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Hello gents,

This is an Airfix 1/24 GR1 original boxing that I will try to convert to a GR3. This model is almost as old as I, so I'll treat it with utmost respect :)

I usualy don't start a new model before having finished the previous one but since I'm on holiday and have no access to an airbrush, I concentrate on dirty sanding, filling tasks as well as detailling and doing some PE.

First task is to fill all those nasty rivets. I tried different filler such as tamiya Putty, two component, Mr Surfacer 500 and Green squadron putty.

My choice will finally be the last one, as it's easy to sand away, dry fast and provide a good contrats between the plastic and the filler.

Most of the work is done on the fuselages, tail, gear doors, wingtips etc etc.

001_harrier.jpg004_harrier_rivets.jpg

Here's a closup of the nose: It really is necessary to go over this daunting task

003_harrier_nose.jpg

As I said, this is a GR1 and I even don't have the laser nose and PWR fairing, so I sourced some resin and PE plug.

002_harrier_accessoires.jpg

Flightpath GR3 huge kit, the second BLU and loader, the heritage resin cockpit and the heritage intakes.

The guys and gals at flightpath were also very kind to provide me a laser nose, and I got part of the PWR fairing and an extra nose from a fellow on ARC a while back (many thanks)

I wrote Airfix and they agreed to sell me the new decal sheet from they reissued GR3

Here's a nice project for the holidays ... yeah I know it will take me up to Xmas to complete this big boy

At this stage I plan on doing a 1st sqd bird on deployment to Norway with the white paint covering the green. If you guys have any reference for those schemes I'd be happy to get them, I only have a few pictures

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Well guys, if you follow this one, please don't hesitate to post advices

I'll be needing all the ones I can get on this build :deadhorse1:

here are the first dry fits.

The resin cockpit and the intakes have been cut and it's always a great motivation to dry fits the parts all together (thanks Bluetack) to see some aircraft shapes

I almost cut the extra resin on the nose, but finally decided against it and hollow the nose a bit so the recess enter the fuselage and makes a solid joint.

005_dryfit.jpg007_dryfit.jpg

The intakes are a great addition and they fit nice. They weill save me a lot of time on those gravity doors.

I Still have to find out what's best to do on the inside as some parts are missing from the Airfix kits, if you guys have any suggestion. Anyone know how's it done on 1/48 kits? Mainly the area behind the pilot up to the turbine fans? I have found some "how to" thread progress on some SHAR on largescaleplane, I'll study that as well

I haven't decided yet which cockpit I'll use. PE or resin or a mix of the two? I'll probably make both and decide along the way. I never used only PE, always thought it was too fragile, but that Flightpath set looks great

006_dryfit.jpg

Should start soon on the pit to break the filling & sanding

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This will be some inspiration when i eventually get round to my interpretation of this fine jet. I have the Sea Harrier kit with just about every addon you can get apart from the intakes (gotta get me a set of those) Red dog, like you i think i'll be using a mix of the resin and the flightpath set. It is a serious bit of kit, all that brass in one place! What was i thinking! :woot.gif:

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One of the point I wanted to clear as fast as possible is the lack of PWR on the tail fin. Indeed, the first generation kit are GR1 and not GR3 as the recent reboxing.

Luckily, there's a PWR fairing in the flightpath kit. So I started working on the fin. Unfortunately, the fairing seem way too large to me, about 2mm in 1/24 larger than the drawing I have:

008_tail.jpg

So I started by replicated the fairing in plasticard but I made the mistake of filling it with putty. Of course the next morning both the plastic card and the leading edge of the fin were dissolved.

Plan B was to recut the PE part to adapt the fairing in size, this worked much better.

009_tail.jpg

I also detailled the tail fin with some bolts, panels, PE and the trim tab actuator which still seem a bit too large to my eyes

Edited by Red Dog
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Did some work on the wings.

The main wing was assembled and I started detailling the port wing

010_wing.jpg

It's the first time I use the Gator's glue for PE parts instead of my usual Cyano glue. Much more flexible because you have more time to place the parts correctly. A very good product which I recommend. The bond also seem quite strong after drying.

Here's a rundown of the parts I detailled, beside filling the rivets redoing the engraving and trying to thin all the trailing edges (flaps, aileron & tips):

- The RCV exhaust on the top of the wing was opened and detailled (they are nonexistent in the airfix kit :? )

Strangely flightpath didn't provide any PE parts either. It could have used some.

011_RCV.jpg

- The fuel vent between the flap and aileron was redone with plastic rod.

013_fuelvent.jpg

- The vortex generators are added from the PE set. I also redid the wing fences in styrene before realizing they were also available on the PE fret :blush:

014_vortex.jpg

- The fence on the outrigger was thus made with the PE parts. I also remodelled the two ailerons actuations covers. There was a huge gap in the middle so the aileron can be lowered. In my case, I glued the aileron in neutral position, so the covers needed to be filled in the middle. that was done with styrene and putty

012_outrigger.jpg

Then the wing received a coat of Mr Surfacer so I can now check the engraving and finish the sanding/correction process

015_primerwing1.jpg

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Thanks :)

Well, I started the cockpit. It will be a mix of both Resin and PE after all.

I just miss a picture of the rear bulkhead behind the seat which I would like to detail a bit but only have reference for the SHAR

If you have some picture of that area and willing to share it, i'd be interested

Thanks

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Good job so far RD, and one I look forward to doing at some stage myself.

One point to note is that RWR equipped Harrier fin tops are re-profiled, and are about twice as

deep above the rudder as the older type.

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One point to note is that RWR equipped Harrier fin tops are re-profiled, and are about twice as

deep above the rudder as the older type.

Yep, I have read in my documentation that the fin was a bit increased in size but couldn't find reference to mod mine. They also said that the increase in height would have been even greater if the forward PWR wasn't installed

It would be interesting to see if the tail fin in the GR3 newer kit has been increased as well? Anyone cares to open his box and check the dimensions of the tail?

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Enough turning around the pot, I attacked the cockpit <_<

here's what I have available

016_cockpit1.jpg

The choice between plastic, resin or PE

the plastic one is no option, I don't have that kind of skill

The resin looks fine but lots of fragile stuff are broken (wires) and suffer from a lot of bubbles especially on the front panel

All three are different in sizes (?) and I can see mistakes on the resin and plastic. On the other hand, some components won't be modelled correctly in etched brass only.

So I decided to make a mix of all I have available

018_cockpitPE.jpg

The tub is done in PE, detailled with some plastic and copper sheet bits where appropriate. the swicthes are made with wires, they are too thick to my liking but I couldn't make holes in the brass smaller than that so I will have to live with it.

I wasn't convinced by the way the rudder where made in PE, so I cut the resin ones and fit those instead, they are much better

The front bulkhead will be the kit's piece and the rear bulkhead will be the resin one.

The Flightpath control stick is really not good enough for the job in that squale, much too square and lacking details. I need to replace it. I hesitate between remodelling the white metal or making a complete new one ?

019_stick.jpg

Started also the PE seat although I haven't decided which one I'll use in the end. It seems the headrest of that seat can be elevated and the resin one is as low as possible. Although all pictures I have seen show a gap between the headrest and the main body of the seat. This is something I ould easily do with the PE seat, but not with the resin seat. Although as you can see on the picture below, the resin seat has the main body of the seat quite higher than the PE seat

All three seats have the parachute badly modelled in any case.

At this time, I favour the PE seat.

020_seat1.jpg021_seat2.jpg022_seat3.jpg

I must say the flightpath kit is a really great addition, the detail are really great and even if the instructions could be better, careful studying before gluing makes the trick.

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The Flightpath PE seat is very interesting. Looks like you've got a long way to go but from the progress you've made so far, you'll do a great job of it. Liking the fact you've combined sets, taking the strongest bits of each part. Looking forward to more progress.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Made some progress on the PE cockpit

024_cockpit.jpg

First time I'm doing some switches, they are a bit long but I guess it will emphasize them.

They were done with 0.25mm wires and the knobs were made with a punch and die set.

I can now weather the pit and start working in the internal fuselage, that's where we all seem to break our tooth :thumbsup:

Since initialy seeing them, I though the flightpath metal wheels are too thin and too big. I decided to get a shot at the heritage aviation undercarriage set and the wheels looks much better imho

I'll let you judge by yourself with the below pictures

025_wheel.jpg026_wheel.jpg

I also got their speedbrake bay which looks quite good as well

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