The work on the AV-8B has been a little bit tedious. I started by building up the fuselage. Everything was going smoothly up until I went to assemble the dorsal and wings. Typically Hasegawa has a very good fit. However, with this kit there are some large gaps and ill fitting parts. To start with the forward fuselage to the rear fit nicely on the top and bottom but the lower part of the intake had some large gaps. Once filled, sanded and shaped. I then added the panel of the dorsal just behind the cockpit. This panel was a little too wide and .1” too long for the position. This required some careful trimming to get it to fit. Once placed, I went to install the wing assembly. The gap between the wing root and fuselage was not bad. It was the leading edge to the fuselage where the gap was really bad. More filler was required.
I added some photo etch details like the shield behind the aft exhaust thrusters, the CHAFF blocks, various blade antenna’s. While the fuselage putty was drying I started on the under wing stores. I utilized a 3-D printer and printed an AN/AAQ-28 Litening Pod which was detailed and painted. I then assembled the AIM-9 missiles and made the IR sensor heads (see https://davidsscalemodels.com/tips-and-tricks/how-to-make-laser-and-ir-sensor-heads/ )
Finally after the sanding and shaping of the areas that were puttied, the landing gear was detailed and installed. The entire fuselage was then base coat painted with gunship gray on top and medium gray on the bottom. Next up is the decals and detailing the canopy.
You can see all the photos and details from the start in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-av-8b-harrier-ii-plus/
6 attached images. Click to enlarge.
