The Hawker Beechcraft Dragon MRA1, the Nimrod's replacement

[PR19_Kit]

As posted earlier, here's the main bits of my Dragon entry for this GB.



It's a 1/72 Sword U-125A kit which will have the radar nose from Colin's HS125 Armament Trainer grafted on, plus its weapons pylons, on which will (hopefully...) hang two of ResKit's AGM-84 Harpoons. They'll be the first bits I build, just to see if they're slim enough not to hit the ground when it's parked! It may have some ResKit 'winders hung under its wings too, if I can scratch up a few launch shoes for them, I don't have any with me.

It'll belong to 201 Sqdn. naturally, the RAF's foremost MR unit and maybe the oldest aircraft squadron in the world EVER, as they were formed as No. 1 Sqdn. of the RNAS in October 1914, and later had 200 added to their number on the formation of the RAF in 1918.

[PR19_Kit]

Here's all the bits of the Dragon, named thus because the original DH125 was to be called the Jet Dragon after the 1930s DH 84 Dragon biplane. As always with Sword kits there's not a locating spigot or hole anywhere in sight, but I'm used to that now.



A quick tape up to see about its height above ground when on its wheels revealed a strange hole in the underside of the tail with nothing to fill it.    I think something heftier than putty will be needed.

But I've built one of the ResKit Harpoons and attached it to Colin's pylon for the DH 125 weapons trainer and it'll fit a treat.    OK, it's pretty close to the ground, but not close enough to worry.

Building the Harpoon wasn't that easy, ResKit go on and on about how accurate their models are, but the main Harpoon wings are just too large to fit into their slots in the body, so it could look better. Hopefully most of it will be hidden under the wing.

Here's the built Harpoon and one still in its resin 'cages'.

[George the Cat]

Very nice. 

[PR19_Kit]

Being a Sword kit though, it isn't that easy a build. Quite fiddly in places, but it's coming along OK.

More pics tomorrow I expect.

[Gondor]

I have one of those in the stash, so I am interested in any problems you encounter.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

As is normal with Sword kits, some parts shown on the instructions are nothing like the same shape as the parts actually are, specially true of the etched stuff. I won't be using a lot of them for just that reason. 

It's fitting together OK, just a bit fiddly as there are no locating thingies, but that's not really a problem to modellers of our skill levels, eh? 

It mentions decals, mostly instrument decals, that just don't exist on the sheet, so those are other bits that won't get used either.

[PR19_Kit]

The etch fret for the Dragon isn't exactly large, and it's full of TINY bits and pieces. The little round thingies in the bottom left hand corner are 1 mm in dia!    I can't even pick them up, let alone hold them to glue them in place!!!   



The hammerhead shaped bit in the middle is meant to be a roof console for the cockpit, with a decal item to cover it, but a) There is no such decal, and b) How the devil would anyone see it? You'd have to pick up the model and look UP at it through the cockpit side windows!

I can see a lot of those PE items not being used.............

Here's that gaping hole in the rear fuselage I mentioned, compared to the the starboard side which is moulded completely.



After much searching on the sprues and in the instructions I found the bit that's meant to fill it, Item 20 Alastair when you build yours. And here it is glued in place.



And the question is 'Why?' They could have moulded it already there, so why add more complexity just for the sake of doing it? 

I've spent much of the time so far building and painting the two cockpits. Yes, two of them. Sword model the centre section of the aircraft which holds the four extra 'spotters'. In the RW the JASDF use the U-125A as an air-sea rescue search aircraft thus the BIG windows on each side, and the two front guys-in-back do the spotting out of the windows. In the RAF they look for submarine's of course, and other 'targets of interest'.    But I saw no point in putting the rear two seats in position, there's no way to see them!

The flight deck is pretty well detailed but I didn't go to town on it, just painted the various areas in appropriate colours and splodges. The canopy can't be opened anyway, so it's not easy to see inside there.



More later no doubt.

[McColm]

The tail hole looks as though it's either made for an arrestor hook or parachute/rear wheel housing. A rear view camera would work.
Looking good so far.

[PR19_Kit]

Got the wings and engines assembled mostly. The wings are meant to have some PE inserts in the main gear bays, but the frets don't look ANYthing like the ones on the instructions and they don't fit anyway, so they're in the scrap bin.

The engines are meant to have a couple of PE bits in the exhaust area, but they don't show exactly where they go, typical Sword. I'll have a look at some RW images of a Hawker 800 and see if I can figure it out.

`

Both 'cockpits' are installed in the RH fuselage half now and look reasonable, but I'm not sure how much of them will be visible from the outside, specially the rear one.



And now I've glued the two fuselage halves together. Like every other Sword kit I've built the cockpit mouldings are too wide for the fuselage halves to match up, but his one's a bit better than most and didn't need any serious filing of the cockpit bits, just LOTS of tape holding the edges together while the glue dries off.

[Weaver]

Nice project.

When I worked at Woodford doing AGS (Kanban), I used to get seconded to Broughton (Chester) to help or cover holidays. They were building the HS125 (Hawker 800) there at the time, and there was a special U-125 rack at the back of the assembly hangar with about three dozen bins on it. I only had to replenish anything in it about once a year. I think somebody told me at one point that the JMSDF ordered one airframe every one to two years.

You know it already has a radar in that "pigeon's crop" fairing at the front of the wing/fuselage fairing, right?

[PR19_Kit]

Nice project.

When I worked at Woodford doing AGS (Kanban), I used to get seconded to Hawarden (Chester) to help or cover holidays. They were building the HS125 (Hawker 800) there at the time, and there was a special U-125 rack at the back of the assembly hangar with about three dozen bins on it. I only had to replenish anything in it about once a year. I think somebody told me at one point that the JMSDF ordered one airframe every one to two years.

You know it already has a radar in that "pigeon's crop" fairing at the front of the wing/fuselage fairing, right?

Veeery interesting H. I didn't realise they'd have built the JMSDF aircraft here as well, I thought they'd have all been done in the US. That makes my backstory work even better.   

Yes, I know about the belly radome, and the Dragons used that same fit for general all round searching, but added the nose radar for fine tuning a target and programming the Harpoons. 

Here is the nose radar added, and what a big nose it is too! Colin's moulding doesn't fit exactly onto the Dragon, but that's not because of any fault on the radar, it's because it's designed to fit an Airfix HS 125 and this is a Sword 800, with all that that implies. It only needed a little bit of heavy filing and a bit of PSR to smooth it all out.

The three bits of 'addonery' under the fuselage are the refuelling probe, which is awaiting the canopy being fitted before I can figure out how to fit it, a MAD boom that's already had its fitment engineered under the fin, and an electronic thingumyjig that'll go on top of the fin after being PSR'd to death. What was good enough on a Nimrod will be good enough on a Dragon too. 

[Weaver]

Hawker 800s were built at Broughton (Chester) until Hawker-Beechcraft went bankrupt in 2013, if that helps with the backstory. From 1996 onwards, they were completed to "green" standard, with the wings still off, and then crated up to be sent to a finishing centre in Witchita, Kansas, which makes sense since that's the single biggest bizjet market in the world.

Of course an order from the RAF in the middle of the recession that killed Hawker-Beechcraft might have handed them a lifeline.

[McColm]

The thingumjig could be what's called the ECM housing as used by the H.S./BAe Nimrod MR.1, MR.2,MR.2P and R.1. The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic had the same housing on the vertical tail fin.

[Gondor]

Here's that gaping hole in the rear fuselage I mentioned, compared to the the starboard side which is moulded completely.



After much searching on the sprues and in the instructions I found the bit that's meant to fill it, Item 20 Alastair when you build yours. And here it is glued in place.



And the question is 'Why?' They could have moulded it already there, so why add more complexity just for the sake of doing it? 

Thanks for that info Kit 

As to why mould that part separately, quite an easy answer, probably. It's the hole that's the whole problem. Probably at the wrong angle for the moulding technology that SWORD use, if this had been a more modern Tamigawa kit, it would have been moulded in place as they have access to hi-tech slide moulding machines which can manage such things.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

As to why mould that part separately, quite an easy answer, probably. It's the hole that's the whole problem. Probably at the wrong angle for the moulding technology that SWORD use, if this had been a more modern Tamigawa kit, it would have been moulded in place as they have access to hi-tech slide moulding machines which can manage such things.

Ah right of course. 

I have no idea what that hole is actually, I'll either PSR it out of existence or drill it out.