Airfix 1/72 BAe Harrier GR.7

AIRFIX 1:72 BAE HARRIER GR.MK 7

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: 17 January 2003

Kit Details:

Airfix No.4039 1/72 BAe Harrier Gr.7
It is marketed as a Skill 3 kit so is for more advanced modellers and model dimensions, Humbrol paint numbers used and number of parts are also displayed on the box.

Aircraft History:

The Harrier GR.Mk 7 is a further development of the second generation of this unique fighter, which is also known in the USAF/USMC as the AV-8B Night Attack Harrier II. Designed to carry a vast amount of underwing ordnance on at least 6 stores points plus a pair of dedicated sidewinder points and a centreline hardpoint, as well as operate in all kinds of weather and at night makes the GR.7 one of the most versatile fighter aircraft around.

It is the RAF equivalent of the Night-Attack AV-8B and uses similar equipment and avionics, with the same overnose GEC Sensors and a fully Night Vision Goggle compatible Glass cockpit although a different tail section, lacking the chaff/flare dispensers of the later AV-8B's.

The Kit:

An Inbox review of this kit was written by me some time ago so a lot of the information therein has been reproduced in less detail here. All the parts come together in one plastic bag, including the clear parts. There are just under 100 light grey parts on a number of smallish sprues plus five transparencies. No flash and the plastic is crisp and some new tooling technology conveys quality in this kit. Panel lines are finely raised, so fine that it takes some scrutiny to work out if they are raised or engraved! There are a few small ejector pin marks which will need some attention but overall they are not too bad. The parts appear to be the same as the GR.5 kit, which is indicated on some of the sprues.

Instructions:

Essentially its A3 sized folded to make a four page A4 booklet. The front page is devoted to the aircraft history in various languages, the middle section is the 7 step assembly process and the last page a four view markings diagram. A separate page is also provided for USMC markings version. Easy to follow with Airfix's trademark arrows pointing to location points. USMC and RAF symbols are also placed in the instruction sheet so you know which parts to use for whichever version you are building. But again as always, only Humbrol numbers are provided for the painting of this model, so you will need a reference chart if you use another paint range or want to know where in your Humbrol collection (if you group them by colour as I do!) that tin of paint is likely to be found - greens, greys, browns?

Construction:

As ever this starts in the cockpit which consists of a thin style tub, instrument panel (with no detail, but a decal to affix) onto which a nice looking joystick is attached, a reasonable ejection seat and a pilot figure. Everything fits quite well, and I used the decal for the instrument panel. I also included the pilot figure (being the wheels up buff I am!) but found it quite difficult to fit him in and get his legs around the joystick and instrument panel base. I also test fitted the canopy afterward over him and found I needed to adjust him a little so the main canopy would fit, so be wary of this. The interior was painted Sea Grey and the cockpit installed into one fuselage half.

There are a few other things to do before you can affix the fuselage halves together. Both nose and fuselage wheel bay boxes need to be installed, the latter should be even if you are doing wheels up since there will be gaps from a closed speed brake, which are covered by the bay. The fuselage exhaust nozzles are each two-piece and I painted the interior of each GunMetal from Humbrol metalcote range, which is a powdery looking black. These are then inserted through holes and cemented to a round 'stopper' on the inside of the fuselage half. This then allows the nozzles to be moveable, but of course the gaps around the nozzles to achieve this is at the expense of some accuracy. The tailplanes are connected to a common cylinder shaped part inside the fuselage to enable them to be moveable as well. The huge intake fan is also installed at this point, with the fan itself painted aluminium and the intake interior painted white.

Finally, before gluing the fuselage halves together add some noseweight and make sure you drill out the holes shown on the instructions for the refuelling receptacle, as these are not marked on the external side of the fuselage half. The fuselage halves go together very well and snap into place in some areas, but still benefit from clamping while left to dry.

The intake covers are next which fit nicely, but make sure you do not mix the parts up as they are meant to go on one way only, and then you can affix the refuelling receptacle on the fuselage. There is a small seam line which needs scraping off the mating surface of the refuelling receptacle and the fit against the fuselage is not particularly great. The shoulder mounted wings come in a single upper piece and two lower halves and these were sub assembled. The instructions say to add the wings onto the airframe in this step but it is going to be difficult to paint the model by virtue of its shoulder wing design and once the wings are in place, getting in to paint around the exhaust nozzles without subsequent correcting touch ups, would be virtually impossible. I therefore decided to paint the wings and fuselage as separate assemblies - these would be married up at the end of construction and painting.

Step Four is divided into two diagrams, one for wheels down and one for wheels up modellers. I followed the wheels up version which was my choice, and happy to report all the gear doors fit nicely. There is detail in the wheel wells, but mainly of the structural variety. The wing mounted jockey wheels needed a couple of dry fit runs and a slight trimming adjustment before they would fit nicely in their housing.

The next two stages on the instructions are pretty busy and can be confusing as it deals with the pylons and underwing stores in the respective steps and each has both the RAF and USMC versions to cater for, so it pays to study the diagrams first and know which ones require affixing depending on firstly your choice of version and then choice of actual underwing stores. I chose to depict a bomb ladened GR.7 with three 1,000-lb bombs and a sidewinder missile on the four separate pylons under each wing, plus another 1,000-lb bomb on a centreline pylon between the two Aden Gun pods. As well as these the kit also supplies a pair of large fuel tanks, two different style of RAF ventral gun pods (which could be empty ones as installed on some GR.7's to aid in aerodynamic features) and the USMC larger twin gun pods. The instructions have little insignia over the various pylons and weapons so you know which to add for which version. The Harrier nose is also installed at this point, and the RAF GR.7 version fits quite well with just a touch of filler and sanding to blend into the surrounding nose area and a small clear part right on the nose tip for one of the sensors. The kit actually supplies four different nose options, with only two used in this kit suggesting the same mold covers other versions such as the GR.5.

At this stage I left off the ordnance and painted the wings underside and fuselage underside in the Light Green as dictated in the instructions, remembering that I have not yet put the wings onto the fuselage. I also affixed the decals to the pylons being well aware they would be difficult to add later, so a gloss cote was also given to the wings underside. The bombs were then painted separately Dark Green with yellow rings near their nose, and affixed to the pylons.

Having read other reviews of this kit I anticipated a fairly problematic fitting project, but in the main part everything fits surprisingly well. Before final painting, the main canopy was affixed as well as the various antennas, ram intakes and pitot probes. I had to consult reference photos for precise positioning of the ram intakes.

The upper surfaces were painted in Army Green, again as dictated by the instructions with the nose sensors in radome tan. The under surfaces were painted in Light Green, and overall it looks right for the two-tone green scheme. The other painting option that can be depicted for RAF GR.7's is the current two-tone grey "low IR" scheme, which does not have unit markings. Once all painted and some of the decals done the wings were finally fitted to the fuselage. These fit very well, but still there is a small gap on the upper surface behind the cockpit which needs filling, and I suspect underside wing roots also, but thankfully too difficult to see and I am happy leaving it.

Options:

The kit certainly caters for wheels up or down modellers, with both styles of gear doors (closed or open) provided as well as separate steps in the instructions for either preference. A refuelling probe is also provided, but you need to open the holes inside the fuselage before joining them together. It is possible to have the exhaust pipes all moveable as well as the tailplanes, but a fair bit of work as far as preparation and testing these out will be needed, as the parts don't really fit to allow for optimum moveable components.

Colour Schemes:

The kit provides for two versions to be built, a RAF GR.7 from No.4 Sqn, Gutersloh, Germany, 1991 in upper Dark Green and lower Light Green scheme. The second version is a USMC AV-8B Night Attack Harrier from VMA-214 "Blacksheep", MCAS YUMA, Arizona, 1990 in USMC Green and US Dark Grey wraparound camouflage. In the Humbrol range H161 is USMC Green (and quoted in the instructions) but I have this down as a deleted paint from their range.

Decals:

The decal sheet is essentially split into two halves, one for the USMC and one for RAF. The decals are quite good with a fair bit of stencilling and all colours have good depth. Some of the warning arrows and unit insignia is small and blurry and a touch off centre, that is one of those things us modellers are like to spot but no one else! They are durable, thin, of matt appearance and contain only a small amount of carrier film. They bed down on the model well with decal setting solution, perhaps the only criticism is their reluctance to move around once they touch the model surface, most of them having to be applied delicately with tweezers for precise positioning.

Accuracy:

For the most part Airfix have done pretty well I think with this kit, but there are a few flaws. Some of this is likely to have come from the apparent retooling of the aged GR.3 kit to the GR.7 standard. In overall profile it seems pretty good. They have tried to get the nose right, and almost have it, the contour looks pretty good. However, there needs to be a lens on the fairing on the upper nose, and the triangular mast (pitot mast?) on that fairing is a bit overscale. The yaw vane which also sits there is omitted from the kit. On some GR.7's I have noticed an additional intake on the shoulder of the port wing, this is omitted from the kit. The rear tail fairing for the RWR antennas is bulged, whereas should be flush. The arrangement of the sensors on the rear tail bumper is quite overscale. As mentioned during construction, by virtue of making the exhaust nozzles moveable, that has come at some expense to accuracy. All in all, the kit measures up quite well and it looks and walks like the the Harrier! I still think it is the most accurate GR.7 in this scale.

Overall Recommendation:

Not one for the novice but it is a relatively painless kit to put together for intermediate modellers, the fit was much better than I had expected, and I would suggest leaving the wing off until after painting of inner fuselage and decaling at least. For the investment of time and care, you will get a reasonable replication of the GR.7 in this scale and I would recommend it over the Italeri offering any day. Recommended for GR.7 fans!

Related INBOX Reviews:-

web hosting • domain names • video sharing
free online games • photo sharing
free blog • short URLs