I was very excited when Trumpeter first announced back in 2006 that they would be issuing a 1/32 scale AV-6B Harrier kit. After years of delays (giving Trumpeter ample time to tweak the kit and get everything "just right"), the AV-8B kit was finally released at the end of 2009. Well, I can't be sure why they waited so long to release the kit, but one thing that I can be sure of is that there wasn't any tweaking going on. This model is the worst 1/32 scale Trumpeter kit that I have built in terms of accuracy and detail, and that's saying something! A lot of effort, research, patience, putty, sheet plastic, sanding sticks, and expletives are needed in order to complete this model as accurately as possible. 

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The items that need addressing and correcting on this kit include (but are not limited to) the following:

1: The slope of the nose section in front of the windscreen is molded at too sharp of an angle and should be parallel with the wind screen. This was corrected using putty and CA glue. 

2: There are raised panels on the side of the nose underneath the cockpit which need to be sanded flush with the rest of the nose surface and rescribed.

3: The distinctive kink on the outboard portions of the wing is not accurately represented. Also, the forward edges of the wings are molded with a weird "bump" that is incorrect. I struggled to correct these issues by trimming some of the plastic on the front seams of the wings, and bending the outer tips of the wings to the correct angle. I wasn't completely successful in correcting these issues, but I did manage to improve them somewhat. 

4: The weapons pylons are outrageously inaccurate and misshapen. The inboard pylons have a pronounced cut out in the lower aft edge that needs to be filled in and reshaped. 

The aft "notch" in middle pylons is too far back and needs to be filled in, then a new notch has to be cut into the pylon further forward. Also, there is a void at the top, aft edge of the pylon that needs to be filled in.

The outer pylons have notches on the lower edge that need to be filled in. These pylons also have a void on the top, aft edge similar to the middle pylons that needs filling. The pylons are too short and need to be lengthened at the aft edges.

The placement of the sway braces is incorrect; Trumpeter has them mounted inside the notches of the pylons. These need to be repositioned.

5: Trumpeter incorrectly has each gun pods with a single barrel cannon. In actuality, the port pod contains a 5 barrel GAU-12 cannon, and the starboard pod stores the ammo. I had to scratch build the 5 barrel cannon and visible interior of the port pod, then close the hole in the front of the starboard pod with sheet plastic and putty. 

The fairing that covers the ammo feed between the two pods is, well, just completely wrong. It's not the correct width to fit snugly between the two pods, and it's completely missing the back end! This required considerable reworking using sheet plastic and putty.

6: For such a large scale model, there isn't much exterior detail, and a lot of the panel lines are either missing or just wrong. Additionally, there is no rivet detail on the majority of the wings, tail surfaces, and rear fuselage. I scribed as much of the missing panel lines as I could, and added rivet detail using a straight pin and a photo etch scribing template made by Dreammodel.

7: The square GPS antenna on the top of the fuselage and the flare dispensers on the lower fuselage located at the base of the lower tail fairing need to be removed, as this version of the Harrier did not have them.

8: The external fuel tanks are misshapen, particularly at the nose. They were molded with a drastic kink in the taper that does not exist on the real tanks. This was corrected by sanding the nose of the tank to the correct taper. The fins were also the incorrect shape, but this was easily fixed by trimming the front of each fin at a sharper angle.

Most of the weapons included with the kit were not usually used by this version of the Harrier. During Desert Storm, the Harriers from VMA-231 were often armed with Mk 20 Cluster bombs, so I used a pair left over from a Tamiya F-15E Strike Eagle. The two AIM-9L Sidewinders are from Cutting Edge, as these are much more detailed than the kit supplied counterparts. The Sidewinder missile rails are from a Revell/Monogram F-4E kit, as Trumpeter did not include any missile rails. 

OK, enough "kit bashing" (get it?). In addition to the work mentioned above, I also used Aires' cockpit and wheel well sets. As usual, the Aires sets are beautifully detailed and fit into the kit nicely with little modification. The only negative comment that I can make about either set is that the underside of the rear canopy frame was lacking any detail. So, I scratch built the missing frames and vents using sheet plastic and photo-etch "sprue". I also added some additional plumbing to the main gear struts, and sections of guitar string were used to simulate the threaded bolts on the anti-sway braces on the weapons pylons.

Model Master enamels were used for the paint. According to the Osprey book "AV-8B Harrier II Units of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm", The Harriers were repainted just before deployment to Iraq. The colors used were Light Ghost Gray, and the darker gray was mixed using Light Ghost Gray darkened "with a cup" of black. So, I custom mixed the darker gray following this "recipe", adding black slowly until I was happy with the color. To help add a little contrast between the two grays, the Light Ghost Gray is lightened just a little bit with FS 36495 Light Gray. 

After painting, Future was airbrushed onto the entire kit before the decals were applied, and I used the kit decals. They were very well printed and appear to be accurate. A black wash was applied to bring out the panel lines and rivet detail, and after the model received a coat of flat, additional weathering was applied using chalk pastels. 

To the best of my knowledge, the loadout that I chose for this bird was probably never carried by this particular Harrier. Because the Harriers of VMA-231 were deployed so close to the front line, they did not normally carry external fuel tanks. However, since I had put in the effort of fixing the tanks, I wasn't going to let them go to waste! Also, Sidewinders were only carried during the very early stages of the conflict. Once it was realized that the air-to-air threat was low, these hard points were used for bombs. 

The last struggle that I encountered was the detonation chord on the canopy. I had intended to use a vinyl, self-adhesive set from Flying Leathernecks. Unfortunately, the set took over 6 weeks to arrive, despite me sending two unanswered emails and actually talking to the owner on the phone who assured me that the set "would be mailed at the end of the week". I was under a time crunch, so I ended up buying a set of Zotz "Harriers of Albion" decals which includes three sets of detonation chord decals. The day after I got the decal applied, the Flying Leatherneck vinyl set showed up in the mail... 

...and THAT pretty much sums up my experience with the Trumpeter Harrier!! 

John "johnnymac" McCormick

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