Hawker P.1154

[Nigel Bunker]

Think Phantom.

RN would have hadthree or four squadrons: 892 and 767 as F-4, with possibly 800 & 899.

RAF would have the squadrons that first flew the F-4 in ground attack role: 6, 17, 54, etc (that means I can't remember any more).

Try using early Modeldecals for F-4, with red/white/blue roundels. I guess the ordanance would have been similar with iron bombs and SNEB rockets. Don't know how many though - don't know how much armament the 1154 could carry. (Not much on a hot day if it's engine was based on the early Pegasus).

Was the naval 1154 suitable for catapaulting?

[Geoff Bakert]

Hi
the maintrack Hawker 1154's (RN & RAF) have just been released again at Hannant.co.uk. Any ideas for Colour schemes, markings, weapons fit and upgrades ?

Cheers

G

[Geoff baker]

Yeah I've actually got all the Sea Vixen schemes from Model Art for the Naval Variant, as the Phantom only just got in to FAA frontline service with 892 and its scheme was changed to represent the last squadron of Fixed Wing aircraft in the FAA.

The 1154 (RN) has a cat enabled front undercarrage, but no tail hook.

The 1154 (RAF) has a bit of an odd arrangement, centre fuselage main wheels and wing outriggers as per Harrier and the same twin front wheels as the (RN) version. Would't a Harriers front leg be better suited for the RAF VTOL service ?

[Geoff_B]

Hi

Has anybody actually built one of these yet ?. I built the RN Twin seater version and that went together ok for a vacform a few years ago. However on doing the RAF version for Lee's Hawker theme for the North Show i discovered that the kit appears to be pretty wrong in couple of areas.

1. - The forward Nozzel fairing appears to be overly large and located too high up the fuselage which requires a fair ammount of work to relocate them lower and more in line with the bottom of the fuselage.

2. The Cockpit should be very similar to the original Harrier but has been done flat like the Twin seater rather than sloping as in the Harrier. As a result i have added a couple of triagular pieces of plastic card to the rear ward sides of the cockpit and modified the Airfix GR-3 canopy to fit.

Looks more like the 1154 RAF version now as shown in Project Cancelled so hopefully i should have some shots of this model in primer by weekend.

Just wondered if anybody else had tried this kit and how they got on with it to produce a resonable looking model.

Cheers

Geoff B B)

PS Put the 1152 #2 on the Back burner a bit to get these other hawker projects nearer completion for the North Show. Sanding dust and paint don't go together that well      

[Scooterman]

I have the kit but haven't started it yet.  Knew about the front nozzles but didn't notice the cockpit problem.  Any other building tips would be most wonderful if you don't mind passing along.

Brad

[Geoff_B]

Hi Brad

No problemo, as i say i blaked off the fuselage intake sides and removed the moulded fairings, filled the gapand used a nice squarish style droptank to create the new fairings lower down the sides.

I opened up the nose wheel bay and created a new wheel bay in the fwd fuselage.the main fuselage has a rectangle shape to cut out to represent this but this needs to be cut out to fit the fwd fuselage.

On the upper fuselage i drilled out the two sets of ducts along the spine and blanked them off on the inside before assmbling the fuselage. I also inserted the wing spar at this point when i could still move the upper fuselage before the strengtheners are fitted. On the lower fuselage i cut out the main U/C square (not the main doors as these are closed  and fitted a thick laminate of plastic card for the main wheels to sit on and still appear to be in the fusalge rather than stuck on it.

With the wings, don't forget to cut the slots for the outrigger wheels.

Thats it really so far, will let you know if i think of anything else. Once i prime it i'll see how good or bad the assembly has been.

Cheers

Geoff B B)  

[Scooterman]

Cool Geoff, thanks!

Yes pics please!  

I just pulled that kit out this past weekend and thought long and hard about starting it before I put it down and got hot on the Sea Nighthawk.

Anyways, Cheers!
Brad

[Geoff_B]

Hi Brad

Yeah i'll see if i can sort some out before weekend. I need to spary the 1154 he same colours as 1121 so that won't happen till the weekend.

The RN version wasn't too bad from what i remember, i just get the feeling that they tried to duplicate parts where possible. In doing so i think they may have made the RAF version harder to build than it should be.

Keep us updated with the Naval NightHawk as that should be an interesting build, with the new wings and the deeper lower fuselage. Look nice parked next to the Anigrand A-12 and an F-18E.

Cheers

Geoff B B)  

[Scooterman]

Keep us updated with the Naval NightHawk as that should be an interesting build, with the new wings and the deeper lower fuselage. Look nice parked next to the Anigrand A-12 and an F-18E.

Can do.  I'm using the Tamiya F-117 in 1/48.  Only Cockroach I had in hand and besides I thought it would make this build a bit easier.  WRONG!  I'm having a bitch of a time finding donor parts for the wings and belly but I think I might have come up with a solution-1/72 B-2A.  Its 'fuselage' is just about right depth scale wise and the right length but it won't be clean span wise.  Nothing a bit of Miliput can't fix!

Brad

[Geoff_B]

Just pondering the Pylons at the moment, drawings show two on each wing and two on the belly with no gun pods. So now its a case of deciding a suitable 70's armament and a toss up to see if i should fit a cannon or not.

BTW has anybody got details on the WASP anti-tank missile (or rocket) that was projected as a Harrier weapon in the 70's or 80's

Cheers

Thor B)  

[Jschmus]

Just pondering the Pylons at the moment, drawings show two on each wing and two on the belly with no gun pods. So now its a case of deciding a suitable 70's armament and a toss up to see if i should fit a cannon or not.

BTW has anybody got details on the WASP anti-tank missile (or rocket) that was projected as a Harrier weapon in the 70's or 80's

Cheers

Thor B)

I found this note about WASP on freerepublic.com:

WASP. The second element of the WAAM family, the WASP
missiles are small mini-missiles weighing about 100 pounds
each. They are so small that many can be clustered in a
bomb dispenser or on pods under an aircraft's wings -- about
a dozen can be carried on a single pod. They can be fired
almost simultaneously from several miles away, and they are
designed to use a high frequency wavelength to find a tank
while flying about five times the speed of sound. Their
armor-piercing warheads would turn the inside of a tank
into a fiery inferno or hail of sharp metal.

I also found an artist's impression in Bill Gunston's book HARRIER (1987), showing a ten-round pod of Wasp among all the weapons that could theoretically be carried by the Harrier.  The weapon was also projected for use on the A-10, but was cancelled in 1986.

[Scooterman]

I remember that!  I can try and scan it out of another Gunston book if you like......

Brad

[Geoff_B]

AGM-124A WASP Missile System

Hi

Found the details on it, i picked up the idea from the Gunston books and thought it may be another possible What-if armament.

Don't forget as What-if modellers we should loom at all aspects of the model to really blow away the JMN's.

If we can find a suitable squadron that would probably taken on the selected aircraft we build rather keep using the same ones. 899 Sdn FAA & 56 Sqdn RAF always tend to be the illustrated scheme on What-if aircraft (even the SR-177 program matched the schemes shown in the maintrack kit !!!!!!).

Likewaise if we can find some of the alternative weapon systems being propossed and build them then that really makes the kit look different & original.

Oh the joys of What-if modelling, just a pity less information seems to be arround on the alternative weapon loads (seen the short version of the JP-233 in the Gunston books as well !!!!.

Cheers

Thor B)  

[Swamphen]

Don't forget as What-if modellers we should loom at all aspects of the model to really blow away the JMN's.

While I know what it refers to, just what does "JMN" stand for? Just Models Normals?    

[Davey B]

and whether there were six rivets or five on the Scruggs Wonderplane F3 tailfin,  ie the users of the hyperscale forum.

Well, shuks! I've never heard of that 'un before, Lee!  

Any chance of a few pics?