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The last... XZ499 Sea Harrier FRS.1, 8 June 1982, Lt. D Smith, HMS Hermes. Kinetic 1/48


At Sea

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Seeing as this is an Interceptor group build, and my other entry so far is a pure interceptor that's only claimed kill was a C-130 it scared out of the sky, presumably because the pilot was so surprised by the appearance of the double delta Javelin!  It seems only right that I construct an aircraft that actually did some intercepting, and I can think of no better candidate that the most recent Air-to -Air victor in this country's history than Lt. Dave Smith's XZ499.

 

I considered Flt.Lt. Dave Morgan's ZA177 but it's a Sea Harrier and he was a 'crab-on-secondment' or 'there to show them how it's done' depending on which side of the inter-service rivalry you sit.  Also XZ499 was the last recorded kill.  

 

Anyhow, it's a Sea Harrier, so it's going to have a Navy type on board!

 

I bought the kit from and eBay seller and it was quite damaged in transit, I accepted a partial refund but actually it turned out to be not as mangled as it first appeared.  Should be okay.

 

Living in Somerset we became very accustomed to Sea Harriers to the point where to only looked skyward if something more interesting come along...

 

...I miss them now.

 

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The other big advantage with this kit is it has oodles of ordnance which I can put in the stash for other things.  

 

My rocketed up Hasegawa Phantom FGR.2 as a 6 squadron Matchbox box top homage just got a stage closer!

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Thanks Col.

 

I have 3 of these and an FA.2 as well in the stash.  I plan to have both Falkland schemes and a late 1980's scheme eventually, but first things first let's see how this pans out.

The parts breakdown looks good, and the moulding looks nice so high hopes!

 

My Airfix one with Pavla intakes from years back...

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So started it this evening,  the fuselage halves were most damaged in transit, you can see the white marks from where the plastic has been bent.

 

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The worst bit it where it has actually torn the plastic.  

As this is behind the intakes I am pretty confident I can sort it, and will resist the urge to glue the broken part until I have the internal sub assemblies fitted as this will dictate how I need to adjust this area.

 

I bent it back to about straight a few months ago and taped the fuselage halves, thankfully time has made it a lot better.

In hind sight I should have taped each damaged half against an undamaged half I have in my stash, but that's hindsight for you!

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I shot some Halfords white primer over the internal visible bits.  blutacked to a bit of card & hanging out my cabin window is not the best spray booth, especially 5 decks up!

 

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Can I make a plea for some assitance please?

 

I was thinking of building this in flight, however the undercarriage doesn't have separate parts for the wing tip out riggers in their retracted positions.

If anyone has any in their spares box from the Airfix kit I'd be most appreciative.

 

Thanks.

 

All sorted thanks.  Got them from a kind chap on Brit Aviation in Scale on Facebook.

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2 hours ago, At Sea said:

I shot some Halfords white primer over the internal visible bits.  blutacked to a bit of card & hanging out my cabin window is not the best spray booth, especially 5 decks up!

 

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Good grief that must take some courage!  Putting a lot of faith in blue tack.

 

AW

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Sorry to ask, but could you expand on your phrase "...hanging out my cabin window is not the best spray booth, especially 5 decks up!".???

 

I have a vivid imagination, so I just want to be sure...:hmmm::shocked:...

 

In any case, you are up to a good start building one of "la muerte negra", as they were "baptized" by their foes.

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6 hours ago, Jfgred1 said:

Sorry to ask, but could you expand on your phrase "...hanging out my cabin window is not the best spray booth, especially 5 decks up!".???

 

I have a vivid imagination, so I just want to be sure...:hmmm::shocked:...

 

In any case, you are up to a good start building one of "la muerte negra", as they were "baptized" by their foes.

I am Captain of this mighty vessel, the 1990 built Suction Dredger 'Sand Heron'.

 

She is used in Northern Europe to dredge sand and gravel from the sea bed and bring it into port for the building trade.

80% of aggregate used in building in the UK and near continent comes from marine reserves, which are mostly old river beds under sea or glacial deposits.  The areas are strictly controlled and we operate within designated areas.

A bit like quarrying underwater.

 

I work 3 weeks on 3 weeks off and an extremely fortunate to have some time to model while I am at work.

 

I started at sea in 1995 as a deck cadet (apprentice navigator essentially) working on Container Ships world wide, I moved to these ships once children came along as it's nice to be nearer home.  Containers were 5 months away 3 at home when I left.

I spent a year 'ashore' as a harbour pilot in Southampton, but I'm obviously too institutionalised as I missed my 3x3 routine so came back,

 

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Lots of hacking about to get to this point.

 

The cockpit on the Kinteic kit is not really to scale.  The Hasegawa 1/48 Phantom pilot has lost his lower legs and 2/3 of his bottom to get to this point!

 

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Luckily the canopy surround frame acts as an excellent jig to line up the warped and damaged fusealge halves, so very confident that this will work out well.

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Good work getting the pilot in place. Harrier cockpits are 'cosy' so it looks authentic :thumbsup: I'd forgot you were doing this one in-flight.

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Started to try and correct the fusealge.

 

I figured the massive intake for the Pegasus engine was a good former, so have glued that to the fusealge to force the shape.

Once dry I will glue the edge of the wheel well and the leading edge of the intake to fusealge join then see what if any correction is needed at the tear.

 

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2 hours ago, At Sea said:

Lots of hacking about to get to this point.

 

The cockpit on the Kinteic kit is not really to scale.  The Hasegawa 1/48 Phantom pilot has lost his lower legs and 2/3 of his bottom to get to this point!

 

Luckily the canopy surround frame acts as an excellent jig to line up the warped and damaged fusealge halves, so very confident that this will work out well.

That's a bit of a worry. I bought the PJ Productions pilot to sit in one of these and I'm pretty sure it's larger than the Hasegawa pilots.

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Phew!

 

I think that's got it.

 

I decided to build up the whole side to align the intake area as best as possible, frequent dry fits to the other fuselage side and I reckon that'll do.

 

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Needs some sanding and finishing under a primer coat once the whole fuselage is assembled.

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16 hours ago, At Sea said:

I am Captain of this mighty vessel, the 1990 built Suction Dredger 'Sand Heron'.

 

She is used in Northern Europe to dredge sand and gravel from the sea bed and bring it into port for the building trade.

80% of aggregate used in building in the UK and near continent comes from marine reserves, which are mostly old river beds under sea or glacial deposits.  The areas are strictly controlled and we operate within designated areas.

A bit like quarrying underwater.

 

I work 3 weeks on 3 weeks off and an extremely fortunate to have some time to model while I am at work.

 

I started at sea in 1995 as a deck cadet (apprentice navigator essentially) working on Container Ships world wide, I moved to these ships once children came along as it's nice to be nearer home.  Containers were 5 months away 3 at home when I left.

I spent a year 'ashore' as a harbour pilot in Southampton, but I'm obviously too institutionalised as I missed my 3x3 routine so came back,

 

4022cc5b-2bc4-4480-96aa-02c6b08aebc3.jpg

 

0a34ef6b-3b0d-4981-92e6-969a56831274.jpg

 

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Thanks a lot for the pictures and explanation. Very much appreciated.

 

Nothing like when you enjoy your work and the cherry on the ice cream is to be able to bring your hobby onboard to enjoy it even more.

 

Have a good one and keep it up.

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Looks a difficult project! ,with some battles ahead ,you've shoe-horned the pilot in good and proper,

Reminds me of a kittyhawk  1/48 entendard ivp i built in  lockdown 1, the cockpit in that was

Closer to 1/72 than 48th

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4 hours ago, Hewy said:

Looks a difficult project! ,with some battles ahead ,you've shoe-horned the pilot in good and proper,

Reminds me of a kittyhawk  1/48 entendard ivp i built in  lockdown 1, the cockpit in that was

Closer to 1/72 than 48th

Well the biggest difficulty is presented by the damage.

I suppose I could have used the ordnance for other kits & kept the undamaged parts in the spares drawer but that smells like defeat!

 

Other than rectifying that, and trying to shoe horn in a pilot it is a nice kit.

I look forward to building my other ones as Kinetic intended!

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Missiles damaged too? I noticed the stress fractures on the fuselage halfs, hope you got a good chunk knocked off the price, i had a revell 72nd  rn merlin delivered not long back , the plastic is undamaged ,but the box looked liked it  had been walked on by a marching band

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1 hour ago, Hewy said:

Missiles damaged too? I noticed the stress fractures on the fuselage halfs, hope you got a good chunk knocked off the price, i had a revell 72nd  rn merlin delivered not long back , the plastic is undamaged ,but the box looked liked it  had been walked on by a marching band

50% off, so £20 for this kit is worth the hassle.

Everything else was fine so all the weapons and other bits are prefect.

 

I'll only need one sidewinder on here as it'll be built as on it's way back to mother.  The rest will be used on Phantoms no doubt. 

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Been busy with real work, but managed to get the undercarriage doors all on and the fuselage joined up.

The doors are not sized to fit in a closed position, and as mentioned earlier no option for the wing outriggers to be retracted is given.  Still some filling and finessing to do.  The uneven gap by the nose gear door and stbd intake is the last vestige of the bent fuselage.

 

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Lt. David Smith is tucked in nicely, test fits are showing that he fits well, even if this picture is the last you'll ever see of my cockpit panels...  Honestly don't know why I bother!  🙂

 

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Lovely work so far on what looks like a difficult kit (in difficult condition).  Great to see you ‘crib’ too.

 

As to why do we put all that detail in, it's a bit like Chris Bennington and Everest “because it’s there”.

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