture the detail is already removed from the fuselage half on the lower part of the image. I found a moulding line between wing and nose, along the fuselage, on both halves. It is already removed from the fuselage half on the lower part of the image but still clearly visible on the other half:

y4mg1mBqR8aLaJ5xfBPgnLKX3CB1LF_HXE1uM-Kv

IMAG3752

 

Here we see one of the moulded details removed. I used a nº 10 blade, followed by a nº 11 blade, to carve the plastic. Then, I used a succession of progressively finer grit sanding sticks to sand and polish the surface:

y4mzp6YaP-VrhV-V8gym8RawKJ-o_UiD0ekP56wQ

IMAG3753

 

Here's the end result:

y4m1lul2Rh54nBqqdOfzT25wwAzzbgfnNA22BZm9

IMAG3754

 

Then, I had to remove the moulding line on the starboard half of the fuselage, which was a real step on the plastic surface:

y4mPKbq0r4-meJJ_EON0DRauTFNi0EnyBbzOG6Yi

IMAG3755

 

I removed the step with a nº 10 blade, followed by sanding sticks. Here's the end result:

y4mMUmHkwEkIa1BqEfa16O1We3kpbBOQvj648-Z3

IMAG3756

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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1 hour ago, Col. said:

Welcome to the Hawker (Siddeley) GB with your Harrier Jamie :) 

Thanks Col.!

 

I decided to enhance the difficulty of the build by installing the engine and displaying the model with the engine access panels open. For that I've ordered CMK's resin engine for the Harrier GR.3. It should arrive at my LMS by mid-Feb.

 

Never making things easy for myself :)

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Col. said:

Oooh that sounds good Jamie :speak_cool:

Thanks, Col.! I hope it turns out well. As I also intend to present the model with a full weapons load under the wings, I'm not sure it will be a realistic presentation but I'll do it anyway :D

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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3 hours ago, jrlx said:

Thanks, Col.! I hope it turns out well. As I also intend to present the model with a full weapons load under the wings, I'm not sure it will be a realistic presentation but I'll do it anyway :D

Cheers

Jaime

Not really realistic to have the motor in bits while there's a couple ton of death hanging off the wings but it's your model ;) 

Edited by Col.
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2 hours ago, giemme said:

Good to see you are resuming this, Jaime :clap:

 

More interesting stuff for me to watch :popcorn:

 

Ciao

Thanks, Giorgio! It's a pleasure having you on board!

 

51 minutes ago, Col. said:

Not really realistic to have the motor in bits while there's a couple ton of death hanging off the wings but it's your model ;) 

In my defence the engine won't be really unassembled. It's just the engine access panels which will be open to show the engine. I hope this isn't too much of an insult to accuracy brigade ;)

(in my worst moments I'm myself a member of that brigade... :) )

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

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If the accuracy brigade were busier building perfect models to show us the error of our ways the world would be a happier place :rolleyes:

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi Dave,

 

Thank you for your kind words and interest. I'm still trying to finish my Dornier Do-24 flying boat build, which I started in the Flying Boats and Float Planes GB. So I didn't manage to resume this WIP yet.

 

However, as said in a previous post, I'll be adding a resin engine, a corrected tail fin and a brass pitot tube, which I already have. Here are some pictures.

 

These are the three detailing/correction sets:

y4mclDpXuDJskyXTrGzF0aO-uHVBb9DACWDQVwdE

IMAG5255

 

The kit's and the corrected resin tail fin:

y4mwJ4bLHRbf1XEVOGjke6yKwJrE52EmNQXEFCIN

IMAG5256

 

Here the kit's tail fin is aligned over the resin tail fin. As can be seen, the kit's dimensional error is quite small:

y4m0-lfphbbQ03_-bKJ8ZYoVf8qWye0KwAzHTtIy

IMAG5257

 

It can be argued that the error is small enough to use the kit's part.

 

The next picture shows all the parts of the engine resin set:

y4ms_avTsbRJias9CiTe9UxclqkWwKlMjztvR0H1

IMAG5258

 

The following pictures show the instructions for this resin set, which are wrong:

y4m8ghYArJ3P2pITPSO2udfoFH5t1g-gQ1JFnS_4

IMAG5259

 

The instructions indicate that the panels between the wings should be removed...

 

 

y4mpu1GDeUq8xBWKWF426RuEvyT9zLFKD3IcG43U

IMAG5260

 

... and replaced by resin parts 4, 5, 10 and 12...

 

y4meDm6NWXUFCnubShFStXejEMf8Fl2E4XlVm0lJ

IMAG5261

 

... which do not align with the panel lines on the centre of the wing part but correspond exactly to the panels located on top of the fuselage between the cockpit and the wing part (see the kit's instructions).

 

So, the engine should be installed between the cockpit and the wing part, not under the wing. The following picture of a real Harrier GR.3 proves this:

h1.jpg

Note that here we see the complete engine, with the tubing for the aft exhausts, which is not represented in the resin part (PUR 6). Only this tubing is under the wing, not the engine.

 

This picture further clarifies that access to the engine was done via the top panels between the cockpit and the wing:

h7.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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