Hasegawa 1/48 AV-8B Harrier II Plus 'VMA-223', previewed by Scott Van Aken

Touted as the worlds first successful V/STOL attack aircraft, the Harrier first flew over 40 years ago in 1960. An aircraft of this type was not only eagerly awaited by the British, but also by the US Army and the Germans. The Army and Germans opted out after the initial P.1127 Kestrels were flown for a while, but the US Marines stepped in as it seemed to be something they would be interested in. Other than a few NASA planes, all Harriers built in and for the US have been Marine Corps planes.

The original AV-8A/C aircraft entered service with the Marines some time in the late 1970s and were put through their paces. While they were not that difficult to operate and showed a lot of promise, they were constricted by a rather limited payload. Not wanting to let this hamper things, McDonnell/Douglas went a step farther and developed the AV-8B which, along with a more powerful engine, had a larger airframe and the ability to carry a greater payload than the earlier Harrier. The British saw the wisdom in this and opted into the program for the very similar Harrier GR.5 and later aircraft.

AV-8Bs started entering Marine service in 1985 and have been continually upgraded and improved with each subsequent batch. One of the latest is the Harrier II plus which adds a radar system to it for the first time in US Harrier operations. This allows the Harrier to actually perform as a viable air to air aircraft as well as improving ground attack capabilities. It doesn't hurt that it is basically the same radar as carried in the Hornet so there is some system savings in that regard. The most important addition other than the new radar is that the Harrier II plus is now AMRAAM capable and that gives it BVR capabilities only dreamt of a decade earlier. What few Harriers are still with the USMC are of this variant, however, they are fairly quickly being replaced by the F-35B so their days are certainly numbered.

THE KIT

Prior to the release of Hasegawa's 1/48 Harrier IIs, the only other option in this scale was the Monogram kit. Since then, there have been no other manufacturers of which I am aware, that have tackled the second generation Harrier. Hasegawa has reissued this a number of times as limited editions such as this kit, and Revell has reboxed it as well.

Starting with the packaging, it will be of no surprise to anyone that the clear bits are in one bag and the rest of the parts in another. The clear pieces have large blocks on the end of the sprue to help keep the parts from being damaged in the crush. Thanks to the way the canopy and windscreen are shaped, you'll have to sand down the seam that runs down the middle of them both. There is no MDC etched in the canopy, that is provided on the decal sheet.

There are 16 different sprues jammed into the bag so you definitely get a LOT of plastic (one of the reasons I've wimped out and put up a scan of the sprues from the instructions). All but one three small parts are used in the making of the kit so according to the side of the box, that is 166 bits of plastic, both big and small. A weekender this won't be. As with their 1/72 kits, there are plastic inserts to hold the vectored exhaust in place. This makes it very nice for when it is time to build the kit and allows you to pose them at various angles. All of the intake blow-by doors on the top are separate so that you can pose them in the down position when the aircraft is at rest.

As with the 1/72 kits, you have few options when it comes to the underside of the plane. You can install or leave off the lower gun pods. You have fuel tanks, FLIR pod (with a moveable seeker head) and a pair of Sidewinders for the outer missile rails. The diagram shows that if you install the FLIR, you leave off the fuel tanks. No other ordnance is provided so you'll have empty pylons, which you can fill using one of Hasegawa's weapons sets. Typical of a kit that will have a zillion variants, there are a lot of plug-in sections. These will test your construction skills to ensure that things are properly lined up and filled. I should also mention that the canopy is a separate frame and glass piece. Many of us do not like this arrangement as it makes it quite difficult to get a good seam between the clear bit and the framework. This was, of course, done to allow for the different canopy frames, but I'd have liked to have seen it done as a single piece.

Hasegawa seems to have done their homework in regards to making ejector pin marks invisible. While there were a few (missiles and gear legs for example) they were not there in a lot of places that one normally finds them. Kudos to Hasegawa for decent engineering.

Instructions are standard fare with Gunze paint references. Two markings options are both in the three grey TPS. One is the box art plane which is the squadron commander's ride. The other is from VMA-231 which was one of the first units to get the Harrier II. Decal sheet is nicely printed and if you wat something different there are no lack of aftermarket sheets.

Basically, if you want the best Harrier II on the market, Hasegawa is still the one to provide this for you. It builds into a very nice model and is not all that complex, though one will need to build carefully as it does have some fairly small pieces.

KIT #:	09605
PRICE:	2800 yen SRP
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2005 Limited Edition