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Once all of the main fuselage parts were added, I began to glue on some of the smaller fuselage bits that needed to be in place before I started painting the camouflage. This included the various intake scoops and the refueling probe. Interestingly enough, it seemed all of these bits needed some extra attention to get everything looking sharp.

The refueling probe mount does not sit flush on the intake shoulder as molded. Some careful filing and sanding of the probe mount’s mating surface helped tremendously, as did a small bead of putty placed along the joint.

Unfortunately, I added the upper-fuselage intake scoops too quickly, and soon after, I realized that earlier I had sanded away the molded-on mounting flanges from the upper fuselage. To fix this, I simply cut two crescent-shaped bits out of very thin sheet styrene and added them to the sides of each scoop. Once puttied-in, I was quite happy with the result.

After all the necessary bits were added to the model, it was time to prime, check the seams, and then paint the camouflage. After I sprayed the primer coat, I touched up a few areas and filled-in the long, horizontal panel line that encircles the entire fuselage just behind the intake air-bleed doors. My reference showed this to be a long line of rivets only.

I used Gunship Gray (FS 36118) for the primer and the gray camouflage color. The gray exterior color used on the real jet was FS 36099, but Gunship Gray is very similar and only a touch lighter in shade. The second camouflage color applied was Dark Green (FS 34079) which was sprayed after paper paint masks were taped to the entire airframe. All of the paint used was Testors Model Master enamel sprayed through my Badger 150 airbrush.

Only a little freehand touch up was necessary after the paint masks were removed. Once the fine-tuning was complete, I began the decal preparation process. This consisted mainly of spraying the model with Testors Metalizer Sealer to give the model a slick finish for better decal adhesion.

Strangely, the markings for this historic airframe have never been available commercially, so all of the decals with the exception of the aileron/flap tape strips were custom made in Adobe Illustrator and printed on my ALPS Micro-Dry printer. The tape strips came from the kit decal sheet.

Once all the painting and decaling was complete, a coat of Future Floor Wax was sprayed to seal and blend the decals. Next, I washed the panel lines with a mix of dark gray craft paint, some water, and a touch of dishwashing liquid. My goal here was to accent the panels but keep the jet looking fairly clean. Once that dried, I sprayed the model with a coat of Testors Dullcote mixed with a little talc for extra flatness.

After the final matte coat dried thoroughly, I began adding all the small fiddly-bits to the model. This is where I ran into my first serious problem… Once painted, the hot and cold engine nozzles simply would not clear the fuselage fairings during installation. I cut most of the locator pin off of each one and I still scratched the finish on all the nozzles while installing them. To fix the damage, I carefully masked the area around them and touched them up with sandpaper and my airbrush. Next time, I’ll likely remove a bit of the plastic from the rear of each nozzle fairing, effectively shortening each one. This will hopefully add enough wiggle room so I can add the nozzles without any damage being done.

When installing the landing gear struts, I remembered the problems I read about regarding the Monogram AV-8B's main landing gear not being the correct length. Keeping this in mind, I started with the nose and wing-mounted struts first. Once those were all in place (and with tires mounted to the nose gear), I moved on to the center-main gear. Sure enough, I found that the strut assembly was about one millimeter too short for the wheels to touch the ground. To rectify this, I simply added some thick cyanoacrylate glue to the strut mounting peg, popped the gear in place, quickly flipped the jet over from it’s back onto it’s other gear legs, and using my fingertips, carefully pulled the main gear straight down until the wheels touched the desk. Luckily, there was plenty of length to the strut’s mounting peg for adjustment, so this simple procedure worked out fine. When attempting this, I do suggest doing it before adding any sort of ordnance to the model. Anything hanging from the wings is just going to get in the way.

The last major trouble-spot I ran into was in working with the clear cockpit canopy. The sides of the part included in my kit were warped outward, and the clear plastic contained several hairline cracks. Judging from the damage, I suspect it had been forcefully removed from the mold. Also, in this series of kits, the attachment point where the canopy connects to the sprue is quite large, so when I removed the canopy from the clear sprue, there was a nasty, rough spot left on the glass that I felt could not be ignored. The attachment point issue was resolved by carefully sanding away the rough spot and then re-polishing the inside of the canopy using sandpaper and then Mirror Glaze. The sanding was significant and I actually ended-up thinning the canopy plastic quite a bit. The best solution I could come up with for the remaining hairline cracks was to simply dip the canopy in Future (after the blast cord decal was applied) and hope for the best. This actually did hide the cracks fairly well.

The last of the many issues with the cockpit canopy was discovered when working with the canopy blast cord decal. I first added the decal included on the kit-supplied sheet to the inside of the canopy, but after it was dry, I was not at all satisfied with the clarity of the surrounding decal film. It was thick and milky-looking. I soon removed the Hasegawa blast cord, and then applied the two-piece blast cord decals from a Twobobs Harrier decal sheet. Though it was very difficult to maneuver such delicate and tiny decals on the canopy, the result was very pleasing. The film was amazingly clear once it was dry. After the canopy glass was finally dipped in Future, the surrounding decal film virtually disappeared. 

The last step was to add the antennas, probes, vents, and the most delicate detail parts which all went on easily and without incident. I only made a few modifications at this stage. I thinned-down some of the probes so they appeared more "in scale". I also formed a canopy grab handle out of copper wire and added three Waldron jet aircraft mirrors to the canopy bow.

Overall, this was an enjoyable build. The kit is really quite nice, though the parts breakdown makes the construction more challenging than what would have been necessary if Hasegawa didn’t try to create so many different versions of the Harrier using the same molds. As far as the overall shape, it is very convincing. The only oddities that catch my eye are the height of the upper-fuselage vent scoops which seem to be a bit too flat, the length of the cold engine nozzles (they appear to be a bit too narrow and too long compared to images of the real thing) and the strange gap in the inner intake trunk which I believe should rest against, and align with, the kit's intake parts. Those issues aside, now that I’ve built one of these Hasegawa Harriers, I would not hesitate to try another.