Kinetic's 1/48 scale
Sea Harrier FA2

by Brett Green

Kinetic's 1/48 scale Sea Harrier FA2 will be available online from Squadron

Here's my latest completion, and a rare foray into genuinely modern aircraft - the Kinetic 1/48 scale Sea Harrier FA2. This is a nice kit with good detail and crisp surface textures.

You can see my initial in-box review by following this link.

I found that the model fitted well after the plastic parts were carefully cleaned up. Many of the parts had flash on or near the mating surfaces, so a bit of time spent with a sharp knife and a sanding stick is a good investment. The plastic is quite soft and easy to work with, so this is no great chore.

I also found that the wing saddle fitted much better when I completely cut away the front and rear locating ridges on the opening at the top of the fuselage. When I was finished the model, I was very impressed that all five wheels - two outriggers and three main wheels - touched the ground at the same time without any adjustment.

The model was mostly built straight from the box, but I did fit an Aeroclub resin ejection seat, added some detail to the bare cockpit upper sidewalls, and scratch built intake covers from Kneadatite two-part epoxy putty.

I had originally planned to do this as a quick build with a clean, simple paint job, but the more I looked at photos in Neil Mercer's excellent photographic study of early SHAR FA2s, "The Sharp End", the more immersed I became.

There is some really odd weathering happening on these aircraft, and I tried to reproduce some of what I could see with the dirty areas on the top mid fuselage and fanning out onto the wings, as well as apparent primer and sealer daubed here and there, in addition to the Extra Dark Sea Grey drop tanks.

Although it is essentially a single colour scheme, I tried to maximise the interest by varying the sheen in different areas - low sheen fuselage, slightly shinier radome and full gloss tanks. All paints were applied with my Testor Aztek A470 airbrush fitted with the fine tan-coloured tip

I always liked the low-vis markings on the early FA2s, so I used the light grey "winged fist" decals and the associated codes from the old Airfix Sea Harrier FA2. They were pretty horrible to work with - stiff backings and lots of silvering - but I eventually acheived an acceptable result.

By contrast, Kinetic's decals, printed by Cartograf, were a dream!

In the end, I spent a couple more days painting the model than I intended, but I'm glad that I did.

I thoroughly recommend this kit, and hope that Kinetic continues with the SHAR family so I can add an FRS.1 to my collection too!

This model will be written up in detail in Issue 45 of Military Illustrated Modeller magazine.

Thanks to Lucky Model for the sample

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2014 by Brett Green
Page Created 27 October, 2014
Last Updated 28 October, 2014

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