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Hasegawa 1/48 Harrier GR.9


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Thanks all!!

Square shaped protrusion to the aft of the wing central section does not feature on GR9s. The GPS antennae is a small circular disc in the same position.

Take a look here.

Loving it so far btw.

Kirk, thanks for the heads up - I actually knew about that one :smartass: I've seen mention of strengthening plates on the rear fuselage but can't see any on the photos I have. Would you care to enlighten me?

Fantastic work so far Ian!! The Aires pit seems to work just perfectly and I have reminded myself to remove those rails for my upcoming build as well.

Also, one word of caution on this kit, well actually two. The wing kink is WAY to exaggerated IMHO and could use fixing and be careful of how Hasegawa makes you attach the nose to the main fuselage or you will end up with a banana shaped Harrier.

Oh BTW, I also love the weathering in the intake. Care to share your technique??

Cheers

Mike

Thanks Mike. Hmmmmm the wing kink :hmmm: I've seen lots of comment about it. WAY too exaggerated you say? Well I've looked at lots of photos and held the model against my monitor for ages and I can't see it for the life of me. I've even taken a photo of the model from as close an angle as I can get to a reference photo for comparison. Here's the model :-

DSC01757.jpg

and here's the real thing from the same angle (Net photo I think - all credit to original poster):-

580.jpg

I've overlayed the two photos in Photoshop, adjusted them to the same size and played with the opacity of the top one and the wing angles (and "kink") are identical as far as I can see :yikes: So what am I missing? :shrug: If I can't see the thing that's broke I can't attempt to fix it (or leave it alone ). Help!!

Re the intake weathering - some splodges of grey and browny grey pastel chalk were applied to the bellmouth a couple of mm in front of the fan. The pastels were then dragged forward with a clean dry Q-tip, blended in with another clean dry Q-tip and streaked with a slightly moistened one. Then it was flat coated - easy peasy.

Thanks for looking and any insight that you can bring to "the kink mystery".

Ian

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Ian

If you look at the kit wing right at the wing fence see how it REALLY kinks?? Scroll down to the pic of the real deal and notice how the kink is gradual? I noticed it the day I got my first Hasegawa Harrier when they were first released. In fact Drewe manton cam up with a great fix by carving a trough of plastic out from the inner wing surfaces and slightly bending them down just prior to assembling.

In the end, if you don't see it nobody can argue with that! The kit still looks quite the part when assembled from the box. I was just pointing out an issue that I have been aware of for some time. Either way, you have a brilliant build going and I certainly am following it closely! Thanks for the tip on the intakes, they really look great my friend.

Cheers!!

Mike

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Mike,

Thanks for the explanation it has clarified some of the issues for me and has led me to a conclusion ... I think.

Yup, I can see that the Hasegawa upper wing surface has a noticeable "feature" - the infamous "kink" - however the angle of the wing both inboard and outboard of this "kink" is a very good match to the real thing. Therefore I am drawn to the conclusion that any remedial action that involves bending the wing in any way will give an inaccurate angle to the wing.

But then, what to do with the "feature" on the upper wing because this clearly does not appear on the real thing? I guess that filling in the valley and thereby smoothing out the upper wing surface is the best option (Bill Clark take a gold star!!). Unless anyone can offer a better solution or evidence that the bending method is the way to go, then I shall be filling the "kink" on the upper wing.

I hope that my ramblings make sense.

Cheers,

Ian

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Hi Ian

don't know if this will help but took the liberty of tracing the wing lines as it will hopefully explain what i think is the problem

the top line is the wing's 'horizon'

the middle line is the leading edge

the bottom line is the trailing edge

kink.jpg

even allowing for any distortion due to shifts in viewpoint between the pics the problem seems to be with the middle line- ie the top of the wing which on the real thing is near straight. the kit kinks this line too.

i realise the trailing edge is going to be different due to the flaps not being on the kit yet

hope that makes sense and is somehow helpful

Bill's assessment may well be correct that any fix will involve trough filling (not implying by that the kit is a :pig:btw :lol:)

Edited by walrus
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Walrus,

Thanks for that, your tracing has confirmed what I thunked. I was puzzled by reading accounts of people addressing the "kink" by bending various parts of the wing (as Mike R described in his post above) but I was prepared to do it (now that the upper wing is detached, if it fixed the problem. However, this "fix" will clearly alter the angle of the wing and that IMHO is substituting one (less obvious?) error for another when the real problem is not the angle made by the inner and outer wing surfaces but the rapid change on the upper surface of the kit. Filling this "trough" fixes the problem (if done smoothly - that will be my problem I feel ... now where's that Mr Surfacer?).

Thanks again,

Ian

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A little update to document a substantial amount of work - although not a huge amount of visible progress has been made .....ho hum ....

Prior to fitting the nose section I added a piece of clear blue painted clear sprue and some silver painted styrene strip to represent the laser range finder/marked target seeker in the nose. I also boxed in the nose "puffer jet" with some strip :-

DSC01770.jpg

The extraneous vent holes in the stbd nose (above the forward slime lights) and port rear fuselage (aft of the nozzles) were filled with sprue and sanded to shape :-

DSC01772.jpg

DSC01771.jpg

The upper wing was reattached (thankfully without dramas) and the joins were almost as good the second time around ..... I also filled the "kink" valleys with CA and sanded flat to give the upper wing a smooth profile (in what really should be called "Bill Clark's kinky fix" :analintruder: )

DSC01778.jpg

Prior to fitting the intakes I painted and weathered the interiors :-

DSC01775.jpg

Finally I made up and rivetted some strengtheneing plates from 5 thou plastic card for the rear fuselage aft of the rear nozzles, here's the port set :-

DSC01777.jpg

Here's the stbd set cemented into place :-

DSC01782.jpg

Next up will be finishing up the cockpit area and then it will be primer time.

Thanks for looking and any comment/critique you may have.

Ian

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(in what really should be called "Bill Clark's kinky fix" :analintruder: )

......Now thats a phrase I haven't heard for a few decades!!! But what goes around comes around Ian, 'cos I'm learning a helluva lot here...

Fantastic build.....love the strengthening plates - but, how many rivets have you.........................No, best not go down that particular avenue!!!

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... the sprue l.m.r.t.s. ...

Strictly speaking, it's an ARBS (Angle Rate Bombing System) - but that's being a bit rivet-countery. I agree that it looks good though and is a more elegant solution than painting the clear cover blue.

Ian - don't forget that you can't really see into the aperture behind the forward RCV as it is normally covered by the valve shutter.

Your attention to detail here is superb; I particularly like your "BCkf" and totally agree with your analysis of the "problem".

Cheers,

Kirk

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Strictly speaking, it's an ARBS (Angle Rate Bombing System) - but that's being a bit rivet-countery. I agree that it looks good though and is a more elegant solution than painting the clear cover blue.

Cheers,

Kirk

Cheers Kirk, I'm happy to learn rivet countery things!! :whistle:;)

Keef

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Many thanks for the feedback chaps.

......Now thats a phrase I haven't heard for a few decades!!! But what goes around comes around Ian, 'cos I'm learning a helluva lot here...

Fantastic build.....love the strengthening plates - but, how many rivets have you.........................No, best not go down that particular avenue!!!

Bill, re the rivets, while I didn't count them I did try to get the double rows and single rows correct ................... I guess that makes me a rivet arranger :mental:

Strictly speaking, it's an ARBS (Angle Rate Bombing System) - but that's being a bit rivet-countery. I agree that it looks good though and is a more elegant solution than painting the clear cover blue.

Ian - don't forget that you can't really see into the aperture behind the forward RCV as it is normally covered by the valve shutter.

Your attention to detail here is superb; I particularly like your "BCkf" and totally agree with your analysis of the "problem".

Cheers,

Kirk

Kirk, my "cunning plan" is to put a small curved piece of card (partially?) over the RCV opening to represent the shutter.

Cheers,

Ian

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Kirk, Andy and Bruce.

Time for a little update to show that (slow) progress is being made.

Before priming the Harrier I reduced the height of the rectangular tail mounted RWR housing by 1.5mm as the kit moulding is too tall:-

DSC01786.jpg

After attaching this, the HUD and the forward canopy she was primed and the "new" panels sprayed Medium Sea Grey which were then masked off and the lower Dark Camouflage Grey added followed by yet more masking and then the Dark Sea Grey on the upper surfaces. I was keen to see whether the contrast between the Xtracrylix shades matched the real thing so removed some of the masking :-

DSC01787.jpg

DSC01788.jpg

I'm quite pleased with the result so next up will be spraying the droppy off bits (pylons doors etc) and then spraying of the leading edge coatings on the wings, tail surfaces and pylons.

Thanks for looking and any comment/critique you may have.

Ian

Edited by Notdoneyet
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Proper job Ian, looking mighty fine :thumbsup:

Interesting to note the difference between your MSG and mine. Yours looks much better to my eye, so there's obviously something afoot with Xtracolor MSG, at least when compared to Xtracrylix :hmmm:

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