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2nd Gen Harrier's, AV8B+2, GR9


neil5208

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Charlie, when building the GR3 be aware the Airfix vertical tail plane is 1.5mm short above the RWR sensor. Its an easy fix to cut and add some plisticard or you can get a resin replacement.

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Last night I fitted the nose sensors and port side intake, sensors needed slight trimming to fit but as with all Airfix intakes the sand paper will be need again

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Looks ok from this side

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But from this side,,,

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Back to the AV8B before the wife sends me back to painting the garden fence. The nasty mould mark was scrapped, sanded and cleared, unfortunately I only had 3600 micromesh but it better than before. The canopy decals is applied from the inside for the det cord detail, not the best solution I think but again I wouldn't like the paint these either.

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Made up the gun pack ready to be fitted before painting.

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Once the canopy decals have dried it will get another coat of Future polish before its fitted permanently.

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1 hour ago, neil5208 said:

The canopy decals is applied from the inside for the det cord detail, not the best solution I think but again I wouldn't like the paint these either.

That is a tricky one. The det cord looks really good and will enhance the model considerably. Hopefully the Future will help the decal backing disappear altogether. Good luck!

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Due to the cold weather today I managed to escape painting the garden fence for at least one day so got back to the work bench and spent a very fiddly 1 1/2 hrs fitting the etch HUD to the AV8B, the HUD etch wasn't to bad but trimming and fitting the 2 acetate parts was time consuming and frustrating but looks pretty good.

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How much of this will still be visible with the canopy in place is yet to be seen.

And canopy fitted, there some gaps at the rear which will need some white glue but should be able to start painting soon. The front section is very thin and was flexing outward hence the tap holding it into place.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Work on the 2 Harriers has been sidelined as was concentrated on the TSR2 but as that almost done I've turned my attention back to these. First up the AV8B2 has had the canopy masked.

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The GR9's intakes need some work

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And my fix, done this a few times now and is one of the few issue that the Airfix Harriers have.

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1 hour ago, neil5208 said:

First up the AV8B2 has had the canopy masked.

Looks like the old maskol (?) fluid I used to use yonks ago. What do you use Neil?

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Quick progress report for both Harriers today, AV8B has had its underside antenna fitted ready for primer

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And the GR9 has had its fuselage pylons fitted along with the refuelling probe which fits much better than Hasegawa's one.

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And the AV8B's RFP

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So the AV8B is ready for primer and the GR9 should be ready in another week (cockpit and some other bits to go)

 

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AV8B has been primed, underside colour, masked and second grey sprayed along with all the pylons and fuel tanks. Once this lot is dry I can mask the last grey hopefully tomorrow. The Hasegawa paint details seem to verge towards the lighter end of the spectrum such as the picture below with very little difference between each grey shade.

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This is more the effect I will be going for

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I have gone for Tamiya XF20 as the underside shade, XF66 for the second gray and XF22 for the third (yet to be applied)

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Removed the masking from the under side last night to check  how tight I got the spray line

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I think the result is fairly good but on the upper side of the nose the darker grey highlighted the seam so out came the 1000 paper and some plastic filler and today it back to this.

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The GR9 has had the vents and antenna fitted behind the cockpit and the wing undercarriage pods extensions fitted, this are different from the AV8B but due to the GR9 having the extra pylon fitted here

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Repaired the dodgy seam on the nose.

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And went onto the third colour, xf22 was the indicated colour but I dont think its dark/blue enough.

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I think I might re-spray and go for xf63 German Grey or mix some dark blue with the xf22 unless anyone has any suggestions?

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AV8B resprayed with XF83 and this morning I free hand sprayed XF63 German Grey and ended up with a much better result.

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There's a few area's that will need touching up but the overall effect is much better than with XF22. I also worked on the tanks and the AGM65

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And the GR9 canopy has been fitted, unfortuneatly the Airfix canopy is not as clear as the Hasegawa's and has more distortion.

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Edited by neil5208
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Repaired the over spray and did work on the tanks and weapons. The tanks are glued to the pylons but the pylons are only test fitted.

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Agm65 and mk82 have had some paint (M117's are for an A1 Skyraider)

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I applied a layer of clear on Sunday evening and started decalling the AV8B on the starboard side and upper surfaces last night. The Hasegawa decal are thicker than the after market one's I've been using recently but are going down well. Hasegawa stencils are a fraction of what Airfix provide for the GR9 but should mean I can finish this one soon,

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Edited by neil5208
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Finished the decals on the AV8B tonight including the tiny one's barely visible.

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Another layer of clear and then some oil panel line washes. Finally started the paint work on the GR9, one thing noticeable is the difference between the 2 kits plastic. I find the Airfix plastic takes the paint well but the Hasegawa plastic (harder and shinier surface texture) needed more work to get the same result.

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2nd coat of gloss clear applied first thing this morning and panel line wash this afternoon, I made a dark grey wash for the underside and sides and used black on the dark grey upper surfaces. I will leave this to dry before applying a matt coat, I may try to get hold of some weathering powders and experiment on the exhaust staining seen on many Marine Corp Harriers. Also did pylons, fuel tanks and the Eduard AGM 65 launch rail (all just test fitted for the picture)

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And lastly the AGM 65 fitted to its launch rail, the moulding is so accurate that it is slide onto the rail and there is no glue holding it on.

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Next job is the jet nozzles, mk 82 bomb, undercarriage and applying 18+ tiny decals to the AGM 65 (another evening with the magnifying glass)

 

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Unfortunately I've been called back into work so modelling has taken a hit but I've managed some work last night. Outer 2 pylons has been fitted along with jet nozzles and AGM65. Only took 30 mins to apply the decals the Maverick in the end. Then a matt coat of Tamiya XF86 clear, I have got some MIG Ammo weathering powders to try doing the exhaust staining that a lot of 2 Gen seem to have.

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The Eduard AGM65 is nicely detailed, definitely worth it.

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