Thought I’d post a pic of a Sea Harrier I finished from Tamiya in 1/48 scale.
Out of the box, this one was a pretty straightforward build which went together very well.
The pieces were molded in light gray and clear and assembled with little or no sanding and gap filing.
The decals provide for 3 different Harriers, one land based and two on carriers including
HMS Hermes, which I built. Two paint schemes were shown
including one which uses more of a sea gray…I choose the blue sea gray pictured on the box side
for mine.
One pilot is included as well as a choice of drop tanks or 500lb bombs. Two Aim-9 sparrows
are included to complet the ordinance loadout.
No PE parts on this one or positionable flaps, etc…however the air brake can be positioned
open or closed as well as a hatch along the top of the fuselage…When opened, it gives way to a
look at the turbo fan…
Decent cockpit detail with raised panels although the area is small and once the pilot is seated it’s hard to see
much in there. The fuselage has ingraved panel lines.
Two drawbacks of the kit include the thruster nozzles for forward and hover motions…They
were molded poorly and the kit would benefit a bit more with aftermarket ones…Since
the thrusters are not located in a prominent position, I used the box stock ones.
The two RAF decal roundels over the jet intakes gave me problems adhering to the rounded
surfaces…They needed a lot of setting solution to even out the edges…Otherwise the decals went
on nicely
Addtionally, the pilot’s helmet visor details and some of his other details were soft, but he is right on
for a harrier pilot circa 1985.
It took me in the neighborhood of 20 hours to complete this…the underside white of the fuselage took
a bit of time to get right…and the pilot was tricky to paint.
In all a great kit for under $15…The small drawbacks can be easily overcome
Tank, I built the older Monogram kit of the AV-8 in 1/48th a couple of years ago. Not too bad if you are not a rivet counter or insist upon recessed lines.
hey tank,
nice looking sea harrier. I just bought that same kit for my son for his birthday last week. Its nice to know it was a good choice. Your review will help him out a bunch in letting him know where the problems are before he gets to em.
Way nice build! [tup] You can never have too many Harriers!
Was at an airshow at RAF Lakenheath, U.K. many, many, many moons ago. The RN came in with a Sea Harrier and a Sea King flying together. Whatever the 'copter did, the Harrier imitated. Was very cool to watch. Very loud, [{(-_-)}] but very cool!
Yeah guys…thanks again…harriers do have a real nice appeal as a unique aircraft…I was at a fleet week presentation in NYC one summer and the US marines brought a harrier out for a ride…She took off vertical from the Kennedy and flew along the Hudson river for a bit showing off her talents.
I love the new kit offerings from Hasegawa…I believe the newest is the Harrier II plus
check out this link from squadron.com and see what you think…There’s a bit of every thing…
I have seen one or two airshows with both RAF and RN harriers and it’s worth hanging around to see the aircraft depart after the show as relieved of the constraints of their display routines the two services try real hard to out do each other.
