Think I picked this Matchbox 1/72 Sea Harrier it up on Ebay at some point. Anyway, my first actual jet for a blog that has ‘jet’ as the first word in it’s description.
As with a lot of Matchbox kits, a very simple build, which I managed to mess up, but more of that later.
At the time of building this kit, the world is in the grip of the Corona Virus pandemic. Therefore I’m stuck at home, and getting non-essential supplies is not top priority. Plus I’m having to watch the cash flow, due to being furloughed from work. On a positive, I’m getting lots of model making done.
Anyway, on to the build, which is documented in photos.
Box Art
The box art, in the very ‘Matchbox’ style.
Kit contents
Two sprues in the distinctive 2 colour style of Matchbox. Plus some slighty out of register decals.
Instruction sheet
Instruction sheet, font and back. Very faded, so wasn’t a great deal of help. Lucky for me, I have the Tamiya 1/48 Sea Harrier FRS1 in my stash (see my blog post about ScaleMates), so I could refer to the instruction sheet in that kit for colours and decal placement.
The actual, very simple build process. Not something you could get wrong….right?
The Matchbox 1/72 Sea Harrier build
That’s it for the cockpit detail. Didn’t want to put to much effort into detailing the kit, so decided to add the pilot to the office space. As you can see, primed with Halfords car primer.
Interior spayed black with Vallejo 71.067 and some dry brushing on the simple jet intake with Vallejo Oily Steel 70.865. Also painted the pilot and stuck him on his ejector seat.
Fuselage sides stuck together and clamped with washing line pegs and masking tape.
This model required lots of sanding to get rid of the seam lines. The fit wasn’t actually too bad, but it did take a lot of work to remove the seam lines.
Also this is where I messed up. Trying to be smart, I didn’t follow the instructions to add the four jet nozzles, thinking they would get in the way, bad idea!
When I came to fit them after all work, including painting and decaling had been done, I discovered that they did not fit very well, the hole being too big in the fuselage. So had to do lots of extra work at the end to get the nozzles to sit on the kit.
Same work required on the underside.
Re-scribing the rear under carriage doors, using a Tamiya plastic scriber tool. I used electric tape as the guide.
Same work carried out for the front under carriage doors.
Using black paint to see if more work is required on seam lines etc.
Wings on, almost ready to apply the primer.
Primer applied, in this case, Halfords Car Primer.
The Extra Dark Sea Grey applied, or in this case, which was a very close match, Vallejo 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform.
Underside painted with Vallejo 71.001 White, which covers quite well, for a white paint.
Vallejo Gloss Acrylic Varnish applied before decals added. It was then followed by another coat after the decals had been applied. Incidentally, I used Micro Sol to help the decals set on the Harrier.
Conclusion
Well as mentioned above, I messed up adding the jet nozzles, so had to mess about filling the holes where the nozzels sit, and then cutting the back off the nozzels so they sat a bit closer to the fuselage.
Another thing that I should have done differently, I should have added the to wing wheel units before addign the centre landing gear. This was I could have cut down to size the central landing gear so that all wheels touch the ground. Oh well, lesson learned, I have 3 other 1/72 Harriers in the stash, 3 different marks.
The finished Matchbox 1/72 Sea Harrier
