Hello, I’m Bryan. I play a model builder on T.V. Not really. I have been part of this build almost from the beginning, but haven’t been building everyday so it takes me a real long time. Finally, with the much needed help and patience of Brian, I have actually completed my Harrier. The 1ST and 2nd pictures were after the building was done and the decals were applied. The 3rd picture was during the wash. The rest of the pictures are of the model when it was finished. This is only my second airplane model in a long time as I used to build automotive models. Thanks for the fun build and I hope to be a part of many more. Oh...the kit is the 1/48th Tamiya.

Bryan.

Hello everyone,

Wow! Just under two hours to go! Jesper thank you for the compliment. Also, A big thank you to Bryan4010 for his nice Sea Harrier. Especially being his second aircraft model in two years! It is members like you that make these builds a cut above! I have already handed out ribbons and I will add any other entries that get completed by midnight tonight. I will submit a summary of our activities in the next few days so stay tuned. With that I have finished my third and final entry for the campaign. I have never built a PM models kit. They’re made in Turkey and I thought I would share my adventure in more detail with all of you in case you think of picking up one of these kits.




My quick review of the PM Model kit in 1/72 of what the box says is a Mirage IIIEA & Dagger. On opening the box the kit has about twenty-five parts. The moldings are chunky in appearance and some parts such as the pilot and bombs look more like blobs. The canopy almost has the look and feel of a hybrid injection/aftermarket part. The fit is very poor (looking at it I think it is molded crooked) and even after dipping in future it’s not very clear.
The directions show building either the IIIEA or Dagger but the kit does not offer the different nose sections that are needed to correctly model the appropriate aircraft. Instead the kit nose seems to be a cross between the two and it does not appear correct for either version (although in my opinion its closer to a Dagger). The kit supplied nose probe is way to large (clunky) and I made a new one from small plastic tubing and a sewing needle.
The cockpit fit is poor with a large gap behind the pilots seat. There is no detail of any variety for the seat, console or sidewalls. The wheel wells are way to shallow and have no detail as well. The landing gear is very fragile and the front wheel has no detail but the back ones have some.
The air intakes are just crude openings with nothing behind them. Unless you want to scratch an interior for them just paint the interior black. Even the intake nose cones stop at the opening themselves. The burner can has some detail but is plugged really close to the exhaust. The fuselage, wings and tail fit okay and the panels are raised lines but they do match on each side (I sanded them off and re-scribed them).
The decals are probably the most disappointing part of the whole process. I have the kit decals, and Microscale 72-459, available to use. After looking over both sheets and viewing actual images of aircraft from the period neither sheet is accurate but sections from both may be used if you don’t mind some inaccuracy (color and size of ID letters for example). The PM decals literally will disintegrate when removing them from the backing. As far as I know there is no decent decal sheet for an Argentine Dagger in 1/72 scale today.
The only other model in 1/72 is made by Heller but I heard the kit has some difficulties with the nose section pieces. The bombs and missiles are crude and the bomb rack placement is vague at best. I replaced them with a rack and bombs from then ESCI 1/72 Skyhawk kit I built earlier. PM only supplies two 500 liter drops tanks which are completely incorrect for Mirages/Daggers from the Falklands War. They used two or three 1600 liter drop tanks to reach the islands and back to Argentina.
Even with its faults, some scratch work and/or re-scribing it can make the model more acceptable even if it’s a three foot model (Looks okay from three feet away) the biggest plus of this kits is its price. Maybe there is a aftermarket canopy out there somewhere?

Here is the end result of my limited efforts:











Congratulations to everyone for a splendid Campaign.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hi all!

I´m gonna be a bit late with my Harrier, but that´s cool as I already have a build done for the Campaign!

After a bit of touching up, I gloss-coated my SHAR.



Then It was off to the decalling, I used the Airfix decals that were printed in good register and well researched.

You won´t belive how many decals there were!



After two sessions, I finally was finished!



Now it showed the decals were ever so slightly out of register, you couldn´t tell on the sheet!



Guess I´ll have to live with that!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hello Stefan,

Good Grief ! you are right, that's way to many ......... I'm very pleased you could participate in the Campaign. Don't forget to place photos of your models in the Campaign Gallery. It looks like we both have projects for an "Unofficial" build blog in the immiment future !

Sincerely,
Brian

Hi all!

Mission completed and my SHAR is done!

Some pics;

















Thanks For the well run and fun campaign!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Congratulations Members of the
“Falkands War”

It’s hard to believe six months have past since we started the campaign. I really appreciate the efforts expended by members to make this build enjoyable. The quality of models is great as is the variety of aircraft displayed. The Falklands has a little bit of everything for people in my mind from jets, props and helicopters I had hoped its appeal would be broader than it turned out to be.

We had fourteen members enlist of that fourteen we had eight members start models and of those eight only six were able to complete an entry by the deadline. Not exactly a large number when compared to other campaigns.
However, I was surprised by the stats of our build. During the two months prior and six months of the build we generated 230 posts (approx. 1 a day), and had over 5500 viewings (approx. 27 a day).
I had high hopes to run a timeline with photos of the War over the duration of the build but it was more effort than I could give at the time and I fell flat on my nose on that “Sorry Guys”.

We had 9 models completed during the build I had hoped for a helicopter entry but that did not happen (I built an Argentine UH-1H but that was for the “Guardian Angel” Campaign). The entries completed were:

4 Sea Harriers
1 Avro Vulcan
1 Macchi MB226
1 Grumman Tracker
1 A4 Skyhawk
1 Dagger (Mirage 5)

The Falklands War was a long time ago indeed even before some of the Aeroscale membership was even born. It was the beginning of Anti-Ship Missiles and VTOL Fighters. It's likely the last colonial war of any nation. I want to thank both participants and viewers. It’s been my pleasure to serve you and I look forward to our future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hello everyone,

Here are all the pictures of the completed entries. You can view them together in larger format here.
http://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/19874



Sincerely,
Brian