For the last week I’ve been exploring the pleasures of working in 1/24 scale, making a start on the Airfix Harrier GR.3. This will be one of the machines flown in the Falklands War, but which I haven’t decided yet. I’ve purchased the Flightpath photo etch detail set to improve Airfix’s plastic (which is very long in the tooth, originally being issued as the GR.1 in 1974 if I remember correctly, before being reissued with replacement nose for a GR.3 and Sea Harrier FRS.1) As a practice for working with the brass I also bought the Flightpath ‘Y’ type loader and BL.755 cluster bomb. Here it is, with a second weapon already provided in the Harrier set.
The bombs are pretty good but at 1/24 scale there’s lots of scope for improvement. I added many lines of Archer Transfers resin rivets, and sourced some white decal stripes from Fantasy Print Shop. Way better than those supplied by Airfix.
The Harrier set provides a complete replacement for the Martin Baker MB.9 ejection seat. Primarily in photo etched brass it requires a lot of folding and fiddling to get in to shape. Again, it’s a lovely model, but can be improved by the builder. The cushions are very basic so I added some piping to the bottom cushion, and some creases and folds to the back cushion. I also scratch built a representation of the central pillar the seat rides up when the handle is pulled. There around 60 parts to this so it’s been a week of work to get to this stage. Here it is in bare metal and then with a grey primer added.
latibuliser.com 