Old build, new photos - Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - "Ace of Spades"

First model i painted with the airbrushed back in old May 10. Not are that bad looking at it now, canopy a bit rough where i poorly masked but an alright model.
Just wanted to take some photos of all the 1/144 crew i have now and the carrier deck i painted over the holidays. All the red-shirts are weapons guys, safety checks and other stuff i reckoned.



Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - "Ace of Spades"

The finished Harrier II Plus, gave it my favorite satin varnish before taking pics. Finished sometime ago but never got round to taking pics.

Like the darker grey pattern i achieved with blu-tac.


DML Dragon decals used for the tail wing, had to cut up the one piece into 4 to get it to fit. The Revell decals seemed to be incorrect for this jet from the research i did.


Great "Ace of Spades" decal which is very sharp for one so small.




Made the harrier somewhat more dirtier than my usual builds, wanted to try out the dull used look.



Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 03/04] - Decaled

Got the entire bird decaled up today, took me about 3 hours! Don't know what was going on with the time but sure must have gone super fast.

After a nice heavy gloss i apllied the decals using a mix of the revell and dml dragon ones. Both decaled supplied for the kits are both wrong for the actual photos of this harrier which i'm modellling but can be corrected using a mix from both.

Using the dml dragon tail-wing decals on the revell model which meant i had to cut up the decal into 4 pieces  half way through applying this one to get to fix correctly. Used alot of decal solution to get this one to fit in the right position.



Nearly finished which actually means another month for me to get her all done and i want o start new models.
Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 28/03] - Painted

After adding the weapons and masking of the engines and canopy, its time to paint, first a primer last night. Then got the whole bird painted up today, was quite cool to use the airbrush after all the practice ive had.

Mixed the colours myself using images ive collected instead of the guide colours. Thought the there was a hint of blue in with the grey which would make sence as harrier tend to be carrier based.



To make the darker grey pattern on top of the harrier i masked off the aread using blue-tac then sprayed that leaving a very nice finish line i think, which i could only ever do with the airbrush. Unfortunatly i sprayed the fuel tanks too, which ive now tanken off and respray next time i get the airbrush running.

Finally masked off the top part of the harrier and sprayed the belly in a light grey. Let this now try for a few days, then add the final detail paint work, engine, light etc.


Super happy with the way she turning out, this is what makes the airbrush so damn good.

Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 25/03] -

Some more done on the wee harrier with a compare against the Dragon version, which you can see is not all that great.

The Dragon kit, which you could tell is a Harrier but one which was mastered using no referance. Still the kit comes with better weapons and decals. Dragon kit it had really rounded off edges and the panel lines don't seems to be correct at all. From what ive researched the revell version is almost perfect.



Weapons pylons and all the other little bit have been attached and is now ready to have the canopy glued, masked and then primed.



Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 20/03] -

More done on the Harrier, practically ready to paint i think. Is one very nice build, this Revell kit is quality. I'm becoming a big fan of the Revell 1/144 kits, going to have to start assembling more of a stash of them.

Added a little detail to the cockpit and painted that up.



Reckon i will have it primed by the end of the weekend.

Ian

Revell 1/144 - AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 14/03] -

After my little mistake of not reading the intructions, i got in the turbine in without having to rip apart the model. painted the rest of the engine and then added the nose cone.

Added the wing and engine intakes then filled in the seams with some Mr Surfacer. Hope that using the Mr Surfacer means not have to do a load of sanding, taking away curves and detail.



Ian

Revell 1/144 AV-8B Harrier II plus - [WIP 11/03]

Started the Harrier today, as with every model aircraft i make begin with the cockpit as per the intructions.

Added a little plasticarfd with break up the simple cockpit, need a thinner plasticard as what i used looks quite chunky. Then paint and a quick wash.

Painted up the turbine and glued up the cockpit.


Which was a mistake. Should have put the engine in first then glued, going to have to pull the model apart to get that in. I always get myself in these silly situtation due to not following the intruction corectly.

My next 1/144 build - AV-8B Harrier II plus - "VMA-321 Ace of Spades"

Next kit to build will be the AV-8B+ Harrier, VMA-231 "Ace of Spades".

Lucky to find the image ubove off Ebay of all places, only good referance ive been able to find of the exact marking i will be applying.


Looks like most of the kit will be Revell, from the images ive seen looks like the Revell kit is spot on.

The dragon kit is quite bad, reckon i will only end up using the weapons from that one, still nice box art.

Going to be using decals from booth kits as it seems that both company got the details wrong there and i can make it accurate my mix and match.