1/72 Hasegawa AV-8B Desert Storm

[Phantome]

Another February/March build: a USMC Harrier from the 1991 Gulf War

 

The kit is from Hasegawa, which makes the only decent AV-8B in this scale. I've built this kit a couple of times (mostly the RAF versions) and it has its ups and downs, the main downs being a very sparse cockpit. I chose not to use aftermarket and in retrospect, regret it somewhat. Particularly annoying is that Eduard doesn't make its Zoom set for the AV-8B anymore (only the B+) which would be incorrect for a Desert Storm bird. Also, neither Eduard nor the Aires resin cockpit make a part for the cockpit aft of the seat, which looks quite bare if the canopy is open. Dreammodel makes a PE set but it's a bit expensive (cheaper ordering from China but couldn't bother waiting). It's a bit sad that the aftermarket makers miss the obvious so often...

 

Paint was Gunze Light Gray (FS 36495) and Blue-Gray (FS 36237). In real life the camo for Desert Storm looks more blue but not sure there's an easy match and I couldn't bother mixing until I found out. The Rockeye bombs were taken from a Hase F-15E kit. This is a typical DS loadout that I read from the dstorm.eu site. Decals were from an old Superscale set, which annoyingly did not come with the rectangular nose stencils which I used from the kit decals. Unfortunately these are dark grey, not black. Oh well.

 

Still pretty pleased with the end result! Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave N]

Very nice indeed. That's a fine looking Harri...oops- AV-8 ! you've built, looks much larger than 1/72...

[Doc72]

Very precise and clean build of a Harrier. The USMC certainly has some attractive camouflage schemes.

[Jabba]

Nice finish indeed.

In real terms the actual colour of the darker grey is hard to replicate as the Marines just added a cup of coffee to a tin of the lighter colour.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Jabba

[Vultures1]

Nice work - well done!!