Hello everyone. This
is my rendition of the Hasegawa AV-8B Harrier. I started building this kit about
two years ago in Osaka Japan. I purchased it at a local hobby store there. The
paint scheme just caught my eye. I love shark teeth on aircraft. Although I do
not believe the teeth on this airplane are from a shark, it looks cool none the
less.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I started construction in
Osaka but soon lost time and interest and put it away until I returned
home to Florida. There it sat for some more time until I decided to finish
it. The kit goes together okay. There are major fit problems at the intake
area. The nose does not line up well with the fuselage either. I had to
use a lot of putty to make it look decent. The landing gear did not fit
correctly and it was a pain to install. Unfortunately the all the
wheel do not touch the ground at the same time. The cockpit is a
little sparse and I think I made seat belts from tape for the seat. I used
Mr Color line of paints because in Osaka they do not sell Model Master
paints. I just followed the color guide in the instructions provided.
However, when I returned to the States I did not bring back the paints
from Japan. I simply had no room and I was afraid that they would spill
out of the bottle. I had to finish the kit with Model Master paints which
do not match at all. I referenced FS number for the paints and I got the
corresponding paint applied it and it was several shades different. Oh
well. I did not want to repaint the entire kit again. After I finished all
the required painting and gloss coating, using Future, I applied the
kit decals. I have to say that the decals went on rather well. I used
Solvaset to make them hug the curves and lines and I had no problems.
After the decals set I sprayed Testor dull coat applied a black wash and
that's all she wrote. Regardless of all the issues I think it turned out
well. I am happy with the results and I plan on building other Hasegawa
Harriers in the future.
Thank you for
looking and happy modeling. Any critiques, good or bad, welcomed!
Gonzalo D. Mendoza
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