Harrier AV-8A

[diegoepoimaria]

Hello, i'm a long time reader of this forum, but that's the first time i've ever post something.

I'm not a good modeller, since i have very few time, and even less skill. Plus, i'm slow with paint and even slower with decisions. I know, a train wreck ...

But today, with all my courage, i'm here to show you all the work in progress of a little harrier of mine.


I've brought some 1/144 Harrier AV-8A / Gr.1 from matchbox. Thet are almost nice, but they totally lacks the ventral gunpods. I'm not a great scratchbuilder either, so i decied to go for a what if instead of trying to scratch build the gunpods, correct the nose, correct the shape of the fuselage and the shape of the air intakes.

First photo ( sorry, it's also my first time in photographing models ... )

... aaargh, i can't upload images ... ok, i'll try that later on ...

For now, you'll have to rely on your immagination.

I was thinking of an israeli Harrier AV-8A, armed with a couple of sidewinders or phyton 2 ( that are quite similar to sidewinders ), a couple of external fuel tanks ( taken from the alpha jet in 1/144 ) and a couple of 1000lb mk83 retarded bomb ( from the new 1/144 f/a-18E ) on 2 new ventral pylons.

Plus, it has a new nose, quite similar of those of A-4M, with the ARBS bombing system, a new RWR on the tail, chaff and flare launcher and small LERX like the one of the AV-8B ( the 75% lerx ).

The story beneath it is that, after the last war, in the late 1960' , israeli decied that their airfiels were too vulnerable to offenisve counter air, and so interested in the newly born Harrier, as the USMC.
Sadly, the harrier has a great flaws: it dislikes hot climates ( well, it's Pegasus 101 engine ), since it's engine loses power as the temperature rises. After some tests in the 1969, it was discoveret that it can't land vertically with nothing else apart from the gunpods ( witch should weight someting like 800lb apiece .. has anybody some exact information? ), and that's menas to discard every unused weapons before landing, including air to air missile. But, since there weren't missiles to throw away, a new solution was necessary.
In the mean time, a new harrier was developed: the Gr.1A, with a new, powerful Pegasus 102 engine, wich adds up to 500lb of thrust.
So, the israeli asked for 4 modifications:
1) Small lerx , to improve every condition of the flight. That was the easy part, since it only tooks 10 days from project start to flight test ends and certifications. After all, they were only two metal pieces...
2) RWR and a simple ECM system, of israely producion. Little is known about ECM, but externally, it's possible to see two rounded antennae at the back of the plane, on the rear "stinger", and on the side of the nose, probably for the RWR, plus a small blade antenna on the ventral side of the rear sitnger, probablu for the ECM system.
Plus 6 chaff and flare launcher were installed, 4 on the upper fuselage, before the vertical tail, and 2 on the lower fuselage, after the airbrake.
The 4 upper launcher requested the modification of the electronics cool air intake, lenghtening it to avoid ingestion of debries/gases or even the countermeasures itselfs.
3) The ARBS ( Angle Rate Bombing System ) on the nose, the same mounted on the A-4M USMC Skyhawk. This system allows for a precise bombing, providing there's creal wiew of the target. But, since in those region wheather is almost all the time sunny, that wasn't a problem.
4) 2 new ventral pylons, rated up to 1200lb. The 2 new ventral pylons prevented, when in use, to use either the gunpods ( that can't even be mounted ) and the centerline ventral pylon, but allowed for greater tactical flessibility, since now an AV-8I can take off from a short strip with 2 sidewinder, 2 lightweight fuel tanks and 2 1000lb bomb ad land vertically after the mission with both the sidewinders and the external tank in almost all the condition ( up to near the maximum temperature ).

Small formation of harriers should be deployed in dispersed airfields, or even on the road, necessitating only 5/6000 lb of fuel each for any single sortie. So a fuel truck and a few other veichles could easly support a small force of 2 or 4 harriers for a day or two, attacking from unexpected directions and disappearing in the middle of the desert, without any possibility to be stopped other than in flight ( since they almost don't need any ground support structure ).

In flight , the harrier wasn't bad at all, sicne it's quite fast at low level, and sicne it's engine it's quite powerful for it's size and weight, even tought it's wing wasn't designed for dogfight, with it's hig load. Remeber that a harrier has to land vertically, so , with 50% of fuel, at very low level, it's thrust/weight rate is more than one, and at low low level almost no one is faster than mach 1.2, if it even can break the sound barrier.



For the camouflage i was thinking about the classical israeli camo on the upper side, and light grey on the lower. what did you think?

Thanks in advance for all your help, and sorry for my english ...

[Dizzyfugu]

Hello and welcome - you will have to upload pictures elsewhere and link them into this forum/your post, there's no direct upload capacity here.

[kerick]

Welcome and glad you decided to post a project! Nice idea with the desert Harrier. Don't forget with a little run down a runway a Harrier can take off with a heavier load. Any stretch of straight road would do. Besides you will have to use a road sooner or later for the support crew.

I put my pics on photobucket and link to them. Flicker and other such sites will work to.

[Hobbes]

Interesting idea, I'm looking forward to seeing some photos.

More information on adding images to your post can be found here

[Captain Canada]

Welcome aboard ! No need to worry about your skills or speed here my friend....alot of us are in the same boat, and most of us are here for fun !



Looking forward to seeing the photos.

[Army of One]

Welcome......as Cap'n C said......we here for fun....so enjoy...!!! Also looking forward to the pics.....

[nighthunter]

We, the proletariat, demand pictures!

Just as soon as you are able, of course. I'm sure we are all waiting with baited breath!

[diegoepoimaria]

Ok, i've opened a flickr account, and now let's see if i can link pictures here ...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm







and now, a little Tonka still in progress, but with the camo and the weathering on the wings finished, to show my terrible terrible technique ....



For now, the harrier hasn't even a basecoat, since probably some more work will be required ...

@ kerick: I totally forgot that a harrier can perform a normal landing, or even a short rolling landing ... and that's my idea to avoid using the gunpods that goes away ... sigh ...
I was thinking that all the take offs would have been short rolling, and all the landings vertical for ... well ... for no reason ... Maybe i tought that a vertical landing in a dispersed airfield would have been easier than a conventional or short landing...



EDIT:yeah!

[Old Wombat]

Hi, Diego! Welcome aboard!

I'm not an Admin, so I can't fix your post but I've done what I can as an example. You need to copy the "direct link" from your host site (in this case I used right-click & "copy image location" [http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/11351254715_f0d1d62c3c.jpg] - the link should end with ".jpg"), paste it into your post, then highlight the link in your post & click the 2^nd icon from the left in the second row - it looks like a painting - in your post-reply screen it will look something like this [img ]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/11351254715_f0d1d62c3c.jpg[ /img] but without the spaces & the image will display in your post.





Guy

[diegoepoimaria]

Thanks mate! 

ok, i'll edit the post now!

[sandiego89]

Can't go wrong with a harrier- keep it up. 

[Captain Canada]

They both look awesome ! Love what you're doing with the Harrier. I've never seen that kit before.

[Dizzyfugu]

Thanks mate! 

ok, i'll edit the post now!

Flickr (which I use, too) also offers the very convenient service of complete forum post URLs, which include photo titles and you as the source. When you are on the photo's page, click on the "more ways to share" icon in the right lower corner (icon: a frame with an arrow), and take the "Grab the HTML/BBCode" rider. Chose the "BBCode" at teh bottom, and above that the system offers you various pixel sizes which you can directly link here: just copy/paste the complete code that FlickR provides, no addition from the insert options here needed.

Very convenient - once you find it... 

BTW: nice work. Hard to believe that these are 1:144!

[NARSES2]

Wellcome aboard sir. They are both nice but then I realised they are 1/144 

[PR19_Kit]

That's a MATCHBOX Harrier? I didn't know they did one in 1/144.

It looks just like the Crown version, which was later morophed into a Sea Harrier and done by both Minicraft and Revell in turn.