Joe's 1/72 Italeri Harrier GR.3

[Ian M]

Coming a long nice.

"Build area is under the house"..... I hope you mean in a cellar or basement and not "Under" the house.....

Ian M

[flyjoe180]

Coming a long nice."Build area is under the house"..... I hope you mean in a cellar or basement and not "Under" the house.....Ian M

The basement, not under the entire structure. I have a little work shop in there.

[flyjoe180]

Wings attached, then a tidy up of the basic airframe with my old mate Tamiya putty.

[ATTACH]79403.IPB[/ATTACH]


Filled, sanded, sanded again and cleaned up. Tail fin fitted. Once that is cleaned up the horizontal stabs will go on, then it's time to think about masking. Periphery work has included construction on drop tanks, the Matra rocket launchers and landing gear components.

[ATTACH]79404.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Excellent work til now Joe, looks very nice.

Francesco

[flyjoe180]

Horizontal stabilators are on. I'll leave the nose cone and pitot head off for now, they will be prone to damage until the time comes to paint:

[ATTACH]79414.IPB[/ATTACH]


Research shows that Harriers at rest have the top four intake vents open due to gravity. The fifth vent partially opens. The bottom ones remain closed. When running or in hover mode the vents are all open, and in fast forward flight they are closed as depicted in the kit:

[ATTACH]79415.IPB[/ATTACH]


So as Italeri fail to provide a pilot or any ability to produce a wheels-up in flight kit, it is time to be brave and crack out the blade, file, sandpaper and some spare sprue:

[ATTACH]79416.IPB[/ATTACH]


After surgery they don't look too bad but need to be cleaned up. There were casualties, spare sprue was used to shape new spaces between the open vents. The fifth partially-open vent was filed down from the outside to present a sloping surface:

[ATTACH]79417.IPB[/ATTACH]


A dry fit to make sure they look okay. The intakes will need to be cleaned up some more and added after an initial paint. Now I've done this I now also realise my roundel decal will have to be cut to fit the new surfaces. Yay:

[ATTACH]79418.IPB[/ATTACH]

[flyjoe180]

You can see the vents here:

[ATTACH]79419.IPB[/ATTACH]

[yak face]

Top work Joe and fast too! The intake area is a perennial problem on all Harrier kits , I dont think any manufacturer has successfully solved it, trouble is its such a noticeable aspect of the aircraft ,so if you want even token accuracy it has to be addressed. Keep it up , its coming on great , cheers tony

[Guest]

Great work on the intakes Joe! Little details like that make a build extra special I always think.

As for the roundel, would it not be easier to apply it as normal & cut it when dry? The gaps would then act as a guide.

Cheers

Patrick

[flyjoe180]

Great work on the intakes Joe! Little details like that make a build extra special I always think.As for the roundel, would it not be easier to apply it as normal & cut it when dry? The gaps would then act as a guide.

Cheers

Patrick

Thanks for the idea Patrick.

Will be away from home and the build for the rest of the week from tomorrow evening so back to it on Saturday. Thanks for looking in and commenting guys.

[colin m]

Nice one Joe. I'll have to check my Hase' kit to see what air intake looks like

[flyjoe180]

Build update. In between house renovation and other things I have made some progress.

The intakes were fitted and cleaned up and given vent flaps made from thin plastic card.

[ATTACH]80338.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]80339.IPB[/ATTACH]


As you can see the aircraft has been masked and primed, the grey stuff inside the vent is foam to mask off the engine intake white interior sections in preparation for painting.

Two coats of Dark Sea Grey was applied. The tape helped me to handle the model and once removed exposes areas which will be dark green. The wrap-around scheme is a first for me, and this will be my first entirely airbrushed model.

[ATTACH]80340.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]80341.IPB[/ATTACH]


After removal of the tape it's lightly sanded where required and ready for the next stage. In addition I have the landing gear and out riggers ready as well as the SNEB launchers, drop tanks and Aden cannons.

[flyjoe180]

Then begins the puzzle of the green camouflage. Using rolls of Blue tac I marked out the pattern for the camouflage over the grey, ensuring the Blue tac sits inside the grey area slightly. I'm hoping once the grey areas are blanked off that I will get a gentle blend between the colours, aka a soft edge.

I don't normally have problems with spacial awareness or object rotation in my mind, but this was a real puzzle. Look at the pattern provided and see if you can work out where the green on the starboard rear fuselage goes, when you also check it against the underside of the aircraft:

[ATTACH]80347.IPB[/ATTACH]


I opted for a continuation of the green for the wrap-around scheme as I couldn't fathom it out, even after looking at photos online and in books.

Three hours later we have a Blue tac sausage roll fest:

[ATTACH]80348.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]80349.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]80350.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]80351.IPB[/ATTACH]


Next mission is to blank off the grey areas for spraying the dark green. Probably won't happen today as I am operating on three hours sleep after a long shift last night flying freight, and the weather is perfect so I'm off to sand and paint house windows if nothing else. Past experience tells me not to do too much to a model when tired.

[Dave W]

Looking good Joe.I occasionally get a kit where the camo scheme doesn't join up if you follow the kit painting guide.My recent Defiant was the same around the nose.I find you just have to alter it a bit so it works.

[colin m]

I've been through this. I often find the camo sort of spirals along the fuselage, well up to a point. But I don't think that's the case here.

[flyjoe180]

I think I did the right thing, just found Airfix's paint instructions online and they have the pattern continuing as I had placed it. On to the Dark Green paint stage!