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Airfix Sea Harriers FRS.1 and FA.2


NG899

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Recce phreak,

Every Sea Harrier had the F95 fitted, if you look at the picture of 003 on LUST it's the black tear drop you can see on the starboard side of the fuselage between the AoA probe and starboard pitot tube.

It took great black and white photos and could take IR film too. It was aimed by means of a china graph cross on the canopy roughly aligned with the pilot's shoulder. It was started and stopped by depressing the paddle switch on the control column.

Long winded way of saying that most jets at some point did recce whether tasked or not. The camera provided some great images in The Balkans and was very handy for opportunity shots too.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi Stu,

The simple answer is NO, there shouldn't be a gap.  In their 1:48th scale kit there's a rear bulkhead for the canopy with an extension at right angles which comes out a tad under the tip of the rear of the canopy.  Search Sea Harrier canopies and you should find some photos to help.  Not being a 1:72nd scale modeller I've not had that problem!  You could also check some of the builds of the kit here on BM and see what others have done.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Nick

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  • 8 months later...

Me again, couple of uick question re the third option in the FRS1, is dark sea grey the correct grey? And two is there a good extra dark sea grey in the Vallejo model colour range?  edit ansered the 2nd question, gunship grey is pretty similar to ESDG which is in vallejos line

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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10 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Me again, couple of uick question re the third option in the FRS1, is dark sea grey the correct grey? And two is there a good extra dark sea grey in the Vallejo model colour range?  edit ansered the 2nd question, gunship grey is pretty similar to ESDG which is in vallejos line

 

 

yes, they were painted Dark Sea Grey from about 1983/4 until the FA2 came into service (except a couple of specials about 1990)

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16 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Me again, couple of uick question re the third option in the FRS1, is dark sea grey the correct grey? And two is there a good extra dark sea grey in the Vallejo model colour range?  edit ansered the 2nd question, gunship grey is pretty similar to ESDG which is in vallejos line

 

I've used several times Vallejo 867 Dark Blue Grey for EDSG and IMHO it's a good match, well capturing the blue hue of this colour

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1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

 

I've used several times Vallejo 867 Dark Blue Grey for EDSG and IMHO it's a good match, well capturing the blue hue of this colour

Thanks, I went with FS36118 Dark Sea Green, which at least the model air version looks a good one as well, and I discovered to my surprise that Xtrarlcyrix ESDG and FS36118 are virtually the same, and even if the Vallejo proves not blue enough I can always switch to that as my go to FS36118 and use the XA as ESSG.

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1 minute ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Thanks, I went with FS36118 Dark Sea Green, which at least the model air version looks a good one as well, and I discovered to my surprise that Xtrarlcyrix ESDG and FS36118 are virtually the same, and even if the Vallejo proves not blue enough I can always switch to that as my go to FS36118 and use the XA as ESSG.

 

Is that 868 Dark Sea Green ? If so this is a very dark colour, IMHO well darker than 36118, so much that I use it to reproduce RLM 74 on WW2 Luftwaffe aircrafts

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1 minute ago, Giorgio N said:

 

Is that 868 Dark Sea Green ? If so this is a very dark colour, IMHO well darker than 36118, so much that I use it to reproduce RLM 74 on WW2 Luftwaffe aircrafts

Blast. As I said the model air version is an excellent EDSG, goes to show can't always trust companies to be internally conistent. Oh well guess Ill be using the Xtraclryix and replacing my humbrol RLM74

 

fairey-gannet-as-mk4-revell.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
36 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Not quite the right thread, but as its a sticky and relevent, what needs to be done to convert a frs1 into a fa 2? 

A very quick "off the top of my head" list

 

  • Change the radome from the pointed version used by the FRS Mk.1 to the more bulbous example used by the F/A Mk.2
  • Add a 350mm fuselage extension to the rear fuselage behind the wings
  • Remove the mid-wing leading edge dogtooth and add a new dogtooth nearer to the wing root leading edges
  • During its life the F/A Mk.2's Doppler navigation system was replaced by a GPS system so you may need to remove the yellow/brown Doppler antennas from beneath the front fuselage and add a white circular GPS antenna to the top of the fuselage in front of the tail plane
  • Add some additional cooling vents to the sides of the rear fuselage

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

 

Edited by Richard E
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3 minutes ago, Richard E said:

A very quick "off the top of my head" list

 

  • Change the radome from the pointed version used by the FRS Mk.1 to the more bulbous example used by the F/A Mk.2
  • Add a 350mm fuselage extension to the rear fuselage behind the wings
  • Remove the mid-wing leading edge dogtooth and add a new dogtooth nearer to the wing root leading edges
  • During its life the F/A Mk.2's Doppler navigation system was replaced by a GPS system so you may need to remove the yellow/brown Doppler antennas from beneath the front fuselage and add a white circular GPS antenna to the top of the fuselage in front of the tail plane
  • Add some additional cooling vents to the sides of the rear fuselage

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Richard, more tricky than I had envisioned, though the only sticky point is the dogtooth change, fairly doabe.

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19 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

 

Thanks Richard, more tricky than I had envisioned, though the only sticky point is the dogtooth change, fairly doabe.

Probably not that daunting if you can find some good plan top views of the FRS Mk.1 and F/A Mk.2, it's not a modification I've attempted but I imagine it would just need some filling and cutting.

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looks like my best option is to just buy the cheap xtrakit from hannants and salvage the wings and rear fuselage +probe  extension and throw the rest away, proably cheaper than buying the whirlybird conversion from abroad which may not fit my frs1

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Nick.

 

A question for the collective - has the re-release (A04052A) undergone any mould revision? I'm hopeful, in light of the description of Stu's build in the link provided by Nick: "Assistant editor Stu Fone employs scratch-building and aftermarket on a test-shot of Airfix’s pending 1/72 Sea Harrier FA.2 re-release" (my bold).

 

thanks in advance,

 

Andrew.

Edited by Andrew
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21 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Thanks Nick.

 

A question for the collective - has the re-release (A04052A) undergone any mould revision? I'm hopeful, in light of the description of Stu's build in the link provided by Nick: "Assistant editor Stu Fone employs scratch-building and aftermarket on a test-shot of Airfix’s pending 1/72 Sea Harrier FA.2 re-release" (my bold).

 

thanks in advance,

 

Andrew.

 

No, same plastic, just new decals

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