1/72 Matchbox Sea Harrier

[Maverick231]

I have been a lover of the Harrier my whole life and I have 4 sitting in the stash and with the GB thats going on at the moment on another forum I decided to have a go at building at least one.

So my first victim is the 1/72 Matchbox Sea Harrier FRS.1.

I'm going to be building this one out of the box but putting her into the Grey and White Royal Navy livery with the Red Arrow on the tail using tail decals from the stash.

Here is an overview of the kit:

The fuselage and other first bits are off the sprew and sanded down:

The very basic seat and Engine fan now painted up ready to go inside the fuselage:

I've painted the cockpit interior a light grey, glued in the nose weights, painted the inside of the fuselage black that are visible through the air intakes and glued in the seat and engine fan.

I tried something I've seen and been very inspired by when other modellers do it.

I have never tried this before so please go easy on my result.

I have looked into various photos of FRS.1 Ejector Seats and I have done my best on getting the seat belts and buckles right so here are the results:

I closed the fuselage up, put a layer of primer on and the paint work too.

The next step is to sand and fill then touch up the paint work.

I decided to go back to my old way of building just for one kit.

[English Electric]

Lovely... always nice to see a Matchbox kit being built - and a great aircraft too!! Can't fault this at all... nice progress

Chris

[Air-to-Air]

You've got to admire a bloke that starts a Matchbox kit with a full tube of model filler at the ready!

In all seriousness though, good progress thus far, I especially like your effort with the ejection seat belts and, surprisingly, no filler to date.

[Maverick231]

English Electric - thanks bud its a lovely little kit, my next one is a Hasegawa Harrier GR.3 which is going into Royal Navy Engineering Training School colours.

Air-to-Air - haha yes you have!

Well so far I've used no filler at all, the only place I can see that will need a little filler is the join between the wings and fuselage, the fuselage halves closed up really nicely with a little sanding so up to now its been a great little kit.

[SaintsPhil]

Love a harrier and love an old matchbox kit, maybe more for nostalgia reasons than detail and build ability....

[Devilfish]

Nice to see these old kits still giving pleasure. Can't wait to see it finished.

You don't need nose weights in a Harrier though.....

[Maverick231]

Thanks guys, I know about the nose weight I've done it so it weighs a bit more as I did a Airfix GR.3 a few years ago and it just didn't feel right without them.

[Maverick231]

I got chance to do some more work on the Sea Harrier today.

I have been thinking about what configuration and loadout I should have her in since I started this builds.

I have settled on having a refueling probe as I won't be using it on any other future harrier build.

I'm going to have twin sidewinder mounts on each of the outer mounted pilons, standard drop tanks on the inner pilons and I'm still unsure yet if I want gun pods mounted on the belly or not.

If I do I will be stealing them from the GR.1 kit as I can't find replacements for a good price.

So onto tonights progress.

I have sanded down the fuselage joins, added the tail boom, nose cone, nose antenna and refueling probe.

I've also made a start painting the wings and landing gear.

Only one pic tonight.

More tomorrow hopefully.

[Hook]

I'm going to have twin sidewinder mounts on each of the outer mounted pilons

It's your kit, of course, but by the time the twin rails arrived, the days of the EDSG / White scheme were long past.

Nice work so far!

Cheers,

Andre

[Maverick231]

Ahh ok thanks Hook glad you pointed that out, I'm assuming amraam's weren't around during EDSG?

[Martian]

This is shaping up really nicely!

Martin

[junglierating]

Ahh ok thanks Hook glad you pointed that out, I'm assuming amraam's weren't around during EDSG?

Hi didn't get AMRAAMS until the FRS 2 / FA2 rocked up!

As for twin laus for winders not sure when they came in post 82 for sure we had them fitted to FRS1 in 87.

So as the other gentleman said its your model so do what you feel Like.

Must admit do remember buying the matchbox kit and being a little disappointed but built it as an 809NAS cab in light grey without the phenoix decal still looked good tho

.

[Maverick231]

martin hale - Thank you very much .

junglierating - Ahh ok thank you, well my choice of decals is 800 NAS with the red arrow on the tail using spare tail decals from the Airfix FA.2 and the Matchbox decals supplied in the kit.

I wont be using AMRAAMs then , I am really considering using the twin winders with this aircraft just before it is repainted into the grey and black scheme.

Now on to today's progress!

I'm really cracking on with this one now.

Tonight I got the wings, horizontal stabilizers and landing gear on and along with the tail boom, nose pitot tube and refueling probe all painted too.

I also added a borrowed set of gun pods from the Airfix FA.2 kit, they're borrowed as I am being sent a set which I'll return to the FA.2 when they arrive.

I know they are about 4mm too short as it seems but atleast they're from another Sea Harrier.

Here are a couple of pics of her sat next to a 4 Squadron GR.3.

I think painting the engine fan silver was a really good idea as its really visible through the intake and I'm still very impressed with the Ejector Seat:

I tried using HDR on my phone but its only made a very tiny difference:

C&c welcome as always.

[Maverick231]

I was looking online for a while and I found this pic:

Is this load out accurate?

If so would the twin bomb rack be used with rockets on the outer pilons and a single bomb mounted on the center pilon?

[junglierating]

I was looking online for a while and I found this pic:

Is this load out accurate?

If so would the twin bomb rack be used with rockets on the outer pilons and a single bomb mounted on the center pilon?

Lol I'm afraid not be lucky to get one bomb ,two at most on the inboards ...one each side.

Still nice idea ...barrier was shall we say weight challenged .

Now I'm not saying perhaps at boscombe or west freugh there might have been a trial with twin 500lb bombs as opposed to 1000lb ..I'm sure someone really old and bold may know of that but it wasn't the norm in the navy .

.

[Maverick231]

Ok thanks mate I thought it looked a little strange.

I have decided to go with 2 Sea Eagles, 2 Sidewinders and a possible fuel tank on the centre pilon.

Not a lot of progress has been made today but I decided to post a reply to keep the thread alive.

Basically just finishing off the grey paint work and making her a more solid model.

I'm going to finish off the white and adding the last little details as well as adding the 2 black antenna to the top of the fuselage behind the canopy.

I haven't taken a pic as she is in therers no big changes to see through the camera lens but here is a pic of one of each type of Harrier in my collection.

[junglierating]

Umm Not being a smart bottom honest but there Are no fuel stack pipes on the centre line pylon just thought you would want to know you seem pretty keen on getting it correct

[Maverick231]

Oh ok thanks Junglier I had no idea.

If anyone has any info on any weapons the FRS.1 carried please feel free to either post in this thread or pm me as I want to learn anything I can in order to get an accurate ordinance load out.

That includes adaptors for missiles and things.

[Vince1159]

Fantastic looking row of Harriers there Maverick ...

[Maverick231]

Thanks Vince, you gotta love the Jump Jet!

Ok last night I got onto decaling.

I can't believe how nice these decals are to work with!

Obviously I have a lot more to do decal wise but here is a shot of the belly so far:

I also managed to get a half decent result on the red top surface decals:

I was happy until the wing joins started to get to me so in order to not mess up the decals I've decided to make my own brush on putty, its going to take 24 hours to be usable so the wing joins won't be filled till tomorrow.

C&c welcome.

[Maverick231]

I've done a little work on the stores today.

 

I have decided to go with a "out of the ordinary" load out.

 

 

So on the inner pilons will sit two Sea Eagles.

 

 

I found these in the stash and added the air intakes from spares left over from other kits.

 

 

On the outer pilons I have decided to go against my better judgment and have the double mounted Sidewinders taken from the Airfix FA.2 kit.

 

 

And finally on the center pilon I found a TIALD Jamming pod in the stash left over of a Tornado GR,1 kit.

 

 

Here is a quick pic of the ordinance and pilons:

 

 

 

 

And here is the ordinance with the SHAR:

 

 

 

 

I realize that the FRS.1 would never have carried these stores so if anyone has a problem with this then I will leave them off for the GB and add them after to keep everybody happy.

 

 

I also put the nose decals on, I'm going to start getting the rest of the decals on to get her finished tonight.

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Maverick231

[wombat]

TIALD is a laser designator rather than a jamming pod, and not around before 1991.

Sea eagles look great though.

How do you make the brush able putty?

[Maverick231]

I've decided to go with duel mounted ASRAAM's as I've read that they were being tested back in the 70's so its the Royal Navy's test bed and the TIALD has instead been fitted out to carry recording equipment.

[xffw45343tg]

Nice progress. They tended to use modified gun pods to hold cameras during weapons trials. Typically the aircraft would also have various witness/reference marks so that images taken from a chase plane would show the rates and angles of separation. An image search for ZD320 should show the sort of thing.

I *think* TIALD was used exclusively with the GR7s and lived on its own special pylon on the left hand side. It is integrated into the aircraft display systems such that an image of what the TIALD "sees" may be shown on the cockpit displays. It's certainly an interesting device so I can see why you want to put it on your Harrier. Likewise ASRAAM - this was tabled for the GR9 but sadly never made it.

Good excuse to make another Harrier II I say!!

[Selwyn]

I've done a little work on the stores today.

I have decided to go with a "out of the ordinary" load out.

So on the inner pilons will sit two Sea Eagles.

I found these in the stash and added the air intakes from spares left over from other kits.

On the outer pilons I have decided to go against my better judgment and have the double mounted Sidewinders taken from the Airfix FA.2 kit.

And finally on the center pilon I found a TIALD Jamming pod in the stash left over of a Tornado GR,1 kit.

Here is a quick pic of the ordinance and pilons:

And here is the ordinance with the SHAR:

I realize that the FR.1 would never have carried these stores so if anyone has a problem with this then I will leave them off for the GB and add them after to keep everybody happy.

I also put the nose decals on, I'm going to start getting the rest of the decals on to get her finished tonight.

Sea eagles were never white, they should be dark sea grey.

Selwyn