Has Anybody ever built the Airfix 1/24 Harrier? I’m thinking about buying this kit
as my birthday present to myself but $70.00 is–for me–an awful lot of money to
shell out for an aircraft kit. I really want to have a Harrier in my collection of historic aircraft but I can’t find a 1/32 kit & the 1/48’s are pretty small. Is the 1/24
kit worth the money?
Hey, i’ve bought but not built the kit. As far as i can see it’s pretty comprehensive and really really big, totally dwarves pretty much everything in my collection. The details are a little soft in places but nothing thats not fixable with a small amount of work, the engine’s a gem. Overall the kit would benefit from a few aftermarket goodies (tho they’re serious money in this scale) but would look pretty good without. The only real pain will be re-engraving the rivets after prep ( tho it was suggested that a small hypo with chamfered edges chucked in a mini-tool will do a nice job). Unfortunatly you’d have no excuse not to but one over here(in england), they’re on special offer at £20 (or £25 for the naval jobbie) in model zone. (unfortunatly their site’s not up yet so no mail order either and i think it’d prove prohibitivly expensive for me to ship one to you)
just my tuppence
Rob
HI
I have the Airfix 1/24 Harrier too, the only real draw back is the efjection seat, it has no detail to it, and Flightpath do a new one but as part of a detail set which is very expensive.
Trumpeter are advertising a 1/32 to be released sometime in the near future, might be worth waiting for. Maybe around the same price but you know the detail will be there.
Hey, mobydick, No, it’s not worth that sort of money. If you could get one for half that price then maybe. Designed in the 70’s when the rivet was king, and full of ‘interesting’ features like moving controls & a lift off wing so you can see the engine. It promises lots, but to bring it up to todays standard’s takes ages & lots more $'s or intensive scratchbuilding. I did it, but mine had been donated to me & badly thrown together in the first place, so I had no choice but to rip it apart & start again. My fingerprints grew back eventually!
Likewise, forget the old Revell 1/32nd Harrier, that’s fairly hopeless too.
Go for a decent 1/48th model Harrier or AV8B, NOT the Tamiya SeaHarrier though!
Try the Monogram AV8B, not too expensive, not too basic, & it can be converted into a GR7, a company called AMRAAM do a resin conversion kit.
Pete
I have built three of the 1/24 Airfix Harriers in my time. The first was when the kit was new - how many years ago was that!! Some years later I converted it to the GR3 with a new scratchbuilt nose and much work in the cockpit.
The latest was a massive, long term job to build a GR7. Now that’s a project! The complete cockpit and canopies were scratchbuilt (including the Mk10 ejection seat, all the instrument panels), the fuselage was stretched, new scratchbuilt wings were made and much work done on the tail. In all, only about 30% of the kit was used and every part that was used was altered/improved in some way. This was a massive job, but the result was most pleasing and it has gatheres comments at shows which it has visited. The Airfix original kit should be looked on as a starting point only, but if you are prepared to put in the work, a good model will result. Conversions in this scale are not for the faint-hearted, though! The finished model is so big that you just have to make all the obvious corrections and additions to make it look right.
If you are in some doubt, take a deep breath and go for it!
i built one after a 25 year break , quite good kit , you can get some detail sets from djparkins , flightpath range , nice easy kit
There’s a great build-up of this kit here:
http://members.tripod.com/scottsmodels/av-8a_harrier.htm
Regards,