who are not aviation enthusiasts.

It is therefore hardly surprising

that there have been many kits in

all the major scales (and others

too). The vast majority of these

have been the single-seat variants,

with only two injection-moulded

trainer versions, both in 1/72 scale.

For those who wanted a trainer in

a larger scale you had to use one of

the vacform conversion kits that

have been realeased over the years.

But not anymore, as Kinetic,

with input from the IPMS(UK)

Harrier Special Interest

Group, have produced a 1/

scale trainer to complement

their recent Sea Harriers.

IN THE BOX

The kit comes in a top-opening box,

packed to the brim with plastic.

Many of the parts seem to be carried

forward from Kinetic’s earlier Sea

Harrier kits, so not all are needed

(for example, a whole second set

of wings appropriate for the FA

is included). Unfortunately, this

also means that the inboard wing

stores pylons are appropriate for a

Sea Harrier, not a Royal Air Force

version, and the rocket pods are

not the variant used by the RAF. It

also means that some faults have

been carried forward from the

earlier kits. I’ll cover these during

the build, but none are significant,

and all are easily fixable.

New parts include an entirely

new fuselage and cockpit, three

tail fins, two alternative noses, and

two alternative tailpieces. As with

the earlier kits, two sets of intakes

are included, depicting the upper

blow-in doors drooped open (as

they would be on the ground with

the engine shut down), or closed.

The decal sheet provides 10

marking options: three RAF aircraft

from 233 OCU and 4 Sqn; four Fleet

Air Arm (FAA) aircraft from 899

NAS in black or grey overall; and

one each from the US Marine Corps,

Spanish Navy, and Royal Thai

Navy. This is a very comprehensive

selection, even given that three

of the FAA options are essentially

the same, in overall gloss black.

The contents are completed by a

small PE fret, a very comprehensive

decal sheet, and an instruction

booklet. Colour callouts throughout

the kit instructions refer to the

Ammo MiG range of paints, and

there is a table at the front giving

colour names and equivalents

in the Vallejo, Mr Color, Tamiya,

and Humbrol paint ranges.

All these options allow any

first-generation two-seat Harrier

to be built from this kit, with one

omission: two Martin-Baker Mk 9

seats are correctly included, but for

those wanting an American TAV-8,

you will need a pair of Stencel SEU-

3/A seats, as they are noticeably

different from Martin Baker seats.

As if the kit was not good

enough, the Editor was kind enough

to pass on to me a whole package

of Eduard goodies designed for

it. For the interior there were

two etch sets, 49882 and FE882,

the latter being the simplified

“Zoom” version of the former.

Both have a pre-coloured fret with

instrument panels and consoles;

the difference is that 49882 also

includes an additional fret for

extra detail, and I used that one.

However, neither of these sets

includes any seat harnesses! These

come in a separate set, FE883,

which is also pre-coloured. For

the exterior details, you have set

48945, which includes the rear

nozzle blast plates, detail for the

undercarriage and airbrake bays,

as well as smaller exterior details.

Finally, there was a set of the

new “TFace” masks, EX577. These

masks allow masking of both

the inside the canopy as well as

the outside, so you can paint the

interior colour on the inside. A

set of masks for just the outside

framework, EX576, is also available.

Naturally, these extras were

used in this build, rather than doing

it straight out of the box. However,

given that etched brass is intended

to enhance the detail in a kit, I

adopted my usual approach and

used it only where it really improved

matters, not using everything

provided simply because it is there.

Completed seats with Eduard harness and details added

VERTICAL

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