A friend has asked me to build him a 1/24 scale RAF GR7 Harrier. The problem is that he wants me to build it from an Airfix GR3 kit.
Does anyone know if there is a conversion kit out there? I have seen GR7’s in 1/24 scale at some shows in the UK so I’m hoping that someone will know what is availiable.
I checked the Airfix site and the only harriers they had in this scale were GR3 and FRS1 versions, so I’m assuming that a GR7 kit is not availiable.
If anyone has built one of these kits-please give advice as I have never built anything this big before[:I]
to may knowledge the Airfix kits are the only ones out there, I don’t believe there are any conversions out there to build a GR7. The project will be extremely hard, especialy with the nose being a completly different profile.
One person you may want to E-Mail is David Parkins of Flightpath. He does an excellent detail set for the Airfix kits. He would be the best person to answer your questions.
If you get the GR7 kit, it HAS a conversion right in it. The fuselage that comes in it is the GR3, then you have to cut off the cockpit and noce and attach the new GR7 front.
So the GR7 parts are on a seperate sprue… you might try contacking AirFix to see if you can get just the parts without buying th ewhole kit.
If only it were that simple. There IS NO GR7 kit in 1/24. The Airfix GR7 is 1/72.
The GR3 was a modified GR1
The GR7 is an almost completely new airframe, with new nose, new bulging canopy, new instruments, larger intakes with double auxilliary doors, longer front nozzles, bigger wings…
To see the work involved, get hold of the 1/72 GR3 and GR7 kits and compare the airframes. THEN work out how to build everything 300% larger.
It would be a pretty huge job, as listed above, most of the airframe is completely different. I have the 1/24 Sea harrier FRS1, which is basically the old GR1 kit with the new nose section and cockpit/canopy etc. But to make the GR1/3 into a GR7 would be a pretty steep order. For plenty of reference on Harriers try this site:
This is the IPMS UK Harrier SIG (Special Interest Group) These guys know just about everything there is to know about Harriers. Try posting a question on their forum and see what kind of response you get.
Thanks for the intell. guys. You are all right about this one-it’s a very tall order! I recon I should talk my friend into the idea of a smaller scale…
Trumpeter have a 1/32 scale AV8B listed on the Hannants.co.uk website in their Future Releases section.
I think that this will be your only choice as the differences between the ‘leaping heap’ - the GR3 and the 'plastic pig ’ -the GR5/7 would be too much and would
practically require a scratchbuild.
The kit number is Trumpeter TP32229