Matchbox 1/72 BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1/51

MATCHBOX 1:72 BAE SEA HARRIER FRS.1/51

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 30 April 2004

Kit Details:

1/72 BAe Sea Harrier FRS1/FRS51 by Matchbox

Aircraft History:

The Sea Harrier was an obvious extension of the Harrier jump jet concept, and trials with the Hawker P1127 took place as early as 1963. The FRS1 version of the Sea Harrier became operational in 1979, and its operational efficiency was greatly improved using the concept of the ski ramp, first used in 1981. The FRS1 was retired in 1995 and replaced by the Sea Harrier F/A2.

In 1982, both the UK Royal Air Force's Harrier GR3s and the Royal Navy's Sea Harrier FRS1s found themselves outnumbered and matched against the land-based modern French and American fighters of the Argentinean Air Force in the Falklands War. In the only real outright combat dogfights since the Korean War outside of the Middle East, the Harriers, flown with great skill, completely outclassed their faster and more heavily armed counterparts, with Sea Harriers shooting down 23 enemy aircraft for no loss.

The Matchbox kit was issued when the Sea Harrier had only just been received by the Royal Navy, and I seem to recall that the Falklands war hadn't been fought when this kit came out, as evidenced by the decal option supplied. The aircraft description paragraph supplied by Matchbox, in rather poor English, (grammatically corrected here), probably best puts it in historical context, "Evolved from the RAF Harrier, the "Sea Harrier" meets the Royal Navy's requirement for a Fighter Reconnaissance Strike aircraft. The machine has completely new operational equipment, including Blue Fox Radar and a Digital Navigation System. The avionics are 90% changed from the RAF machine, and the weapons system has been updated. The basic fuselage, fin, tail plane, and wings of the Harrier have been retained, but the front fuselage and cockpit have been modified, giving the Sea Harrier a different appearance. The Sea Harrier entered service with 800 Squadron in April 1980, and machines have been sold to the Royal Indian Navy (sic)".

The Kit:

This kit (PK-37) was issued in 1981, with Matchbox being first of the blocks with a 1/72 kit. I think my version may be one of the later Chinese Matchbox kits though. As was the Matchbox norm, the parts are contained on two-coloured sprues (dark grey and blue) in good quality plastic with a small transparent canopy. Again, as was usual for Matchbox, there is no flash of any kind, good definition on the smaller parts, and strong panel lines.

Instructions:

The A4-sized instruction sheet is folded in half, with the first side comprising of a table listing the 15 colours needed to paint the model, with the rest of the first side containing four paragraphs introducing the Harrier (see previous section) in English, French, German, and Italian. In the usual Matchbox style, the paint guide lists the generic colour names, e.g. "light aircraft grey", referenced by a letter of the alphabet (a-p, with no i) and a symbol to indicate the finish (e.g., triangle = matt). You will have top keep flipping the sheet over during construction to relate the paint guide letter to the required colour. The middle pages together show the construction stages in portrait configuration, along with a painting guide for the smaller parts. The rear side of the folded instruction sheet shows the decal placement guide for the two options supplied with the kit, which is duplicated in colour on the back of the box.

Construction:

The first five construction stages are the assembly of the peripherals. These are: (i) cementing the pilot to his seat; (ii) attaching the two wheels and the front undercarriage fairing to the main undercarriage leg; and (iii) gluing the halves of the two bombs together, attaching them to their pylons, and attaching the two sidewinder missiles to their launch rails. Matchbox suggests painting the pilot with a light olive drab suit, white helmet, flesh face and hands, and black shoes, along with his seat in light aircraft grey. The painting guide also suggests painting the bombs in dark green and the sidewinder missiles in white, with the undercarriage legs in dark blue grey with a white door and black tyres.

The next stage consists of attaching the four swivel rings that will allow the exhaust nozzles to rotate (if one should so desire) into the inside of the fuselage. The pilot and his seat attach onto two guide lugs protruding from the fuselage sides, while the main engine rotor fan unit sits behind the pilot, and consists of a single plate that spans the interior of the fuselage with the rotor blades moulded into it. This is attached to the port fuselage half and then the two fuselage halves are glued together, and the four external exhaust nozzles attached. The join between the two fuselage halves was good and only required a light sanding to make the join disappear. Matchbox suggests painting the rear nozzles in black/bronze, the front nozzles in extra dark sea grey, the rotor in silver, and the fuselage interior in medium grey.

Construction continues in attaching the two engine air intake duct units on either side of the cockpit, the transparent canopy, and in attaching the radome nose cone at the front of the aircraft. I found the fit good for these parts too, with a minimum amount of filler required to get smooth joints. I attached the canopy with Kristal Kleer. Matchbox suggests now attaching the extended Pitot tube on the nose cone, the two UHF aerials, and the cooling exhaust on the upper main body at this stage. However, I chose to leave these small delicate parts off until after painting, because in the past, my experience has been that such parts go AWOL during subsequent manipulations.

Matchbox now suggests adding the two cushion augmentation strakes to the lower fuselage, (note that there are no location guides here). In effect, these are simple plastic strips. This is followed by attaching the rear tail warning radar unit to the rearmost fuselage, and an anti-collision light on the rear upper fuselage, (again no location guide is supplied other than the simple instruction sheet drawing).

The final main parts to attach at this stage are the four single piece tailplanes and main wings. The anhedral of the tail planes is achieved well, and minimum filler is required to get a seamless joint to the fuselage. However, I found that there was some play in the main wing to fuselage joint, and it would be possible to have floating outrigger wing undercarriage if the alignment was not correct. I therefore suggest that the modeller attach the main undercarriage unit, and the single piece nosewheel undercarriage units to the base of the fuselage, along with the two wing outrigger undercarriage units first, and then align the model on a flat surface before fixing the main wings in place. I found that some filler was needed at the wing to fuselage joints, and that it was a little awkward in achieving a smooth joint underneath the wings, as the engine nozzles got in the way.

The construction is rounded off by attaching the underwing weaponry (after the underwing serial number decals have been attached first), and the front undercarriage fairing.

Decals:

The decals for two Sea Harriers are provided, with both aircraft having the uppers and sides in extra dark sea grey, the undersides in white, and the nose cone in black. The first is a BAe Sea Harrier FRS1 of 801 Naval Air Squadron FAA on HMS Invincible in 1981, flown by Lt. Cdr. N D ward RN CO, and the second is a BAe Sea Harrier FRS51 of the Indian Navy from 1982. The decals are well printed and perfectly usable after all this time

Accuracy:

The FRS1 had a span of 7.7 m and an overall length (including Pitot) of 14.5 m. In 1/72 metric units these would be 10.7 cm and 20.1 cm, respectively. My kit comes in at 10.3 cm and 20.1 cm. Therefore, I would say spot on in this scale, and a vicious looking brute it is too.

Overall:

Like all Matchbox kits, this is aimed to please all modellers. An absolute novice can get a decent model out of this kit (and not even need to paint it), while the advanced modellers can detail to choice. The Matchbox Sea Harrier has been superseded in the 25 years since it first came out, but nonetheless, it's a pleasurable build.

TBA

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