So what else have we been up to lately you ask? Let me tell you,..... my mother celebrated her 95th birthday and my whole family was present to have a big party. My mom was born in Essen, Germany in 1930 and was raised there during WW2. Without gong into detail, to say that this was not a good time in her life is an understatement. She came to America in 1958 married to my father and with my older brother and sister. So, considering all she has been through, including us four children, she deserved a nice party. Happy Birthday Mom!
Next we continued as a part of our Legion color guard to raise our national colors (flag) it five local football games. Our team, the Heath Bulldogs won the "Cardinal Division" Championship, but lost in the first round of the State Playoffs. On another football note, my grandson, Bentley, won team MVP while his team won the divisional and district championships down in Houston, Texas.
Later we took a weekend to friends at their cabin for a "get-away" from the rest of the world. As a gift to them, we purchased a concrete ornament, cleaned it up, sealed it with etching primer / sealer. Then Jarrod and I painted it before applying a top sealer and rubber cushions beneath it. It was their gift for our visit and looks very nice on the front porch of the cabin.
Just a couple days ago, we attended a concert featuring Toby Mac (he is a pop christian singer). The venue was a couple hours away but proved to be a beautiful setting. Jarrod absolutely loved it.
I could go on but enough about all the other stuff, it's time to get back to the new build. And, yes,.... it's my 1/18 Harrier. Length 806mm, wingspan 514mm, yes.. it is indeed big!
Unfortunately, while it may look impressive by scale, they really missed an opportunity to make a nice detailed kit instead of a toy. This can be see in various points on the kit, such as the cockpit, wheel wells, engine and exhaust, landing gear, wing shapes and angles, did I say the cockpit?
There are several previous builds online showing the weakness of the kit and several modelers who spent a lot of time and effort to scratchbuild solutions (nearly half the aircraft). While it is all impressive and commendable, I am not going all that way. Instead I'm going to try to make some minor changes to make it acceptable as a 10 foot ceiling hanger. This kit could have benefitted with a pilot figure too, along with more up to date ordinance.
The instructions have you starting with the intake fan and engine in Step 1.
The intake shroud has several ejection pin parks in prominent locations that require filling. In addition to the pin indentions, there is also a generous amount of flash on the fan blades, but nothing that some time and effort cannot cure. The parts count for the sub-assembly is a whole 4 pieces, but it serves the purpose. Time will tell if the intake shroud fits inside the fuselage well or not. More to come on this assembly.
The engine is a whole 2 parts with three internal pieces which are actuators to make the nozzles function together in pitch and action. We cannot enclose the assembly until we finish sanding, priming, and painting the intake as it is assembled into the two engine halves. While we initially thought of detailing the engine, we finally determined the effort is not worth it, so it will be closed inside the fuselage when fully assembled. This would've been a great opportunity by the manufacturer to add more detail to the engine and in fuselage structure to make it show well. It would also be a great chance for a good 3d printer modeler to make a detailed engine and fuselage internals.
Step 2 has you working on the central landing gear.
When assembling the main landing strut, they show to instal a metal spring inside the strut before adding the piston portion of the strut. The problem with that is that the spring does not have any kind of retainer or limitation of movement. This means that the hinge parts S153, S154, S162 and S163 are the spring stops. So the spring tension makes them go completely extended which makes the strut way too long. It does not look realistic in the forced over-extended position. Our solution was to study images of actual Harrier's to determine the compressed length they should be and we glued the assembly into a fixed position. This also allows the main strut to actuate into the closed position properly. Other options we pondered was to slot a sliding hole in the main strut center cylinder and then pin the outside to limit the travel. Another option would've been to cut the spring to a smaller length to limit the travel. We chose the fixed position instead. The main gear also is in need of more detailing with hoses, pins, nuts, bolt heads, landing light, clips, etc. Another item requiring correction was the wheels and tires. Lucky for us an aftermarket supplier had them available. AMG, or Armory Modelers Group makes one piece resin detailed wheel and weighted tires.
When comparing them to the kit parts, they drastically improve the kits appearance.
Modifications were needed to make the main gear strut accept the resin parts as the center pin on the kit wheels versus the resin pieces were very different (see the photo below).
We will not finish the assembly of the main gear into the wheel bay until the wheel bay is further detailed, painted, and the main gear is painted and detailed.
Enough for now; time for more research. The next update will have us getting started in the cockpit.
