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Metric scale AV-8A ++ Finished++


CliffB

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It will be another 1/100 scale offering from me.

 

AV8A-Box0003.jpg

 

I have high hopes for this kit.  Produced in the 1980's by Takara, it's one of the most modern 1/100 scale kits available and this shows in the apparant quality of the parts.

 

P1100355.jpg

 

The kit was released in support of the Japanese manga series "Area 88".  So included in the box are decals for the ficticious Royal Aslan Air Force, a shoulder flash and a 1/24 figure of the pilot, Kim Abba.

 

Thankfully, there are also decals for an RAF GR3 and a USMC AV8A (alternative nose cones are provided).  There are also a couple of 1/100 scale ground crew, which may be handy for another time.

 

Tempting though it would be to chose the Royal Aslan AF as my foreign service, I think I will probably go USMC :winkgrin:.

 

 

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Welcome to the GB !

Now this is one of those kits that I've never even heard of, will be very interesting to watch it being built.  While 1/100 is not much popular in Europe, the Harrier sure is, I'm very curious to see the result

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19 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Welcome to the GB !

Now this is one of those kits that I've never even heard of, will be very interesting to watch it being built.  While 1/100 is not much popular in Europe, the Harrier sure is, I'm very curious to see the result

Thanks Giorgio.  This will be my first single seat Harrier build so I'll be looking forward to receiving lots of helpful advice (particularly as the kit's instructions are in Japanese ;)).

 

7 hours ago, Knight_Flyer said:

I vaguely remember those kits, in particular the F-20 as I was looking to build one at the time.

 

Looks like Hasegawa (unsurprisingly) is continuing to do kits.

https://hlj.com/product/HSG64753

https://hlj.com/product/HSG64750

Thanks Knight_Flyer.  Most, if not all, of the Takara kits were also released by Revell (but without the Area 88 option).  I think I've got all of them in my stash now - apart from their MiG 27.  Still looking!

 

Cheers

Cliff

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On 6/13/2018 at 7:27 PM, Grandboof said:

Looks like a fun kit  Waiting for your start 

Martin H

Thanks Martin.  It'll be a couple of weeks yet I guess.

4 hours ago, Possibly Apocryphal said:

This is a really interesting choice.  The Takura A-10 (also with Aslan markings!) got a very favourable review in the Detail & Scale book, and it looks like the Harrier is a pretty nice kit too.

Thanks PA.  Funnily enough I picked up an A-10 just a few weeks ago - it's one of the more difficult Takara kits to find on eBay.

 

Cheers

Cliff

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Takara seem to have made more kits than I remembered, I only knew of a couple one of which was their 1/72nd Skyraider which IIRC made its way into the Hobbycraft boxing of that subject.

 

Great to see a smaller scale subject too!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Time to make a start on this one and what a delight it's been so far.

 

P1100390.jpg

 

Everything fits together nicely, with absolutely no sink or visible ejector pin marks.  A stand is provided though, so it's hole will need to be filled if you're not going to use it.  I've got a second kit in my stash, so when I build the GR3 option, I'll do that one in flight.

 

All the flying surfaces are moulded single thickness, so the trailing edges are wafer thin - almost too thin, as they are quite fragile.  If there's guidance in the instructions about setting the tailplane angles, I wouldn't know (without a Japanese translator), so I've had to rely on internet photos.  I hope I've got them right for a Harrier at rest :pray:.

 

P1100391.jpg

 

There's no intelligible guidance on paint colours either, so again the internet has been my friend.  I had the above three in my cupboard, all of which are apparantly what I need - so a bit of luck there.  The camo's going to be surprisingly dark.........:hmmm: (the dark green is RLM71, if you can't read it in the photo).

 

I'm not sure about the colour of the air inlet duct though?  I've seen plenty of pictures of models with this painted 'white',  but real life AVA8 photos seem to show it much darker (grey?).  Any advice on this would be very welcome please.

 

Thanks

Cliff

 

 

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Good start Cliff !

Colours for the USMC Harriers were initially simply the same used by the RAF, so whatever you use for Dark Green, Dark Sea Grey and Light Aircraft Grey will be fine for an early aircraft with high visibility markings.

Later the aircrafts were repainted with what the USMC considered as the closest FS paints and had a scheme with green FS 34064, grey FS 36099 and light grey FS 36440 (the same colours used on the first AV-8Bs).

The intakes on the AV-8As were painted in the external camo colours, so grey on port and green on starboard, with the lower side in light grey.

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Thanks Giorgio - that's a great help.  Any aircraft built after 1938 is unchartered territory for me, so it's good to have steer.  There's almost too much info on the internet!

 

Cheers

Cliff

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  • 2 months later...

Over two and a half months have passed since I last posted on this build - tut, tut!

To be honest the AV8A got side-lined, so today I thought I should get it back on the pitch and have now completed most of the main construction.

 

P1100491.jpg

 

P1100492.jpg

 

There's not much in the way of a cockpit and I'm not sure if those fuselage pods are quite the right shape :unsure:, but overall I think it's looking pretty sharp for a little 'un.

 

I've also started on some of the minor components.  Here are the jet nozzles....

 

P1100493.jpg

 

As you can see, each nozzle comes in two halves which must be joined together - resulting in some fearsome looking toothy mouths!  I'm not sure whether to try to improve the vanes, or merely to paint them very dark  :winkgrin:.

They're only very small and pointing downwards will be hardly visible.

 

Cheers

Cliff

 

 

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Based on similar work done on 1/72 Harrier nozzles, it's going to be hard t sort them, the best solution would be to eliminate the vanes and replace them with plasticard rectangles.. worth the hassle ? Hard to tell ! Some cleanup and a coat of dark paint sure take less time 😁

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Good to see this one getting your attention again Cliff. Those nozzles must be small but will be worth the work to improve as the kit looks to be a nice one otherwise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Giorgio and Col.

 

I've chosen to do a very simple mod to the nozzles - hiding the 'teeth' behind a thin strip of plasticard.  Hardly accurate, but at least it looks less weird.

 

P1100494.jpg

 

Everything's ready for primer now, including the payload.  The kit includes a fair range of ordnance (bombs and rocket pods), but most of the web photos I've seen show the AV-8As operating with just drop tanks.

 

Cliff

 

 

 

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Your solution may not be accurate but this doesn't show in the picture, the nozzles look very nice here and certainly better than the with those ugly seams.

Regarding loads, USMC Harriers in peacetime only really carried tanks, generally even the gunpods were left off. During training sorties however they could be seen with several US rocket launchers, Mk.82 bombs and even napalm tanks. They could also carry Sidwrinders under the outer pylons.

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Sure you could scratch-build a set of Zuni rocket pods no bother if you wanted to tool this one up a bit Cliff ;) 

Are we likely to see Kim making another apperance at any time in this thread?

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Thanks Giorgio and Col.  I'm going to keep this one relatively clean - I'll save the weaponry for when I build the GR3 option :winkgrin:

 

As for Kim, well he/she is destined for the second kit that I have.  I got that one cheap because it was missing the Area 88 goodies.  By keeping Kim etc. I still have a complete kit (should I ever come to sell again)....

 

Cheers

Cliff

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  • 2 weeks later...

A quick update and also a question please.

 

Here's the update.

P1100495.jpg

 

and here's my question....

 

From internet photos of USMC AV8As I can see that the tip of the tail fin, and also a panel on its leading edge, are not finished in the camo colours.  In some pictures they appear to be metallic, whilst in others they seem to be painted dark grey or even green.  Can anyone put me straight as to their correct colour please?  Many thanks.

 

Cheers

Cliff

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57 minutes ago, CliffB said:

From internet photos of USMC AV8As I can see that the tip of the tail fin, and also a panel on its leading edge, are not finished in the camo colours.  In some pictures they appear to be metallic, whilst in others they seem to be painted dark grey or even green.  Can anyone put me straight as to their correct colour please?  Many thanks.

Nice progress again Cliff.

From what I can recall those panels were fiberglass but it might be worth checking some walkaround photos to confirm that on the likes of Prime Portal.

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27 minutes ago, Col. said:

Nice progress again Cliff.

From what I can recall those panels were fiberglass but it might be worth checking some walkaround photos to confirm that on the likes of Prime Portal.

 

Thanks Col.

I've just come across some painting instructions (I think from an Airfix kit), which indicates Olive Drab.  That ties in with some of the photos, so I'll go with that!

Fingers crossed I'll be finished by the deadline.  We're moving house in a couple of weeks time, so there are plenty of other distractions at the moment.

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18 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

yes, they are dielctric panels. They were in theory in the camo colour but the colour is never exactly the same and they fade differently. Olive drab is a good option, some seem greyer and any dark grey green would work

Thanks Giorgio.  The more I look at photographs of AVA8s, the more details I notice.  I think it's time to stop looking and just get the model finished :winkgrin:

 

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22 minutes ago, CliffB said:

I think it's time to stop looking and just get the model finished :winkgrin:

It does get like that some times, I used to obsess over the tiniest of details but I've since decided that as I never finished anything that kind of behaviour needed to stop!

 

Great work so far Cliff, you're close to the finish line, keep it up.

Edited by Wez
grammar
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On 10/18/2018 at 6:56 AM, CliffB said:

Thanks Giorgio.  The more I look at photographs of AVA8s, the more details I notice.  I think it's time to stop looking and just get the model finished :winkgrin:

 

 

Always happens to me, every picture shows something new I didn't know and it's hard to tell when to stop caring and just building a model... it's fascinating from one side as teaches me a lot about an aircraft but at the same time can be detrimental to completing a model on time... 😁

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