1/48 AV8-B II Harrier by Hasegawa done 1/27

[reserve]

Despite the warmup it's still freezy cold out and I need something to do. Accordingly, I'll start an oldy moldy this time. Seems decent but reading some build logs on this kit warned me of not so great fit and some parts interference, and because of the latter this one's gonna be a closed cockpit as I'm not willing to go thru the contortions needed to make it open correctly. There is some plastic shrinkage along some of the seams on the fuselage and drop tanks so some divots need to be filled. The plastic is of the hard variety but still glues well with Tammy quick-grab.




I seem to be doing alot of grey aircraft these days. For a small change up I got some AM decals that allow for a slightly different paint scheme; I figure on doing the top one. With luck the decals will not disintigrate on me



Sub assemblies



I did get hold of the Tammy 1/48 Sea Harrier cheap but when I opened the box I was shocked to find it a horror story so this one was acquired to take its place

[nathant]

Nice! I’m a Harrier fan and have a Hasegawa G.R. 7 stalled right now on the bench. It’s a good kit overall with good details but there are lots of fit issues and gotchas with this kit. Watch the nose to fuselage join to get the angle right, and the wing to lerex join. Also, to pose the canopy open there some air scoops that need to be relocated. These are just a few warnings but I know there are more I forgot.

[Green KreationZ]

I had wondered how this kit was. I actually had it on my Christmas list, but went down a deep IJN rabbit hole and decided to remove it in favor of Japanese related things. I’ll be checking in on this build!

[handiabled]

Watching with interest! I had eyed this myself, are you doing straight OOB or adding any AM to it?

[deafpanzer]

NICE!!! I don't think I have seen one built before so you have my attention too. Good luck!

[Joe Rix]

Sweet subject. Should be a fun build to watch. I'm quite sure that the shortcomings will be addressed well with your skills.

[TJ]

I'll be following. Have this in the stash with some Two Bobs decals

[reserve]

Nathan's right in his assessment I think, and thank you for the warnings

H after dry fitting the cockpit section I found not much of it will be visible, and the kit decals are sufficent to make what one can see busy enough. Now it's beginning to show signs of a fight to come that I've decided I'm not gonna make any worse by adding AM so the decals will be the extent of any extras.

Fit is kind of sloppy in places; I stuck the IP in the cockpit tub and found it would move back and forth .200" or so. Instead of guessing it was right I ended up dry fitting the hood to the tub to make sure until the glue dried. I have a feeling I'm gonna have alot of parts loose in the box due to this technique.

I don't think this will be awful but I do think it will make me work for it some. Of course I'd probably say that about most anything after that Academy A-10 which by now I'm sure you blokes are getting tired of me talking up

[Medicman71]

I have this kit in the stash so I'll be watching to see how it goes.

[reserve]

Right then

The lousy fit reputaion of this kit is not undeserved but it's not truly awful. The nastiest gaps seem to show up on the underside and since I'll display the finished product right side up this does not bother me overly

Cockpit and nose installed with nasty gap in the intakes


Nasty gap eliminated with my favorite goo


Wings and associated parts dry fit and it ain't right


Cause of the ain't rightness. I have no idea what went wrong here but this part is obviously too long. After some consideration, I reduced the rear of this part with a file as this would have the least of consequences


How it all ended up fitting. Not great but not over awful


One of the larger gaps present bacause I tried to line up the fuselage/wing joints to eliminate steps. This will be easy to deal with and mostly out of sight


I decided to drill out the chaff dispensers as I did not think they were molded over well. Every time I sit down I do another row or two which keeps the drudgery compnent smaller


If I'd paid 50-60 bucks for this I'd have been hacked off. Since I got it from Amazon for just a little over thirty I'm only mildly annoyed; after all I did have fair warning. This still has the chance to turn out to be an acceptable model

[brandonk]

Nice to see this build. Even though it appears to be a sub-par kit, I wonder if it is as bad as the old Tamiya kit. That would be a stretch, because that kit sucks. You're making fine work of this one.

[TJ]

Thanks for the areas to look out for

[reserve]

Brandon it is a sub par kit but considering its molds were machined twenty years ago I can't bash it too bad. It is much better than the Tammy; when I opened the box I looked for two minutes and closed it back up permanently. I was very surprised to see what I saw in a Tammy kit.

TJ you're welcome but the nasty list is not over yet

I'm not over dismayed by the nasties I've encountered but no one else molds one of these in this scale...HobbyBoss does in 1/18 tho get behind me Satan

[nathant]

Keep at it. The top wing to lerex joint is the worst, I had to use a resin one on my build so I was unaware of how bad the original plastic one fits. The worst should be behind you now, this kit looks great when finished.

[406 Silverado]

Man.....you're just blazin' through this one Mark and in good fashion at that. I've never tried one of these Harrier builds but this looks like a decent kit of it. Watching the magic unfold......

[reserve]

Thanks Nate, Joe I will keep on this

So I been thinkin, always dangerous, and here we have a model with a sparse cockpit and a canopy you can't have open without alot of extra trouble. Moreover, Hasegawa does not provide wheel wells or gear doors which is kind of odd, don't think I've ever seen that before.

So what's a bloke to do? Perhaps fill the sparse cockpit with a figure, fill in the holes for the landing gear struts, and pose the thing as in flight with a snazzy custom made stand. At least I'll not have a propeller to try to figure out how to make look like it's spinning

[TJ]

Wait, no landing gear doors???

[406 Silverado]

Jan 19, 2024 5:32:04 GMT -5 TJ said:

Wait, no landing gear doors???

 I saw that and I wouldn't expect that from Hasegawa. 

[reserve]

No doors, no wells

[406 Silverado]

Jan 19, 2024 9:17:20 GMT -5 reserve said:

No doors, no wells

   Well, given your talents I know you'll pull this off without a hitch Mark. That is definitely out of the ordinary for Hasegawa to omit those parts.

[handiabled]

You are overcoming obstacles in great fashion with this. As for the gear bay issue I would hit the easy button and throw the Aires set at it.

www.scalemates.com/kits/aires-4201-av-8b-harrier-ii-wheel-bay--136101

[lyle]

Lotsa pieces/parts. The Harrier is a classic aircraft.

[reserve]

Thanks gents

H I'd briefly considered that but was unwilling to spend the extra squeeze and now I'm locked into the in flight on a stand plan. This has not been the best of kits


My little jarhead pilot



The mutt's ready for primer



We'll see how good a job I did on all those nasty joints and seams soon

[406 Silverado]

That pilot looks pretty sharp Mark! Looking forward to seeing the paint work on this. I’ll bet that your joins work on this one is gonna be A-OK. 

[reserve]

Thanks Joe

Primer and paint on the bottom







I'll let it sit for 24 hours or so before I start to mask off the upper surfaces

[brandonk]

Given the issues you are having with this one I will chock this one up to a "no thanks".  I'll have to consider a different maker if I do another. Maybe Kinetic. IDK. Your work is looking great and you are winning the battle.

[TJ]

Jan 21, 2024 20:04:07 GMT -5 brandonk said:

Given the issues you are having with this one I will chock this one up to a "no thanks".  I'll have to consider a different maker if I do another. Maybe Kinetic. IDK. Your work is looking great and you are winning the battle.

Kinetic only does the A not a B

[brandonk]

Jan 21, 2024 20:09:48 GMT -5 TJ said:

Jan 21, 2024 20:04:07 GMT -5 brandonk said:

Given the issues you are having with this one I will chock this one up to a "no thanks".  I'll have to consider a different maker if I do another. Maybe Kinetic. IDK. Your work is looking great and you are winning the battle.

Kinetic only does the A not a B

Ya, I'm not looking for any particular Harrier, any will do as long as they are not like the Tamiya or Hawegawa kits.

[reserve]

Yeah B I'd not do another one of these myself


Other than the clear coats and detail in a couple spots paint's done




I'll shiny coat it when I get home from work tomorrow so sez the plan

[reserve]

Done, and it's almost a relief











Many things went wrong on this one. If I'd known about the wheel well omission on this kit I'd have bypassed it. Fit was poor in spots and the transparencies are not all that transparent altho this turned out for the best given the sparse cockpit detail provided. I used Tammy light grey, XF-66 I think, on the bottom and it turned out to have a blue cast to it I did not expect. I did not get the upper surfaces a dark enough grey. I used Flying Leathernecks vinyl canopy masks and they lifted in spots so I got a few spots of primer on the clear parts that ain't supposed to be there, and the AM decals by the same company were awful to work with...I lost many of them while trying to apply them so it's another one sided model. I figure it turned out well enough to occupy a dark corner of the display case.

I have one more Hasegawa kit in the stash, the A-4 Skyhawk that I'm looking at sideways after this one. Seems this company is pretty hit and miss as I recall their F-104 to be a delightful model to build