G-VTOL?

[PR19_Kit]

Been awhile since an update here....how's it going ?

Glacially.............

[Captain Canada]

LOL....in this weather it's be hard not to go that pace !



Well, over here anyway...it's only -16 with a windchill of -26. It's usually about +15 now !

[kitnut617]

I see that and raise it Todd, we had -39C, wind chill around -50C about 10 days ago. We've now have a hint of Spring, last Friday morning it was -20C but by the afternoon it was +2C, Saturday and Sunday up around +10 to +11C.  This week has been around +6C and the big meltdown is happening, the snow piles we have around and about are diminishing rapidly, mostly it's all just evaporating.    must be where you're getting all the snow right now   

[PR19_Kit]

Been awhile since an update here....how's it going ?

Glacially.............

The ice has started to move, a tad anyway. 

I got the G-VTOL kit off the Projects Shelf tonight and sourced a couple of resin intakes, the ones with the little square subsidiary intakes open at the top and closed at the bottom. I've started to figure out how to build the very complex M-B bang seats, and there's LOTS of PE stuff on them. I see lots of small tweezer work in my future....

[Captain Canada]

Nice to hear !

[PR19_Kit]

Here's the initial build pics.

The basic Sword Harrier T4 kit plus the lovely Vingtor decals, which I've had for an entire YEAR by now  Below are the two new resin intakes with the improved blow-in doors and lastly the array of big tanks. My prototype is the top one with the fins and the others are OGL's wonderful 'production' mouldings.

The lower pic shows the Sword contents, including the packet of PE etch top left and the single resin air brake interior below the clear parts. In usual Sword fashion there are NO index pegs and holes at all, so the alignment of the parts is up to the modeller. Oddly the kit has all three fin heights trialled on the 2 seat Harriers, but only the medium height fin is mentioned in the instructions. For my model of G-VTOL I'll use the tallest one as that's the only height it used when painted in the red/white/blue scheme. Later on it reverted to the standard medium height fin when in the desert scheme or its last, and current,  Skyhook scheme.

[sandiego89]

Hey Kit, I see you went with the resin blow in doors, but what are the blow in doors like on the stock Sword kit?  Are the top ones sucked in like a harrier parked at rest, engine idle?

Is the resin replacement the same way? top doors sucked in, bottom closed?

Blow in doors seem to be an issue with most harrier kits. 

I love the first generation twin seat versions, but my Bobcat kit is showing it's age.

-Dave

 

[PR19_Kit]

The Sword kit only has markings for the blow in doors, none of them are open at all.  

The resin ones have the top ones fully open and the bottom ones closed, and the rest are phased between those two extremes. And I'd agree about the other kits, very few of them have the doors shown properly in an 'engine off' situation.

The latest Airfix kits, the GR3 kit no. AO4055 and Sea Harrier FA2 kit no. AO3079, both have a rather strange option that enables you to have either condition however. The doors themselves are arranged in a half-ring that fits into the back of the intake mouldings, and there's one set of fully closed doors for modelling in flight and one set with them open at the top and closed at the bottom for on the ground models. I've not built either of them as yet so I can't report how well they work though.

[sandiego89]

The Sword kit only has markings for the blow in doors, none of them are open at all. 

Thank you, that is a real shame they left them all closed.  Would look odd for your typical parked Harrier.  Guess the resin is a must for that kit then- I tend to not model aircraft in flight. The rest of the Sword kit does look pretty good though. 

I do like kits that give you the option of open (or really like you say, phased) or closed doors. 
-Dave

[PR19_Kit]

On which subject....

Does anyone do resin intakes with the phased blow-on doors for the later Harriers? The GR5-9s and the T10s?

I seem to be on a Harrier 'thing' at the moment, goodness knows why as I've only ever built one before. 

[kitnut617]

I got one of each of the Sword T.2 & T.4 kits and they do look really good. Mind you the old Bobkit kits are not too shabby, just a lack of basic details is all that's wrong with them. Got three or four of those in the stash ---  somewhere  ---  (that's not to mention the five or six T.10's I have)   Do you think those intake replacements would work on them Kit ? But what we could really do with is some replacement fan fronts and inner ducting for the various Harrier kits -- and canopies --

[kitnut617]

On which subject....

Does anyone do resin intakes with the phased blow-on doors for the later Harriers? The GR5-9s and the T10s?

Heritage Aviation does the drop door intakes too, it says on their website they're for 'any' Harrier.  So are the early and late Harrier intakes different in any way ?

[PR19_Kit]

Heritage Aviation does the drop door intakes too, it says on their website they're for 'any' Harrier.  So are the early and late Harrier intakes different in any way ?

Good question Robert, I've always assumed the later versions were larger to accommodate the increased airflow to the later Pegasus engines, but comparing them, from an Airfix GR3 and an Italeri T10 they look pretty much the same.

I've got two pairs of the resin intakes so I'll try them and report back.

[Gondor]

Freightdog do resin intakes for the T2/T4 family of Harriers with the drooped upper auxiliary intake doors.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Freightdog do resin intakes for the T2/T4 family of Harriers with the drooped upper auxiliary intake doors.

Gondor

Those are the ones I have Alastair, or I think they are anyway.