Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.4 (Sword)
Nice artwork on the box, but I won't be using this scheme.
Not a lot of plastic. Here is the main sprue.
And the rest. Note the solitary resin bit for the air brake bay.
The kit does not have the blow-in doors open, so hopefully one of these sets will fit!
The very cool DERA (now QinetiQ) Advanced Control Technology test aircraft scheme.
Kit decals and photoetch fret.
The pre-painted instrument panels are the wrong colour grey. Oops.
Out with the 10/0 brush and a bit of Dark Admiralty Grey goes on. This is just the first coat.
Cockpit tubs went together well.
Kind of a blank canvas for the ejection seats however. But that's OK because...
...we can tart up those babies! Actually I think these came out pretty good.
Fuselage together. The Freightdog intakes fit very well.
The special instrumentation pods carried by XW175 were made from some spare drop tanks. Looks pretty rough at this stage!
Whew, that looks better. A bit of sanding and a splash of paint makes all the difference.
I still need to do some work with the apertures/sensors on the port pod. Antennae will be added later.
The front coaming from the kit was a joke - wider than the fuselage! I scratchbuilt one and added a PE HUD.
It almost looks like it should. Almost.
All primed up and ready to go!
I'll start with an overall white as a base for the Raspberry Ripple scheme.
Overall coat(s) of white. I used Testors RLM21 which...
...took three days to dry. Never again!
I probably should have done the red first, but instead painted Oxford Blue (from MRP).
MRP airbrush ready paints have the viscosity of water, and take many light coats to build up. But it goes on smooth!
MRP Signal Red on the tail.
And the rest of the red areas. Still lots of clean-up to do, fix some overspray, micro-mesh some edges, etc.
As far as I can tell, I followed the scheme as shown in photos. Can't wait for stickers!
She looks a lot better with her stickers on!
The Vingtor decals are very thin and snuggle down nicely.
The same scheme on the Combat Decals sheets has several inaccuracies.
Now this thing was fiddly!
The belly of the beast.
Things are coming together - exhausts, gear doors, airbrake.
Several blade antennae added.
And the rest - the nose probe, PE weather vanes on the windscreen and nose, and the canopies.
I had to scratchbuild a brace for the center of the front canopy and add the canopy retention cables.
Enjoy the rest of the photos!
Comentarii
32 20 February 2021, 15:53
Bill GilmanThanks Christian. I really like the scheme on the test aircraft and I'm hoping I can do justice to this one. The Sword kit is a typical short run kit, so I'll have to pay attention!
20 February 2021, 16:04
Patrick HagelsteinCool! A new Bill Gilman build! Obviously I'm in! Enjoy the build (even for a Sword kit...)! 🙂 👍
20 February 2021, 17:59
Bill GilmanThe build is moving along - the fuselage is assembled and the seam work finished. I had to scratchbuild a coaming for the front instrument panel as the one supplied by Sword is flat and wider than the fuselage. Someone wasn't paying attention on that one. I added the front HUD using parts from the PE fret and leftover film from a Sea Harrier kit. The front windscreen was dipped in Future prior to attachment to the fuselage, and then faired in with PPP. After this work was done, the cockpit was masked off and the model painted with a grey primer. I'll give that a day or two before I spray an overall white as the base for the Raspberry Ripple scheme. It won't be long now! Cheers, Bill
7 March 2021, 23:11
Bill GilmanWhew, that was a lot of fiddly masking, but the Raspberry Ripple scheme is on the Harrier. Still lots of work to do before I get to the decals, but I like how she's coming together. Cheers, Bill
14 March 2021, 22:35
Bill GilmanHi mates, the decals have been applied to the VAAC Harrier. I think she looks rather nice in this scheme. I used the decals from Vingtor instead of those from Combat Decals - when comparing both to photos off the real plane it was apparent that the Combat sheet had several inaccuracies. Things like font and line weight, etc. Plus, the roundels on the Combat sheet are all the same size, whereas those on the wings should be larger. Anyway, enjoy the pics. Lots of fiddly stuff left to do - the usual 80% of the work that is left after you've done the first 80%! Cheers, Bill
22 March 2021, 17:30
Bill GilmanThe VAAC research Harrier T.4 is finished! Enjoy the photos. Cheers, Bill
1 April 2021, 15:35
Bill GilmanThanks guys. I spent a lot of time getting the masking right. It's a wonder the tape had any adhesive left since I took it on and off so many times!
2 April 2021, 12:56
Album info
This should be a fun project, and my first Raspberry Ripple British test aircraft in a long time.
