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1/32 Trumpeter AV-8B Harrier


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I've been working on this for months. This is undoubtedly the most challenging Trumpeter kit that I've ever worked on: the weapons pylons are inaccurate, the nose profile is wrong, the gun pods are completely messed up, the wings are misshapen, not to mention the missing missile rails and incorrect weapons supplied with the kit. However, I've finally gotten to where I think that I've fixed everything that I can, and I'd like to share some of it.

First, the pylons. I fixed the shape of the inboard pylons:

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Also, I corrected the position of the notches on the undersides of the middle pylons:

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The notches on the outboard pylons have been filled in and the detail has been modified:

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I realized after I had finished these modifications that the middle and outboard pylons did not mount to the wing correctly; there is a huge gap at the rear of each pylon:

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So, I filled in these gaps with sheet plastic, putty, and a piece of a nose section of an old AIM-9L leftover from a Revell F-4E kit:

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More to come...

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The GAU-12 pods are, well, just completely WRONG. On the real aircraft, the 5 barrel cannon is in the port pod, and the ammunition is stored in the starboard pod. The ammo feed runs across the bottom of the aircraft and is covered with a fairing. The kit comes with pods that have a single barrel cannon in each pod, and the fairing that covers the ammo feed is completely misshapen and missing the aft section.

To start, I filled in the hole in the front of the starboard pod with plastic rods, then puttied and sanded it smooth (photo below shows the plastic rods inserted; I puttied and sanded it down smooth afterwards):

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To simulate the 5 barrel GAU-12, I used some leftover copper tubing. Admittedly, this is not COMPLETELY accurate, but it is an upgrade to what came with the kit:

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I used sheet plastic and the front portion of a cluster bomb leftover from the Tamiya F-15E to scratch build the interior portion of the port gun pod:

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To finish off the pod, I glued a portion of a coffee stirrer into the end of the opening of the pod (my apologies for the crummy photo):

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Ugh! Is this why we barely see any builds on this kit?

I'm going to have to build it as-is and stow it away near rear of display case and hope nobody looks closely.

Maybe you should mod your parts, cast them and them put them out there for sale. wink-wink

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Nice to see someone actually taking the time to sit down and correct the not-at-all-minor shape issues with this kit. It is a shame that you have to do this at all given the amount fo easily available (even in China) references for this aircraft.

Will be following with interest. Very nice work so far.

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When i built this kit i did it OOB, warts and all. I don't have the skills or patience to do what you're accomplishing, great work!! :worship: I thought the gunpods might have been too thin. What markings are you going to use?

Don

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I did some of this to a harrier myself... I seem to recall the outboard pylon being short. Nice work thus far.

That's absolutely correct, and I've tried to make that correction by extending the aft sections of these pylons with sheet plastic, then smoothing it out with putty.

When i built this kit i did it OOB, warts and all. I don't have the skills or patience to do what you're accomplishing, great work!! :worship: I thought the gunpods might have been too thin. What markings are you going to use?

Yes, I believe that the gun pods are too thin, but unfortunately I didn't notice until I had them installed, so I guess I'm just going to have to live with them. At least they're on the bottom of the plane! I plan on using the VMA-231 Ace of Spades markings that came with the kit. Osprey just published a book on the AV-8B's used during Desert Storm, and it's been a great resource!

And here I was contemplating this as my next build with all of the Aires AM stuff and all the other goodies... <_<

I'm using the Aires cockpit and wheel well sets. Their products are always high quality (as well as a bit pricey...).

As I mentioned in my previous posts, there is a fairing that spans between the two gun pods is completely wrong (seriously, COMPLETELY). It's not contoured correctly to fit between the pods, and the aft section is completely missing:

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So, I trimmed off the lip that ran along the outside edges, then used sheet plastic to reshape the sides so that the fairing fits snugly to the pods:

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Next, I used sheet plastic to build the aft section of the fairing. After a little dry fitting and sanding, I shaped the piece to fit correctly. Lastly, I used thin plastic strips to replace the lip that runs around the outside edges. I can't confirm that this is completely accurate; I had a very hard time finding reference pic's. I had to use pic's of 1/48 scale models, so this may not be completely correct. However, it's an upgrade to what was supplied with the kit, so I'm happy with the results:

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wow talk about detail work build from scratch impressive sir.

I love the 1:32 scale the problem I have with that I do not have the room to store planes in that scale but they sure have nice aditional detail.

Will deff. follow this build loveto see scratch parts take shape on a model.

Keep up the good work.

Nihad

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....the weapons pylons are inaccurate, the nose profile is wrong, the gun pods are completely messed up, the wings are misshapen, not to mention the missing missile rails and incorrect weapons supplied with the kit....

Wow....all you do is complain.... :rolleyes:

This is looking fantastic John! Any chance this will be at the Wings n Wheels show at the end of March?? Looking forward to seeing more in-progress pics....helps keep us mere mortals inspired :thumbsup:

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I've been wanting to build this kit for a while. If I were to dive in I think I would build it on jacks, 2 degrees nose down, wing removed with the engine exposed. Lots of extra work but an intresting spin. I worked on Harriers for 5 years and I will say nice job picking up a lot of the lost details.

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Wow....all you do is complain.... :rolleyes:

This is looking fantastic John! Any chance this will be at the Wings n Wheels show at the end of March?? :thumbsup:

Oh Brian. It's not easy being such whiny baby, believe me! :crying: It's possible that it will be ready for Valleycon, but doubtful. I've made some serious progress over the past month or two, but I'm far from finished.

I've been wanting to build this kit for a while. If I were to dive in I think I would build it on jacks, 2 degrees nose down, wing removed with the engine exposed. Lots of extra work but an intresting spin. I worked on Harriers for 5 years and I will say nice job picking up a lot of the lost details.

That sounds like a worthy project! This kit would lend itself to something like that; particularly with the engine detail that comes with the kit. Too bad they didn't pay as much attention to the outside of the bird!

Here are some pic's of the landing gear, wheel bays, and cockpit:

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Regardless of when you finish, I'll be looking forward to seeing it.

Great job on controlling the washes....did you use a home-made concoction or is it something like Flory's? Whatever you used, the details just jump out at you B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great job on controlling the washes....did you use a home-made concoction or is it something like Flory's?

Thanks Brian! I use a homemade concoction that I mixed up using a product called opaque. It's a water-based product that was used back in the old analog days of offset printing, when print plates were created using photographic negatives. It's almost impossible to find nowadays, I'm afraid.

I had to make a minor modification the the rear of the fuselage; it's somewhat misshapen.

Before:

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After:

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I've gotten the intakes done. I had to scratch build the walls between each auxiliary intake. Other than that, the intakes weren't that hard to manage:

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  • 2 weeks later...

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