Hoops Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Good Afternoon, I think that the Hasegawa kit has some disadvantages, but it is dirt cheap where I live right now, and I think with the proper amount of effort, I can overcome those problems and turn out a good looking build. I'm working on this aircraft for my local hobby shop's fall contest, and this is the plan for how it should appear in the end: path1357-2-1-5-5-6 by J Hooper, on Flickr I've not found any good decals for this scheme, so I did my own artwork and had them ALPS printed. They are in the mail and will hopefully be here in time for decaling. Depending on how the yellow turns out once printed, I may paint the lightning bolt on the tail, but that decision will be made once the decals are in hand. path1344-3-6 by J Hooper, on Flickr First will be fuselage details, you can see the traces of the sink marks throughout the fuselage. I opened up the intake on the top side and boxed it in from the rear. P1050488 by J Hooper, on Flickr I also boxed in the nozzles added some details that were missing: P1050487 by J Hooper, on Flickr The airbrake well was detailed also: P1050486 by J Hooper, on Flickr Detail added to the vents, the flaps were dropped, and the wing fences were replaced with .25mm sheet styrene. P1050485 by J Hooper, on Flickr Detail of the tail vents: P1050489 by J Hooper, on Flickr 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 (edited) External Parts, first the underwing stores: The drop tanks were modified from Hasegawa Napalm bombs. The kit doesn't come with any, and these proved to be pretty close based on the scale plans of first generation Harriers that I had. Some reshaping, detailing, and adding sway braces an they were complete. The Phimat pod is from the Special Hobby Mirage F.1 kit, the spacer and sway braces were scratch built, and better fins added with .25mm sheet on the tail. The same space was added to the other side, and the LAU-7 rail was added from a Hasegawa 2nd Gen Harrier kit. P1050495 by J Hooper, on Flickr The plates on the end of the horizontal stabs were shaved off and replaced with .25mm sheet. P1050492 by J Hooper, on Flickr Detail added to the gear and the heat shields using sheet and stretched sprue (black for contrast so that I can see it.) P1050496 by J Hooper, on Flickr The gun pods: P1050482 by J Hooper, on Flickr The sink marks in on the intakes were filled, and I filed down the top blow in doors to represent them dropped. I left those on the side flush so that I don't have to get crazy with the decals. P1050478 by J Hooper, on Flickr Edited August 1, 2021 by Hoops Forgot to add two photos: 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 (edited) And now for the cockpit: The seat is from NeOmega, I've had it the stash forever, but it is the right mark. I narrowed it a bit on the bottom to fit in between the consoles and so that the cockpit would fit in the fuselage. Lots of detail added with lots of sources. P1050501 by J Hooper, on Flickr Inserted in to the fuselage side: P1050504 by J Hooper, on Flickr Fuselage halves closed: P1050507 by J Hooper, on Flickr I'll be adding some more detail to the deck behind the ejection seat, but that will wait until the interior is painted, and the sides are glued closed. All for now! Cheers, Hoops Edited August 1, 2021 by Hoops 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palo Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Very nice detailing work! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenCJ Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Very nice Hoops 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andwil Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Fabulous improvements on a fairly basic kit. AW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) An update: Tail Markings have been painted, including the "H." I was not thrilled with the color density on the ALPS printed decals, so I elected to paint the markings instead. P1050533 by J Hooper, on Flickr The underwing stores are complete and ready for installation once major construction and paint is completed: P1050536 by J Hooper, on Flickr The same is true for the landing gear, the Yellow "H" on the outrigger gear is also painted on, those proved to be significantly more fiddly. P1050538 by J Hooper, on Flickr The compressor face and the air brake are also similarly ready to go. "H" on the airbrake also painted. P1050541 by J Hooper, on Flickr Edited August 21, 2021 by Hoops 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) The cockpit is painted and ready for installation: P1050542 by J Hooper, on Flickr Shown test fitted here: P1050544 by J Hooper, on Flickr Next step is doing some filling and shaping on the nose. It is my opinion that the front of the nose is not far off. Where the narrow "barrel" transitions to the rest of the fuselage, however, It looks like it gets pinched and throws off the look of the nose. Some puttying and light shaping will show some improvements there I hope. Cheers and thanks for looking, Hoops Edited August 26, 2021 by Hoops 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Can't believe I didn't see this thread until now. Some real quality work going on here! And as a Harrier nerd, I'm glad to see the attention to detail being applied to this kit. Mark. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK_MAMBA Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 2 hours ago, Harry Lime said: Can't believe I didn't see this thread until now. Some real quality work going on here! And as a Harrier nerd, I'm glad to see the attention to detail being applied to this kit. Mark. My sentiments exactly! Some great work being shown here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Some nice work there. However, the seat is a Mk 9 but a sub mark used on a Jaguar and is wrong for the Harrier GR3, check out some pictures of the Harrier seat, the headbox is completly different. Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 25, 2021 Author Share Posted August 25, 2021 Another update before I start priming and painting the aircraft: Here are the modifications to the canopy, the molded on det cords were carefully sanded off and polished away so that they can be replaced by decals. The panel in the back was scratch built (can be seen in the previous cockpit photos) and the fairings boxed in: P1050549 by J Hooper, on Flickr P1050548 by J Hooper, on Flickr The gun pods are mounted on the bottom, as well as the various vents and antennas. Paint looks a bit rough right now, as parts had been primed to check shape, then sanded filled, or otherwise adjusted: P1050556 by J Hooper, on Flickr The detail on the glareshield can be seen, as well as the reshaping of the nose extension, detailing on the deck behind the cockpit and other various vents. The pitot tube base was replaced as the kit item was too short as well as too large in diameter. The kit supplied vent below the right cold air nozzle was significantly cut down, as the Hasegawa piece is way to large, and the other vent on fairing was added from scratch. P1050555 by J Hooper, on Flickr P1050554 by J Hooper, on Flickr Next step is to attach and blend in the windscreen, then mask, prime and check for any flaws that need to be addressed. Thanks for looking! Hoops 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted August 25, 2021 Author Share Posted August 25, 2021 On 8/21/2021 at 6:54 PM, Harry Lime said: Can't believe I didn't see this thread until now. Some real quality work going on here! And as a Harrier nerd, I'm glad to see the attention to detail being applied to this kit. Mark. On 8/21/2021 at 9:37 PM, BLACK_MAMBA said: My sentiments exactly! Some great work being shown here. Thank you for the kind words gentlemen! On 8/21/2021 at 10:02 PM, Selwyn said: Some nice work there. However, the seat is a Mk 9 but a sub mark used on a Jaguar and is wrong for the Harrier GR3, check out some pictures of the Harrier seat, the headbox is completly different. Selwyn I appreciate the feedback. Looking at the references I have I can see that there is a difference. It looks to me like the head box slopes down at the back. The shape of the front looks pretty similar to me. As this will be somewhat obscured by the canopy bow, and the work is already done, I will be continuing with the seat I've got. Especially because I don't have any more appropriate Mk 9 seats on hand, and this needs to be complete by Sep 9 to make into my local hobby shop's contest. Cheers and thanks! Hoops 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_alfisti_ Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Nice work so far, I love all your extras and improvements. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted September 5, 2021 Author Share Posted September 5, 2021 RFI posted below: Cheers! Hoops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper-30 Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Marvellous.. what a great build .. brilliant detail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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