A little work in progress

[NARSES2]

Marvelous Martin 

Wasn't he the guy who beat Alan Minter for the Middleweight crown back in 1980 ? Oh no that was Marvin Hagler 

[kitbasher]

Oh look I finished on on Telford Eve. I normally cease all build activity in the week leading up to Telford, to allow for packing the display up for transport from the Northants Swamps to the darkest depths of Shropshire.



Another Dutch Navy build. Sea Harrier F/A-2 shore based when not at sea at NAS Valkenburg in the Mid 2000's. In this case deployed to the Baltic states to take a turn at the NATO Baltic air policing mission. Hence the full AMRAAM load out.

This is a follow on from the Dutch Sea Harrier FRS-1 I did back in December 2018.

Airfix Kit built OOB with the belly AMRAAM pylons being Freighdog items. Paint job is mainly CJ Aerosol rattle cans, RAF Dark Sea Grey over all, with Medium Sea Grey for the nose cone. Simply put the reverse of the scheme mainly used by the Royal Navy.
Decals are a mix of the kit and spares box.

To quote Goldmember, noice!

[chrisonord]

Marvelous Martin 

Wasn't he the guy who beat Alan Minter for the Middleweight crown back in 1980 ? Oh no that was Marvin Hagler 

I thought that was Belting  Brian....London 
Chris

[Martin H]

Ok! Its now March 2021 and the first build of the year is finaly done.


Yes another Harrier...............This is very much a follow on to the Spanish SHAR-1 I did back in the early months of last year.



A Sea Harrier FRS-1 of the Thai Navy around 2006.
These Thai fighters were ex Spanish navy aircraft sold on to Thailand as part of the contract for the then new light carrier the Thai's were having built in Spain.
Their new owners were told by the Spanish that these were not true Sea Harriers but were rebuilds of their original AV-8A's. In fact as the Thai's found out from British Aerospace soon after aquiring them they were true Sea Harriers, the Spanish were keeping up the story that had been sold to their general public that the Harriers were being reworked as a cheaper alternative to buying new...........Which turned out to be incorrect. To keep The Spanish governement quiet the Thai's played along untill the story broke when the UK declassified the documents involved much to Madrids displeasure. Hence why they were marked up as AV-8A's by the Thai navy.

Yet Another italeri Seaharrier built OOB but with a new paint job (Gunze) and decals for a Thai AV-8A off a Wolfpack decals sheet.
The paint job uses a best guess (By Wolfpack decals) for what the correct FS colors are. As the real birds were re painted in localy mixed versions of the FS grey shades used some time after arrival in Thailand.

[JayBee]

Very very nice Martin.
To my mind it needs a Sharkmouth!

[NARSES2]

Particularly neat in that scheme Martin 

[Gondor]

Ho hum, I have one of those planed, different shades of grey for mine now 

Gondor

[kitbasher]

Very SHARp builds, Martin

[PR19_Kit]

Very SHARp builds, Martin

Hat? Coat? 

[kitbasher]

Very SHARp builds, Martin

Hat? Coat? 

I'm here all week

[Rick Lowe]

Very SHARp builds, Martin

Hat? Coat? 

I'm here all week

'Try the veal.'

[NARSES2]

In the small print of yesterday's UK Budget forecast the CoE has allocated an extra £1 for the purchase of a new "Book" from that well know retailer "Poundstore" 

[PR19_Kit]

In the small print of yesterday's UK Budget forecast the CoE has allocated an extra £1 for the purchase of a new "Book" from that well know retailer "Poundstore" 

[Martin H]

You can tell I'm off work.................Another Harrier build done.




Here we have a U.S. Marine Corps AV-8Aplus Air defence optimised 1st gen Harrier. Of Marine attack squadron VMA542.

The U.S. Marines had been watching the progress of the Seaharrier from the programs get-go, and after the Falklands conflict the USMC decided it needed its own Air Defence variant of the AV-8A to provide top cover for their ground pounding versions.

After a few months of talks with British Aerospace a deal was struck that would see the Brits supply 60 new SeaHarrier noses sections in kit form that could be assembled and installed onto existing AV-8A's in the U.S.
The Blue Fox radar would also be licence produced Stateside to give the impression of maximum home made content in the "new" aircraft.

At first it was decided that rather than form dedicated Air defence squadrons, each existing Harrier unit would be a 50-50 split of standard A models and what was now being called the A plus model. In practice the role split varied from squadron to squadron while the plan was in operation.

The first "new" aircraft rolled off the assembly line in 1984, and all 60 airframes had been reworked by 1988, three years after the replacement AV-8B had first entered service. The arrival of the Harrier II freed up more airframes for conversion, so another 90 kits were acquired and the selected aircraft rolled through the conversion program. this left the Harrier II to cover the close air support mission and the A plus to provide topcover. Although the mixed squadron idea was dropped and dedicated units of each version formed due to the technical differences involved.
The A plus gamely held the close airdefence role until the type finally bowed out as the new B plus model entered service.
A few escaped abroad namely 3 to Spain as attrition replacements for Seaharriers lost in accidents, and 12 loaned to the Italian navy so they could gain experience in VTOL operation before their own B models arrived.


Seen with my recent Thai Shar.

Another Italeri Shar kit, with a few bits robbed from an Esci AV-8A kit to tweak it from the standard seaharrier look. IE no RWR on the fin, and that socking great blade aerial on the spine. The paint job is the standard 3 tone grey scheme used on the B model with the decals from various sheets from my decal stash and the AV-8A kit that donated its fin and aerial.

Another Harrier is likely to be done tomorrow. This time a 2nd generation bird.

[PR19_Kit]

I like it, AND the backstory too. 

How much of your stash are Harrier kits OGL?