AV-8A Harrier VMA-542

[Rampage55]

Here is a little something I have been working on. It's the 1/48 Monogram AV-8A kit. It is my first in-progress thread here on this forum and I thought that as a former US Marine who is married to a Brit. What better way to start off than with a British airplane flown by a bunch of Jarheads.

Box, contents, and decals.

These are the markings I will be using.

Front office, not very accurate painting on my behalf, but not much will be seen anyway.

The seat in this kit is is not so great so I opted for the pilot figure. I think he looks the part.

The intakes need some work on this kit.

I used some card stock to create the missing doors.

There is quite a gap between the intake trunking and the outer fuselage piece.

I used a rolled length of epoxy putty smoothed to shape to fill the gap.

The wing to fuselage join went well. Much better than expected.

Except for under the wing at the root there's a bit of a gap

As some of you most certainly noticed I mistakenly painted the intakes white. I have since come to believe it should be painted the same Dark Sea Gray as the top side camo, as it seems to wrap into the intakes.

The intakes have been re-painted and she is up on her legs with the gear dry fit to see how she stands. Not to bad...... much better than the Hasegawa Harriers.

I very much like the look of these early Harriers. They have a very distinctive bird like appearance that really appeals to me.

Thanks for looking.

Semper Fi,

Mark

[Dave Fleming]

You are going to hate me for saying this, but the grey wraps in for a few inches then goes white/grey

[Rampage55]

Dave,

I don't hate you......

I'll just have to eliminate you. I have a tediously slow, easily escapable, death device with your name on it.

All kidding aside you wouldn't happen to have any pics would you? Its not to late for me to get it right. I only have one intake attached and can remove it quite easily. I do not have much reference for this bird. I do have a scan from the Detail and Scale book that shows the intake with a consistent color all the way back which due to the over exposed nature of the image(trying to hold detail inside the intake) I inferred it could have been the DSG color from the topside camo.

This has been bothering me for a while, I hope you can help me resolve this.

Thanks for your input.

Mark

[model_madness]

Well, colour of intake aside (yes i know its hard for some of us ), i think its looking super so far Mark.

Keep up the good work and let the pics roll....

[Rampage55]

I've managed to get some work done on my Harrier, she is just about ready for primer and the paint barn.

Intakes are done and have been blended to the fuselage.

But before I get to painting I decided to re-do the wing fences on the leading edge of the wing. I was not happy with how they were looking.

My plan is to sand the old ones off so just a hint of it is left to use as a guide for cutting a slot in the wing with a razor saw.

Next, I inserted a thin piece of plastic card stock attached with a drop of Tenax.

After the glue dried the new wing fence was sanded to shape.

Quite simple really and I think they look much better than what was there before. With a bit of fine tunning of the shape I'll be there. So, several more wing fences to go and she'll be ready to paint.

Cheers,

Mark

[Rampage55]

Well I've finely made some progress on this "wee beastie"

Primed, sprayed the underside color, and masked it.

Sprayed the topside gray color.

Then I masked the camo pattern using a combination of paper mask's cut to shape, blue tack, and painters tape.

However when I removed the blue tack mask on the windscreen I pulled the windscreen off with it.

I glued the windscreen back on but there is a fine crack that will need to be dealt with. Other than that it all went quite smoothly(knock on wood ).

Thanks for looking,

Mark

[Rampage55]

The decals have been applied just a few stencils left to place. I was wondering how these decals would respond once placed in water considering their age however they went on perfectly.

Next on to the wing pylons and ordinance.

[MikeC]

Nice. I've built that same example in those very markings - same kit, decals, everything. Never did manage to find out for certain the significance of the four A-4 silhouettes, any thoughts?

[periklis_sale]

Looks amazing mate!!!!!!!!!!

Job very well done!!!!!!

[Col.]

Harriers are lovely, early Harriers especialy so, and you're doing this one proud Mark.

[Gary West]

Good work - quite a challenge that kit I know, so well done

[Rampage55]

Thank you gentlemen for your kind words. I had a lot of fun building this old classic kit.

Never did manage to find out for certain the significance of the four A-4 silhouettes, any thoughts?

While I can't speak specifically about this particular A/C, I do know that while I was in the Marine Corps in the mid 80's just when the AV-8B's were coming on line they were occasionally tasked with CAP sorties over Marine positions to guard against Navy A-7 attacks. I assume similar to how the SHAR was used during the "Falklands War". From what I heard more than a few Marine AV-8 pilots became quite proficient at taking out the Navy attackers. However then Navy A-6's would come in at night or in bad weather and that was a different story. So I can only guess that considering VMA-542 was just the second Marine squadron to receive the Harrier after VMA-513, that they were developing these sort of tactics in the early 70's and Capt Owen became quite proficient at picking off Navy A-4's coming in to attack Marine positions. I would have been more impressed if they were F-4 or F-8 kills though.

So, I've finely finished this project and just in time for the Marine Corps birthday on Nov. 10th.

I'll post the rest of the completed pics in the "Ready for Inspection" thread.

Thanks for looking.

Semper Fi,

Mark

[AnonymousAA72]

Really nice Mark....well done!!

[Guest Cop]

OOOhh I like that. Clean and un-cluttered, just like they should be.

Nige.

[PHIL B]

Nice work Mark. Very clean build.

I have a couple of Monogram AV-8As in the stack. Must bump one nearer to the top.

Incidentally, they are pretty plentiful on eBay, usually in the USA. They seem to go for about £15-£18 including airmail shipping to the UK.

Phil.

[Rampage55]

Thanks gents, your good word is much appreciated.

Your quite right Phil, they are fairly prevalent on ebay and quite reasonable too. In fact that's where I picked up mine a long with the SuperScale decals to boot. I have another one in the stash I'm going to do as an RAF bird.

Cheers,

Mark

[periklis_sale]

Nice one Mark!!!!!!!!