1/48 Harrier page. Kinetic and Hasegawa

[paddy]

So here we have the Hobby 2000, Hasegawa rebox Harrier GR7 with the CMK Harrier 2 seat T12 Conversion. Not a difficult conversion to do if you are ok with Vac form canopies. ( this is my first attempt so be kind ) also occasional shots of the Kinetic Harrier T4 for comparison.

The hobby 2000 kit comes with 2x sidewinders and 2x tanks and nothing else which is a shame. The Kinetic comes with a full load out but not appropriate for T4 or T12 aircraft.. however i did salvage a pair of amraams from Kinetic for this T12 build and made some blue strips as 95% of amraams carried in peace time are inert expecially on 2 seat aircraft.

This shot shows the main difference between series one a two Harriers.
Note: the much larger wing on the two that runs from the top of the fuselage as apposed to the earlier mid mount. Also 8 wing pylons instead of 4
This was possible as the Pegasus Engine was developed from initially 9000Ib thrust too 23000Ib thrust during its life.

I do have some other versions of the Harrier including a single seat GR9 and a Series 2 Sea Harrier FA2. I would also like to build a GR3 in Artic camo .
Once a year the harrier force in the UK would do exercises in Norway/ Northern Scandinavia and the Grey/Green camo was changed by over painting the grey with a white temp paint.

 

[jeaton01]

Fine work, Paddy. You will get used to vac canopies, but one that large can be difficult. I like the look of them, and use the moving part when I want an open cockpit if the kit part doesn't fit well in that position.

That's certainly an enormous power increase

 

[moon puppy]

Excellent build Paddy. sharp job on the canopy.

 

[paddy]

The problem i had with the canopy was in the painting where the paint continually bled under the masking tape because the surface of the vac form wasnt smooth enough to make a seal. a small problem with a large result.

 

[paddy]

This is not a moan but a look at why i couldn't mask the canopy...If i dont find out where i went wrong i cant put it right next time.
this picture shows a small magnification the frame as i would say is correct.

However this is the same from from a 90 degree angle

Its not obvious but the frame now has 4 lines ? the 2 in the top picture are the inner 2 of the 4. What you have here is the frame with a trough either side looking like 4 lines but you need to mask along the edge of the trough. This means if even a few thou of an inch of the masking tape is off the edge of the trough then paint will flow under the tape and round the trough the wrong side of the masked line.
Looking at it under a microscope you can see why the masking tape doesnt seal a straight edge

.
Well thats my excuse......lol

 

[Sharkmouth]

@paddy, something to consider. Use clear decal film painted in cockpit color, then exterior color(s). Cut strips and attach. Since my inkjet printer sucks at printing decals (too translucent), this is what I am resorting to in order to use up the paper.

 

[moon puppy]

That's what I was going to suggest. I have a sheet with interior green painted then the external color painted, cut to size and away you go.

 

[Sharkmouth]

That's what I was going to suggest. I have a sheet with interior green painted then the external color painted, cut to size and away you go.

I used to buy a lot of those Aeromaster sheets! Interior Green, Zinc Chromate Green, RLM02, & RLM66. Simply paint the exterior color and done! OK, camouflage schemes had to be considered while the airbrush was out.

 

[paddy]

Thats brilliant. I have some clear decal sheets, never thought about painting it. I will see if my cheap printer is up to printing on it as well. Its not very good at colours

 

[jeaton01]

I think that canopy has a defect in that area, Paddy, and that must have made it much harder. They need to fix the buck it was formed over.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

It looked good and I was impressed. I use all different kinds of tape for masking. Clear scotch tape trimmed so it is not very wide if I need a very sharp edge works quite well. Then use some fine clean tweezers to pick up and place the tape. the middle areas can be whatever tape type you would wish to use.
Simply place a length of the clear tape on a clean glass plate and cut narrow lengths of it and place them where you want. To cut the extra length off place the blade edge where you want the cut and pull on the excess and it will part where the blade edge is.

 

[jknaus]

Gorgeous
James

 

[paddy]

Harrier FA2 Kinetic 1/48
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I didnt do a build blog on this as its another Harrier and i have done a few and dont want to bore you to death with them (i have a couple more to do ) .
This kinetic offering is a different kettle of fish to the T4 i recently completed.
Despite the T4 being a 2 seat series 1 harrier and this a single seat series 1 harrier they are quite different kits and while the wing fit was excellent on the T4, this one needed a bit of work and a little filler, nothing too bad but it doesnt fall together like the T4. the wing joins are different so different moulds.

The sea Harriers were designed to be used on the three small RN fleet carriers, HNS Invincible, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal. they differed from RAF Harriers because they were primarily fighters ( not ground attack) so had different radar avionics ,they had steerable nose wheels for the flight deck, tie down shackle points and crucially they were corrosion resistant as subjected to sea water. Some FA2 Harriers were converted FRS1 Harriers (Falkland types) some were new build. this one is the last new build from 1998. Primarily designed with new Radar to carry the Amraam as std kit it was more powerful than the FRS1 but still a series 1 like a AV8a.

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Another report from your English correspondent ....

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[paddy]

Kinetic Harrier review part 1

Having fallen of my bike with the 1/24 Harrier I have done what my Dad always said and got straight back on my bike…… with another Harrier

This is Kinetics 1/48 T4 Harrier which can be built as a T2-4-6 or 8

Kinetic is a new make to me so I didn’t really know what to expect.

So far, I have been very pleased. Fit of parts has been exceptional. Detail is very good; mouldings are sharp, and I am told the new “gold” models are even sharper. The ejector seats are the best I have come across in either standard kit or after market resin or white metal.

As you might expect, as the detail goes up so does the part count, so you need to be very careful with positioning and assembly. For example, when joining the two fuselage halves together the fit is perfect if you get all the sub-assemblies like airbrake wells, wheel wells and the nozzle mechanism inside correctly positioned.

Instructions are a bit hit and miss but its not a huge problem.

Here for example the nozzle mounts seem to reverse from on step too the next

Looking at progress so far, I am happy however the Eduard cockpit PE I have used lets the side down a bit as being “blue” its more detail bling than detail up.

Wheel wells are nicely detailed

As are the airbrake wells and rear wheel well

Seats are the best i have seen in1/48

The kit is obviously based on the Sea harrier. There are a lot of parts in the box that are sea Harrier but not T4 or 2 seat. I dont think any of the ordinance for sea harriers was ever used on the RAF version but the transit or drop tanks might be useful. Remember the Sea Harrier was a fighter, the RAF Harrier was a ground attack so quite different radar and weapons systems and even wing pylons.

wing Fit
one problem i have seen mentioned is the wing to fuselage fit with some builds needing enough filler to warrant filling the gap with plastic card.

The above pic shows the wing fitted. Its not glued...its just fitted in place and the fit is such that it would be possible to continue the build without glue as it just clips perfectly in place....
To be continued...............​

Last edited: Jan 26, 2023

 

[paddy]

Reached the basic paint stage with no real issues

Very light grey underside

RAF dark ocean grey topside

Masked up with Blu tack and RAF green added

Its always a relief when you pull the masking tape off and it doesnt pull the paint ff too

Only one repair needed, good thats it underside. i think this is because i mixed the Grey/white underside paint myself and it didnt key to the plastic as well as straight from the bottle.

There are some really strange anomalies with the model but i will put them in a summing up later.

 

[paddy]

I had a bit of a disaster with the paint this week Its a problem i have had in the past and forgot about.
I find Tamiya clear in rattle cans works really well over other Tamiya rattle can colours but has issues over Tamiya acrylic sprayed with an air brush.
Tamiya acrylic sprayed with an air brush.

Basically the propellant or thinners in the cans activates the paint despite giving the paint 48 hours drying time.

anyway it was an easy fix and here is where i am at now

I was spraying the whole thing in semi gloss clear to help the decals and stop silvering however having applied a few small decals i'm not sure i have succeeded so will look at a coat of future and then a flat coat.
A point of interest i hadn't realised with the harrier is the front and rear cockpits seem to be completely separate so the front could bang out and the rear would remain a pressurised separate

cockpit ?

Another report from your English correspondent

 

[paddy]

Kinetic have given us a subject here that has been missing in the catalogues forever.

As a T. bird Harrier its probably a limited market so we have to take that into consideration and supplying the small market must be encouraged.

Kinetic produce a Harrier FRS1 , FA2, GR1 , GR3, GR7/9 ,T2 too T10, AV8A and AV8B in 1/48 and obviously there is quite an overlap in models and sprues.

The T. Birds are based on the FRS1 , the Royal Navy fighter version I think ? the result is a box with approx. 350 parts of which you will need to use approx. 150. This is because it’s a Sea Harrier kit with extra parts but crucially not all the Sea harrier parts so it’s not 2 for 1

For example, the complete single seat cockpit is included, 2 sets of wings and 3 tail fins as well as a complete weapons load out for a FRS1 which doesn’t apply to a T. Bird.



Because of this you need good instructions to identify which parts you need to use for Harrier you are building, and this is really the short coming of the model.

For example. Having built the model I then found an engine fan in the box….There is no reference to this part in the instructions. There are Aden cannon pods in the load out instructions but nowhere does it tell you where they go ? Obviously they go on the underside of the fuselage but there are no marking on this part to show where. Section 7 shows the joining of the fuselage halves, Section 8 tells you that you should have added the thrust nozzles inside before you closed the fuselage up….

Section 19 shows the Airbrake fitted and extended….well it wasn’t there in section 18 so what parts were used ? there are several airbrakes etc in the box ?.

How much would it have cost to get someone too proof read the instructions or even build the model using them before you sent them to the printers ?

So the issue here is the T bird is not a stand alone model but draws on several aspects of the other models in Kinetics Harrier fleet.

As I said this is not surprising as its probably a low demand subject compared with a GR7/AV8B

The plus side here is its and excellent kit once you get your head round it and planning ahead and good reference material pays dividends. Ultimately if you are experienced then you get all the parts you need ( and many more beside) to make a model to be really proud off, the rest is up to you.

Once finished you will have a lot of parts in the spares box as well as a decals. A lot of decals are repeated in black or white depending on the colour of the camo/paint finish. These Cartograf decals (A4 sheet) are excellent, and I did read elsewhere that you could reasonably pay £20.00+ for the decals alone on the detail up market they are that good.

Anyway, this is my attempt, having had a go with this I am really looking forward to doing another and with the experienced gained here I know I can do better.

Another report from your English correspondent ....

 

[Steve Ski]

That's a fine looking bird!

 

[moon puppy]

Sweet finish Paddy. Thank you sir!