Col. Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Decision time gang. After much dithering I've dug into the stash and unearthed one of the many Sea Harrier kits which have resided untouched for far too long. The Italeri kit and a Pavla resin cockpit along with an as yet undecided aftermarket decal option from that pile. There's also a growing stack of reference books appearing to support or complicate matters but I'll sort out some photos soon as I can remember how to work Flickr 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 Had a play with the plastic and resin last night. Some modification to kit parts proved the Pavla 'pit is a bit wider than the space Italeri provide but hopefully a bit of scraping and sanding will encourage all parts to fit together. Need to loose around 1 & 1/2 to 2 mm at the widest point due to the Pavla part curving out down its depth while the Italeri forward fuselage is slab-sided. Being no fan of Airfix's Sea Harrier-ish kit perhaps prejudices me towards its accuracy but checking photos backs up the Italeri shapes and therefore I'd rather modify the Pavla parts to suit. Will try again to get a few photos this evening in the hope my phone doesn't have a tantrum and loose them. In the meantime I have to say the Italeri kit impressed me with its finese after working on Airfix 72nd scale kits for a while. Nice panel lines that are almost too subtle and other than a slight skim off flash on a few parts everything fits without any dramas. Still swithering about a final choice of markings but found some 700A NAS decals that include a far better rendition of the tail art than is in the kit so they are sitting atop the pile right now above the Falklands War birds and I can't find the two Sea Eagle missiles that were left over from the Hasegawa kit I built around 27 years ago to do one of the test aircraft. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahawk Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 30 minutes ago, Col. said: ... Airfix's Sea Harrier-ish kit .... 30 minutes ago, Col. said: In the meantime I have to say the Italeri kit impressed me with its finese after working on Airfix 72nd scale kits for a while. Nice panel lines that are almost too subtle and other than a slight skim off flash on a few parts everything fits without any dramas. Ain't that the truth (x2). Enjoy your build of one of Esci's/Italeri's best offerings. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 I’ve got one of these in my S.O.D and part built somewhere below the 25% GB rule limit. You never know, seeing this build progress might whet my SHAR appetite once again! (Voice in RL’s head “Just get on with that Sea Hawk you numbat!”) Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 4 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said: I’ve got one of these in my S.O.D and part built somewhere below the 25% GB rule limit. You never know, seeing this build progress might whet my SHAR appetite once again! (Voice in RL’s head “Just get on with that Sea Hawk you numbat!”) Cheers.. Dave Crack on with the Sea Hawk and then follow up with the SHAR. That'd make for a nice almost first and last FAA jets pairing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 8 minutes ago, Col. said: Crack on with the Sea Hawk and then follow up with the SHAR. That'd make for a nice almost first and last FAA jets pairing That's a great idea Col, but my silly head can't cope with sane ideas like that. I'll have to try to resist digging this kit and all my SHAR references out before I go to bed tonight? It would make for nice bookends to close out this GB - thanks for the inspiration (I think?) Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 (edited) Right gang, some photos at last... The Pavla parts certainly don't lack detail but are not designed to fit the Italeri kit so some modification of both is required. For the most part I've shaved down the inside faces of the kit parts after cutting away a section of the cockpit/undercarriage bay bulkhead and I'm happy with how the main cockpit tub and instrument panel fits now. The sidewall parts are also good quality with plenty detail but may need a lot of modification to fit the kit parts; that will hopefully be a task for tonight. Edited February 24, 2018 by Col. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Nice to see this one underway Col May I share a (pretty much) irrelevant story please? Once upon a time, we bought a Russian Black Terrier puppy (that's him in my avatar), who I wanted to call MiG. Unfortunately, I was out-voted in favour of the name Tsar. Eventually, Tsar passed away and was replaced by two cats, one of whom we called Misha. Unwittingly, my wife now calls her Shar for short. Revenge is sweet! Sorry for the hijack, Cliff 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 2 hours ago, CliffB said: Nice to see this one underway Col May I share a (pretty much) irrelevant story please? Once upon a time, we bought a Russian Black Terrier puppy (that's him in my avatar), who I wanted to call MiG. Unfortunately, I was out-voted in favour of the name Tsar. Eventually, Tsar passed away and was replaced by two cats, one of whom we called Misha. Unwittingly, my wife now calls her Shar for short. Revenge is sweet! Sorry for the hijack, Cliff Don't you dare apologise for such an excellent story Cliff Have to say MiG would be a great name for a dog but Shar is the best name I've ever heard for a cat! Good work sir 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 26, 2018 Author Share Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) Got the main 'pit fitted into the left forward fuselage half and used that as a guide to plan all the scratchbuilt sidewall detail Undercarriage bay next... Edited February 26, 2018 by Col. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 I don't envy you fitting all that resin and scratch stuff in a 72nd scale cockpit, good job so far though col, Glynn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Good to see you doing some modelling Col, not just keeping us in line on GB forums Good luck with this Harrier Colin 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 14 hours ago, Hewy said: I don't envy you fitting all that resin and scratch stuff in a 72nd scale cockpit, good job so far though col, Glynn Thanks Glynn. I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from this one and with the cockpit installed it now feels like 'proper' model-making of the style I used to do 25 years ago; looking at photos in a book and hacking up bits of plastic to recreate everything 9 hours ago, Colin W said: Good to see you doing some modelling Col, not just keeping us in line on GB forums Good luck with this Harrier Colin Thanks Colin. Both are fun and rewarding 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 1, 2018 Author Share Posted March 1, 2018 (edited) The last few days have seen me make somewhat slow progress creating the structure of the nosewheel undercarriage bay... Still plenty detail to add but at least the blank canvas is in place for it. Having spent ages in such a small area I turned to other parts as a form of relief and got started on the wing parts. There's a bulge on the lower wings which represents a cover that is used when the outer pylons are not fitted but as I want to fit the pylons the bulges need to come off. A bit of cutting and scraping and sanding takes care of that task with a little recribing required to restore lost lines... Edited March 1, 2018 by Col. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 (edited) Slapped some paint into the cockpit and undercarriage bay, Hu27 for the cockpit and Hu196 for the u/c bay, both as a base for further work once dry... So while that dries the wing got some attention. Drilled out the Reaction Control Vents then scraped out a hollow in the lower wing to set a thin square of plastic sheet to prevent a see-through effect between the upper and lower RCVs before joining the two lower and single upper wing pieces. The wing fences will be replaced with thinner parts later so were removed to facilitate easier clean-up of the leading edge and the trailing edge was thinned to give a better scale appearance then the space between the flaps and ailerons cut in to provide space for a better representation of the fuel vent pipes that will also be added later... Edited March 4, 2018 by Col. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Good start Col,I believe this tooling is one of the best Shar's in this scale. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 4, 2018 Author Share Posted March 4, 2018 2 minutes ago, stevej60 said: Good start Col,I believe this tooling is one of the best Shar's in this scale. Thank you Steve. It is indeed, has fewer and more easily rectified issues than all the other 72nd scale options, would make a perfectly acceptable model out-of-the-box but still shows there's room for a good quality modern SHAR kit on the market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Good evening Col Very good job so far .. Patrice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Lovely work there Col Dermot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 (edited) On 05/03/2018 at 7:34 PM, TEMPESTMK5 said: Good evening Col Very good job so far .. Patrice On 05/03/2018 at 10:02 PM, Dermo245 said: Lovely work there Col Dermot Thank you gents. Alas work ground to a halt for quite a while as I had some sort of cold-type lurgy which left me tired and coming home to fall asleep on the couch most nights after work. Thankfully it has passed and for the last couple of evenings a bit of progress occured. The instrument panel had various dials and details picked out to make it look busy then some more parts packed into the rear section of the nose wheel undercarriage bay in an attempt to represent the array of hydraulics present... Some fairly big chunks of equipment reside under the cockpit floor so wire and pieces of plastic were employed in various measure to that end. I've also opened up then back with plastic sheet the area for the Reaction Control Vent behind the radome as well as the reconnaissance camera and a small vent on the starboard side of the nose... Since I'm having the nose undercarriage doors open for this one I also opened up the access panel that covers the manual door release valve just ahead of them. Take a look at photos of Harriers with their doors open and you usually see this little panel open as well... Not much more to do then I can stick the big bits together! Edited March 16, 2018 by Col. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Good morning Col Good to see you feel better and back to work on this build .. Patrice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said: Good morning Col Good to see you feel better and back to work on this build .. Patrice Good afternoon and thank you Patrice. It feels great to be making progress on this one again. This morning I made the large pipe which runs through the undercarriage bay to the nose Reaction Control Vent by coiling some thin wire around a plastic rod then glued the two forward fuselage halves together so I could fit the pipe in place... Perhaps not as neat as it could have been but remember the whole bay opening is about 20mm by 6mm and quite frankly I'm simply happy to be almost done in there. Edited March 17, 2018 by Col. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyboy76 Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Some cracking scratch work Col, looks great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Quality little details that will all complete the final model, very nice Glynn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 23, 2018 Author Share Posted March 23, 2018 (edited) On 17/03/2018 at 4:19 PM, Hockeyboy76 said: Some cracking scratch work Col, looks great. On 17/03/2018 at 9:36 PM, Hewy said: Quality little details that will all complete the final model, very nice Glynn Thank you gents. After doing a few kits almost without any detail additions this one reminds me of how much I enjoy doing this type of intense modelling with lots of research and scratch-building. Did I just admit to that out loud? Must be indicative of some deep-seated mental issue Oh well, it keeps me quiet and out of mischief if nothing else, here's a look at the latest batch of time wasting tinkering; Plenty fuse wire 'plumbing' in the back of the undercarriage bay to make it look busy... Not totaly accurate or as busy as the real thing but enough to give a representation and it isn't as if this will be a working model so that'll have to do. With that done my attention turned to the main fuselage parts and the nozzle fairings got boxed in to avoid any see-through effect... Then, in the best traditions of adding lots of extra detail into places nobody else will ever look, I built a better representation of the structure inside the airbrake bay... Still some plumbing to add in there but need get new Superglue as the tube I have seems to have lost any adhesive quality. Edited March 23, 2018 by Col. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now