Kinetic Sea Harrier - Heading for the Shelf of Doom!

[Graham T]

First of all, thanks to Nick (NG899) for all the info he sent me about this kit & the machine I was considering building, BUT......this is perilously close to ending up in the bin before I loose all sanity that remains to me.  There are a lot of inaccuracies with the kit (as explained fully by Nick) some of which I tried to remedy with my limited skills but only really got as far as moving the wing pylons aft.  Everywhere I look are examples of poor fit, most noticeably the intakes themselves, their blow in doors & wing to fuselage which results in a virtually impossible to tackle gap on the underside.  

 

Back to the blow-in doors, I THINK that on the 1st generation Harriers, these were not "powered" as such but spring loaded & the "upper" two on each side hung down due to gravity with the others closed.  They would only ALL be open when the engine was running - Kinetic give you options for all open or half open half shut - neither of which are really representative of a machine at rest, whatever I used the half open, half shut option & ignored the awful sink holes in them, hoping they wouldn't be too noticeable!  

 

On the Harrier, the nose & main wheel doors cycle closed after extension (FOD protection) & good luck trying to the the doors to fit shut with the Kinetic parts because they don't without a lot of work.  In addition to poor fit, the instructions are full of mis-numbered parts & missed steps (nowhere does it tell you where & when to fit the wings to the fuselage- obvious I know but that wasn't the only example I found).  The flaps & ailerons are separate parts with poor fit & with the small actuators for the latter which possess two pins - one of which corresponds to a hole in the ailerons themselves & the other to a hole in the wing underside.......except these holes have to be drilled before you assemble the wings but there is nothing to indicate this on the instructions.  The weapons pylons are an exercise in confusion & again I believe there was part mis-numbering here.  Every time I look at the kit as it is I find another area that requires filling etc.  This was an expensive kit, I have rarely binned a kit before completion & this would be an costly addition to the local land-fill but REALLY?  I'll probably persevere simply due the the financial investment but it's a real mojo-sapper!  Rant over. 

 

[Filler]

That's really disappointing to read. I know there are no perfect kits but I assumed that a kit as recent as this would not have so many flaws. I have one in the stash myself and I am now a little less confident about their GR.3 kit due maybe sometime later this year.

 

Having said all that, it looks good to me in your photo and you've done the bulk of it, so you definitely should try and see it through.

[FPDPenguin]

I wrangled the tamiya frs1 kit into something that resembled a harrier. Im sure you could do something to it and just call it done. At least it gets it off the bench. 

[PHIL B]

Keep going Graham. You've done the donkey work and it's looking good.

 

You're quite right about the free floating blow-in doors. When not under power, the top 4 each side are fully open due to gravity and the 5th (where the roundel is) is partially open. The rest are closed due to gravity. If you wanted to, perhaps a bit of plasticard or filler over the lower ones would help or just stick with what you have.

 

You've come this far and as you said, it ain't a cheap kit!

 

If it makes you feel better, I'm in the fight too when I build my Harrier T2 version of this kit. G-VTOL awaits!

 

Phil.

[CJP]

Hi GrahamT - I'm glad you mentioned the mis-numbered instructions as I had the same experience with the Kinetic Super Etendard and Kitty Hawk IVP so its good modellers are aware of this when they tackle these kits - I hope the FA2 Sea Harrier is better than this one as I have just ordered one!

Plod on, I'm sure you will win with the FRS1 and have a nice addition to your collection

CJP

[Grunticus]

20 hours ago, Graham T said:

First of all, thanks to Nick (NG899) for all the info he sent me about this kit & the machine I was considering building, BUT......this is perilously close to ending up in the bin before I loose all sanity that remains to me.  There are a lot of inaccuracies with the kit (as explained fully by Nick) some of which I tried to remedy with my limited skills but only really got as far as moving the wing pylons aft.  Everywhere I look are examples of poor fit, most noticeably the intakes themselves, their blow in doors & wing to fuselage which results in a virtually impossible to tackle gap on the underside.  

 

Back to the blow-in doors, I THINK that on the 1st generation Harriers, these were not "powered" as such but spring loaded & the "upper" two on each side hung down due to gravity with the others closed.  They would only ALL be open when the engine was running - Kinetic give you options for all open or half open half shut - neither of which are really representative of a machine at rest, whatever I used the half open, half shut option & ignored the awful sink holes in them, hoping they wouldn't be too noticeable!  

 

On the Harrier, the nose & main wheel doors cycle closed after extension (FOD protection) & good luck trying to the the doors to fit shut with the Kinetic parts because they don't without a lot of work.  In addition to poor fit, the instructions are full of mis-numbered parts & missed steps (nowhere does it tell you where & when to fit the wings to the fuselage- obvious I know but that wasn't the only example I found).  The flaps & ailerons are separate parts with poor fit & with the small actuators for the latter which possess two pins - one of which corresponds to a hole in the ailerons themselves & the other to a hole in the wing underside.......except these holes have to be drilled before you assemble the wings but there is nothing to indicate this on the instructions.  The weapons pylons are an exercise in confusion & again I believe there was part mis-numbering here.  Every time I look at the kit as it is I find another area that requires filling etc.  This was an expensive kit, I have rarely binned a kit before completion & this would be an costly addition to the local land-fill but REALLY?  I'll probably persevere simply due the the financial investment but it's a real mojo-sapper!  Rant over. 

 

 

I feel you. It's the same with the Trumpeter 1/32 Kingfisher I'm currently working on. Every hole, pin, stab, slab, etc has to be reworked / re-drilled in order for things to fit. The instructions are a sorry excuse for what they should be. The plastic seems to have been cooled too quickly, being ver brittle and grainy. I too will persevere due to the investment and the admittedly nice surface finish of the kit's outer shell. Keep going!

[bigbadbadge]

Keep at it Graham , as others have said you have completed a big chunk of the work and your time and investment will pay off in the end, you will be satisfied you have overcome a challenging kit, although for a modern kit you would think the manufacturer would have done better. I am just getting a 24th scale FRS.1 ready to get started in the near future.

 

All the best

Chris

[Graham T]

18 hours ago, CJP said:

Hi GrahamT - I'm glad you mentioned the mis-numbered instructions as I had the same experience with the Kinetic Super Etendard and Kitty Hawk IVP so its good modellers are aware of this when they tackle these kits - I hope the FA2 Sea Harrier is better than this one as I have just ordered one!

Plod on, I'm sure you will win with the FRS1 and have a nice addition to your collection

CJP

I'm not 100% certain but there are an awful lot of used parts in the FRS1 - maybe enough to make the FA2 instead!

[Cris Garcia]

On 03/08/2020 at 11:54, Graham T said:

First of all, thanks to Nick (NG899) for all the info he sent me about this kit & the machine I was considering building, BUT......this is perilously close to ending up in the bin before I loose all sanity that remains to me.  There are a lot of inaccuracies with the kit (as explained fully by Nick) some of which I tried to remedy with my limited skills but only really got as far as moving the wing pylons aft.  Everywhere I look are examples of poor fit, most noticeably the intakes themselves, their blow in doors & wing to fuselage which results in a virtually impossible to tackle gap on the underside.  

 

Back to the blow-in doors, I THINK that on the 1st generation Harriers, these were not "powered" as such but spring loaded & the "upper" two on each side hung down due to gravity with the others closed.  They would only ALL be open when the engine was running - Kinetic give you options for all open or half open half shut - neither of which are really representative of a machine at rest, whatever I used the half open, half shut option & ignored the awful sink holes in them, hoping they wouldn't be too noticeable!  

 

On the Harrier, the nose & main wheel doors cycle closed after extension (FOD protection) & good luck trying to the the doors to fit shut with the Kinetic parts because they don't without a lot of work.  In addition to poor fit, the instructions are full of mis-numbered parts & missed steps (nowhere does it tell you where & when to fit the wings to the fuselage- obvious I know but that wasn't the only example I found).  The flaps & ailerons are separate parts with poor fit & with the small actuators for the latter which possess two pins - one of which corresponds to a hole in the ailerons themselves & the other to a hole in the wing underside.......except these holes have to be drilled before you assemble the wings but there is nothing to indicate this on the instructions.  The weapons pylons are an exercise in confusion & again I believe there was part mis-numbering here.  Every time I look at the kit as it is I find another area that requires filling etc.  This was an expensive kit, I have rarely binned a kit before completion & this would be an costly addition to the local land-fill but REALLY?  I'll probably persevere simply due the the financial investment but it's a real mojo-sapper!  Rant over. 

 

 

Hi Graham! I finished and posted this kit a few months ago... you are right about the issues it presents, but -in my opinion- with a generous amount of patience and craftmanship the final results can be very good.  Regarding their most recent kit, HARRIER GR.3, I can assure you that it's far far better than this one. 

 

Cris

[Pappy]

G'day Graham,

 

The kit does have fit issues as well as the mistakes mentioned (plus a few more you have not mentioned) but it does build well IMO and apart from the wing to fuselage seam, my experience was that the parts generally fit well. You have come so far it seems churlish to stop now?

 

I think the Kinetic kit is light years ahead of the Airfix and Tamiya offerings.  The main gear doors are slightly too small to fit closed but in practice they sagged open slightly once hydraulic power was removed. Attaching these slightly sagged will disguise this shortcoming.  If you want to build your kit in flight however, then you will have a bigger issue in that none of the Kinetic Harrier family (the GR1/3 release does provide a second set but still only in the extended state) of kits provide retracted versions of the outrigger wheels so you are on your own here as there are no aftermarket options for retracted outriggers either. 

 

Where is the famopus British stiff upper lip? You've got this kit on the run and are very nearly over the hump,

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Pappy

[David H]

Based on the one photo i've seen it looks to me like the heavy lifting has been accomplished. It would be a shame to bin it at this point. Burnout is normal. Shelve it, take a break from it but don't ditch it.

 

-d-

[heloman1]

Oh dear, the Shelf of Doom. Not my greatest friend either. However, you have got so far with it, do the remainder of the filling, get some paint on it then you are almost there. Get it finished, you know you want to. Nobody want an unfinished SHAR!

 

Colin