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1:72 Sword Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.4


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Seeing as I just finished one kit, and I've got all these other ones piled up around me, I guess I might as well start another one. After the Shorts Tucano in a fancy scheme, I'm still in the mood for a fancy scheme. How about a Raspberry Ripple?

 

I think this might be a good place to start, and maybe even a bit of a challenge. Who knows?

 

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And here's the Raspberry Ripple scheme (which occupies the top fifth of that sheet):

 

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There's not a lot of plastic in the box, and it's pretty typical short-run Sword moulding. The surface engraving is quite nice though.

 

IMG_5690

 

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And you may notice one solitary bit of resin, which I suspect is the air brake bay. There is a small pre-printed PE fret, along with a variety of stencils and markings that might be used from the kit decal sheet.

 

IMG_5694

 

Having a quick look at the parts, I see some I don't like. In particular, the intake cowlings do not have drooped auxiliary doors, and as is the case with most Harrier kits the exhausts need to be improved. I'm hoping that perhaps these magic bags of tricks will yield something that I can use to improve these areas.

 

IMG_5693

 

And, most likely, I'll end up buying more aftermarket as I proceed with the build. I always do. It's some kind of sickness I tell you. So that's the next project. Unless I change my other mind.     :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I'm part-way through gluing an Airfix GR.1 together and find myself yearning for  a twin-seat (I had the Bobcat one as a kid). As they're nearly impossible to obtain, I'll satisfy my desire by following your build.

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Good luck with this one, the fit is rather ordinary.  The replacement intakes will be a great improvement on the kit ones.  Watch out for the front instrument coaming, it is far too wide for the spot where it is meant to fit, I ended up throwing mine away and scratching one out of a piece of spare drop tank, not entirely accurate but at least it fitted and I could get the windscreen on.  I’ll be interested to see how you tackle it.

 

AW

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9 hours ago, Beard said:

I'll satisfy my desire by following your build.

 

Welcome aboard! I'll try not to curb your desire.    :)

 

7 hours ago, Andwil said:

Watch out for the front instrument coaming, it is far too wide for the spot where it is meant to fit,

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep an eye on it and figure something out. I've built a LOT of short-run kits so I'm quite used to parts not fitting!    :drunk:

 

6 hours ago, Hamden said:

I like the P1127/Kestrel/Harrier family so will follow along if I may?

Don't see the Two Seater built very often either

 

You're always welcome here Roger (that's my middle name by the way). You're right, there's not many two seaters out there so I'm anxious to see what I can make of it. It will look good (I hope) sitting next to my Fujimi/Hasegawa/Aftermarket FrankenSeaHarrier.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Its tough to choose between the raspberry ripple scheme and the 899 Squadron anniversary scheme. I think you should buy another kit and do both.

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

 

PS: Please don't let Mrs Navy Bird see this post, I am in trouble enough with Mrs Martian without getting in the rattle with someone else's MRS as well :chair:

 

 

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1 hour ago, Martian said:

PS: Please don't let Mrs Navy Bird see this post, I am in trouble enough with Mrs Martian without getting in the rattle with someone else's MRS as well

 

She's given up. She just says "buy what you want."     :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. I had the T.10 kit too, but I sold it.

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First issue solved: The Freightdog intakes and cowlings with the drooped doors fit almost perfectly. The Pavla parts designed for the Esci kit are very close while those designed for Airfix (which kit I don't know) are too large.

 

The pre-painted instrument panels are the wrong colour. In my experience this is typical with Eduard. The gray is too light and too blue. My photos of the T.4 cockpit show a grey that looks remarkably like Dark Admiralty Grey, which I suspect is what it is, I will have to re-paint the pre-painted Eduard panels, but I've done this before. Thank goodness I have my grandson's insect burning magnifying glass!    :)

 

@Andwil was right about the front coaming - it's way too wide. But that's better than being too narrow, there is plenty of material for me to remove in order to try and make it fit. Repeat after me: I love short run kits. And so does my sandpaper supplier.    :doh:

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Navy Bird Harrier - stand by for another exquisite build! 

 

Had a ride in a Gutersloh T4 once; when i was a sprog just finished basic flying training on the Jet Provost and was waiting to start the Hawk course.  I loved the up-down turny-about stuff...but the nav kit dumped soon after take off (as it was very prone to do in the GR3/T4) and it was stop watch and compass stuff through the typical german murk.  I'd had enough of getting lost using just those tools in the JP and decided there and then it was Lightnings (no need to navigate...) or Jaguar (decent inertial nav kit) that I'd be asking for if I got that far.

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Very much looking forward to this one. Might I also say how much I enjoy your builds; I think it must be a mix of your superb modelling skills and that ever so distinctive blue photo backdrop!

 

If it's of any use, I asked a few years ago for cockpit references for a 1:48 VAAC harrier (which I have still yet to start, after 4 years... 😬) and got some very helpful replies: LINK to the thread , and a link to another photo.

I'll be very interested to see how you come up with a solution for the under-fuselage pods/fairings.

 

All the best,

Sam

Edited by cathasatail
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On 16/02/2021 at 14:12, Fritag said:

Navy Bird Harrier - stand by for another exquisite build! 

 

Had a ride in a Gutersloh T4 once; when i was a sprog just finished basic flying training on the Jet Provost and was waiting to start the Hawk course.  I loved the up-down turny-about stuff...but the nav kit dumped soon after take off (as it was very prone to do in the GR3/T4) and it was stop watch and compass stuff through the typical german murk.  I'd had enough of getting lost using just those tools in the JP and decided there and then it was Lightnings (no need to navigate...) or Jaguar (decent inertial nav kit) that I'd be asking for if I got that far.

 

I envy you! The closest I ever got to a vertical take-off and landing was The Tower of Terror at Disney World. Couldn't you just strap a Garmin box to the instrument panel and navigate with that?    :)

 

On 16/02/2021 at 16:00, cathasatail said:

Very much looking forward to this one. Might I also say how much I enjoy your builds; I think it must be a mix of your superb modelling skills and that ever so distinctive blue photo backdrop!

 

If it's of any use, I asked a few years ago for cockpit references for a 1:48 VAAC harrier (which I have still yet to start, after 4 years... 😬) and got some very helpful replies: LINK to the thread , and a link to another photo.

I'll be very interested to see how you come up with a solution for the under-fuselage pods/fairings.

 

Thanks Sam. The blue backdrop is just some seamless photo paper. I bought it on Amazon and didn't realise that the roll was about half a mile long. I have enough for several lifetimes.

 

Thanks for those links. I suspected the instrumentation was different but wasn't able to find any shots of the rear panel. I spent some time reading about XW175, and didn't know that a lot of the work done was used in the F-35. Something called the Bedford system of advanced unified controls? If I understood it correctly (most likely) this was to operate a VTOL with the same controls as a normal aircraft.

 

Now, those under fuselage pods. What are they? I have no clue how I'm going to make those. Hmm...

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. I wonder if I have any Qinetiq stickers...they didn't come with the decal sheet. Probably they didn't want to license the logo.    :drunk:

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27 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

PS. I wonder if I have any Qinetiq stickers...they didn't come with the decal sheet. Probably they didn't want to license the logo.   

 

Bill, you probably know this, but the DERA titles on the aircraft are correct for the period before QinetiQ came into existence. However, as the instructions say that the markings are 2008-appropriate, and QinetiQ came into existence in the summer of 2001, there's definitely a discrepancy there. There's also an image on the Key Aero site, caption dated March 2007, showing the QinetiQ titling on the aircraft.

 

Personally, as an ex-RAE guy, I would put on anything but QinetiQ!

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47 minutes ago, KevinK said:

Personally, as an ex-RAE guy, I would put on anything but QinetiQ!

 

But I used to work for QioptiQ, so the similarity is cool. Did you have some bad vibes from QinetiQ?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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38 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

Did you have some bad vibes from QinetiQ?

 

Well Bill, the RAE morphed into DRA, then DERA as the '90s went on, merging RRE, A&AEE and most of the other UK government defence R&D establishments. Just as it was beginning to gel into something which was a viable organization, privatization came along. This could have worked, but the new QinetiQ's owners seemed more interested in 'asset-stripping' than technology development and the organization declined.

 

It wasn't all QinetiQ's fault, as they inherited a staff which was a curious mix of (i) some truly world-class scientists & engineers, (ii) quite a few people hiding from the real world outside, and (iii) probably the worst managers I have come across in my 40 years in aerospace on two continents. I was one of the lucky ones, as I saw the writing on the wall and left to return to the US commercial satellite world.

 

I suppose, thinking about it now, something of the kind was bound to happen, given the reductions in aerospace expenditures. If the US decided to privatize NASA, much the same thing would happen.

 

Best regards,

 

Kevin

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@KevinK Oh boy, I've heard that kind of story before. I suppose the name means something, but when I worked for QioptiQ everyone thought we were a Chinese company (our headquarters were actually in Paris).

 

So, about those pods on the underside. I think I can make those out of some old drop tanks, but they appear to be "area-ruled." Does anyone know for sure?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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5 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

I suppose the name means something

 

Actually, it doesn't! They paid an advertising agency half a million pounds to come up with it. There is no meaning: it's like Exxon.

 

Somewhere - I don't know where - I have a copy of a spoof org chart someone circulated at the time. Every department was 'Q---Q': I remember that Security was 'QrooQ', for example.

Edited by KevinK
Missing word
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Funny - and then my company stole the idea: QioptiQ - "Optics With Intelligence." The legal beagles from QinetiQ made us change the colours in our logo because they were the same as theirs! I mean, if you're going to purloin someone else's idea, at least change the friggin' colours! Gotta love the marketing guys...

 

Cheers,

Bill

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12 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

PS. I wonder if I have any Qinetiq stickers...they didn't come with the decal sheet. Probably they didn't want to license the logo.    :drunk:

 

The QinetiQ logo is included on the Vingtor sheet 72-118. Although sold out, I might find a sheet or two in the workshop.

 

spacer.png

 

Nils

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Looking forward to seeing this one come together, such a beautiful jet. Here's a couple of shots of the real thing that may or may not be useful reference

40670102132_e0fcefb194_o.jpgHawker Siddeley Harrier T4 (VAAC) XW175 Royal Air Force RAF Cosford 08/03/18 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

40052641524_f2a8a684e1_o.jpgHawker Siddeley Harrier T4 (VAAC) XW175 Royal Air Force RAF Cosford 08/03/18 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

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6 hours ago, Vingtor said:

The QinetiQ logo is included on the Vingtor sheet 72-118. Although sold out, I might find a sheet or two in the workshop.

 

Thanks Nils. PM me if you find any.    :)

 

5 hours ago, Seamus said:

Looking forward to seeing this one come together, such a beautiful jet. Here's a couple of shots of the real thing that may or may not be useful reference

 

Great shots, thanks. They've answered one of my questions - what colour the interior of the intakes was painted. White - which is what I expected. Of course, now I also know that the fancy paint job wrapped around the leading edge of the intake. Not that easy to mask, but I've done it before.

 

****

 

I actually found some resin M-B Mk. 9 ejection seats in my stash (God only knows what else is in there!). Unfortunately, they are much too wide for the cockpit in the Sword kit. Guess I will have to tart up the blank canvas provided in the kit.

 

So, anyone have any info on those two pods on the underside? In order to scratch these I would really appreciate any close-up photos, etc. I haven't found any yet in my Googling, but I'll keep trying.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I know I'm late but I have a note from my Mum, and this is only page 1 still I hope!

 

Great choice of subject Bill. I have one in the stash that I was persuaded to buy at a show last year, by the guy who was selling it.......

 

I promise to pay more attention now.

 

Terry

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23 hours ago, Fritag said:

decided there and then it was Lightnings (no need to navigate...) or Jaguar (decent inertial nav kit) that I'd be asking for if I got that far.

I was once given a very thorough "briefing" on the INS in the Jaguar - I worked for the MOD at the time, in the Jaguar production project office. I recall being most impressed by the level of sophistication of this bit of kit, even though I understood little of what the enthusiastic pilot was explaining! They even let me sit in one in the hanger at Warton. It didn't take much to impress a keen 21 year old!

 

Loved the Jaguar!

 

Terry

 

 

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