The Sea Harrier FRS.1 originally entered service with the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm in 1979 and gained worldwide fame during the 1982 Falklands War when twenty Sea Harriers fought against the Argentinian Air Force and Navy scoring twenty three kills using both AIM-9L Sidewinder and 30mm cannon. The Argentinian pilots referred to the aircraft as "La Muerte Negra" or "Black Death" and no Sea Harriers were lost in air to air combat. The aircraft were subsequently upgraded to FA.2 with a slightly longer fuselage and a new Blue Vixen radar along with AIM-120 AMRAAM capability.This resulted in one of the most capable air defence aircraft in European service while retaining the original ground attack capability and the "SHAR" saw combat service over Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. In 2002 the UK Ministry of Defence decided to retire the aircraft by 2006 as a cost saving measure and 801Sqn is scheduled to standdown at the end of March.

As a tribute to the last all British fighter the IPMS Harrier SIG will be staging a display at the 2006 IPMS UK Nationals with a model of every single Sea Harrier built and I was asked by Nick Greenall the SIG leader (gentleman, scholar and nice guy) if I'd like to contribute an aircraft and thus the build began.... 

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On and off this model has taken about 4 months to complete and took more effort than I've ever put into a kit.  The only model of the FA.2 is by Airfix and used the original FRS.1 parts along with a new fuselage and weapons.  The kit is mostly dimensionally accurate but suffers from a mix of raised and recessed panel lines along with poor detail. There are aftermarket parts to help especially from Heritage Aviation.  These include intakes, tailplanes and undercarriage which make a huge difference to the kit.  I also used etched parts from Airwaves and most of a Neomega FRS.1 cockpit. The biggest help I had was from Nick's instructions on how to correct and detail the kit which proved invaluble throughout (Thanks Nick!) Good references helped and are listed below.   

As well as the aftermarket parts I added homemade FOD covers and AIM-9 acquisition rounds.  The 190gal drop tanks are the newer Heritage release and make a big difference to the kit. The markings are for ZH796 which was the first new build FA.2 and was used by 899Sqn until disestablishment last year.  The decals were a mix of kit and spares box. at times I thought I'd never get there but I learned a lot building this aircraft and I'm sorry to see the SHAR retired before it's time.

 References:

• Sea Harrier:The Last  All-British Fighter by Jamie Hunter
• The Sharp End by Neil Mercer
• Kagero Topshots:Sea Harrier by Albert Osinski
• Harrier:Inside and Out by Mark Attrill
• The Harrier Story by Anthony Thornborough and Peter E Davies
• Harrier:The Vertical Reality by Roy Braybrook
• World Airpower Journal no 41
• IPMS UK Harrier SIG http://harrier.hyperlinx.cz/
• www.airliners.net

Stephen

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