SPA Modeler

Looking awesome, Carlos!

Clint, Mike, and Stuart, thank you! Clint, only a small fraction of the Harrier fleet are two seaters. All the line units are single seaters. Only the initial training is done in the two seaters. From what I’ve read it’s a very challenging aircraft to fly, and initially only very experienced aviators were allowed into the squadrons. When that requirement was reduced, then the accident rates went up.

Kinda like flying a helicopter in jet form. Definitely a whole different beast to learn to fly in I imagine.

In V/STOL mode it’s in a league of its own. In CTOL, it’s a fine light attack transonic aircraft. Hard to believe that they have five decades of front line service from these. Mr Camm’s final masterpiece.

I remember back in the day watching Harrier demos at airshows. Everyone thought that was the absolute coolest thing.

Stikpusher wrote:In V/STOL mode it’s in a league of its own. In CTOL, it’s a fine light attack transonic aircraft. Hard to believe that they have five decades of front line service from these. Mr Camm’s final masterpiece.

After reading your reply it hit me on how long the Harrier has been around. The Kestrel was an early 60's design which morphed into the Harrier. Which started in service in 1969

Looking good Carlos. quite a lot of detail in that old kit.

Medicman71 wrote:I remember back in the day watching Harrier demos at airshows. Everyone thought that was the absolute coolest thing.

I remember a bloody GR7/9 smacking into the road 200 yards in front of me whilst I was driving home I'll never forget the sight of the bastard thing appearing over the trees almost upside down and falling to earth...

... thank God the fireball went off to my side...

Never seen a pane crash in person. Hopefully I never will. You should buy a lottery ticket Stuart with that sort of luck.

Medicman71 wrote:I remember back in the day watching Harrier demos at airshows. Everyone thought that was the absolute coolest thing.

Saw them at Miramar Air Show a couple times. They'd hover right in front of the grand stands - super cool and crazy loud.

Yup, they are loud. But then you have to think of the thrust to weight ratio required for the hover maneuvers... I saw the A and B fly at the El Toro air show many times when that place was an active base.

So over the past few days I have been working on seam clean up. I used Tamiya Gray putty and wet sanding, a great combination.



I still need to scribe lost panel lines to replace detail lost while sanding.

And I built the wing...



of course I had to test fit the wing...



Nice snug fit! I’ll have to just watch alignment when I do glue it in place... that all on this one for this week...