Page 6 - Model Airplane International - Issue 175 (February 2020)

VERTICAL

REALITY

Jonathan Mock revisits why old kits still have a place in the market.

he recent reissue of the opposite bed making the then saw at the local model shows of some other corrections and
the old 1:32 Harrier recently-new 1:32 Revell kit, and in Wokingham Town Hall. It improvements. The icing on the
GR.1 by Revell took I had pangs of jealously, shortly remained out of reach and then cake in that issue was a double-
me rather by surprise followed by pangs of throbbing out of sight as it was dropped, page spread of 1:72 four-view GA
T – for some reason its pain from my repaired hand. Of reissued and dropped again, drawings (again by Pat) showing
announcement went under my course, I tried to impress upon before I fi nally managed to bag a stores, pylons, camoufl age,
radar, which is rather odd given my parents that if ever there was second hand, original issue of the stencilling, you name it – in fact
that the Harrier is one of my a situation that necessitated me kit in the late 1990s, along with they remain the go-to reference
favourite subjects, even if I’ve having such a luxury then it was the November 1973 issue of Scale drawings nearly 50 years on.
not built as many as I would now! But money was tight and so Models in which the Pat Lloyd and Looking back on the kit now,
have liked over the years. I had to spend a couple of days the editorial team examined the and in comparison to Airfi x’s
The Revell kit is indelibly etched seeing this model being slowly kit, building two models – one in mammoth 1:24 GR.1 released
in my memory for the simple built while I lay immobile with my the RAF scheme and the other in about the same time, Revell’s
reason that when I was about plaster-cast arm in a sling – talk USMC markings. Harrier is very simplifi ed and
fi ve-years-old I managed to fall about mental torture! What was a subsequent even crude in places, and in
while carrying a glass milk bottle, The bookend of that revelation – or “Revellation” – many respects it shows perhaps
severing the tendons in my right unfortunate accident was it was from that article was that the kit the advantages the Airfi x team
hand and was rushed to hospital actually modelling - along with wasn’t quite a true GR.1 but at Haldane Place had in their
where I underwent surgery. Upon drawing and learning to play the actually depicted a very late cooperation with Hawker Siddeley
waking up in the ward, the fi rst guitar - that formed a great part P.1127 (RAF) hybrid with the at the time. Certainly the decal
thing I saw was a young lad in of my recuperation, as I had to slightly narrower fairing in- sheet was very basic, a refl ection
recover the mobility and dexterity between the intake and the “cold” of an era before late great Dick
I’d taken for granted. nozzle. The article dealt with how Ward’s infl uence started to be felt.
But that Revell Harrier stuck to fi x this – putty and modelling Given this less than glowing
with me, along with their 1:32 skills of course – as well as impression, one would be left
Mirage III, as a kit I frequently beautifully illustrated page by Pat wondering about the wisdom

6 MODEL AIRPLANE INTERNATIONAL - February 2020