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sharkmouthed Harrier GR.7 RAF


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I have an 'arty' shot of a shark mouth GR-7, but all you can see is the shark mouth, looking from below and behind the nose at another GR-7 as it taxis by. So, you can get a pretty good feel for the size and placement of that marking, but nothing of the rest of the aircraft. I'll try to remember to post it tonight or tomorrow. BTW, it looks nothing like the box art!

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The aircrafts Ser No was ZD408/WK and it was applied for a one off photo shoot during OP Warden. There is a line drawing in the Crowood book on the Harrier on page 156, a photo in World Air Power Issue No 22 on page 6. The Aviation Workshop (Now defunct) made a decal for the GR7 Harrier with this scheme on, it being MA-72102 in 1/72 or MA-48102 in 1/48. Hope that this is of some help.

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Thanks for the info guys...

Jim, that sharkmouth is black/red/white and not red/white as the one depicted on the Italeri boxart... why?

qn8g2r.jpg

One possibility is that they aren't the same aircraft. There were at least two Harriers with sharkmouths in Op. Telic, and I'm sure there have been others elsewhere.

The other possibility is that the Italeri box art / decals are inaccurate, which wouldn't be the first time...

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The other possibility is that the Italeri box art / decals are inaccurate, which wouldn't be the first time...

the above decal sheet is from Model Alliance... I don't think it is inaccurate.

here is the Italeri sheet...

11qu7v6.jpg

I think Jim's photo is referring to a different aircraft... maybe this:

64670_1052956743.jpg

the red/white sharkmouth is much longer and more narrow...

Edited by Alpagueur
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The one on the Italeri kit and Model alliance (The Aviation Workshop) decal sheet is from an aircraft that was on OP Warden in the 90s and was only for a photo shoot. The other sharkmouths are from aircraft on OP Telic (OIF) in 2003. The Italeri kit has the wrong Ser No, whilst the Model Alliance sheet is correct.

Edited by Jabba29
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The 1:48 Hasegawa kit 09764 has markings for 4 Sqdn's ZG859 '91' in Kuwait in the Spring of 2003 (that looks to be the one in my picture). It also has markings for SADEU's ZG479 '69' from the same timeframe. The latter has a smaller red/white shark's mouth. You've now reached the limits of my knowledge on this topic!

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The 1:48 Hasegawa kit 09764 has markings for 4 Sqdn's ZG859 '91' in Kuwait in the Spring of 2003 (that looks to be the one in my picture). It also has markings for SADEU's ZG479 '69' from the same timeframe. The latter has a smaller red/white shark's mouth. You've now reached the limits of my knowledge on this topic!

ZG479/69 was the first of the Harriers that were deployed to Ahmed Al Jaber in Op Telic (OIF) to have a sharkmouth applied, and as you say in this case a smaller red/white only one.

The Harriers that had the fuller (red/black/white) sharkmouth during this deployment were ZD408/37 and ZG859/91.

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