Hasegawa 1/48 McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B Harrier II Plus

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Folks,
Yesterday (6 March 2004), I got my hands on the new Hasegawa Harrier. As with most Hasegawa kits, it’s molded in light gray. Some of the parts had a little flash, which surprised me, being a new release. But all parts were well-molded. And, of course, the windscreen and canopy have ridges right down the middle. The instruction sheet is typical Hasegawa - one sheet with all build instructions on one side, and the paint instructions on the other. The decals are for two Cherry Point, NC, squadrons - VMA-231 Ace of Spades, and VMA-223 Bulldogs. There are missiles, gun & ammo pods, targeting pods, and fuel tanks, but no bombs. The exhaust nozzles are connected internally by two shafts - one for the cold (front) nozzles, and one for the hot (rear) nozzles. This will allow them to be rotated together, except that only two at a time will move - either the front or the rear, but not all four. The nose cone and cockpit are separate sections, as is the tail cone - maybe there will be a TAV-8B coming in the future?

I always start a kit by gluing together the parts that don’t need paint - wings, vertical stabilizer, fuel tanks, etc. But, in this case, the instructions state that the lower portions of the wings should be glued in place before the upper portion is glued to them. So, I think that I’ll follow the instruction’s suggestions. This kit is the first I’ve built that you can glue the fuselage halves together before anything else is done, as the cockpit is a separate section. This makes the build go very quickly initially. So far, I’ve got the fuselage, LERX, gun & ammo pods, nose cone, all four nozzles, intake lips, and wheels glued together as separate sub-assemblies. The LERX (Leading Edge Root Extension) needs quite a bit of filler on the bottom where the top and bottom halves meet. Nothing major, though. ALso, the gun & ammo pods need a little filler on their bottoms along the seams.The fuselage went together very well. They way the kit is designed, you can still get to anything in the fuselage after it is glued together. For some reason, Hasegawa wants you to paint the entire interior of the fuselage gray, but you’re not gonna see anything in it once everything is in place… The wing mounts to the top of the fuselage (just like the real thing), and the cockpit mounts to the front of the engine intake, which is glued in place after the fuselage is glued together. Hasegawa has a well-engineered kit here. So far, it goes together very easily.

This is as far as I have gotten so far. I really like the design of this kit. It makes the build go so much quicker and easier. More later…

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Keep us uptodate on it, please. I almost bought the Revell AV-8B yesterday, and I’ll probably go back and pick it up. Can you post inprogress pics? I’d like to see them if you can.

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I wouldn’t bother with the Revell/Monogram Harrier anymore. Inside the II-Plus kit Hasegawa has a pictures of two “coming soon” AV-8B’s - one Night Attack and one Desert Harrier.

just fyi.

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Thanks for the info. I’ll wait[:-^]

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roadkill,

I’ve got some in-progress digital photos of it already. I just gotta figure out how to make them visible to everyone else. Hopefully, they’ll be posted tomorrow, but no promises.

As far as the Revell-Monogram kit goes, it’s still a fairly decent kit. It represents the Harrier II, not the II Plus. So, it doesn’t have the radar nose, nor the FLIR box on top of the nose. It does have a small TV camera in the nose, which is for the Angle Rate Bombing System (ARBS), which allows the Harrier to fire the Maverick air-to-ground missile. Also, the Harrier II only has two ALE-39 Chaff/Flare dispensers, instead of the six that the Harrier II Plus has. It’s not capable of night attack, either. So, the Revell-Monogram kit is still good for that version. I have four of those kits, and plan on building at least two of them. I personally think that it’s a pretty good kit, and would recommend it to anyone, unless Hasegawa comes out with that version of the Harrier, which, based on what I’ve seen with the new kit, is a good possibility.

I’m glad that you guys like this in-progress review. I’ll attempt to keep it up-to-date as much as possible.

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I forgot to mention earlier:

The fuselage has a belly tray, or pan, that attaches to the bottom of the fuselage. The best way I’ve found to attach it is to put it in place, and then run Tenax 7R (or whatever liquid glue that you prefer) along the seams from the INSIDE of the fuselage, gluing just a little at a time while holding the pan in place until that application of glue dries, then moving on a little more, gluing just a little each time. This will help to make sure that the entire belly pan is well-aligned after you’re done gluing it in place. More later…

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Well, I forgot to post the pictures tonight. Ran out of time. But, the cockpit interior is now painted, along with the ejection seat frames, the landing gear (white), the engine intake & first stage compressor blades, and the wheel hubs. I’m letting it all dry overnight. No assembly was done tonight.

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Hey garydmason,
I said basically the same excact thing you had said about the Harrier that was first posted about this kit a few weeks ago.
Yupper I have two of these babies. Over all shes a beaut. Lookin forward to building her.
If you look at the insert that you get w/ the kit, you’ll see that they are bringing out a AV-8B Harrier II “Desert Storm” and a AV-8B Night Attack variant. It would be cool to see a two seater of this bird as well.
Flaps up, Mike

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I happen to be in the middle of a harrier bonanza (1 Monogram A model, 2 RM B models - one’s converted to a B II and the wonderful Hasegawa B II+)

RM’s B model kit is still very good and there are a couple of conversion sets for it.
There is a conversion set by Amraam that will convert the RM’s B model into a B II (Roll models, I think) and I came across a TAV-8B conversion set by C & H Aero Miniatures but it had a really hefty price tag (3 1/2 times kit cost). I went to sleep last night trying to figure a way to justify the cost to my wife and bank account.

(addendum) Okay, just figured a way to justify it. A birthday present to myself :0).
I just ordered it from Meteor products and hopefully it’s still in stock. Now all I have to do is find another RM AV-8B kit.

Although you can’t get the Black Box cockpit set for the RM’s Harrier (it’s really a B II cockpit by what I can tell - pictures of it in the USMC GB), get it if you can find it. It’s a wonderful detail set. Also BlackBox indicated that they were working on a cockpit update set for the Hasegawa kit.

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There is also another alternative to waiting for hasegawa -B II. Revell’s re-release B with new resin nose. The only problem I see is that they just give you the nose, but the LERX is still the 70% not the 100% common on B II models.

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Mike,
My kit didn’t come with an insert. But, I’ve seen that mentioned in other threads as well. I wonder why I didn’t get one. Hmmmmmmmm… Oh well. Knowing myself as I do, I’ll probably wind up buying every version of the Harrier that Hasegawa produces. I really do hope that they produce a TAV-8B. I would love to have that kit.

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Well, I continued on with the cockpit tonight (9 March 2004). Typical cockpit stuff. Nothing special. I did notice that the throttle quadrant isn’t exactly correct, as there is only the throttle, but no nozzle position lever. Easily scratch-built. Decals are provided for the instrument panel and side consoles, but how you’re supposed to make them snuggle down on those surfaces is beyond me. Maybe sand off all of the detail? Anyone out there ever used decals on a raised-detail panel? How is it done? Anyway, I painted the seat cushions and assembled the cockpit tub. Tomorrow I hope to get it all installed in to the cockpit section of the fuselage. After that, I should be able to fully assemble the entire plane, minus the landing gear and glass. Maybe some external paint by next weekend (gotta go to Memphis this coming weekend for my brother’s 3rd wedding - you’d think he’d get it right by now [:D]). Sorry, but I forgot the pictures again. Maybe tomorrow…

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Are you sure you took pictures?[:P][;)][X-)]

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Yep, I took pictures. Someone just today (10 March 2004) clued me in to what I might be doing wrong to get them to show up, so, hopefully, I’ll get them posted tonight. What’s really amazing about this is I work on complex computerized medical systems, and this little aspect of life is kicking my $#@^%!!![banghead][censored][|(]

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Folks,
Just to give you an idea as to how intensely GaryD wanted that kit, he knocked down a little old lady, two girl scouts and kicked a dog that got between him and the kit. There was only one left in the store and he ripped it out of a fellow modeler’s hands (mine) and sprinted to the checkout counter, laughing insanely and saying, “Mine, mine, it’s all mine!, HAHAHAHA” Scary…[}:)][}:)][}:)]
Scott

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Just to let ya’ll know, the “Desert Harrier” was released here last month.

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Folks,

Here are the pictures that I promised to post.

This is the top view of the fuselage. You can see the small shafts for the exhaust nozzles.

This is the belly pan mentioned earlier. Most of it will be hidden by either the strakes or the gun & ammo pods.

These are the cockpit pieces. This is as close as I could get without getting out of focus.

Here’s the nose section. Why it has a blue tint is beyond me. Must have been the flash from my camera.

Here’s the intake and compressor section. Easily painted after installation.

I’ll post more pictures as I progress. I hope that you all like these. My first SUCCESSFUL attempt at posting pictures. A BIG THANKS to Mike & Heath for cluing me in to what I was doing incorrectly.
[bow][bow][bow][bow]

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Good job with the Harrier and with posting the pics. It’s looking great so far. (I love to see in progress pics!)

Here is a suggestion for getting those close-ups. I’m not sure type of camera you are using but most digital cameras have a “macro” function. It’s usually a button or setting represented by a little flower icon. With this setting turned on, you’ll be able to get focus much closer to the subject.

Good luck and keep the pics coming!

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Vinny,
Thanks for the comments. As far as cameras go, I have a Sony 5 megapixel Cyber-Shot DSC-P92. It only has 3x optical zoom and 3.3x digital zoom. I don’t see the flower that you’re talking about in any of the menus on the camera. I guess I need to actually read the manual, huh? hehhehheh! [:D] What’s that old saying… If at first you don’t succeed, read the manual?

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Hope this helps. [;)]