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Harrier GR.7/9 Limited Edition (1166) 1:48


Mike

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Harrier GR.7/9 Limited Edition (1166)
1:48 Eduard


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What does one say about the Harrier? It is the world's first and most successful operational Vertical Take-Off/Landing VTOL fighter aircraft that was originally designed back when jet engines themselves were new technology, so vectoring thrust was almost unheard off. Starting with a test rig nicknamed "The Flying Bestead", the engineers at Hawker Siddeley and Bristol Engines began design work on this inventive and ground-breaking jet during a period when Duncan Sands was putting the brakes on many manned aircraft projects in the mistaken belief that technology was ready for unmanned aircraft and missiles. The resulting airframe looked suspiciously like a Harrier, but was called Kestrel, and had some unusual features that wouldn't make it through development, such as the inflatable intake lips to shape the air at different speeds, which could give the aircraft a somewhat "jug-eared" look from the front.

Some of the airframes were sent to the US for evaluation, and at the end of 1967 the Harrier as she became known first flew in its GR.1 guise. Various upgrades in service saw the GR.3 with an extended nose to house the laser tracker, with them seeing service in the RAF and US Marines as the AV-8A. As well as the substantially different Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers, the Harrier II was developed between BAe and McDonnell Douglas, where it was known as the AV-8B. It had a new composite wing and heavily adapted composite fuselage, new more powerful Rolls-Royce Pegasus engines, as well as more modern avionics, while still remaining subsonic in forward flight. To confuse everyone, the RAF adopted the GR.5 as a continuation of the name of the original Harrier, and almost no-one refers to it as the Harrier II any more. The GR.7 added night operations capability, with the GR.9 finalising development and adding a whole host of new avionics to the platform. Sadly, and many would say before its time, the Harrier was withdrawn from service earlier than originally anticipated and barely after the upgrade programme had finished, leaving the UK without anything to fly off her remaining carriers while we wait for its eventual replacement, the F-35 Lightning II. The airframes were sold off to the US for a song, where they are still being used by the Marines, although some contention still remains as to whether they are flying or being used for spares.


The Kit
This is a reboxing of the excellent Hasegawa kit that is sometimes available and at other times harder to find, depending on where you look. Eduard have done their usual job of augmenting the original, and have included some additional parts in resin and Photo-Etch (PE), plus a new decal sheet with some interesting and colourful options. The tooling dates from 2004, so isn't up-to-the-minute new, but it has a good reputation as being accurate, with fine engraved panel lines on the surface, but contrary to the general rule with Hasegawa kits, it isn't short on weapons. Inside the colourful box are twelve sprues of light grey styrene of various sizes, which have AV-8B on the majority of the runners, and GR.5/7 on one. A clear sprue, a set of four poly-caps, two sheets of PE (one pre-painted), a slip of acetate for the MFD glazing, a bag of resin upgrade parts, kabuki masks, and a decal sheet are also included along with a glossy instruction booklet with painting and decaling guide at the rear. If you already have any of the later Harriers from Hasegawa you will know roughly what to expect, but the resin should address some of the kit's weaker points, and the additional parts that are available separately will take the detail up to the highest level, so you can put into it what you want in the areas that interest you. At time of writing, the following items are available, and I'll be reviewing these shortly, so will add links.
  • TERMA Pod 648266
  • GR.7/9 Exhaust Nozzles 648267
  • Sniper ATP for Harrier GR.9 648273
  • GR.7/9 PE Upgrade 49784

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Construction begins with the cramped cockpit, and here the additions start to make themselves known straight away, with a complete upgrade of the instrument panel and narrow side consoles with pre-painted PE that differs between decal options. The acetate sheet is applied behind the MFD bezels to give a shiny glazed look to the coloured parts behind, and later on a highly detailed resin seat with a full complement of resin cushions and crew belts is inserted once the majority of handling is over. The cockpit sidewalls are also upgraded with additional detailed skins, as well as some small control levers and canopy latching hooks. The nose is built up separately initially, while the main fuselage is closed up around the big Pegasus fan intake and the linkages for the vectored exhaust nozzles. They are brought together with the nose cone and the two intakes, which have their blow-in doors as separate parts at the top of the intake, which droop down after engine shut-down under gravity. The hot and cold nozzle pairs are built up from two parts each, and fix into the poly-caps within the linkages. They can remain mobile with careful gluing, and the rearmost nozzle pair have a protective heat deflecting plate installed behind them to protect the fuselage. The wings are next, with the top a single part, and the lower in two halves, with separate wing tips. The Leading Edge Root eXtension (LERX) programme gave the airframe additional lift by using either a partial LERX or full LERX, and both are included in the box, with your option dependent on which decal option you choose.

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The tail has a moulded-in rudder, while the elevators are separate parts with PE swash-plates between them and the fuselage. Additional small parts and mesh panels are added to the tail cone, and a number of small aerials, louvres etc. are dotted around the airframe throughout the build too. The airbrakes remain stock, although the ventral brake does receive an additional decal to detail it, even though it probably won't be seen. The landing gear of the Harrier is described as bicycle-style, with a single nose wheel and large twin tail wheel, both of which are replaced with resin parts courtesy of the goodie-bag that comes with the kit. The little stabiliser wheels half-way along the wing have their wheels removed and more detailed resin yokes and tyres added, with a number of small decals dotted about all the struts, which is a thing I'd like to see more on kits, as the devil is in the detail.

The choice of weapons for the Harrier, as previously alluded, is fairly generous for a Hasegawa kit, with a pair of cannon pods, some Sidewinders, pylons, and of course additional fuel tankage for the centreline or underwing pylons. The AIM-9s would be better replaced by some from Eduard's Brassin line if detail is paramount, but the kit parts aren't too shabby. The two strakes under the fuselage centre that guide the jetwash downward when hovering without the cannon pods fitted are supplied with some small additional PE parts where they join the fuselage at the front, and a pair of adapter rails for the Sidewinders can also be found on the sprues.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the Harrier when looking at it from the front is the large blown canopy that affords the pilot a good view. This is reproduced faithfully on the sprues, but it has to be done with a three-part mould, so there is a seam down the centre of the outside of the canopy. You can easily remove this by sanding it back with progressively finer grades of stick, finishing off with a buffing sponge and/or some plastic polish. If you're a bit wary of mucking it up, it's fine enough to leave and almost no-one will notice. The same occurs with the windscreen, so you might as well do the two at once.

The additional parts include a decal for the det-cord canopy shattering device, a set of rear-view mirrors and some small levers for the inside front of the windscreen. These are installed at the last gasp along with the resin ejection seat and a bunch of intakes, antennae and a formation light.

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The masks are supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with a full set of masks for the canopy, with compound curved handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved gaps are in-filled with either liquid mask or offcuts from the background tape. In addition you get a set of masks for the wheels, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with little effort. A double mask for the HUD glass is also included to ease your painting experience


Markings
There are six options in the box, and the decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. From the box you can build one of the following:
  • Harrier GR.9, ZD 406, Royal Navy Naval Strike Wing, RAF Station Cottesmore, 2009
  • Harrier GR.7, ZG 479/69A, IV (AC) Squadron, Operation Telic, Ahmed al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, spring 2003
  • Harrier GR.7, ZD 464/54, 20 ® Squadron, RAF Wittering Air Base, 2002
  • Harrier GR.7, ZD 379/27, 1(F) Squadron, Barduffoss, Norway, January 2004
  • Harrier GR.7, ZG 501, SAOEU Boscombe Down, 1996
  • Harrier GR.9A, ZG 478/68, No. 41 ® Squadron, RAF Coningsby Air Base, March 2006

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There are also copious stencils that are marked out on a separate page each for the airframe, pylons and weapons, all of which adds that extra bit of realism to any model.


Conclusion
Add a Hasegawa Harrier, some Eduard goodies and some lovely decals into a box and you've got a winner. If you're prepared to go the extra mile and treat yourself to the extras mentioned earlier, you have a superbly detailed model that should keep you busy for a good long while.

Very highly recommended, and don't dally, as they won't hang around on the shelves for long, as it's a limited edition in case you didn't notice.

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Review sample courtesy of
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Thanks Mike,

The choice of weapons for the Harrier, as previously alluded, is fairly generous for a Hasegawa kit, with a pair of cannon pods, some Sidewinders, pylons, and of course additional fuel tankage for the centreline or underwing pylons.

Fairly generous?

Come on, the canon pods are nearly parts of the airframe, and Hasegawa always provide the tanks. That leaves us with two poor AIM-9L...

I understand that a complete load would have induced a fairly generous price rise ( :smartass: ), but a Therma pod or something specific would have been welcome, as the more common LGB and missiles can be found in everyone's spare box.

Bad point for Ed.

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i second Antoine's comment about the weapons..

just Aim-9M/L sidewinderes. a lot hof Hasegawa kits have some basic missile armarment included, so nothing special here!

but weapons can be sourced elsewere! the many peaceful commomorative schemes were also more likely to be seen without weapons (and pods) after all.... :(

nice to read theat both LERXes are included, but Mike you also forgot to show those important parts!

concerning accuracy, I think that the wing kink is a bit exagerated on Hasegawa Harriers...

nevermind, if I can find one for not too many €....

thanks for the review,

Werner

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Photoetch? Not the full Eduard set included.

Brassin? Nozzles not included, Sniper pod not included.

A box full of marketing, that's how I see it...

Jeffrey

But isn't this the norm' for Eduard nowadays, they give you a Limited ed kit, ask a mint for it then try and sell you all the Brassin for it separately, They should have at least included the nozzles in with it for that price.

I'm not knocking Eduard it's good marketing sense for them, but if you add up all the extras you end up with a very expensive 1/48 kit in total

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Look at it from another angle. Most of the options weren't loaded for bear and the plastic bits will be fine for those who are most concerned with a good finish. As a holder of several Hasegawa Harriers I'm glad to be able to buy just the bits I need.

But then I'm a glass half-full guy nowadays :drink:

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Look at it from another angle. Most of the options weren't loaded for bear and the plastic bits will be fine for those who are most concerned with a good finish. As a holder of several Hasegawa Harriers I'm glad to be able to buy just the bits I need.

But then I'm a glass half-full guy nowadays :drink:

A good point.
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I have this kit, it's excellent and good value. I would say I was a little surprised the resin nozzles weren't included as they are probably the most important upgrade in my opinion. But the snow camo scheme... beautiful!

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nice to read theat both LERXes are included, but Mike you also forgot to show those important parts!

Corrected that omission - I'd taken the photo, processed it, but must have forgotten to save it! :doh: it's at the bottom of the sprue pics now :)

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Fairly generous?

"Fairly generous" is used in conjunction with "for a Hasegawa kit", which implies it's comparative. A lot of Hasegawa kits come with naught... :shrug:

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If it was supplied with all of the Eduard aftermarket there would be weeping and wailing with complaints of. "It's too expensive. I can get the Hasegawa version for £x"

I guess there is little chance any company can please all of the potential customers all of the time.

Chris.

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I'll be teetering on the fence a while with this one though...largely as I'd prefer to do a USMC AV-8B if I were to do a Harrier. But that snow scheme is tempting...

Admittedly I've never been much for the bright commemorative schemes on modern tactical aircraft. Hell, I can't stand the CAG birds of the USN squadrons. :lol:

Edited by helios16v
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  • 1 month later...

So I may have caved.  This kit popped up on sale during a 24 hour sale a couple weeks ago for a good enough price that I couldn't resist.  That sure didn't last long. :lol:

Edited by helios16v
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