Hasegawa 1/48 Harrier corrections

[Eagle85]

Hi folks, 

 

I'm hoping that some of you good people will save me from going further round the twist... 

I just returned to the hobby after a break of several years. When I was erm, in my modelling prime one of my favourite kits was the Hasegawa/Revell Harrier Gr.7/9 in 1/48 scale. Now I'm sure that there was once a build article, or possibly a review of the tweaks required to bring it up to scratch. My own modelling notes have long gone in the life shake up and despite building quite a few of them I can't for the life of me remember it all. From memory there's the wing kink, the gps disc needs scratch building and the square moulding sanding off, in my head there's a hole somewhere in the rear lower fuselage needs filling? I also have it in my head that the slime light mouldings need sanding flush? I've got 65% and 100% LERX parts thanks to the Hobby 2000 boxing that I have, I'll likely add my usual aftermarket and scratch built extras too but it's them few corrections that I can't for the life of me remember. 

 

I regretfully gave away my best builds so have no physical reference to jog my memory, and my multiple searches haven't thrown up what I was hoping to find. 

 

Carry on. 

Dan

[alt-92]

The Harrier SIG site is now defunct, but may still be accessible via the Internet Archive Wayback machine.

For reference:

 

 

Perhaps @NG899 can be of assistance?

[Eagle85]

I'm sure that site was my go-to when I was more active, I'm sure I met a few of their guys at shows over the years too, a wealth of knowledge. Hoping the website springs back into life soon! 

[Phone Phixer]

@daryl_five_zerodid a nice build. There's several tips in his build thread.

 

Rob.

[LanceB]

Well, from a former AV-8B mech (me!): put the Hasegawa kit on jacks, lift off the wing, replace the entire wing with the one from the Monogram kit.  The Hasegawa wing has bigger problems than the kink, they missed the "twist" in it between the section inboard of the LE fence and everything outboard of the fence.  There is really no way to fix the Hasegawa parts, the only solution is to use a rescribed Monogram wing.  It has its own problems, like the fit on the underside and avoiding a large step in the underside of the flap, and the wing fence is best removed entirely and replaced with a bit of sheet cut to shape and inserted into a slot sawed into the leading edge, but the shape is correct.

[Eagle85]

Oh blimey I never knew that. The Hasegawa kit wing, straightened slightly looks good enough for my eyes. 

[LanceB]

On 1/9/2023 at 5:45 AM, Eagle85 said:

Oh blimey I never knew that. The Hasegawa kit wing, straightened slightly looks good enough for my eyes. 

That's good too.  To be fair, if you aren't looking for it, it is an easy thing to ignore.  Even on the real aircraft - I was working on the (then still new) Harriers when the Monogram kit came out, and promptly built one up.  I took it into the squadron, and a bunch of fellow mechs were looking at it and said "why is the wing like that?"  So we walked onto the flight line and compared... and Monogram was right!  If you stand a bit away from a Harrier and look at it straight on from the nose, you notice that the outboard wing portion seems "flat", you see the LE but not the upper now lower surface.  But as you move your eye towards the fuselage, you see more and more of the wing underside and can see clear back to the flaps.  It is not just the change in height of the LE either, there is a certain "fullness" of the supercritical wing cross-section where the closer you get to the fuselage the more it looks like the wing LE is twisting up to a greater angle of attack.  I said "twist" above, and that seems the simplest way to describe it, but I have never (honestly) been entirely sure if there is a washout ala F-18 in the outer sections of the wings that makes them have a "flat" angle of attack, or if it is just the wing cross-section getting very "fat" near to the fuselage, or a combination, but...

 

To my eye, FWIW, YMMV etc., when you look at a Monogram kit from head-on, with your eye near level with the tip of the nose, the kit's wing captures that shape.  Here's Dave Aungst's built kit:

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/av8bmonogramdwa_1.htm

 

And a real Harrier:

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-harrier-gr-7-in-the-gulf-107140705.html

 

And Hasegawa, but not the best angle for comparison I admit:

https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal11/10801-10900/gal10876-AV-8B-Vitkon/10.shtm

 

All that said, it is a PITA to get the Monogram wing built cleanly (as compared to Hasegawa), and only a bit less of a PITA to get it to fit onto a Hasegawa kit, and it may be questionable if the difference is worth it to everyone.

[ElectroSoldier]

Doesnt surprise me in the least.
Hasegawa kits are raved over by the masses but all to often there is something wrong with them.

[NG899]

The Harrier SIG is still very much alive, in case you didn’t see us at SMW 2022 and last weekend’s Bolton Show. We just don’t have a dedicated website any more; too costly.

 

Drop me a PM with your email and info shopping list in it and I’ll send you some things to help.

 

Cheers

 

Nick