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Hi guys,

some time passed from my last post,but with the situation at work which continues to deteriorate I'm not in the condition of concentate as I will in modeling,but anyway I made some 'lil progress.

 

I finished the work on the LERXs,and I'm quite happy how turned out.Note that at this point I've also glued the IFR probe and added some new details.

 

WE9vur.jpg

 

 

Added some PE from the Eduard set,exactly the plates behind the hot nozzle...

 

QKkihg.jpg

 

...and the one to detail the retractable LID.

 

A1lRan.jpg

 

 

Refocusing my attention at the wing tips,I added new fuel vent outlet out of brass tube and clear colored nav-lights.

 

 

Ld0G8V.jpg

 

 

S1LtIK.jpg

 

 

Changing area,I added some detail to the NLG.

 

 

ZQkUlO.jpg

 

 

Next I detailed the outriggers;the first image show what the kit provide,followed by the detailed ones and their bays.

 

o9Awws.jpg

 

 

xBcmPD.jpg

 

 

2iC5a0.jpg

 

End part one.

 

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Part two.

 

Subsequently I finished the work on the IP.

The IP and its cover is provided by Aires as a solid resin part.

Here my goal was to use some holographic film for the MFD and the HUD projector.

For the first the job was quite simple;after gluing the PE IP to the resin support I cut a small pieces of holo film and glued in place,followed by a drop of Tamiya clear green.

The result is visible below.

 

VcTiK7.jpg

 

For the HUD lens,I drilled the resin and with the punch & die I obtained two small diskettes ,one from a acetate sheet colored with Tamiya clear yellow and the other from the holo film.

These will be glued in the drilled hole,proceding first with the holo one followed by the yellow "lens".

You can see the diskettes above.

 

Now,I probably make some mistake gluing in place the Aires cockpit.The result was that the IP cover sit slightly too forward and upward to what should be.

So the HUD lateral support interfered with the windshield.

The more fast and obvious option was sand a bit the upper IP coaming and scratch the detail lost during the process.

The new details were created from clear acetate to keep at minimum the thickness.

 

 

kKb3h6.jpg

 

 

Even so,the Aires HUD' support was too high so I cut away the correspective part from the Eduard set but keeping in place the Aires PE eyelid covering the HUD controls.

Some continuous dry fits confirmed the correctness of the assembly,few!

Please note also how the HUD lens color change with the light refraction

 

VY1uWG.jpg

 

 

Finally,I've colored the assemly and added the combined glass out of clear acetate.

 

glsPel.jpg

 

 

And that's all for now my friends,new pics ASAP.

 

Thanks for watching and feel free of critique and comment.

 

Cheers,

 

Gianni

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Thanks mate!

I'm actually very busy finishing a medieval knight for a commission,so I only painted the MDC in the canopy and ,speaking of details,modified the forward LID and his bays;in fact in order to clear the movement when the bulky cannon pods are installed,the LID door will be modified removing what is called "ears" from the personel ( at least the RAF ones).

Also added some holo film to the ARBS and the windshield.

 

Some pics ASAP.

 

Gianni

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good night all fellas,

so much time passed since my last update,but this isn't a simple time of my life...

Mike,thanks for your words,I'm glad you like my build.

So,after positioned the windshield,a step that consumed some time as the clear part was slightly narrow that the correspective fuselage joint,I add some detail to the canopy bulkhead using various media...

 

 

boHObQ.jpg

 

...and after painted and glued in position I added some other detail to the canopy bottom and internal frames ( minus rear view mirror and hand grip,I'll add after the canopy is finished ) .Note that I also painted the MDC with Vallejo Deck Tan.

 

 

ON2cS1.jpg

 

 

This was a time of details scratching ,a step that I like to do before start painting everything.

Here the boarding ladder/step and the probes positioned on the tail fin and inside the air intakes.

 

kJU7uK.jpg

 

 

Also scratched out of a clear acetate sheet the speedbrake fences,a detail missed by Quickboost.

 

 

yOxtVb.jpg

 

 

At this point,the focus shifted to add the more useful PE parts of the Eduard set,lovely for detail like this one for example.

 

 

2YunJ3.jpg

 

 

With the PE job finished,the model look this way!

 

 

Qga4XG.jpg

 

 

9VFQ2Q.jpg

 

 

AzPz7w.jpg

 

 

At least now remember an Harrier!

I confess you that at some point in the build,I start losing my mojo,but simply typing VMA-231 Desert Storm on Youtube I find these interestin footage that restarted my interest to finish the model,so now I'm at one step to start paint the whole thing!

 

That'all guys,like always criticism and comment are the welcome.

 

 

Gianni

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Good night all guys,

as stated in my previous post,is painting time!

Yesterday I airbrushed the first of the two camo colors,the light one.

As reference I used the Hasegawa instruction for his 1/48 "Desert Harrier" box,as one of the markings option (# 1 ) is my same aircraft.
but I noted immediately that the color suggested from the Producer was wrong.

Hasegawa stated that the light grey will be Gunze H-307 but the real one was the FS 36375,alias Gunze H-308,that I desaturated a bit with some White.Compared to the real pics my choice look close enough.

 

 

lD4vun.jpg

 

 

LkKjjq.jpg

 

 

yTjMYZ.jpg

 

 

But I've a problem.

As reference I use also and principally these pics: 1,2,3.

 

From all the pics,is clear that the right inboard pylon is in the daker shade of grey,look especially the # 3. All the others follow the colors of the camo pattern,ok? But following the Hasegawa instruction the lower part of the wing where the pylon is fixed wiil be in light grey.So or the Hase info are incorrect or the  pylon was replaced at some time during the conflict.

Someone can help me?

By the way,studing the footage on my last post,I noted some "refined" graffiti on the Rockeyes of some jets and decided to add some to my bomb,I can't resist!

 

 

94FKLU.jpg

 

 

rCAitD.jpg

 

 

That's all,

I hope to paint the dark grey tomorrow so stay tuned for any update.

Thanks for stop by.

 

Gianni

 

Edited by kurnass77
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Goodnight all.

Today I painted the darker grey on the model using the Gunze H-337 as per Hasegawa istructions but it look too dark and "grey" when in reality,all the pics I see,show a very blueish shade on the dark grey areas.Look at the pics.

 

 

G64EK1.jpg

 

 

VDLdBT.jpg

 

 

nB11Qz.jpg

 

 

1inqXH.jpg

 

 

FT7KYM.jpg

 

 

Look at the dark grey pylon compared with a Light Grey Ghost one.

 

 

YPZWxZ.jpg

 

 

So I take a decision;after let the necessary dry time at the color I'll give a chance to the Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue and randomly airbrush a thin layer over the dark grey.

A couple of year ago I make the same thing,but at inverted colors' order ( first the XF-23 followed by the H-337) ,with my Aussie F-18 and I was quite satisfied,so maybe it can work another time.

Who do you think?

Thanks for watching,

Gianni

 

Edited by kurnass77
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Good night folks,

I finished the camo.

The XF-23 produced ,airbrushed randomly,a weathered effect that I like.About the importance of use reference for the model,I had to made some touch ups 'cause the camo pattern suggested by Hasegawa differs from the pics in some areas.

But stop speak,space to the pics.

 

 

JHrfRu.jpg

 

 

vhSxwD.jpg

 

 

DXyULU.jpg

 

 

02h3nO.jpg

 

 

To be honest,despite now the darker grey is more blue than before,for me isn't still enough.

If in the future I'll build another VMA-231 DS bird,this time I'll start with a mix of Tamiya XF-23 and XF-18.

More pics of the upper surfaces.

 

 

n8843l.jpg

 

 

RQ15Ac.jpg

 

 

The belly.

There's where I used a bit of artistic license,on the gun pods internal sides and the right wing had a slightly modified pattern in order to accomodate a full dark grey inner pylon as I don't like my previous compromise.

 

 

sPdPIf.jpg

 

 

7XsmNG.jpg

 

 

And this's today job,next I need to paint the white areas plus minor details and start to gloss the model for the decals!

 

Like always thanks for watching,

 

Gianni

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good day guys,

I added a clear coat to the model,ready for the decals!

 

q4obG7.jpg

 

 

jDPpjd.jpg

 

 

duLpeL.jpg

 

 

I added also some Tamiya Smoke to simulate a first layer of soot/weathering on the (randomly) upper surfaces,cannon muzzle,aft of the exhaust and other minor areas.

I don't resist and added the first decals,the slime light strip.

 

 

MsH5Tt.jpg

 

 

qzu6E7.jpg

 

 

c0j3WP.jpg

 

 

gpTngW.jpg

 

 

Tha camera'macro show some issue,i particular dust,that I can't/don't see with naked eyes,sorry!

That's all,

thanks for watching,

 

Gianni

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Hi all boys!

Started work on the decals,placing the principal and bigger first.

 

 

DrMTsc.jpg

 

 

Qeb7o1.jpg

 

 

The VMA-231repainted his birds just before moving in Saudi Arabia,as the original camo was too dark for the desert enviroment,but the service/warning markings like the ones around the pit left the evidence of the previous colors.

To easy my life,I used the walkways decals from the FCM VF-111 Tomcat sheet,cutting the decals in order ti fit'em under Superscale ones.

The dark grey decals.

 

 

xfUXoy.jpg

 

 

And the final result.

 

 

VtQmeZ.jpg

 

 

Look here and here for the real one.

 

 

One of the decals that I thought  would be a source of headaches was the shark mouth.

I removed as much film is possible and separated the eyes;checking the pics of the real plane to determine how the mouth was painted in respect to the panel lines.

After application,only a small touch-up is needed.

 

CHv9e6.jpg

 

 

And that's all for now.

I think that the build will slow down because the word Venom writed just below the windshield was present on both sides but the decal sheet provides only one,so now I need to buy another sheet,but is very hard.

 

 

Gianni

Edited by kurnass77
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Good day all guys.

RKic thanks for you words,too kind!

I've basically finished the job with the decals.

But to my great regret,the model is pratically devoid of stencils,and I love put stencils on my builds...In fact a close look to the real planes of the Squadron during DS don't show them,with the ecxlusion of the ones around the pit snd just forward of the horizontal stab;evidently during the repaint process the original stencils was covered and not repainted.

 

 

qZP1Tr.jpg

 

 

aQiPp9.jpg

 

 

2urfVI.jpg

 

 

The decals are very good in quality,but I think a little oversized,as evident for example on the tail Bu.Nos. or the word "Venom" under the windshield.

Also I think that the boarding step strips are little thick.

 

G8qNIZ.jpg

 

 

33PaY0.jpg

 

 

oJyFa0.jpg

 

 

About the "Venom",the sheet provides only one decals but in reality,the word was present both sides.

 

 

enczAH.jpg

 

You can see that I added some weathering aroubd the pit,comprised the heavily scrached step line and some chipping on the air intake lips

 

 

6s3dRo.jpg

 

I 'm lucky to manage a trade with f5guy that have another sheet,so now I need to wait the arrival of the package.

 

In the meantime,I've also pratically done with the outriggers and the NLG,with the exception of the tyres.

 

 

gKkXsD.jpg

 

 

lOMgoR.jpg

 

 

I've used some scanveged decals to simulate the placards and added some weathering,especially on the NLG.

 

And taht's all,some news after the arrival of the decals.

 

Thanks for watching,

 

Gianni

Edited by kurnass77
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