Hasegawa 1/48 AV-8B Harrier II Plus 'VMA-311 Tomcats' Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The AV-8B series was the second generation of US Marine Corps VSTOL close air support attack aircraft. Where the first generation of Harriers were developed by Hawker Siddeley, this second generation was led by McDonnell Douglas to apply improvements in engine performance and aerodynamic advances to create an more versatile airframe. Still powered by the Rolls Royce Pegasus engine, the Harrier II's engine produces more than 4000 pounds of additional thrust over the engines of the first generation Harriers.

You'll recall that while much ado was made over the advanced thrust-to-weight ratios of the F-15 and F-16, by definition the Harrier had a greater than 1:1 thrust-to-weight ratio a decade before the F-15. While the Harrier and Harrier II are not designed for supersonic operations, their unique ability to vector their thrust via four exit nozzles below the wings give them the ability to vertically take-off and land (VTOL) or perform short take-offs and vertical land (STOVL) to carry greater payloads.

The first AV-8Bs entered service in the mid-1980s to replace the AV-8A and slightly improved AV-8C airframes. These aircraft saw combat in Operation Desert Storm as well as other combat operations in support of US Marines on the ground. The first AV-8Bs were equipped with the Angle Rate Bomb System (ARBS) that was first introduced on late-model USMC A-4 Skyhawks which made them ideal for daytime operations. These AV-8Bs were replaced by the AV-8B+ Night Attack Harriers starting in 1993 and these AV-8B+ aircraft remain in service until replaced by the F-35 Lightning II.

Here is one of Hasegawa's limited edition releases of their AV-8B series, this time with the special markings from VMA-211. This kit has been on the market for a while and we opted not to do the reviews when it first appeared because of some of the issues discovered in the kit. Before we go there, let's take a look at the basics:

Molded in light gray styrene, the kit is presented on 13 parts trees plus a single tree of clear parts. As with the previous releases, this kit has the following features and options:

• Reasonably detailed cockpit
• Positionable canopy
• Full intake trunks down to the Rolls engine compressor face
• Positionable auxilary intake (blow-in) doors
• Movable exhaust nozzles
• Positionable stabilators
• Positionable landing gear
• Positionable air dam
• Positionable speed brake
• 2 x 300 gallon external fuel tanks
• 1 x AAQ-28 Litening II
• 2 x AIM-9L Sidewinder

Markings are provided for two aircraft:

• AV-8B, 165584, VMA-311, WL/51, 2012
• AV-8B, 165572, VMA-311, WL/01, 2010

The kit has a number of fit issues reported, mostly in the wing/LERX/fuselage joints, but nothing that some modeling skills can't overcome. The main bug in this kit is the wing itself - for whatever reason, the outer wing panels have less anhedral than the inboard sections whereas on the real aircraft, the entire wing shares the same anhedral. This too can be corrected with come careful work. The flaps are molded up though if you're going to model the air dam extended and nozzles down, you'll want the flaps down as well.

The Super Harrier has Fowler flaps which extends aft and downwards quite a distance. The resulting gap is filled with another flap hinged atop of the wing to close that gap. When the flaps are down, both ailerons droop as well. In short, get some good photos like those in our Harrier Online Reference to see what needs to be done.

The instructions tell you that you can have the AIM-9s (heaters) on the outboards and your choice of drop tanks or the Litening pod on the inboards. Once again, check your photos as the external tanks can be fitted to the inboard or middle pylons. You can find any of the wide range of armament options for the Super Harrier between your references and various aftermarket sets.

At the moment, this is the only late model Super Harrier option on the market in 1/48 scale (the Monogram kit represents the early AV-8B before it received a number of visible airframe updates. With a little work, this kit still builds up into a nice model.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!