Monogram Harrier GR.1 - FINISHED-

[Doug Rogers]

Going to be doing a lovely GR.1 Harrier, XV791 of 4 Squadron, based at RAF Wildenwrath, West Germany in 1970.

I'll be using the excellent Model Alliance decals;

Edited June 16, 2011 by Doug Rogers

[Tim T]

Blimey, I haven't seen one of those in a very long time! Great choice.

[Doug Rogers]

They're not easy to get hold of, got this one after about three attempts from e-bay in the US!

[robw_uk]

oohhh think i built one of these 20+ years ago!!!!!

[Moofles]

nice classic kit, going to watch this one closely.

[Mike]

I love the fact that it says Hawker, rather than BAe... those were the days

[mrcooljules]

i got one of these kits in a straight swop wtih someone off here (think i swopped him a 72nd Hase GR5) as he was downscaling what he made. came with lots of etch too. looking foraward to watching this one being done.

[Doug Rogers]

She's quite an old kit, around 1970 I think, but the moulding is really quite sharp. Seen some nice builds come from this kit so hopeful for a nice looking result.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I have a GR-3 conversion for that kit I had the kit and sold it off without checking my AM bins. I might find another kit one day....

[Kev1n]

I'd get a kick out of building an original issue airfix kit from those days...

anybody know where I can get one?

[PHIL B]

She's quite an old kit, around 1970 I think, but the moulding is really quite sharp. Seen some nice builds come from this kit so hopeful for a nice looking result.

Its the best of a small bunch and seems to be the weapon of choice for a lot of 1st gen Harrier models including SHARS converted from this one. I think it was released in 1981 Doug and still looks good now. Monogram were experts at getting an awful lot of sharp detail onto a small number of parts. My build for this GB will be one of these in early GR1 colours so I'm looking forward to seeing you work your magic one this one.

Phil

[bigbadbadge]

Good luck with the build. Will look forward to seeing the finished article

All the best

Chris

[Doug Rogers]

Spent some time painting up the cockpit and seat. Pinched a resin seat from one of my Neomega sets as the kit one is not too brilliant in the detail department. The Neomega seat is fantastic though, almost too much detail! Difficult to see the wood for the trees when you're painting it.

Wasn't sure if the GR.1 used a Mk9 seat, but found a few articles where pilots described having Mk9's in GR.1's around the serial of the one I'm doing.

Hoping to get a little more done this morning.

[Stephen]

The seat looks great Doug!

Stephen

[Doug Rogers]

Thanks mate, quite pleased with it. Should look quite nice through the canopy, I think it fills the space much better than the kit one.

Need some colour advice actually, what colour would the inside of the intakes have been on this bird, and the sides of the fuselage in front of the fan blades, would it have been white or fuselage colour?

Edited April 28, 2011 by Doug Rogers

[M4rk]

That seat looks good, nice work so far, always fancied one of these kits but they are difficult to obtain nowadays. Would be nice of Revell to re-issue it as apparently they still have the tooling

For intake colour, from the pics I have seen they aren't white, looks more of a dark grey colour so I'd guess either the camo grey or another suitably dark grey of your choice. Hopefully a more learned Harrierist will be able to confirm though

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Doug, The seat and panel look excellent, nice work!

[Doug Rogers]

Been doing some more detail work today, Monogram had a half hearted attempt at showing the intake doors open but it's very basic so been adding some flaps from some scrap from the spares box;

No prizes for guessing what the stores are going to be, raided my Airfix GR3! Won't be needing them for that as it's destined to be a T4N. Not sure if I'll use all four actually, might have tanks on the inner pylons yet;

Painted up the nozzles and blast shield thingys with some Humbrol gunmetal;

That's it for today, should be able to get a bit more done tomorrow!

[ChocksAway]

Looking good - better job of the intakes than I managed.

When I did a LAG/GS/DSG 20 Sqdn jet, I used DSG on the blade seating area and the camouflage colours on the insides of the engine intake parts - which equates to DG on stbd side and DSG on the port side. Did the LAG go into the intake? Seems to vary from what I can see from photographs - so maybe there were no hard and fast rules. Go with the photo if you have one! Re the fuselage colour - I just extended it back to the point where the fuselage bends into the front of the fan. From here to the fan was DSG.

It may be my building skills, but I found the top left hand part of the one piece wing (the engine cover, not the wing) tends to drop too low in the corner. Might need a scrap of card to keep it from doing so - or holding whilst the glue sets.

[Dad 10]

I love the fact that it says Hawker, rather than BAe... those were the days

I have all my Harrier archive filed under Hawker, it comes just after the Hunter section....where else would you put it??

I also use Jif to clean the bathroom, enjoy a Marathon Bar with a cup of coffee and still dont find Opal Fruits particularly thirst quenching.

Never had a Datsun though

Richard McC

[NG899]

Hi Doug,

Dare I say this.... the seat you've fitted is an MB Mk10H as used by Sea Harriers only. The GR.1 and the GR.3 both had the MB.Mk9 which, most notably when it's in your model, had a wholly different head-box. NeOmega do do a very good Mk9 for the GRs.

(Grabs tin-hat and dives under nearest table!)

Keep up the good work - great kit, nice work on it and the IV Sqn scheme will look great.

Cheers,

Nick

[Kev1n]

at least I know now what to do with mt sea harrier seats

It still looks smart

EDIT

MY sea harrier seats even...

Edited May 10, 2011 by kev1n

[AnonymousAA72]

A great start Doug - great to see a Monogram GR1 being built - I think I have one in the stash somewhere? An additional observation or two...The nozzles; The forward (cold air) nozzles were generally painted and in the case of most GR1/GR3 's this was Dark Green. The rear nozzles tended to be bright metal. As for the rocket pods..those in the Airfix GR3 kit a 3-tier RN type pods. There were only used on GR3's in the Falklands War. The RAF 2-tier MATRA SNEB type pods were not compatible with the RN ECM fit on HMS Hermes. RAF SNEB pods are avaialble from Flightpath...

Here's sister ship XV786 -in th elater toned down roundel scheme

Taken from the Spotting Group Gutersloh site...

XV786 4 Sqn

Theres a pic of XV791 below this on the Spotting Group Gutersloh website

Edited May 10, 2011 by Bill Clark

[Doug Rogers]

Bugger, I was sure the Neomega blurb said it was a Mk9! Oh well, it's CA'd in now.

I did wonder about the front nozzles being painted, that's easily rectified.

I'll have to make this one a learning exercise. Going to be doing an FRS.1 next, XZ455 '000' in flight.

[NG899]

Doug,

You could razor saw the headbox off and replace with a NeOmega Mk9 one without too much difficulty.

Front nozzles - were painted the upper camo colours on both GR1/3s and SHAR FRS1s until circa mid-1983. The whole insides of the intakes on GR1/3s were dk green on the starboard side and dk sea grey on the port side. On early GR1s the underside colour sometimes overlapped into the intake by about 3". Until SHARs began to appear in DSG overall, the insides of their intakles were EDSG. In DSG they had Light Aircraft Grey intakes. The only exceptions were the Medium Sea Grey / Barley Grey FRS1s of 809 NAS which had white intake interiors.

Rear nozzles - they may have been shiny before the engine turned but very soon in service they and the exhaust shields became a very sooty matt black. I normally paint both items Humbrol 11 and 113 mix and then very heavily dry-brush them with matt black. There is one bit of the shiled that doesn't tarnish too much... just above the rear nozzle.

FRS1 XZ455 000 - If using the Airfix 000 side code numbers from their 1:48th scale kit, beware! They are a scale 12" whereas 801's SHARS had 16" side and airbrake bay codes.

If you drop me a PM I'll send you something to help you with the SHAR by the weekend.

Cheers, HTH.

Nick