I saw the Harrier as a child in the 80s with a school friend as a 1:32 model of Airfix. I was always looking for a large model of the Harrier. Many models and years later HobbyBoss came with this model. However, I have long considered whether to buy the 1:18 Harrier. The pictures I've seen so far make me doubt that € 110 is OK for the model. Thanks to your videos, I ordered it and received it last Thursday. Now that I have the model in front of me, I see that I have a long way to go to get close to what you are showing here. It's just great what you're doing. You have my respect.
Well I hope the guy you are building this for appreciates the work you are putting into making it right! Great job on the intake and nose! As other have mentioned, the vent of the bottom of the nose is for attitude control when in the hover. There is one there, vents on the wingtips and several in the tail. Bleed air from the engines is directed to them to provide pitch, roll and yaw control in the hover. It is looking fantastic my friend. You are an artist for sure!
You performed some of the most no-nonsense scratch building I've ever seen. Complex, but so logical Mr. Spock. The end result is perfect, excellent flow and join up. Nose piece looks good. {No, this does not mean I'm now interested in jets, bad enough I'm building armor} This will be a great build when done. Congrats on the intake work!
Thanks Bob, I’m definitely happy with the result. What kind of armor are you building? I’ve got some ww1 tanks, I really like the look of those early machines.
@@seanerk5kt9 I'm hooked on these Takom Kits. Panther, JagdPanther, KingTiger, JagdTiger, KingTiger IP. KingTiger Henschel & Porsche turret. Full interior & without interior. Finishing up JagdTiger w/o interior this week. Something to do because that 1/24th Vintage Fighter P-47 burned me out on WWII fighters. SUCH A PIG! And I love my P-47's. Damn close to twenty 1/48th Tamiya P-47 kits in the stash. Even 3 mods for "C" model flat belly.{LOON conversions} AND Trumpeter {12} 1/32nd P-47 kits. So now I've got a decent size Armor stash. With 2 more Takom kits on the way. WHAT'S A GRANPA TO DO! HA! WWI Tanks? I've watched the History Channel vids on "Greatest Tank Battles" featuring them. I like some WWI fighters, but a W-N-W stash? YIKES! Because I don't like Roden {I call'em RODENT} I can see you building the British "Male" & "Female" tanks or that German " BOX" tank. {Now that was an UGLY tank!} I enjoy watching your vids, some of your scratch work is so easy, yet complex. You have the patience & creativity of a "Mad Scientist". A pleasure to watch.
Thanks for the coffee my friend. That extra work along with everything else you have done is going to make that plane look great!..cant wait for the next video.
WOW ! Damn Perfectionist ! You should tittle this series " All you wanted to know about building the Harrier , but were afraid to ask " LOL !!! Thank You for the great tutorials ! Hope you have a great / safe week ! Until the next one, take care, Tony
These 1/18 Kits all originally come from pre-built and painted "toys" by Bbi Elite Force, JSI, 20th Century Toys et al, going back 20 years+. Some are works of art, others slighty less so- hence the toy-like overall feel. But, as you are showing with some top class scratchwork, they can be seriously transformed! I began picking them up from Toys r Us years ago for around £39 each with this purpose in mind when I first saw the 1/18 Spitfire, F4U, P40 and FW190D. I now have over 35 different planes, but too afraid to tear them apart due to their value skyrocketing. There's a company called Flightwings selling the 1/18 P51 Mustang and a Grumman Avenger (big)for around £80- £120 also Merit sell a bf109, a MiG 15 and an F86, again all 1/18, all under £80 and all Scratchbuilder nirvana! Oh and if you think the Harrier is big- you should see the 1/18 F14 Tomcat!!!
I have the Tomcat, i think i read somewhere they only made 800, too big for home i have it at work. It has the dodgy grey spots, but with some weathering you can tone it down. And i added the chrome leading edges with some silver tape.
@@flybobbie1449 Aha the "spotcat"- me too! I rembember on it's release, the amount of flak it took from collectors, all moaning that they wouldn't buy it because of the spots. JSI bowed to some buyers returns and issued a few replacement "spotless cats" in the Jolly Rogers VF-84 Scheme with some really nice weathering, then a total replacement with the VF-154 Black Knights scheme. I went with "Spotty" for £130. They'll be crying in their cornflakes now though- the last Spotcat I sold went for £1,500.
Great Video A lot Of work I Can see But It Is worth It to Make Certain you Have A Beautiful Model. Cant Waite to see The Next Update Stay Safe Buddy Frankie Day
We'll make a Harrier builder out of you yet, though you are missing several vital tools - brown paper, masking tape, a HB pencil and a 2 pound cross-pien hammer and no I'm not joking ;)
Hey man,,good to see you, You just can't help yourself can you 😜, I know it's gonna look great when you're done. Can't wait until you get into paint,,my brother is a painter and decorator,,,he recommends using a roller and bucket,,😜
Lol. I don’t plan on anymore major overhauls but there will be more small details to add as I go. My friend I’m building this for wants it done in the Black Sheep Squadron markings so I’m gonna have to paint all of the insignias...that should be fun.
I looked up the price of this kit and its not cheap but obviously the accuracy is way off, more like a toy. I agree about having to fix the issues and I would have to do it too. The issue is the balance between cost and accuracy of the kit. I really don't think I would buy one. I think I would buy lots of plasticard and resin parts and scratch build.
Great work on those intakes! If you ask me it’s as accurate as your gonna get. You have inspired me to take a little more time on my builds and in return yield much more satisfying results. Would you recommend this kit based on your experience so far?
I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a large harrier. If built out of the box without adding any detail, you can still get a cool looking model and I’m guessing it could be built really quickly that way. If you are looking for something to super detail, it’s a perfect specimen for that as well.
I brought the merit international av-8b harrier ii 1/18 built version of this model but since it is coming from china it won't be here until August 20th
You're one hell of a builder, but with the HUGELY over scaled rivets, panel lines etc., you should have just slapped it together, hung it HIGH from a ceiling, wheels up, and just called it a day. Unless you address those glaring issues, which is damned near impossible, you just have a well built toy that you put too much blood, sweat, and tears into. Had to subscribe to see how good you really are with a GOOD kit !
That’s a lot of work. I didn’t realize how off the kits intake was. Stellar work as usual! I might be wrong, but I think that piece under the nose might be a vent to control the harrier in hover?
Yes that is a jetstream outlet to control the harrier. There is one under the nose (that who we see in Video) one at each wingend and tree at the tail (one underside and one on each side) sry for the bad english :-/
Hey Sir. I was in the Marine Corps. We called these Jets our jump jets. Because they could jump from one carrier to another. The Marine Corps carriers are small. Like the USS Guam that's a good example. Great build. How are those Tamiya products? I have been wanting to try some, but really don't know that much about them. Take care man.
Really nice mods to that most important area of this model. I'm with you on those panel lines. Not to scale like the Tamiya 1/48 Tomcat kits are. What to do....prime sand and recribe????
There’s something really endearing about this plane. I remember seeing it hover at an air show when I was a kid and was just so amazed how a plane could do that.
You are a problem solving master! Have you ever had a model so poorly designed that you wound up throwing it against a wall? Probably not, would be my guess
