Airfix Desert Storm Harrier

Hi All!

Whatever the reason, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and I am sure he did not expect the results of his actions. President Bush assembled an international coalition to force Iraq out of Kuwait. The operation was “Desert Storm”. Part of this operation were the Marine Squadrons VMA-231 (Ace of Spades), VMA-311 (Tomcats), VMA-331 (Bumblebees), and VMA-542 (Tigers). All flew AV-8B Harrier II aircraft. They set up shop near the front lines to support the Marine Expeditionary Force. However, the command did not want the Harriers until a larger Iraqi force confronted a Marine unit. The Harriers, being close to the front, were what the Marines needed. From then on, the Harriers were kept busy moving mud for the Marines. VMA-231 repainted their aircraft before going into the theater of operations. They acquired Light Ghost Grey paint from an F-18 squadron on the base, which was used to respray the Harriers. The squadron then added black to the Light Ghost Grey to make a darker color, which was used as the second color in a varigated camouflage scheme. The darker color, without an FS595 number, varied between aircraft. As I wanted to do a Desert Storm Harrier, I chose the Squadron Commander's aircraft, known as "Shark 1".

I had an Airfix 1991 vintage Harrier GR.5 in the stash (you need to age the kits for a while before building them!). The earlier Gen.2 Harriers from Airfix come with the necessary parts to make the AV-8A, AV-8A(NA), the GR.5, and the GR.7. This kit came with the instructions and decals for a Dark Green and Lichen Green GR.5. The modeler needs to check photos to see what changes are needed to convert the GR.5 to an AV-8A. Starting with the tail, the two rearward-facing antennas need to be removed. The centerline and wing pylons attached to the outrigger fairings are to be deleted.

Assembly was straightforward, with the parts fit being very good. As with most of the 1/72nd scale Harriers, the cockpit is sparse, and the "bang seat" is someone's imagination. It needs replacing. The hot nozzles need very careful fitting to minimize the seam down the middle of the nozzle. The worst are the intakes. The inner part does not fit correctly and needs lots of trimming to fit, and the top 4 of the blow-in doors need to be filed down to look like they are in the open position. There is a prominent seam in the center of the intake that needs trimming and filling. The vertical fin looks to be a bit thick and should be thinned. The rest of the kit fits together, and only a bit of filler was needed on the kit.

After all of the sanding was finished, the usual wiping of the kit with Isopropyl Alcohol was performed. This cleans any sanding debris and removes any remaining mold release. The Harriers of VMA-231 were finished in a non-standard finish. The initial color was Light Ghost Grey ( FS 36375), and the second color was Light Ghost Grey with Black added to create a darker grey. There was no set formula, and each Harrier's Dark Grey varied somewhat. I added black to the Ghost Grey to approximate the darker color. When the paint cured, Future was used as a gloss. The decals were from the Paulus Victor set of "Desert Harriers."

As I wished to make a Desert Storm Harrier, I needed some external stores. The Harriers flew with Rockeye cluster bombs, Snakeeye bombs, regular "dumb" bombs, and Zuni Rockets. Unfortunately, I only had 2 Rockeye bombs, so I left the pylons empty, except the inner ones where I hung the drop tanks.

The model represents a McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, BuAer 162662, coded 01 (The Squadron Commander's Aircraft) of VMA-231("Ace of Spades") based at King Abdul Aziz airfield in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. This Harrier, named "Venom," was also known as "Shark 01".

The earlier Airifx Gen-2 Harriers have some advantages and some disadvantages over the Hasegawa Harriers. They are not molded as nicely, and some details are better, some are worse. But they do fit better. Plus, they can be had for less money. Both need "some modeling skills". I would say the Hasegawa Harriers have a bit of an advantage because of the intakes, but they are close. Now I need to acquire one of the new mold Gen-2 Harriers from Airfix!

Bruce

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.