1:48 Kinetic AV-8A USMC Harrier
Back in the 80s I thought the Harrier was the coolest jet out there. I remember building the Revell 1:32 kit and had it hanging in the basement until I moved out. Fast forward 35 years and I wanted to build another one. For years I've been hearing. "Build the Kinetic kit, they are SO nice." So I ponied up the $60 and did. And in fact, they are NOT that great of a kit after all.
First, after spending that much on a nice big box, thinking, "This is gonna be great." Instead you get multiple trees of ordinance you never use. All the parts to build a AV-8B except the main fuselage. So right away you have $25 of parts that end up in the landfill.
The actually fit of the kit parts you do use is pretty good. The instructions are absolute c**p. Many mislabeled part numbers, locations for parts that don't have holes to expect them, and general weak art for final decal placement. No instructions at all for where all the decals go on that ordinance either.
So, what do we do as modelers? Solider on. No kit is gonna beat me. With research from real photos and some detective work, I got it glued together. I did get some silvering under the decals which really ticked me off, but it's built.
The high point of the build is the aftermarket Quinta Studios 3D decal cockpit kit I opted to use. That turned out very nice.
I wasn't gonna post this because I'm not that proud of the final build, but in the end I now have a Harrier in my collection. Maybe I'll build a 1;32 when the mood hits.
Thanks for reading along. Comment away and keep building.
beauty subject and work!
Beauty
Looks beautiful to me, Matt @coondog
That's a really nice chosen camouflage scheme.
It looks excellent from here, Matt!
Well done!
Looks great.
Other than nitro dragsters, the Harrier is the loudest thing I have ever heard.
Bummer about a box of unused parts.
As a fellow harrier fan, you did an excellent job. my USMC early harrier will be painted in the UK colours (when they first were delivered) but I was very tempted to do the scheme you chose. I still appreciate the Kinetic release for the fact that they improved on the Airfix and Monogram kit substantially.
Not sure why Kinetic decided to release the late Sea Harrier FRS.2 first, but that is why you have all those extra parts and the late extra wing. I appreciate the amraams for the spares box as well as the rather nice Aim-9's.
The main problems for me are the issues with the wing tip join areas and the wing roots- but fixes are documented well in builds online.
Kinetic is the only kit manufacturer that provides the boarding step which deploys when the canopy opens and automatically retracts when it closes.
For its warts, it is still better than the Hasegawa legacy hornet kits which never provided weapons or intakes in spite of all the other doo-dads it had in the box...
@danfrombermuda I made sure I included the boarding step as you mentioned. Sometimes I think builds don’t go as planned just due to the builder’s state of mind during the build.
I look forward to seeing your build of this kit.
I think this build is definitely worth posting, Matt (@coondog). I had heard this kit was difficult to build, and had a bunch of problems, so achieving such a great result thanks to skill and perseverance is definitely worth posting. Hopefully you saved all the extra parts for another kit.
Very nice build of a tough kit. I hope whenever I get to building mine that it turns out as nice.
This turned out very nice looking. The price tag on the Kinetic kits I’ve seen at the LHS always causes me to loose interest in them, although I’ve seen people online say they are excellent kits.
If this is your version of mediocre, well...um, yeah. Anyway.
Sincerely,
Mr. Aiming to Be Matt's Mediocre
Despite your misgivings, it still is a nice looking build, Matt. Well done!
Looks great to me Matt!
It looks to me like you conquered this kit despite its problems. Excellent finish and I think you should be proud of this build. Well done dude!