NG899 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) Hi, At last, I'm making an appearance on this GB with something that's been keeping me busy for a while... The Harrier SIG is putting on a special display at Scale ModelWorld this year of the last Harriers to fly from RAF Cottesmore, the 16-Ship 'Kestrel Formation' plus the photo/weather aircraft. That's 13 GR.Mk9s/9As and 4 T.Mk12s/12A. The GR.Mk9s/9As are easy from the Hasegawa/Revell kits, suitably modified with 100% LERX where needed. The T.Mk12s and the one 12A are not so easy as the current Heritage Aviation conversion set is, shall we say, not the best. So, using a small portion of that I'm putting together a brand new mastering of the T.Mk12 that Ian Taylor at Heritage Aviation will be casting for us and making commercially available, some time later this year or early next. The set has been designed to make maximum use of kit parts and enable people to have a kit GR.Mk9 and a converted T.Mk12 side-by-side with no major differences apparent in, for example, the standard of the cockpit layouts: what may not be so clear in these photos is that the cockpits both have kit tubs in them. The new fin will slot into the current slots on the top of the fuselage; the new cockpit section will replace the kit's cockpit section and B3 part, while the new tail extension is a simple plug-in after part of the kit's tailcone has been removed. Harrier T.Mk12 - New cockpit section Harrier T.Mk12 - New tailcone extension Harrier T.Mk12 - General views showing the new fin shape As you can see, there's still more work to do! For the SMW display the decals will be the new Airframe Decals Harrier Retirement Schemes Sheet AF-48218, which Andy Robinson and I have been helping the people at Airframe out with. The plan for the new Heritage conversion set is that it will come with its own decals; which aircraft have yet to be finally decided upon. Please don't bombard either Ian at Heritage or me with requests for more information about when the new conversion set will be ready - the answer is we'll know when it is and you'll be the third to know! The conversion set masters will definitely be finished by the time this GB is completed; in fact they have to be finished in 2 weeks. Whether my T.Mk12 build will be is another matter; hopefully you won't mind if I'm a few weeks late Doug! I will upload more photos of the finished masters when I have them. Cheers, Nick Edited August 2, 2011 by NG899 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 A most welcome effort on your part Nick. Quite tempted by the idea of this one - just a pity the base kit has become so expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Looks good Nick... I like the T-birds, and they're so far not well served in 1:48. Keep up the good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloegin57 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Looks good Nick... I like the T-birds, and they're so far not well served in 1:48. Keep up the good work That's a good hint there young Nick and you know how much I like T-Birds especially the early ones. Short or tall fin - don't matter. That's a nice bit of work you've done there, no wonder you've been so quiet of late. Nice one Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Nice work there. Now, if you could just scale it down to 1/72 and make it fit the new Airfix kit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian @ KitsforCash Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Nice work there. Now, if you could just scale it down to 1/72 and make it fit the new Airfix kit... its happening....oops giveaway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Rogers Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Welcome to the GB Nick, certainly does look like you've been busy. Looks like some very neat work so far, I do love the look of the two seat Harriers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 its happening....oops giveaway Oooohhh, really?!? Coz I know what I'm saving my pocket money for now!!! I'll be keeping my beady eye on your website now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 its happening....oops giveaway So I won't need to cross-kit the Italeri TAV-8B and the Airfix GR9. I'm looking forward to this one And how about a set to convert the Airfix GR9 to an AV-8B? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocksAway Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 An option to build all 1st and 2nd generation T-birds in 1/48th would be brilliant - I feel Harrier Project 2 coming on. Mind you, it'll make a serious dent in the piggy back. So come on Airfix, give us a new mould GR1/3 and GR5/7/9 in 1/48 and let the AM boys give us the bits to do the set at some reasonable prices - of course! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousAA72 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 A great start Nick, I'm doing something similar in 1/72nd scale (though I couldn't wait for any conversion set! So AM using the Italeri nose section grafted on to an Airfix GR9/7). I'm planning on a T10, and I wasn't aware of the tail boom extension! Was this on the T12 only or was it a feature of the T10 too? How long was it (ooer - Mrs!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocksAway Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Bill I think T10 and T12 are the same. I'll send you a couple of close-ups so you can get your ruler out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG899 Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 In 48th the tailboom extension is 4 laminations of 20thou card thick which I make to be 80thou Bill. The T10's extension was the same as the T12's, also note how the lower section is squared off going forward, the '80thou bit' bridges the gap from the square to round lower section while keeping the upper section shape; so, there are some interesting shapes around there. Dennis et al, thanks for the positive comments. Like the T10/12, the current Heritage T2/4/8 in 48th, which is better than the original, still needs a lot of work to get it where it needs to be. In all honesty, at this moment in time, I'm not sure I'll have the time to tackle it for a year or so: too many other things to do in life while I can... If someone else wishes to pick up the challenge, I'd be happy to advise them and point them in the right directions. Cheers, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Wow, amazing work nick, hats off to you fella. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousAA72 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 In 48th the tailboom extension is 4 laminations of 20thou card thick which I make to be 80thou Bill.The T10's extension was the same as the T12's, also note how the lower section is squared off going forward, the '80thou bit' bridges the gap from the square to round lower section while keeping the upper section shape; so, there are some interesting shapes around there. Cheers, Nick Thanks Nick, I'll amend my boom later! Funny that I hadn't noticed that before - bearing in mind the boom extension on the earlier T-birds....must look closer in future!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted August 7, 2011 Share Posted August 7, 2011 That's looking good Nick. I can see a lot of work has gone into that conversion effort. Shaun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundowner14 Posted August 7, 2011 Share Posted August 7, 2011 Will be having some of that when it's released!! Top banana. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG899 Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 News on progress... The masters went to Ian Taylor at Heritage a week or so ago and he's been buring the midday and midnight oil to get some initial pre-production castings done for the SIG's Kestrel Formation models for Scale ModelWorld. Once I have those, in the next couple of weeks - sadly after this GB finishes in all likelihood - I'll make any final tweaks required before Ian sends them out to CMK for casting the commercial resins. Ian hopes to have the new conversion sets on sale in time for Christmas this year. Here are some rushed photos of the finished masters which went to Ian... When you buy your own conversion set from Ian in due course, I hope you enjoy making your T.Mk12. The alert among you will have noticed that you'll not only be able to make a T.Mk10 but also the various TAV-8Bs too as I've engineered the conversion set to keep the kit's nose cone. The conversion set will also include the underwing hardpoint fairings often carried by the T.Mk12 in its later years, those in this image having been produced specially for the SIG's Kestrel Formation build by Shaun Bowman-Davies; thanks Shaun! Sadly doing all of this means I won't be able to finish either my GR.Mk9 or T.Mk12 for this group build, unless we can get an extension of time until mid-November! Cheers, Nick 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 (edited) Looking very nice Nick, Hope it all goes well, so the display will be complete for Telford. Shaun. Edited September 4, 2011 by Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyWan Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Hey guys, I jus stumbled upon this thread. Can anyone tell me where I might find this set? I checked the Heritage site, but what I found was the T10 set, is this the ore production of that? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG899 Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) Hi Anthony, Since I started this thread I have managed to finish the build with the prototype castings kindly supplied by Ian Taylor at Heritage. Since then I've had to tidy up the masters somewhat so that they can be put into production; more work still to be done. I'm planning for Ian to have the masters before Easter - the delays are due to work (a very full-on day job!) and issues with my eyes in the past few months (now just about sorted thank goodness). Ian then hopes to have them in production asap, replacing the current T.10, I believe. I'm passing him some ideas for decals too; a green T.10 plus overall medium sea grey T.12s from No.1(F) Squadron and 800NAS. Here's how the model currently looks - still have to sort out decals for the MDCs in the canopies... and replace the pre-production transparencies eventually. So, yes, the new T.12 will be available via Heritage Aviation later this year... and before much longer Ian and I both hope! Cheers, Nick Edited March 4, 2012 by NG899 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MS664 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Great job. Looking forward to the release. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screech Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 That looks really sharp! Can hardly wait until it's released! Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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