Airfix Vintage Classics Hawker P.1127 (A01033V) 1:72

[Mike]

Hawker P.1127 (A01033V)

1:72 Airfix Vintage Classics

 

 

Following experiences of WWII and the Korea war, it occurred to British and American military procurement that a fighter and ground-attack aircraft capable of operating from unmade short fields would be a useful tool to avoid the inconvenience that a heavily cratered runway could cause.  Hawker took this onboard, and it was decided to use the Bristol Pegasus vectored thrust engine that was in development at the time to create an airframe that could take-off and land vertically, rendering long airfields optional.  Well-known engineers Stanley Hooker and Sidney Camm were key to the creation and integration of the new type of engine into an airframe, using ‘cold’ nozzles at the front, and hot nozzles at the rear, although from a human perspective they were both extremely hot, but the rear nozzles were significantly hotter.  The key take-away is not to stand in front of either nozzle when the engine is running.  The nozzles didn’t provide enough fine-control to the pilot, so puffer-jets were added, routing air from the engine to the wingtips and nozzles under the nose and tail, giving the new aircraft the stability it required to hover without killing all involved in a ball of flame and tangled debris.  There is conjecture about who pushed the project along, but with the parlous state of British aviation thanks to devastating post-war cut-backs, and the infamous Sandys report, funding was harder to acquire than it might otherwise have been.  The NATO requirement that had originally been one of the Hawker goals was also revised, and it looked unlikely that the P.1127 would fulfil its needs, even in its finished production state.

 

America expressed interest during development, and several airframes were transferred to them for evaluation, which were positively received, although concerns were expressed about the longevity of the inflatable intake lips, which resulted in their replacement with more traditional blow-in doors.  More powerful variants of the Pegasus engine were also fitted, although NATO was also interested in a supersonic option, which was ultimately cancelled as part of the range of cut-backs in the early 60s.  Aircraft Carrier trials were also undertaken, proving that the short/vertical take-off and landing STOVL capability was a great benefit to carrier operations, eventually leading to ruggedised Sea Harriers some years later.  In the UK, the aircraft was initially called the Kestrel as it neared the end of initial development, whilst in US circles it became the AV-8A, and by 1967 initial production airframes were delivered to the RAF, where it was given the name Harrier due to its differences from the earlier prototypes, going into service as the Harrier GR.1 at the start of a glittering career.

 

 

The Kit

This kit was tooled in 1963 when the Harrier was just a bird, and not the coolest air show performer ever, or a useful aircraft in the RAF, FAA, USMC and other nations’ Air Forces, some of whom are still flying their later variants.  It represents the development airframe, and is a product of its time that is wearing pretty well given its age, certainly better than this reviewer, who is somewhat younger.  It has been re-released in Airfix’s Vintage Classic range, and is deserving of the moniker because it’s a vintage kit of a classic airframe in its early days whilst still under development.  The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with the original artwork on the front, and profiles for the decal option on the rear.  Inside the box are five sprues without exterior runners in grey styrene, plus a clear sprue, decal sheet and short instruction booklet.  The model is covered in fine raised rivets and panel lines, and was tooled when moulds were cut from master pattern s.  The moulds have worn very well, given that they’re 60+ years old, and interior detail is minimal, consisting of a pilot on an ejection seat that fills the narrow cockpit, and would have been well-received at the time when a full pilot was rare.  There are nozzles with louvred exhausts, a depiction of the front face of the engine, and although the gear bays are blank, the rear bay is covered entirely, while the nose bay has a pair of doors, and there is a choice of retracted or deployed gear, which also extends to the outriggers that were at the wingtips at this point in the aircraft’s development.

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the fuselage, which in vintage style includes the pilot, seat, two blank sidewalls in the cockpit, plus a bulkhead with a fan face moulded-in, and four separate pegs that hold the exhausts in place, gluing them carefully if you wish for them to remain mobile.  Some detail painting for the cockpit and pilot are called out in Humbrol codes, and the nozzles are shown painted at this stage too.  The wings are each built from top and bottom halves, with tabs on both ends, the larger tabs slotting into the wing roots, fitting the elevators in a similar manner, remembering that there is a noticeable anhedral (downward slope) to all the flying surfaces.  A choice of two styles of tail fairing is provided, one with a flat tip, the other tapered, with a similar choice at the nose, fitting either a pointed cone with long probe, or a rounded cone.

 

The model is inverted to finish, fitting the nose gear with moulded-in wheel and two separate bay doors, the main strut with separate twin wheels and a single bay door, followed by the deployed outrigger wheels that are moulded into the wingtips that slide onto the smaller tabs.  To depict the model with gear up, the bay doors are fitted flush, with a little bit of fettling more than likely to be required.  Alternate wingtip parts are included that portray the outriggers configured for flight.

 

 

Markings

There are two very similar decal options on the sheet, as this was one of two development airframes.  From the box you can build the following:

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

A true classic kit that’s available again in Airfix’s new darker grey styrene, with Cartograf decals for about the cost of a pint of quality ale, plus the bonus that you can feel like a spring chicken, or an old giffer, depending on your comparative age.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[WillDeeks]

Just to note, the P.1127 went through a lot of development, naturally, and as such the kit version depicted here is only a couple possible of about a dozen different depictions.  A keen modeller armed with research and some extra decals could use this kit to display several different (very different, in a few instances) variations.  Throw in some Harrier GR.1 bits and pieces (particularly wings) and you could get a Kestrel as well.   The kit, while quite basic, is quite sound in outline and makes a good baseline for lots of possible modifications, few of which would have any great degree of difficulty.

 

[NickA]

Mine came with an appalling moulded canopy and a missing part - it is a challenge to produce a good result and beat me!
Having said that, for a Vintage Classic it is still a good little kit and at the price will not deter me from having another go.

[Paul Thompson]

4 hours ago, NickA said:

Mine came with an appalling moulded canopy and a missing part - it is a challenge to produce a good result and beat me!
Having said that, for a Vintage Classic it is still a good little kit and at the price will not deter me from having another go.

Just tell Airfix what the problem is. They usually replace free of charge. Sometimes they ask for a photo if the part is damaged rather than missing, sometimes not. It can take a week or two before replacements arrive, but with a new or newly re-released kit they almost always have spares.

 

Paul.

[bentwaters81tfw]

It does scrub up OK.The canopy is a tad wide though.

[Mike]

1 minute ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

The canopy is a tad wide though.

Your backdrop is a bit crinkly too

 

Looks pretty decent for a kit that's even older than me, and there's enough thickness in the canopy to trim it down a little bit if need be

[bentwaters81tfw]

Not my backdrop, that's the Club standard. I'm getting even crinklier.

[gavingav1]

3 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

It does scrub up OK.The canopy is a tad wide though.

 

I built one when they reissued the kit  in the early Nineties, the canopy was a terrible fit way back then, i replaced the canopy with a canopy from the old GR.3 kit, i really hoped this issue would have a new tool canopy included, probably best to buy one and sling it on ebay in twenty years .

[TonyW]

It's possible that memory is playing tricks with me but I seem to remember the kit having a couple of different tail extensions and possibly a choice of nose, blunt or pointy. I'll dig out the old kit and take a peek.

 

This kit was also the first one I ever built on my own. with no help from Dad. I'll be getting one of the re-releases ASAP.

[Graham Boak]

Interesting  I don't recall those.  However the changes on later aircraft of the six include intakes and wings up to the full Kestrel.

[bentwaters81tfw]

Yes, alternative nose and tail fairings, it's in Mike's description.

[Meatbox8]

15 hours ago, gavingav1 said:

I built one when they reissued the kit  in the early Nineties, the canopy was a terrible fit way back then, i replaced the canopy with a canopy from the old GR.3 kit, i really hoped this issue would have a new tool canopy included, probably best to buy one and sling it on ebay in twenty years .

My 'solution' to this issue was to saw the canopy from the windscreen and pose it open, the hope being that this would detract from the fit issues.

 

However, as the cockpit is devoid of anything in the way of realistic, detail I added an Aeroclub ejection seat and a scrounged and reshaped control panel and stick.

 

This was my first attempt and sanding off all those rivets and rescribbing. I also, inadvertently, left the almost complete model under a hot lamp and the upper fuselage promptly melted! Plastic card came to the rescue (kind of).

 

[JamesP]

Like all vintage classics it would be great if those of us with them in the stash already could get our hands on the new decals.

[Rabbit Leader]

7 minutes ago, JamesP said:

Like all vintage classics it would be great if those of us with them in the stash already could get our hands on the new decals.

A nice thought and I wholeheartedly agree, however Airfix themselves have stated that the cost of decals is a high percentage of the kit price, so selling decals in their own right may not be as economical as purchasing a new kit! 
 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Lothian man]

On the decals front, Vingtor used to do what someone - not Vingtor? has listed as a P.1127 on one of several separately sold sheets of Harrier R&D/test/demo airframes. 

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/vingtor-decals-72-109-harrier--210454

 

However, this is XV279 which so far as I am aware was a pukka Harrier, not even a Kestrel?

On 10/7/2024 at 8:49 AM, TonyW said:

It's possible that memory is playing tricks with me but I seem to remember the kit having a couple of different tail extensions and possibly a choice of nose, blunt or pointy. I'll dig out the old kit and take a peek.

 

This kit was also the first one I ever built on my own. with no help from Dad. I'll be getting one of the re-releases ASAP.

Me too, my first ever kit of many. 

[Dave Swindell]

15 hours ago, Lothian man said:

However, this is XV279 which so far as I am aware was a pukka Harrier, not even a Kestrel?

XV279 was one of the 6 Development Batch HS Harriers (XV276-XV281), when ordered in 1965 they were ordered as P1127 (RAF), it wasn't until the first 60 production examples were ordered in 1967 that the name Harrier was applied.

P.1127's all carried XP serials, 2 research prototypes XP831 & XP836, and 4 Development Batch XP972, XP976, XP980 & XP984.

Kestrels all carried XS serials, 9 XS688 - XS696