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New Airfix 1/72 Shar's!


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Mmmmmmm, these are very nice, bought both in my LHS yesterday and can easily see more being added to the stash as I can't make up my mind what decal options to use from the FRS.1!! I like the two overall grey schemes, although the grey/white is nice too. The FA.2 will defo be done in the 800Sqn scheme

I'm not a rivet counter or panel line expert so won't comment on these aspects of the kits. The only thing I'm not sure about is the shape of the drop tanks, they look a bit to rounded rather than having a nose cone/parallel mid section/tapered tail section, is this correct as depicted in the kit?

Some good reference material for anyone wanting to build these kits are -

"The Sharp End" by Neil Mercer, and "Sea Harrier: The Last All British Fighter" by Jamie Hunter, both packed with plenty pics and detail shots of both Shar varients and all the different markings they carried.

I read the chapter on Operation Corporate in the Jamie Hunter book last night and now quite fancy and "deckful" of FRS.1's!!

Anyone started a build on these yet or know of anything to watch out for during the build?

Might make a tentative start on these over Xmas and New Year! :Tasty:

Eng

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Anyone started a build on these yet or know of anything to watch out for during the build?

Yep, I've got the FRS1 on the bench alongside the Mk.IX Spitfire at the moment. Building both OOTB.

The wing undersurface inserts need quite a bit of material sanding off the wingroot end and the inner surface (ejector pin marks stand proud) to allow the wing to fit correctly - you'll see what I mean when you get to them. I only have the FRS1, so I can't comment on this area in the FA2. Take great care removing the fan blades, joystick and pitot tube from the sprues, else you'll have to do some repair work - ask me how I know? If you're using the kit ejection seat, you'll need to enlarge the mounting hole to allow it to fit neatly over the peg in the cockpit tub, and you'll need to remove the mounting peg from the rear of the seat cushion or it will sit proud of the seat frame. I was painting the nose cone last night and I noticed it is not perfectly round (there are no pegs indicating correct orientation, so I imagine it should be perfectly round). You'll have to be careful about attaching it to the main airframe so that any shape issues are minimised, or you'll need to do some sanding to rectify the shape - I'm not sure what I'll do yet and I'll need to look at some more photographs to decide. Fit of main parts seems OK, other than the wing inserts, but I'm not very far along yet. The panel lines are far too deep, but the mouldings are nice and clean, and detail is OK for the scale. Although most of us probably wouldn't use him, the WWII vintage pilot is ridiculous. Surely someone at Airfix/Hornby needs their a*** kicking for allowing that to slip through?

I'm enjoying it and I'll stick some progress shots up in a build thread later today.

Cheers,

Jeff

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I must admit I quite like them - just one gripe though. Am I the only one who wishes there were also non-bulged wheels in the kit ?

Most of my kits end up hanging from the ceiling at Air Cadets for recognition training, and I normally leave the gear down to illustrate number of wheels etc.

Looks silly with weight on ! ( OK, so I should probably also extend oleos, deploy flaps etc - but they are only rec aids ! )

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I must admit I quite like them - just one gripe though. Am I the only one who wishes there were also non-bulged wheels in the kit ?

Most of my kits end up hanging from the ceiling at Air Cadets for recognition training, and I normally leave the gear down to illustrate number of wheels etc.

Looks silly with weight on ! ( OK, so I should probably also extend oleos, deploy flaps etc - but they are only rec aids ! )

Sand off the bulges and place the flattened side up top so it's not so noticeable. The bulges are pretty well done, but I can see where you're coming from.

Cheers,

Jeff

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