Rolls Royce Harrier. *Finished*

[Andwil]

For my entry I intend to use decals from this sheet:

 

 

to build Harrier GR5 ZD402 in the very nice midnight blue and white scheme when used by Rolls Royce in the development of the Pegasus 11-16/Mk 107 engine destined for the Harrier GR9.

 

I haven’t decided on a kit yet, I have the Italeri GR5 and also the Revell boxing of the same kit, but these do not include the under fuselage strakes, only the gun pods.  I also have, if I can find it, the Airfix GR5 which has the option of the strakes- but it seems to have gone missing.  If I cant find it I’ll have to use the Italeri kit and pinch the strakes out of an Airfix GR7/GR9 kit.

 

AW

 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Andwil

[Col.]

Nice subject choice AW, then again as a Harrier fan I've a biased opinion  pity you're on the other side of our planet otherwise I could give you a spare set of the strakes from one of my Hasegawa boxings. Depends how long it'd take for them to reach you by post?

[Andwil]

Thanks for the offer @Col., I have a couple of Hasegawa Harriers myself, I may be able to rob one of those.

 

AW

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome along sir, your choice of scheme is a good one. 

[Andwil]

As the Airfix kit still hasn’t turned up (how does one actually lose a kit? 🧐) I am using this one:

 

 

 

using the strakes robbed from a Hasegawa AV-8B.

 

Sprue and bag of bits off the sprue ( this was a second hand kit)

 

 

as I was priming my P-38 I took the opportunity to prime the internal parts.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Head in the clouds.]

Nice one Andwil, I started the old Airfix offering a few years ago and had that same scheme lined up, unfortunately my frustrations got the better of me and it was never finished, maybe 'written off' would be the correct term. 

It will be good to see how you tackle this one, I know the colour scheme has come in for some discussion on BM before.

 

Happy modelling.

[Col.]

Better this one than no kit at all but hopefully the new one appears soon.

[Andwil]

Cockpit has been made up and the wings put together and some sinkholes filled:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[bigbadbadge]

Lovely scheme, this will be good.  Looking forward to seeing this develope,  great start.

[CliffB]

[Head in the clouds.]

Thirded...🤣

[Andwil]

A few bits and bobs have been painted.  Undercarriage:

 

 

The Pegasus fan:

 

 

and some of the inner parts of the intakes:

 

 

 

bit of bleeding there to attend to.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[MARADER]

Good job!

[Col.]

Smart work AW.

[Andwil]

I’ve got the fuselage closed up and the intakes and tailplanes fitted.

 

 

Dry fit of wings shows that they should fit with little bother.

 

 

The jet nozzles have also been painted, Vallejo dark aluminium for the front, cold nozzles and jet exhaust for the rear, hot nozzles.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Col.]

Taking shape nicely

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Yes it is, happy to see other's have better luck with Harriers than I do. 

[Andwil]

As this aircraft had the pylons fitted but carried no loads it was necessary to fill the attachment slots for the bombs etc.  Plastic card was cemented into the slots and when set, trimmed and sanded flush.

 

 

 

And attached to the aircraft along with the LERXs and the robbed Hasegawa strakes.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Mike N]

Nice work so far, and you've picked a great scheme to go for 

 

Mike 

[Andwil]

As I have been concentrating on getting my P-38 in the Lightning STGB finished not a lot of progress on this one.
 

Canopy on and primed:

 

 

I can see a bit of an issue with the fit of the canopy that needs to be addressed, particularly the gap in front of the windscreen.  I’m about to go away for a week so this will be the first task when I get back.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Col.]

Nice progress AW. This one certainly captures the shape of the Harrier well and looks good posed in-flight style  

[Andwil]

I have rather neglected this build for a couple of weeks, but I have now painted the wing and tailplane tips white and the heat shields behind the rear nozzles dark aluminium.  These will be masked off for the dark blue to follow.

 

 

 

It’s a nuisance that the heat shields are not seperate parts like the Airfix Harrier kits.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

[Col.]

Good to see you're continued progress with this one AW   It is a pity that many of the older Harrier kits had the heat shields as part of the fuselage rather than separate parts and a lot of surgery is required to correct that but at least they are tucked under the wing and not overly noticable.

[Andwil]

The white areas were masked off and the undersides airbrushed dark blue:

 

 

I almost forgot about the strips of grey along the flap hinge lines, so the upper surface of the wing got a quick spray of MSG.  These  were masked ff this morning and the upper sides painted blue:

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Col.]

Coming along nicely AW and the Harrier does look smart in that dark blue scheme.