Jabba Posted March 22 Posted March 22 This will be the Grey scheme carried by the other Sqn (4) at RAF Gutersloh for ths trial. This arrived in the post today. The kit box. What is inside. Kit instructions and decals. The Xtradecals instructions, with a splash of Green. The decal sheet. 11
modelling minion Posted March 22 Posted March 22 Welcome again, and with a choice just as good as your other build, it is another Harrier after all, and another interesting scheme for one that you don't see built very often. I hope you can source a kit soon as I would like to see this one built too.
Rob Sutto Posted March 23 Posted March 23 It's weird, I think the grey version suited the GR3 better than the green, though I preferred the GR5/7 in green 2
Jabba Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 19 hours ago, modelling minion said: Welcome again, and with a choice just as good as your other build, it is another Harrier after all, and another interesting scheme for one that you don't see built very often. I hope you can source a kit soon as I would like to see this one built too. Thanks Craig. I was going to use the Airfix GR1/AV-8A kit with a spare nose from the GR3 kit, but then I saw the markings for the AV-8A and thought that this has to be built sometime. So I am sure that I have an Italeri(ESCI) kit in the stash, but doing a quick search where I thought it was, did not reveal it so I have oredered another one from elsewhere which should arrive this week. I will still have a look later to see if I can find the original. 1
modelling minion Posted March 23 Posted March 23 10 minutes ago, Jabba said: I will still have a look later to see if I can find the original. Which you will find right after the replacement arrives. If your GR.1/AV-8A is the newer boxing then the AV-8A is from 1983 so qualifies very nicely, and its in a winter camo scheme which makes it even better in my book. 1
Jabba Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 9 minutes ago, modelling minion said: Which you will find right after the replacement arrives. If your GR.1/AV-8A is the newer boxing then the AV-8A is from 1983 so qualifies very nicely, and its in a winter camo scheme which makes it even better in my book. Yes that is the one, but unlike a certain person I cannot build all of them. 4
81-er Posted March 23 Posted March 23 Welcome Mark I have to confess I'd not heard of the Matchcoat schemes before, but a quick Google search later and I'm now educated. A nice scheme James 1
TimB Posted March 24 Posted March 24 Hi Jabba, if you have any questions on the scheme I may be able to help. I just finished a 1/48 one which is in the RFI forum. Good luck with it - I have a special liking for XV738. regards Tim
Jabba Posted March 27 Author Posted March 27 This arrived in the post today. I think that I may need to ook for an ejection seat as the kit one does not look that good and that is putting it politely. 5
Jabba Posted March 28 Author Posted March 28 Knowing that the Americans used a different seat for theis Harriers I looked at the instructions of the Airfix GR1/AV-8A kit that I was going to originally use. I found that it has 2 ejections seats in one for each version, so I wll be using the MB Mk9 from that kit for this build so I will not need an aftermarket seat. 3
Jabba Posted March 31 Author Posted March 31 On 24/03/2025 at 19:06, TimB said: Hi Jabba, if you have any questions on the scheme I may be able to help. I just finished a 1/48 one which is in the RFI forum. Good luck with it - I have a special liking for XV738. regards Tim Tim I am trying to find out the colour of the intakes, as I know that they were normally Dk Green all the way down to the engine front fan. On the Grey one it seem to me from photos that I have seen that they were Dk Sea Grey for the front part of the intake and then what appears to be a lighter colour the rest of the way, am I correct?. Was this the same on the Green one or was this area kept as normal?
Jabba Posted April 1 Author Posted April 1 On 24/03/2025 at 19:06, TimB said: Hi Jabba, if you have any questions on the scheme I may be able to help. I just finished a 1/48 one which is in the RFI forum. Good luck with it - I have a special liking for XV738. regards Tim Tim I am trying to find out the colour of the intakes, as I know that they were normally Dk Green all the way down to the engine front fan. On the Grey one it seem to me from photos that I have seen that they were Dk Sea Grey for the front part of the intake and then what appears to be a lighter colour the rest of the way, am I correct?. Was this the same on the Green one or was this area kept as normal?
SoftScience Posted April 1 Posted April 1 Very cool project. I have been eyeballing Italeri/esci Harrier kits for a bit now. So I'm very curious to see how this presents itself. 1
TimB Posted April 2 Posted April 2 Hi Jabba, on both the grey (XV738 4 Sqn/B) and the green(XV809 3 Sqn/AF) Matchcoat Harriers, the intake lips were the topside camo colour, with white interiors - the idea was that the white would help any birdstrikes on the intakes be seen. The white soon became quite grubby. On 738, the fuselage white demarcation ran vertically just in front of the boundary layer bleed air intakes on the fuselage (the vertical rectangles), about an inch in front of the front of the BL door. As the curved intake lip is slightly further forward at the top than the bottom, the demarcation was a little further in at the top, say 12 inches or so, then went to about 3 inches at the bottom. I dont have a good picture of AF's intakes to hand, but they will almost certainly been the same as both were painted at St Athan. Regards Tim 1
Jabba Posted April 3 Author Posted April 3 Have now started on this one. Paint has been applied to the cockpit and replacement engine air intakes. I have also fitted the airbrake housing and will have to look of a different way of fitting the main U/C. The wings have been fitted together and although not shown here I have also applied the decals to the cockpit. 8
Jabba Posted April 8 Author Posted April 8 This one would have been a bit further on if some stupid idiot had painted the white on the intake parts behind the cockpit. Said idiot has now painted these areas, so some more building can happen. On the main part of the fuselage I have removed the mounts for the fitment of the main U/C and I have built up a few bits of plasti card that will be fitted over the hole where the U/C leg goes. This will be drilled so that the U/C leg can be fitted to the correct height when the other 3 legs are finally fitted. Well that is the plan. 5
modelling minion Posted April 8 Posted April 8 Good progress Mark, and I like your idea for ensuring she sits on her undercarriage correctly.
Jabba Posted April 9 Author Posted April 9 Thanks @modelling minion and @81-er. I am wanting to drill the hole not long after I glue the fuselage together before I add the wings so that if the piece falls out I will be able to glue it back in. I also hope that I have a drill big enough, I may have to borrow something from work. 2
SoftScience Posted April 10 Posted April 10 Thus far, which of the two Harriet kits are you enjoying more?
Jabba Posted April 10 Author Posted April 10 6 hours ago, SoftScience said: Thus far, which of the two Harriet kits are you enjoying more? It is six of one Half a dozen of the other at the moment, although I am slightly leaning towards the Airfix one.
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