G-VTOL?

[PR19_Kit]

I must have every Harrier book known to man in my library and since Telford I've been ploughing through them one by one. My target was to find a colour photo of the first two seat Harrier, the private venture Mk 52 G-VTOL in it's original red/white/blue colour scheme with its two big wing tanks. Can I find one? Can I THUMP!  

I've searched the Net as well but all that show up are the aircraft in its two later schemes, the 'Middle East' sand and dark earth scheme and the later grey/white 'Skyhook' scheme.

So does anyone have such a pic, or could tell me where to find one please?

I got the wonderful Vingtor decal sheet for G-VTOL in all of its colour schemes but I need to know how the big 330 gall tanks were painted and how big they were. I've got some of Colin Frieghtdog's 100 gallon en route from Big H and I'm hoping a 'cut and shut' job on them will produce some big tanks.

[lenny100]

found these on a russain site

http://crimso.msk.ru/Site/Arts/Art3341.htm

[sandiego89]

I love harriers with the big ferry tanks. All kinds of WHIF possibilities.  Sorry I do not have good pictures. 

I worry that a 100 gallon tanks with a plug will look too skinny.  Raiding a Phantom kit or somthing similar might be a better option. 

For my 1/72 WHIF KGR-3 Harrier I used a 300ish gallon tank from another kit, and used a 1/48 gun pod from a bomb/weapons kit as the buddy fuel pod.  This gave the fatter apperancve I was looking for.

Consider a small 1/48 tank. 

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,23478.0.html  scroll down a bit to see the KGR-3 with the big tnak and the buddy pod. 

Good luck. Dave

[Captain Canada]

Mmmm....Harriers. Love that RWB scheme. And I'm also a big fan of arge drop tanks on them. I was just down at my LHS talking to the owner. I saw a pic today of some GR.3s with probes and 4 tanks, never seen them like that before. The caption said it was taken at Wide Awake, but judging by the camo on the accompanying Vulcan, and the extremely large hangar, and the snow....I'd say it was more like Goose Bay, Labrador.

So after having that talk, I decided my new GR.1 would have lots of tanks, be from the OCU, set up for a cross-country navigational excursion.

.

[Hobbes]

I've got 2 photos that show G-VTOL (in one of its camo schemes) with some 230 gallon drop tanks. Are those the tanks you mean, or did they trial even bigger tanks?

[PR19_Kit]

What a BRILL set of pics on that Russian site Lenny, thanks so much! 

The top view showing the big tanks AND the ferry tips is a gem, I think I'll build it like that.

You may well be right about the 100 galls being too  skinny Dave, the pic that Lenny found shows how fat the big tanks were. I've got LOTS of F-4 tanks to play with but this house is a '1/48 scale free zone'. 

AFAIK they flew the GR3s down to Wideawake with four tanks Cap'n, but then had to bring the tanks back to Wittering in a Herk as there wasn't enough to go round.  And snow at Wideawake at ANY time of year would seem unlikely, so you're probably right about the location.

I'd like the pics anyway please Harro, it seems they flew G-VTOL with all sorts of test loads as it was owned by Hawker-Siddley anyway.

[deathjester]

Try this mate:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn117/ornithoptera/PICT0476.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26506-harrier-g-vtol/&h=768&w=1024&sz=136&tbnid=IwcQ_WZq8_GnYM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=144&zoom=1&usg=__T0j__EjmddGyvmZv-spkK8jwTCk=&docid=4Se1Yz8SJhlMTM&sa=X&ei=xVWOUqSOAcyBhAe6poGQCg&ved=0CDwQ9QEwBA

[PR19_Kit]

That's interesting, it's a model and he's built it with the SMALL tanks. I've not seen a pic of G-VTOL itself with small tanks, but loads of the RAF T2s and 4s used them often.

Lovely job though, I hope mine comes out as well as that.

[Gondor]

I have a set of very old scale drawing which includes the larg tanks. I will scan and send them to you Kit.

Gondor

[inkworm]

Why not stick GRIER pods on instead? Or maybe save that for another project.

[kitnut617]

I've got 2 photos that show G-VTOL (in one of its camo schemes) with some 230 gallon drop tanks. Are those the tanks you mean, or did they trial even bigger tanks?

I think I agree with Harro, the top view photo of G-VTOL looks a lot like Hunter 230 Gal. tanks or even possibly Sea Vixen tanks, I could be wrong though ---

[Aircav]

Didn't the old Airfix Harrier have the big tanks with it?

[PR19_Kit]

Excellent stuff guys, I'll take all the info I can get thanks.

I'm building it RW inkworm, thus the proper decal sheet, so the proper tanks are a must.

[deathjester]

I have an old Frog GR1 - does that have the tanks you are after?

[PR19_Kit]

Afraid not, but thanks anyway.

AFAIK none of the Harrier kits, and I've got most of them even though I've only ever built one (!), have the larger size tanks, but most them have the standard 100 gallon ones.

Luckily the original Airfix kit has the extended ferry tips.