Subject: Re: Harrier Gr Mk.9 Review
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Dean Cameron Reynolds" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:57:37 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dean Cameron Reynolds 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 9:22 PM
  Subject: Harrier Gr Mk.9 Review

  Hasegawa

  1/48 Harrier Gr Mk.9 

  "FAA 100th ANNIVERSARY"  

  product # 09921

  3,600 Yen (US$43.26)   Hobbylink Japan

  Product Article by Dean Reynolds

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  The RAF’s revolutionary Harrier had already proven the viability of VTOL operations at sea, so when the Royal Navy ditched its conventional carrier attack fleet in 1978 a suitable replacement had to be found for the Buccaneers and Phantoms which had previously provided the Navy’s carrierborne muscle. 

  In 1973 the development of a faster, stronger successor to the first generation Harrier began as a cooperative venture between the McDonnell Douglas Company in the US and Hawker Siddeley Company (later to become British Aerospace) based in the UK. Due to US interest in helping to develop the aircraft work continued on a more direct and less complex successor. This led to a development of the first Harrier with a larger wing and composite materials in the fuselage. In 1978 the first two prototypes were built from existing aircraft and flew. The first flight occurred on the 20th August 1978 by aircraft number XZ450 at Dunsfold with little fanfare. It was actually the fourth aircraft built. 

  After continued development to replace as much of the airframe with newer lighter composite materials, and leading edge extensions pushed by the opinions of the British engineers the first new production aircraft took to the air in 1983, featuring extensively modified systems such as a fuselage with significantly reduced overall weight due to the composite materials, a new one piece wing with over 14% more area and thickness, and in the UK version differing avionics from its American cousin and strengthened leading edges to meet higher bird strike requirements.

  The Harrier GR7 and GR9 is currently in service with the Royal Air Force in No.1 Squadron, No.3 Squadron (until 2006) , No.4 Squadron, No.20 Squadron (until 2010) and the RAF Strike Attack Operational Evaluation Unit. And with the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm in the 800 Naval Air Squadron and the Naval Strike Wing. 

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  This kit is a limited release re-issue of the earlier 1/48 Harrier Hasegawa kit, and comes with special markings for two aircraft to celebrate either the 100th Anniversary of the Fleet Air Arm or the 95th Anniversary of the RAF.

  The kit comes on 12 grey plastic sprues, 1 clear sprue and one rubber sprue totalling 161 pieces with no photo-etch pieces. Instructions are typical Hasegawa instructions, clear and in both English and Japanese. The construction of the aircraft is completed in 11 steps.

  As mentioned earlier this kit is a re-release of the earlier GR7 kits and but crucially different does come with the extra parts needed to complete an aircraft featuring either the 65% LERX (Leading Edge Root Extension) or the 100% LERX, giving the modeller the ability to complete any aircraft of the GR7 or GR9 series if you have the decals. This should be good news for Harrier fans who may have bought the earlier Harrier GR Mk.7 “Royal Air Force Kit” and have been waiting to finish their Harrier collection. The sprues are mostly free from flash, there was a little by parts of the undercarriage and by the thrust nozzles but otherwise the cleanup required should be free from hassle. There were a few annoying ejector pin raised areas on the inner side of the vertical stabiliser though, and due to its flush assembly it is really important to get rid of that totally before assembling those parts, otherwise you would end up with a vertical stabiliser that has a gap between the parts that needs filling and worse will be thicker than it actually is! Unlike some other recent Hasegawa kits I have seen there was no swirl on the parts, which was welcome to see.  Overall the detail is good, the panel lines are recessed and scaled to be a realistic representation of a 1/48th scale aircraft, and while this sounds great it means that some of the recessed panel lines are REALLY subtle and a modeller will have to take great care to not let layers of paint, primer and future build up before trying to do a panel line wash, otherwise they may not be there anymore! In saying that though they have really made an excellent effort to get the panel lines and rivets correct, and it really shows, especially on the gun pods, lateral strakes and vertical stabiliser.  The fuselage has all the panel lines proportioned correctly, but they get a bit too shallow after the trailing edge of the main wing. The aircraft comes with two 300 gallon drop tanks, two AIM 9L Sidewinder missiles and two gun pods.

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  The cockpit instruments on the main instrument panel and the side consoles all have raised detail of good quality, and there are decals supplied giving the modeller the opportunity to either paint the parts or use the decals.  The decals are well printed although I felt the red on the large decal which covers the entire vertical stabiliser for the 100th anniversary of the FAA was too dark a red, while on some photos this looked to be more of a lighter orange red. But this again could be down to the light on the day the photo of the aircraft was taken so a modeller could perhaps be satisfied with the result. As previously mentioned the decal sheet includes cockpit instrumentation, as well as the explosive lines on the canopy and apart from the previously mentioned red, the colour, registration and overall thickness of the decal is perfect for 48th scale, and the kit comes with options for 2 aircraft which are as follows:

  Royal Navy, Naval Strike Wing, FAA 100th Anniversary (ZD406) 2009

  Royal Air Force, No.4 (AC) Squadron, 95th Anniversary (ZD410) 2007

  This kit should fill a nice gap in Harrier collectors shelves and fans of the modern Royal Air Force or the Royal Navy Naval Strike Wing. 

  Special thanks to Hobbylink Japan for supplying this review sample.

  "Dean Reynolds"

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