New Airfix 1/72 Harrier GR1

[Eric Mc]

Another one to add to the pile. It arrived in this morning's post and looks the biz.

[Eric Mc]

Some sprue shots and painting diagram -

[andrew_huxtable]

I bought one of these a few weeks ago and it's the first time in my adult life at having a go. I thought it felt cheap when building it. Eh painting it was a ball ache and just shows how talented the good model builders are.

And no, no pictures as it's crap!!!

[lufbramatt]

andrew_huxtable said:

I bought one of these a few weeks ago and it's the first time in my adult life at having a go. I thought it felt cheap when building it. Eh painting it was a ball ache and just shows how talented the good model builders are.

And no, no pictures as it's crap!!!

You must have bought the old 1970's one as the version only hit the shops on Monday.

[dr_gn]

I wouldn't buy it without looking in the box first, but from those sprue images it looks like another one I'd like to have a go at.

The Gladiator V1.2 is now almost at a stage where I screwed V1.0 up with painting, so the Harrier might be my next purchase.

[Eric Mc]

One of the bugbears with Harrier kits has been how to depict the auxilliary blow-in doors on the engine intakes. With the engine shut down, they flop open under gravity but those at the top of the intake flop at a steeper angle than those on the bottom - which are essentially flopped in the "closed" position.

Airfix have supplied two sets of blow-in doors - one moulded to depict the engine under power and the other to depict the engine shut down.

I have a load of other 1/72 Harrier kits to do -

an ex-FROG GR1
the Matchbox GR1
a Revell GR5
a Heller Bobcat T2
an Italeri FRS1
an Airfix FRS1
and Airfix FA2

And I'd still like to get hold of another Airfix P1127. I slightly messed up the last one I built.

[dr_gn]

Matchbox did a Sea Harrier too, but not sure of the provenance of the moulds.

[Eric Mc]

I made it way back in 1982. It was released just after the Falklands - smart thinking by Matchbox.

I think it made use of the wings etc from their GR1 kit with a newly moulded Sea Harrier fuselage.

For its time it wasn't too bad.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

I made it way back in 1982. It was released just after the Falklands - smart thinking by Matchbox.

I think it made use of the wings etc from their GR1 kit with a newly moulded Sea Harrier fuselage.

For its time it wasn't too bad.

I distinctly remember I built mine with way too much anhedral on one of the wings, so I just filled the resulting wing root gap with more glue and paint.

Happy days.

[andrew_huxtable]

lufbramatt said:

You must have bought the old 1970's one as the version only hit the shops on Monday.

Mines is the BR3 after checking the box

Edited by andrew_huxtable on Thursday 15th August 12:05

[Eric Mc]

The challenge with any Harrier kit is getting that anhedral right so that all four sets of wheel sit squarely on the ground.


I built the old mould Airfix GR3 a couple of years ago when I was just getting the hang of airbrushing. The decals came from a Modeldecal sheet and depict one of the GR3s sent to the Falklands just after the cessation of hostilities to make up the Falklands Flight.

[Eric Mc]

andrew_huxtable said:

lufbramatt said:

You must have bought the old 1970's one as the version only hit the shops on Monday.

Mines is the BR3 after checking the box

Edited by andrew_huxtable on Thursday 15th August 12:05

GR3 I'm sure - as in my pictures. Arfix's old GR3 was a rebooting of their original GR1 - which was initially released around 1970/71 - so was of fairly ancient origin.

[perdu]

That looks very handsome Eric, those are engraved panel lines I suppose

Moulding both sets of blow in doors at last, excellent

Yes it is on my new buy AND build list too

I think I still have a bag of P1127 somewhere too

[Eric Mc]

Engraved lines.

[SlipStream77]

I built an old Airfix 1/48 GR5 kit a couple of years back and I thought it was pretty good, apart from the decals being out of register.

There was a bit of filling required here and here but it turned out ok.





It's been re-released now.

http://www.airfix.com/shop/aircraft/148-scale-mili...

That GR1 does look like it will build into a fine model Eric, I like how they provide glossy coloured decal guides now too.

[Eric Mc]

One of the bug bears with Harrier models (and, for that matter, the Sea Venom and the Sea Vixen too) is the fact that so many decals supplied with the older kits were slightly out of register - and that really stands out with the red markings that outline the engine access panels.

Hopefully, the new Harrier kit will be better. As Airfix are now using Carthograph as their decal supplier, I expect everything will be OK.

[dr_gn]

Cartograf.

[Eric Mc]

dr_gn said:

Cartograf.

Those Italians - can't spell properly.

[16VJay]

dr_gn said:

I distinctly remember I built mine with way too much anhedral on one of the wings, so I just filled the resulting wing root gap with more glue and paint.

Happy days.

Not your fault Doc, I remember at the time thinking how sloppy the wing fit was, it was awful.

[Skii]

That's a nice looking kit, if it is anything like the other 1/72 new moulds it will be a corking little model.

I built the Italeri 1/72 Sea Harrier a few years ago but that needed but of work in the cockpit to make it accurate.