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Desert Harriers - AV-8Bs in Desert Shield and Desert Storm


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Desert Harriers - AV-8Bs in Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The First Gulf War took place between 2nd August 1990 and the 28th February 1991 after Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. In response a coalition of 35 nations quickly massed to halt Iraq and liberate Kuwait.

The AV-8B was one of the first USMC combat aircraft to arrive in the Middle East. In all, the Marines deployed 86 AV-8B’s. During the war three squadrons and one detachment of Harriers operated from a semi prepared airfield named King Abdul Aziz, in Saudi Arabia. Another Harrier squadron was based on USS Nassau (LHA-4). Five of the eight available Harrier II squadrons were deployed to the Gulf, all of them close to the Kuwait border. AV-8B Harrier II units focused mostly on targets in Kuwait, although a small number of missions were also flown over southern Iraq. A total of five AV-8Bs were lost during the war.

 

This decal set gives you option to build one of six Gulf War AV-8B Harrier II options, but the decal sheet includes a great number of extra markings that could be used to build a lot of other AV-8Bs from that era. The bonus decals gives you the chance to build alternative subjects – based on your personal research. Stencils for at least one aircraft are included in this set. This set in general covers probably 80% of Harriers used in The First Gulf War

 

Since many of you already have this set in your stash you will find some extra stuff in the following days here in this thread.
Feel free to comment or ask any question you may have. Let me know which one You want to build, maybe I can help with reference stuff.

 

WHAT IS IN THE ENVELOPE:
– Decal set for 6 AV-8B Harrier II options:
  VMA-311 Tomcats, WL-02, 163181
  VMA-331 Bumblebees, VL-17, 162726 
  VMA-542 Tigers, WH-20, 162946  
  VMA-542 Tigers, WH-40, 162069 
  VMA-231 Ace of Spades, CG-01, 163662  
  VMA-231 Ace of Spades, CG-15, 163183

– Bonus decal sheet that gives you more build options including VMA-513 markings
– Background stories, history and details
– Photo quality profiles and instructions
– Aircraft detail guide
– Colors, painting and weathering guide
– Weapons configurations
– Small sticker
– Recommended literature and related video links
– Personal notes area

 

Very limited edition
Find out more: http://paulusvictor.com

 

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McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II  - 163181

VMA-311 Tomcats, WL-02, Desert Shield / Desert Storm 1990-1991.

 

AV-8Bs of VMA-311 ‘Tomcats’ became the first Harrier II unit committed to Desert Shield. The squadron left it’s home base of MCAS Yuma on 15 August 1990 and flew to MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, where its jets were repainted with a gray camouflage scheme and final maintenance was completed.

At about 22:00 hrs on the 18th they left Cherry Point for a night flight with 11 refuelling’s across the Atlantic to Rota, Spain. From Rota they flew on to Bahrain, then after some time moved to Saudi Arabia, close to the Kuwait border. On January 17, 1991 while in support of Operation Desert Storm the squadron became the first to utilize the AV-8B in combat when a flight of four Harriers destroyed an Iraqi artillery position in support of the Battle of Khafji.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/billword/28578739694/sizes/o/

 

NOTES FOR SCALE MODELERS:

After their flight to Cherry Point from Yuma, the dark gray and green Harriers had only a few days in Cherry Point to prepare. Tomcats lined their AV-8Bs up, taped them up and spray-painted them as quick as possible. They used light gray over the green. Dark gray areas were not repainted.

That is why all dark gray areas had all the original stencils, while light gray areas had only some of them (most of the small ones were overpainted and never restored). Some of the stencils like the ones on the jet intakes were masked completely, so all the letters within the black bands were still in their original green or dark gray color (even if the surrounding area were repainted to light gray.) Intake interiors were most likely not repainted to white as seen on some AV-8B’s of other units.

WMA-311 AV-8B’s were all painted in a similar way, but they were not exactly the same in their appearance. Camouflage pattern and stencil appearance may vary from airframe to airframe. But they were neat and had consistent standardized color shades.

Rear nozzles were burnt metal in color. Front nozzles were light gray on the outside and burnt metal color on the inside. Heat shields at the rear nozzles were titanium. Pitot tubes and AOA probes were not painted and were in original metal color.

PaulusVictor Desert Harriers set gives you options to build almost any VMA-311 Harrier II from the Desert Storm period, including green/gray scheme before the war.

 

Find out more: http://paulusvictor.com

Edited by 0viking0
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Hello all

this is cover art made for "Desert Harriers". Combination of Vectors and Photoshop drawing, and with Photoshop for the final editing.

Also available as unique NFT on Foundation if anybody collecting stuff like that.

 

Enjoy and wish You all the best.

 

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Edited by 0viking0
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I often get questions about the correct version of Harrier that was used in the Desert Storm and exactly which model kit to buy. This small and basic guide is in the DESERT HARRIERS decal set instructions, but I’ll be happy to share it here. This will help you to choose the correct kit for this decal set and/or make corrections when/if needed.

In 1/72 and 1/48 Hasegawa AV-8B models are the best kits, however they are not always easy to find (NOTE: don't buy AV-8B Night Attack, AV-8B PLUS or British GR.5/7/9 Harrier kits). Alternatives to Hasegawa are often old or inaccurate models. In the 1/144 scale, Dragon kits are the most accurate (but old) choice - which can also be found in old Revell packages. New Revell kits needs some corrections.

Keep calm and follow the guide.

Find out more: http://paulusvictor.com

 

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Since there were some questions about the full list of options in the Desert Harriers set, here are profiles of the main subjects. ...But bonus decals included in this set gives you options to build almost any Harrier from the Gulf War including VMA-513 which is not on this list.

paulusvictor.com

 

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Hello everyone.
In this post, I am sharing several interesting reference videos for Gulf War AV-8Bs.
I have talked to many people about almost every detail that appears on the Harriers in these videos. We were unable to fully identify some planes, but these videos helped a lot in my Desert Harriers project.
Feel free to add some more reference materials in this topic if available.

 

Enjoy

https://youtu.be/BkCGS4PaRDo
https://youtu.be/wQKsA5hJX0Q
https://youtu.be/lukBRjWOReM
https://youtu.be/BPCeTgz04aA
https://youtu.be/Ad7l-qPUP7M
https://youtu.be/rkhmiRXeBIo
https://youtu.be/Cf1lhjTonqs
https://youtu.be/JIsvjAAJXeM
https://youtu.be/h1cx4ZdyGyA

Only for reference and non-commercial use!
I am not the owner or author of these videos. All rights reserved by the owners.

 

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McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II 163662
VMA-231 Ace of Spades, CG-01, Desert Storm 1991.


Apologies if I neglected this set a bit. The Danes took a lot of my time and energy lol.

AV-8B Harrier II 163662 ‘Shank 01’ is probably the most famous Harrier II from Operation Desert Storm because of the painted‘ sharksmouth’ on the nose.
Initially, I didn't want to put this plane on this set because you can find it in many other sets and kit boxings, but already during the first drafts, everyone who saw the list of subjects asked "What, no VMA-231 sharkmouth? What could I do then lol...

VMA-231 started preparations to move to the Middle East in late November 1990. They departed Japan on 8 December and went east over Wake Island and Hawaii to MCASs Yuma and Cherry Point. They flew 18,000 miles east from Japan to Saudi Arabia over the United States and Europe due to the available logistics on that route. VMA-231 set a record for fleet Harrier squadrons by occurring 904 flight hours in only one month.
Like other Harrier II units, during operation Desert storm VMA-231 relied on three basic loads for their jets – six Mk 82s most of the time, then four Mk 83s and six Mk 20 Rockeye IIs, but there were some other variations too.

During The Gulf War, VMA-231 used one of the most beautifully improvised camouflage schemes ever applied on Harriers. Since VMA-231 was based in Japan they camouflaged their AV-8B’s with ghost gray colors using paint acquired from the F/A-18 Hornet squadrons. Having painted the aircraft light ghost gray (FS 36320) overall, they then took another can of ghost gray and mixed in a small amount of black paint to make a darker shade. This was sprayed over sections of the jet to create a light gray/darker gray camouflage scheme. There was a lot of discussion about the correct FS shade of darker gray, but the best way to go is to mix it. Use light ghost gray or dark ghost gray color and add some black or FS 36320 gray. The darker gray color tone was slightly different from one aircraft to another. The basic camouflage pattern was almost the same as the original dark gray/green pattern with variations. The intakes were painted gloss white.

PaulusVictor Desert Harriers set gives you options to build almost any VMA-231 Harrier II from the Desert Storm period, including green/gray scheme before the war.

For more info I suggest a book:
Lon Nordeen
AV-8B HARRIER II UNITS OF OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM
Osprey Publishing, 2011.

paulusvictor.com

Edited by 0viking0
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