Hasegawa Harriers-Part 2 Spanish Navy EAV-8B

Hi All!
Here is the latest chapter of my fight with Hasegawa Harriers. This time it is an AV-8B built as an EAV-8B Matador of the Spanish Navy.
At the 2024 Modelpalooza Show here in Orlando, FL., I acquired several Hasegawa Gen 2 aircraft, two AV-8B+ and an AV-8B. This build is of the AV-8B. I decided on a Spanish Navy aircraft. I searched the internet and found CtA sheet No. 16 with 2nd Generation Harriers as the subject. More on this sheet later.

 I pre-painted as much as possible and found the cockpit sparse, with black and white decals representing the side console and instrument panel. The bang seat is nowhere near accurate. The nose was close to fitting, but no such luck. If you aligned the upper seam, the lower seam was off. The tailpiece was too large for the tail. I fitted the fuselage as best I could and then added the wing and 80% LERX. I had to file, trim, and sand the parts to fit reasonably well. The gun pods did not fit at all. The problem was the way Hasegawa designed the locating pins. Try as I might, I could not get the pods to align correctly. So, just as I did with the AV-8B+, I cut the pins off and drilled out the locating pins and slots and used a fine metal rod for the pins. The pods then aligned perfectly.  The attachment points for the wheels on the main gear are very anemic, and it is difficult to align the wheels correctly.  Thickened crazy glue came to the rescue.  

        The tails would not fit until I trimmed most of their mounting pegs. The front air dam would not fit because of the gun pods, and I wound up cutting and trimming the rear of the gun pods so the main gear would fit. After the filler (applied to just about every seam!) was sanded to my liking, the entire model was wiped off with Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the surfaces. Vallejo Air paint was used for the camouflage. 

      The model represents a McDonnell-Douglas EAV-8B Matador serial No.01-092, 9th Escuadrilla, Armada Española on the Portaaronaves R11 Principe de Asturias,1989.

Now about the decals. The instructions were incomplete, the illustrations were unreadable ( they would lead you to think the aircraft was not equipped with the "slime" lights), the colors were off, and they did not provide all of the stencils. Even though they were thin and worked well with the Micro System, they were not worth the purchase price.

The model was finally done. I had built the old mold Airfix Harrier T.10 and Harrier GR.5, which were a much easier build as they fit MUCH better. I was disappointed with this kit because I expected Hasegawa to do better. This was a difficult kit, and I do not intend to buy another. The old mold Airfix Gen 2 Harriers fit better and, with some careful assembly, look very much the part. I need to get a hold of one of the new Airfix kits and compare them to the Hasegawa kits. Just do not go out of your way to get one of these kits, as there are easier kits to build that look just as good if not better. Now I have only one more Hasegawa Gen 2 Harrier to go...

Bruce

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.