BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 (Special Hobby)

Der Boxentoppen

Typical short run kit from years past - not at the same level of quality that Special Hobby produces today.

The kit has been around for a while, and there is a bit of flash here and there.

Since I'll be doing the Anniversary scheme on the cover, the weapons will go to the spares box.

As usual, a variety of aftermarket bits are in the stash. We'll see which ones can be used or not.

The resin cockpit from the kit is on the left - the Pavla set for the Airfix kit is much too wide. But then, so is the forward fuselage on the Airfix kit.

The kit decals, photoetch fret, and clear film. Instruction booklet seems quite nice.

The Eduard PE set, and some resin goodies from Quickboost and Armory.

I'll be modifying a set of Hasegawa FRS.1 wings (below) in place of the kit wings (above) which do not have the vortex generators.

The SH kit is obviously based off of the Hasegawa, as the wings fit perfectly. SH remembered to add the fuselage extension aft of the trailing edge - which would be difficult to do if they hadn't.

First, I opened up the APU exhaust and built some internals from card stock.

Fiddling around with the cockpit. I used the kit resin tub and seat, but tarted them up with Eduard PE. Sidewalls are from the Pavla set.

Some Alclad on the compressor face, with a light wash. The intake trunks are white on the Anniversary scheme, unlike most in-service Sea Harriers.

The PE on the instrument panel was designed for the Airfix kit, so the bits needed to be trimmed to fit the SH resin panel.

Fuselage going together. The intake cowlings are from the kit, none of the aftermarket resin parts fit very well. Of course, neither did the kit parts!

Some putty and sandpaper should bring things into shape. Notice the turtledeck has no detail at all - luckily, the Eduard PE has some parts for this.

Modifying the Hasegawa wings - removing one dog tooth and two vortex generators, then adding an additional wing fence.

The finished wing fence after shaping.

Unmodified Hasegawa wing at left, my FA.2 mods on right.

Filling and sanding seams inside the intakes on a 1:72 Harrier is so much fun. Well, not really.

I forgot to mask the compressor face, so I'll have to re-paint that with a very small brush.

But it came out OK I think.

Air brake well has no detail at all - note the reference part from the Airfix GR.3 kit. Big difference.

A little card stock and it looks like it will pass muster. The landing gear wells also have no detail, but these will be unseen once the gear struts are in place.

Reshaping the area where the radome meets the forward fuselage. The kit parts didn't quite match the drawings. Hopefully I can make it a bit better.

First round of seam filling and reshaping is finished. We'll see what she looks like with some paint on her.

I added the oil vent (from the Hasegawa kit) below the starboard cold exhaust, and the HUD on the instrument panel coaming. Also note the PE details on the turtledeck.

I added a fairing for the pitot tube that is on the leading edge of the fin, then drilled a small hole in it to accept the tube.

The turned metal pitot tube is from Master.

And then some PE details for the inside of the air brake. Another area that won't easily be seen. I'm using the Hasegawa FRS.1 part (SH at top).

Hataka Roundel Blue and Mr. Hobby white for the paint colours. I added the nose gear and outriggers first, then adjusted the main gear to get all wheels on the ground simultaneously.

The Roundel Blue doesn't "pop" as much as I think it should. Too late now.

It's always a lot of fun to mask the inside of the Harrier intakes, especially in this scale.

Decals on. The decal for the engine access panel broke up in water, so I had to improvise with red stripes from the spares box. The red is not the same colour as the other stencils.