These immortal words were spoken by a news correspondent on one of the Royal Navy carriers after the first Sea Harrier Raid on the Falklands during the war in 1982. I was 11 at the time and it was just the most exciting thing. I collected all the pictures from the papers every day and watched the news updates every night after school. I remember the sinking of the Belgrano and the missile and bomb attacks on the Royal Navy during the landings at Carlos Water and thereabouts, the 'yomp' across the islands and the liberation of Stanley.
Looking back on it now, it is with a somewhat older (and hopefully a more mature
) eye. It remains an incredible feat of arms and it had a profound effect on the British psyche at the time. You can argue about the politics but what happened, happened.Anyway, enough of that, its a model kit at the end of the day. I bought this over 3 years ago. I fancied a decent scale 1/48 Harrier but the only one that seemed available was the frankly terrible old mould from Tamiya. Not my thing at all. So when the Kinetic kit came out to good reviews I thought, 'Right then, I'm having me one of those beauties.' Its been languishing in the stash since then as I have built mostly armour over the last few years but when Tomcat reminded me about the hover SIG, the antenna went off and I thought, count me in.
So here she is, complete with a freebie tow tractor (which I will build).
Lots and lots of decals for multiple variants. I plan to do an Operation Corporate scheme so the subject will be a legit veteran from the war. The colour scheme will be grey all over as the Navy painted over the traditional white undersides on the way down to the South Atlantic (I think). I will be priming in black then marbling the whole aircraft prior to applying the grey. Hopefully that will produce a nice effect of a weather beaten warrior - although it cant be too 'unkempt' as I'm told the FAA are very particular about keeping their aircraft clean. Subtle variations caused by the marbling should be just the ticket
I hope!
Lots of plastic and well packaged in individual bags - Nice
Now unpacked and she looks a beauty, surface detail is great and the sprue layout seems to make sense.
The only negative thing I read about the kit was that the ejector seat wasn't up to the job so I picked up a nice little resin beauty. Its a stunner compared to the kit offering.
Here's the bodywork. She's a big brute. She's perfect in 1/48. Just about right for yours truly
Well chuffed with the single piece upper wing. I can keep the files and filler where they belong - in their box!
Mostly greebles, all nice and crisp
Clear parts look good, not sure why the 2 canopies, sure it will become clear (
) at some point.
And here's all the teeth. She's going to have a full dance card for the raid so she will be properly tooled up!
And here's the tow tractor, looks nice and should fun build up next to the bird.
Very much looking forward to getting stuck in. Thanks to Tomcat for the Sig invite, I've got some awesome aircraft kits in the stash so this Sig could be just what I need to get back into wingy things as apposed to the recent iron brutes.
