Preview: Hasegawa AV8B 1/72 scale

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Decals and instructions, decals are very nicely printed, and even have the "slime" lights in the correct colours, although the canopy MDC is mulded in grey, where white is more appropriate.

The main fuselage halves. Note seperate leading edge intake on the fin- to cater for the extended intake on the NA/+ variants of the aircraft. Intakes have the correct set-up for an aircraft on the ground, with the upper auxilliary doors being open and the lowers shut. There doesn't appear to be any provision in gating or the like for a TAV-8B/T-10, but who knows? The airbrake is moulded closed, as are the main wheel doors. Wheel doors are often closed on the ground, but the airbrake nearly always appears open. . this is a shame and leaves the modeller with two options:- Ignore it, or cut away and make an airbrake interior. . . decisions decisions!

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Note the seperate engine bay door/LERX piece. Obviously an AV-8B+ and/or Harrier GR-7 is yet to come. The leading edge of the mid pylon looks a little too angular to me, and could probably do with a little rounding off, but no great deal to address. One is to hope that when the GR-7 is released that both styles of LERX are included, as the RAF still operate a good few GR-7's with the older 65% LERX as represented here.

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Couple of the smaller sprues, the ejection seat is actually a pretty good representation of the Stencel seat used in the AV-8B, and with a little dressing up should pass muster. There are a couple of ejector pin marks on the refuelling probe which will need to be dealt with, but a little Mr Surfacer should do the job nicely. For the first time in recent memory the kit actually comes with a pair of Sidewinders, which are passable but probably still best replaced with items from the Hasegawa weapons sets, but will be fine for the less demanding. Note also the two styles of tail cap for US/British variants.

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Jet nozzles and tanks. Tanks are pretty nice, as are the forward (cold) nozzles. The rear nozzles, however, are just awful, and one one be advised to check around for replacements, or be sure to hide them under the model with some pretty heavy weapons load-outs!


Poor but passable shots of the canopy and windscreen (too little light in the Macro mode I'm afraid!) Canopy has the MDC moulded in and the use of a three part mould means that we finally have a 1/72nd Harrier II with the correct 210 degree cross section to the canopy. Removing the mould line should be a 10-15 minute job.

Overall I'm extremely impressed and very happy to finally have a state of the art Harrier II in 1/72nd. The rear nozzles are awful and I wonder how Hasegawa managed to let them slip through quality control. The airbrake being moulded shut is a niggle, but not a major problem. Other than those two (minor IMHO) points, this is a super model, and is pretty much what we expect from Hasegawa in this day and age, i.e. fairly simple on the inside but with great external detail. The price is also worthy of mention, with the kit retailing for a mere 1000yen (about Ł5-6 here in the UK) If you like Harriers, you won't be dissapointed, I know I'm not!