Another SHAR.....

[mackem01]

Fresh from my Typhoon build, here's my place holder for this GB. It's the less than brilliant Tamiya FRS1 - lets see what

I can manage to mess up this time!

 

 

Good luck to us all - let's do this one justice. See you all on Saturday!

[mackem01]

After doing some research for my intended subject - ZA192, Dave Morgan's SHAR - I see it's finished in EDSG. As I already have one of

these already I'm now looking at the lighter grey airframes. Now eating Humble Pie as I was insistent on doing this machine so hoping someone is happy to drill a 20mm shell-hole through their SHAR's fin as it's a great story.

[mackem01]

Just a quick question. Would a Sea Harrier ever have the flaps down when on the ground and unmanned?

[heloman1]

You can't have too many SHAR's...

 

Colin

[Pappy]

On 4/7/2022 at 3:37 AM, mackem01 said:

Just a quick question. Would a Sea Harrier ever have the flaps down when on the ground and unmanned?

 

Although flaps could be lowered when the jet was on the deck, this was not typical and period pictures would tend to support this.

 

On a crowded carrier deck lowered flaps would present a hazard for personnel as well as a good way for them to be damaged.  If the flight control system was undergoing maintenance or an inspection then of course they could be lowered but unless there was something preventing them being raised (like disconnected linkages for example)  then these would be raised at the end of maintenance. Deeper maintenance would tend to take place below decks and without aircraft armament loaded.

 

Pappy

Edited April 9, 2022 by Pappy

[mackem01]

Cheers Pappy, a well informed answer and less work for me😄

[mackem01]

Due to the good weather, and some DIY tasking this little update is long overdue. I have been doing some mundane stuff like cleaning up parts and

detail painting, but any main work has been on the frustrating cockpit as the pics will show. So I started by readying this:

 

And after a couple of hours work I discovered it would not fit into this without sanding back all the detail:

 

 

So, annoyingly I then had to use this!

 

 

After building it up with some filler and some scrap plastic card it now looks a little better:

 

 

Finally while working on the tail I decided to use some horizontal stabs from a Revell AV8B (a kit I'll never build) and also the

heat plates that fit behind the rear nozzles as the Revell items are more detailed than the Tamiya offerings. Suitably altered

they look like this:

 

 

The one one the left is as supplied in the Revell kit with a modded version on the right. The cockpit is done and has been set into

the fuselage. So because of the Sea Harrier's awkward shape it,s onto filling and sanding before the wings and tail are added.

More to follow - hopefully quicker next time!

 

Thanks for looking and any advice most welcome as always.

[mackem01]

Still pottering on with this and I was wondering - what stencilling was used on the lighter grey 809sqn Sea Harriers? From the grainy pics I have I can make out fuselage roundels, the red maintenance panel warning square on top of the fuselage and possibly the nozzle angle markings. Did all the others disappear when they were repainted before their sojourn down south?

 

T.I.A...

[mackem01]

Good afternoon Chaps and Chapesses. Firstly, apologies for my very erratic posting of late - the nice weather is here and there's lots of things 

going on! In the first three pics which should have been posted last week I'll give you an idea of where I was. Then (ironically) the week of the 

really good weather was way too hot for me so I've skulked around in the shade and been able to get a heck of alot done:

 

 

 

As you can see it's mostly painting and glossing after a good few session of filling and sanding back. I've done three of these Tamiya SHAR's  and

I always have a problem with the upper engine bay panel which is a bit tricky to sort. However, once over this hurdle things took a turn for the 

better - I've done some detail painting, got her up on the centreline undercarriage, added some smaller items, and made an attempt at decalling.

This confused me somewhat as I couldn't find any decent pics showing what markings had been left after their journey south (they seemed to lose

quite a lot). I've looked at what pictures I had and I've only decalled what I can see on 809's aircraft - if I'm missing any please let me know. So this

is where we are before this afternoon's bench session:

 

 

 

 

I would also like to thank fellow member Richard E who very generously provided me with the relevant 809 squadron decals

Coincidentally, I've just recently read Harrier 809 by Rowland White and I think they were given short-shrift by the

other squadrons considering they are pre-eminent  RN squadron - but that's just my two bobs worth. Anyhow - to the bench!!

 

Cheers.

Edited June 19, 2022 by mackem01