Revell's 1/72 scale
Harrier GR.7

by Mike Williams

Italeri's 1/72 scale Harrier GR.7 is available online from Squadron

This is the Revell offering of the RAF’s Harrier GR.7 in 1/72 scale. This is , I believe, a retooled version of their AV-8B.

In the Box

Revell's 1/72 scale Harrier GR.7 contains eight light grey sprues with fine recessed detailing and panel lines. One separately bagged clear sprue, a little bag containing four poly caps, and an excellent decal sheet that is printed in perfect register with markings for two machines, both RAF. One is the 2001 No.20 squadron airshow display aircraft with a light blue tail with an eagle motif , the other is No.4 squadron machine based in Laarbruch in Germany.

The cockpit is a simple affair with a tub and seat with separate control column and instrument panel. All instruments were supplied as decals, they weren’t too bad but I had to cut the instrument panel decal into three parts to get it to fit properly, luckily I pre-empted this problem.

The seat is probably best replaced with a resin item to greatly improve the cockpit, or in fact get a whole new resin cockpit if only someone made one!. I simply added seat straps from painted foil.

Construction is swift, adding the nose cone , intakes with correctly moulded open auxiliary intake doors, wings and rear horizontal stabilisers. I left off the jet nozzles so they could be painted with Humbrol Metalcote Polished Steel. Then the various lumps and bumps and antennae are added , including the In flight refuelling (IFR) probe and undercarriage, which is very nicely done. The main construction was done with only a trace of filler needed to blend in the leading edge route extensions (LERX) and the main wings.
Under wing stores included in the kit are minimal, there was the option of two Aden gun pods or lift improvement devices (LIDS) for the fuselage and a centreline pylon. Each wing had four pylons supplied but only two drop tanks and two AIM-9L sidewinders are in the kit, so I raided my trusty old Airfix weapons set for a pair of Paveway CPU-123/B LGB’s on two of the pylons and left the two others empty. The sidewinders needed careful removal from the sprue gates that they are moulded to as I bent one of the missile fins when doing this.

The dreaded mould seam right down the middle of the canopy parts really shows up on such a big ,bubble type canopy. This was duly removed with a new scalpel blade then polished up and a couple of dips in Klear restored the clarity.

Painting and decaling were a breeze, easy paint schemes for both aircraft , RAF Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and RAF Dark Camouflage Grey for lower surfaces. I used Xtracrylix paints for the painting overall with various Humbrol enamels for the details like cockpit and undercarriage. The decals went on well and reacted well to Micro Set and Sol solutions. A final blast of Humbrol Matt Cote, unmask the canopy and she was done.

Well, that's my Harrier GR.7. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed building it. It only took my 5 days to build it too.

 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2005 by Mike Williams
Page Created 26 September, 2005
Last Updated 26 September, 2005

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