1/48 Harrier GR.3 (from Monogram and Airfix kits)
The recent beautiful 1/24 Harrier builds made me dig back and think I should post my own Harrier build of a few years ago. I built this for a friend’s father who flew them with the RAF (among his many other duties). I wrote this up for Modeling Madness some time ago, so the ‘rest of the story’ can be found here:
http://modelingmadness.com/review/mod/gb/mahoneygr3.htm
One thing lacking in that write-up was how I got it to the recipient. I’m in the US, and he is in the UK. So some super-special, deluxe packaging was created :). I built a frame out of foam board, assembled with a hot glue gun, and trapped the Harrier in this frame. Then placed foam rubber inside a plastic bin, put the assembled foam board/model inside of this, then more foam, and taped shut. This went inside a large cardboard box with those foam peanuts. Shipped off to the UK via USPS and it arrived without any damage at all! I don’t know if I am more proud of the build or of the packing job!! Anyway, it was a fun build and really enjoyed building it for someone special.
9 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Alastair Barbour said on November 23, 2014
This is an innovative way to ship models. Thanks for sharing. I’m ofetn selling made up models on e-bay and this may well prove a useful solution.
Cheers
Alastair
Bernd Müller said on November 23, 2014
It seems its a good week for Harriers and thats good ! Your Harrier is very nice Paul and the shipping solution is great too.
Morne Meyer said on November 23, 2014
Awesome!!! Like this one very much!!! Well done mate!!
Craig Abrahamson said on November 23, 2014
Beautiful build and equally nice photography – I especially like that one from directly overhead. Nice all-around job.
Rob Pollock said on November 23, 2014
Nice, Paul.
Tom Cleaver said on November 23, 2014
Nice work on those old chestnuts, to get such a great result.
Simon Whitney said on November 23, 2014
Great work Paul, on both the model and the packaging.
Well done sir.
AL HOFFMAN said on November 23, 2014
Very nice build Paul. I’m sure the recipient appreciated the effort & result.
Richard Mcstay said on November 23, 2014
Lovely Harrier Paul! Cool idea for the packaging also.
Paul Mahoney said on November 23, 2014
Thanks for the nice comments guys – the recipient did indeed very much appreciate it – and I think was pleasantly surprised it made the long journey in one piece! I don’t plan on shipping too many models in the future, but at least now I know a way that works. I’m not really a jet guy, but I have to say I really like the look of the Harrier. It was a very enjoyable project.
Gregor d said on November 24, 2014
Cracking Harrier Paul, love the faded finish.
Paul Mahoney said on November 24, 2014
thanks Gregor – I did that with preshading (which I usually don’t do) and then pastels on top of the paint job – I was going for the look seen in a lot of the photos of Harriers found in my research without trying to overdo it.
P.k said on November 24, 2014
I Like!!!
George Williams said on November 26, 2014
Good work, Paul. Although the Harrier is obviously a jet, it somehow that transcends that category into one of its own.