Mistercraft Sea Harrier - WORST KIT EVER? What's in the box?
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
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Today I'm looking inside the box of the Sae Harrier FRS.1 in 1/72 scale from Mistercraft.
00:00 Introduction
02:04 The box
05:25 What's in the Box?
05:58 Plastic frames
06:32 Plastic close-up
10:09 Instructions
14:59 Decals
17:22 Decals close-up
19:422 Conclusions
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/roo-walker/charl... - Навчання та стиль
Sorry Gary, I've never had a problem with any Mistercraft kit (they all fit in the bin very nicely).
Shame!! Recycle ♻️ properly!!
Now. That's funny
Ha. Not a Mistercrafty bin then.
There is something truly wonderful about terrible kits. If you can get them cheap they are fun to try and make something half decent out of them.
I was curious and had a search for it and was surprised it was about £11. Then spent an amusing 30 minutes reading reviews of it. Will probably need about £10 worth of filler!! The utter disbelief in your voice, Gary, is a real bonus. Thank you for doing this review.
Good to see a design team working in perfect harmony... Thanks Gary, it has cheered me up whilst trying to build an Airfix Gift Set using only what is in the box!
ALDI?
It made me feel better about my Tamiya 1/48 Shar! Thanks Gary... It's a shame the kit won't be as entertaining for you as the video was for us!
Ya know, well put Sibre 👍
Actually, I think a Mistercraft challenge would make an interesting group build.
Letting loose modelors, using sll their skills; to produce something acceptable for the shelf.
Scratch building, kit bashing, re-scribbing. I think it would be interesting to see ehat the community could come up with.
Interesting thought Anthony :)
i have many other things to waste my time on !
I think that's a great idea.. 👍
I'm not joking either! It'd be fascinating to see what a competent modeller could do with one of these chronic wastes of plastic... 😝
This particular kit is brilliantly funny in so many ways; decals that don't match - and look to be poor digital scans/prints, the instructions showing the use of the described 63 parts, when has actual kit only has 30-ish malformed pieces of abused plastic, and even the inept box art layouts...😜
so you want to spend 6 pounds on a kit itself and then 66 pounds on resin details, decals etc to make it look like airfix or any other just from the box? :-) Or in this case scratch building is the answer? One can combat any short run kit defects but trying to creat non-exisiting details in 1:72 is hopeless. I consider Mistercraft as source of vintage kits of old Heller and KP.
Here's an interesting twist to your thoughts... Challenge is, the Modeller gets to spend the same amount for the kit on supplies for the kit, ie putty, resin etc, Paint, primer and tools excluded, along with anything else in the house, but not on your bench. So any card or sprue used, has to be purchased, or from the kit itself.
🤔🤔 I feel many evil 👹 thoughts coming on ☕🐢
Staggeringly abysmal would be too high a praise for this abomination.... My take on this kit would be to build an RAF Wittering (Home of the Harrier) diorama showing the stations fire teams putting out a training fire on an early GR 1 on the fire dump....You can cover up an awful lot with smoke and flame!
So, no real possibility of this kit being, 'Kit of the Week' sometime in the not too distant future then, Gary? 😄
Awww....go on!
Pretty please? 😂😂
When did we jump to April 1st 😂 Good luck with the build Gary your going to need it 🤪
I once bought their Mig-29 and it had the totally wrong shaped canopy....then i bought their Draken kit and it had ZERO cockpit interior other than the seat...the instructions.CLEARLY DO show the instalation of the seat,tub,control stick and instrument panel but those parts were not in the box so i thought that maybe those parts fell out of the box somewhere along the way so i checked the sprue lmap / layout on the instruction sheet and those "missing" parts did NOT fall out as they are NOT shown on the sprue map and are NOT included in the kit
haven't built a model in 50 yrs. those scratches in the fuselage made me LOL
The worst kit I have ever bought is from the Korean brand Premium Hobbies. A P-40B from Pearl Harbor, some parts didn't fit and I had to use sandpaper to square them, the coupling of the wings with the fuselage was terrible and I had to use putty to close the gaps. Also, the instructions were missing some indications. But with a lot of patience I managed to put together something more or less decent.
I feel like someone is throwing down a gauntlet to say “go on I dare you to make me look good”
Well polystyrene is recyclable, so if I give it to the guys who make Spitfires for Airfix maybe they can incorporate a small amount of the plastic into a new kit...
Please make it kit of the week 😂
I have the AV-8B of the same kit, it made me laugh alot when my Mrs built it but instead of doing anything bad to it we turned it into an Airbase Fire trainer.
It should be marketed as a Fire Training mockup.
Yeah, Is that the one you have on scalemates?
@@-Euan- it sure is
Glad you reviewed this Gary. I made the mistake of buying a 1/72 Hawker Hunter from this company a few years ago & was similarly shocked ! It went into the bin pronto 👍😮
You are not the only one ! I thought "How bad can this be for a tenner ? well I found out. The crime is that a first timer might be given this abomination and it will kill any interest in modelling. Shame on you HC for selling this !
Yup agree ! Well said indeed 👍👍👍
Bought the MisterCraft F16 from Hobbycraft on a whim - it was similarly awful - I worry how many new modellers have been put off forever by such easily accessible and very poor kits :( Hope the Airfix Aldi & Lidl (and now Hobbycraft) deals have more the redressed the balance :)
I definitely want to see you build this! Will definitely provide us with an evening chuckle. Get to test your skills too
Well i have been working on it. And by "working on it" I don't mean putting it on a ritual pyre I mean actually trying to make it...
I’d also watch you put it on a ritual pyre! Good luck!
You should get more than a coffee for this one Gary. This was a scream of a video😂😂
Sadly the "BuyMeAStiffWhiskey" affiliate programme closed a while back...
Oh my oh my oh my oh my.
Lord mercy.
Oh my oh my oh my oh my.
Lord tunderin' geezus.
Oh my.
That's not too good then...
Thanks Gary!! 👍👍🍻
So it was real after all?😮 I had a strange dream last night, Gary was trying to convince me that some misshapen pieces of plastic were, infact, a 1/72 scale model of a Sea Harrier FRS1. I have watched the video again today and all the gory details are there. I wish you all the best with this Gary😅. Remember, if you can't polish it, you can always roll it in glitter.
To be honest. It’s a kit that would have been perfect for a 7 year old back in 1980. I worked at D.G.Mortimers a mould maker/repairer in Ashford. You should have seen the state of the little Airfix ships. It’s no wonder THEY went into receivership in 81. A guy called Jim Crabb was tasked with repairing the moulds on a budget and did what he could but it was a lost cause.
It would be very interesting to do a documentary about the design and manufacture of kits back in the day, I think all the CAD/CAM systems and electron beam stuff we have these days makes us forget the depth of human involvement in the process 30-40 years ago.
Try the Mistercraft F84 if you get 2 fuslage halves that match up you will be luckey
I have to say Gary the fuselage looks more like a Gr1 than aFRS1 . Looks rough as an old dog too. So I agree its the worst kit of a a Shar 1 I've ever seen .
Don't do it to yourself! This is one of those kits that you should just walk away from!
Oh dear! The old Airfix Hawker P.1127 looked more like a Sea Harrier FRS.1 than that "thing"! Not the "Kit Of The Week" then Gary?
Don't mess about Gary, tell us what you really think lol 😂😂
That really is a terrible kit, think I could build something better out of the spare parts in my bits and pieces tin!
Just looking for a fence to sit on...
@@garys_stuffworse than i thought
I hope you plan on building this as you seem to have a reputation for getting a nice result from awful kits. Coem on Gary, we know you can pull it off
Oh yes, I am into the fifth set of filling and sanding to try to get the nose roughly right...
I built my first kit in 1969, aged 7. I wouldn't call my assembly effort 'modelling', but this brought back memories of what kits of that era were like (I think that was a Frog kit). It serves as a reminder of just how spoiled we are in kit production quality these days! So perhaps if nothing else, this has a nostalgia value? Also - that box art at 1:12 -- does the artist have some sort of sight issue? Not exactly Roy Cross, is it?
Most amusing. Can't wait for the build....
interesting review, thought it was odd when you opened the box and looked at the sprues, i was like, that doesnt look like 63 parts?
Mistercraft clearly dont care, i found a Hurricane Mk1A in 48 scale, opened the box, was a mk2C version, cant even get that right!
Gary, say what you mean. Don’t sit on the fence….. 😂😂
Got to love an honest review. Brilliant.
Produced for experienced modellers who like a challenge!!
I built a 1/72 Messerschmitt 109 G5 from the same manufacturer recently, in the markings of Gerhard Barkhorn. Given the box lid says it was 'Bakhorn' ( no 'r'), I approached it with trepidation. It was well founded. In over 50 years of kit building, it stands alone as the worst. At one stage, I had five little piles of filings on the bench from trying to get parts to fit. I have a couple of other kits from the same source, but I think they will remain unbuilt.
Another woeful Sea Harrier, seems like no one builds a decent kit. Maybe it’ll be in Aifix’s new year release in 1:48 or a phantom K to add to there NAS range.
Try the ESCI FRS1. It’s like an Arma Hobby kit in comparison. Italeri reboxed it.
good vid on channel gary keep ,up the good vids thanks lee
Got a couple of Mistercrafts planes not the best but if you haven't got anything something better than nothing.
Oh goodness Gary. This almost hurt to watch.. not your presentation, but the thing you had in your hand. :) Good on you for taking on the challenge!!
Slightly regretting it...!
Hi Gary I have built a couple of mistercraft kits and yes they are not up to scratch the decals are very poor they fall to bits however it's that old adage that you get what you pay for happy modelling old boy 👍
I’m surprised that they don’t include a tube of plastic filler with it! It makes my old Matchbox kits look like precision models!😂 Christmas present for someone you don’t like?
Even as a kid, I knew the Matchbox kits were not great mouldings, but this is something else.
Oh, that’s truly awful! Up ‘til now, my worst kit has been Academy’s 1:72 F-104G Starfighter. This kit’s taken the accolades!
All I can think as I try to make this is, "Why? Just why did you do it like this?"
Gary i i have built a Mistercraft Gloster Javelin and Hawker Hunter in the past they were quite terrible to build.
the decals fell apart on both of them and i think the instructions for them were made by someone who had not seen the kits.
keep up the good work i enjoyed this revue.
Well, at least you can use the decals on the Airfix 72nd SHAR. Though Model Minutes has had issues with cracking/breaking decals from Mistercraft.
Also, I'll enjoy see you build it. But, if everything goes awry, don't bin it, use it as a paint/decal mule.
Oh LORDY! What a couple of sprues!! And from an old typographer: that leaflet with its text showinf crashing ascenders and descenders is an abomination
I was screaming at the screen from the instant the box art came up! My father was involved with the flight trials unit of the Sea Harrier at RNAS Yeovilton ( 700A Sq) which was commissioned as 899, so I know the flying fist logo so well. Used to be a Sea Vixen squadron with that logo. Google would have told them they had it wrong. Sure 800 did fly Sea Harriers, but not painted like that. I didn't expect it to get better when the box was opened, and I certainly was NOT disappointed. Poor kit, poorly researched. Yuck.
Indeed 899 was flying Sea Vixens from HMS Eagle at the same time 800 were flying Buccaneers!
Built that a couple of years ago I liked it, if your a good enough builder you can overcome anything.
If you're looking for another horrible kit from Mistercraft, try their Javelin FAW.7. It's a modification of the FROG mould by ZTS Plastyk, truly the worst kit I've ever seen - the panel lines aren't even straight and it looks as if they've been drawn by a small child. I wonder how much effort it would take to bring it up to a decent standard 🤔
This is a poor kit of a GR!/Av8A not a kit kit of a SHAR. It hasn't got the raised cockpit of the SHAR. A good givaway is that the drop tanks have fins only a feature of the very early GR1. They have just repackaged the original GR1 kit as a SHAR.
Go and have a little lie down ... You've earned it
I appreciate your honest but usually mild criticism so I was a little worried you might be exaggerating in the video title, but wow, this is truly awful on so many levels. The wing molding is especially terrible - ejector pins inserted 180-degrees off, underfill and color marbling from too little or too cold plastic. Every piece of the kit should have failed basic quality control (maybe the bottom of the box was ok...) Your assessment was dead on - this is definitely a kit to avoid or for exercising your scratchbuilding and putty-sculpting skills. It's definitely not something anyone should charge money for.
Brilliant Gary; I can't wait to see how you cope with this shocking abuse of innocent plastic!! 😂
I shall bear the process with as much dignity as I may muster....
@@garys_stuffclearly this will require more than a single Irish Coffee ☕🥃
@@crazylocha2515 now there's a happy thought...
Thanks Gary, good honest review. If I were involved management wise with that company I would be too ashamed to admit it. Quality is disgusting. Best Wishes, Mick Baines.
They're perfect kits.
For crash diorama work.
Maybe the 63 parts comes from throwing the half-built model against the wall
The decals may "look" decent (not that they are) but remember as the saying goes "you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig"
I dont feel that bad about my scratch building now Gary , the worst is if a youngster gets this as a gift they will be put off the hobby for life ☹. Regards Gav.
Mistercraft always going the extra mile for the modeller
Good kit for testmule You spare the Airfix starterkits
less of an ejection seat, more an ejection stool. And I do mean 'stool'.
You missed out the fact that on all Harriers the two rear engine nozzles are a different shape to the two front engine nozzles.
(partly because of the different temperature of the exhausts at the rear and front)
On that Mistercraft kit they are all exactly the same. However, the Harrier predecessor, the Kestrel does have similar nozzles at the front and rear.
It's as if the kit was designed when the Iron Curtain was still in place and the designers had little access to the West's technology. So it's a mash up of different 'harrier/kestrel' aircraft.
Apart from that, the kit would be useful for kit bashing.
Compared with the Aldi £6-99 kits I bought to build with the in-kit paint/brush, out of curiosity, I can't believe this could be sold legally under the trades description act!
Because I enjoy your suffering (not really), I gave this one an imperial thumbs up. :)
That's Horrific 😱 Bin fodder. Not even worth 50p. I wouldn't waste my time trying to build it, Gary.
The kindest thing I can say for this particular kit is it would be a great base for a competent modeler to completely reconstruct from the ground up.......and do it properly, .....or, if it were offered at half the price, a good thing to give as a gift to a six year old as an introduction into modeling - to play war with like ALL six year old boys invariably do, then you wouldnt shed tears as it was destroyed.
If you compare the instructions with the BAe Sea Harrier Wikipedia page you can see where huge chunks were copy and pasted. Even more cost-cutting. Very few Mistercraft kits are worth buying so Scalemates is your friend when working out the kits heritage.
*hums to himself* 'All I want for Christmas is a ......... ing ruler!' That is by far the worst kit I've ever seen! The panel 'lines' are atrocious.
Maybe it's designed for '14 years and above' because 13 year olds can't throw it far enough?
Perhaps the decal 'DANGER KEEP CLEAR' was referring to the kit? On that note why the heck is there a decal for an MDC? I'm sorry but the decals look like an attempt to put lipstick on a pig.
Ref recycling I'd be inclined to melt the whole perishing thing and recycle the lot!
On the plus side I did laugh at the comment on the item code '... in case you want to .. avoid it...', and the 'cab rank of nonsense' *LOL*
Good Luck Gary , if you squint hard enough it may look vaguely like an aircraft from 10 miles away. At least you are giving everyone a warning how bad these kits are. One wonders how come Hobby Craft are selling them when for an extra pound or two , there are starter kits from Revel, Airfix , Italieri and Academy , where a novice stands a fighting chance of producing something. I heard on the grapevine that their Fairy Fulmar is almost buildable .
Their Fairey Fulmar is just the old Vista tooling - also boxed by Airfix and Revell! Mistercraft simply rebox other toolings, extremely mixed bag but you can get a few gems if you check where the toolings come from. Most notably, they're the only company I'm aware of to still box an IL-4, being the old Zvezda kit.
I have a 1/48 focke wulf from Misterkit. Fortunately it is excellent
Junk is junk no matter how cheap it is. I made the Mistercrap Convair Pogo, supposedly one of their better ones. Not worth paint and glue, let alone the effort. It made a great air rifle target though.
Best of luck with the Decals. I built the Mistercraft 1/48 Piper Cub last week, a reboxing of the Heller kit from 1979 (actually 1/50th scale but near as dammit). The model itself was not that bad, albeit the instructions were somewhat vague and left out a couple of the parts. However, the decals were truly awful. Very thick, yet still managed to tear easily. The lighter colours were translucent, and the decals themselves had no adhesion to them at all. Truly bizarre that Mistercraft put so many decal options in the box yet the decals themselves are useless.
it's a shame they don't work more of than that they do, those SHAR decals would look to be usable for other bits - even the det cord for the canopy is included!
These decals will break up and tear the moment the hit water
Wow Gary. I wish I'd seen this before I got 2 Mistercrafts (Hurricane and a Huey). I wonder if they are as bad as this, I haven't openned them yet. Perhaps I have a couple of "crash" dioramas comming up. Does anyone do a "Queen Mary" trailer in this scale?
As far as the decals go, I thought the Indian flag was orange WHITE and green.
You do suffer for us don't you.
Thanks for the steer away from Mistercraft.
I think the Indian roundel without the white is the low-vis version. Just taking one for the team here!
Both the MisterCraft 1/72 Av-8A and the Av-8B are similarly bad and with poor manufacturing also. But I need his wings and his outrigger legs for a personal project.
Going to hold off watching untill tonight after work so i can have a beer or 2....being Misterkit i think i'm going to need them.l🤣🤣🤣
I thought at first it was going to be similar to the Tamiya Sea Harrier kit ... which I enjoyed building ... But odear this kit looks very speacil...
I would either take it back from where I bought it, or bin it.
This is the absolute pinnacle of just not trying.
As a kid in the early 70's I had mystery brand (sort of like) Mig 17/19/21 kits that were better than this kit.
Atrocious. Hammer time (Can't touch that).
Good luck and thanks for the very entertaining review. 🦘🦘🦘
Seems about right for a Mistercraft kit.
I recently attempted their Westland Super Lynx HM8 kit, it has the same issues, short shot plastic complete lack of detail on parts. Wrong numbering in the instructions...
I did my best and got as far as painting it but had a reaction with the varnish i used. So its currently sat on the shelf of doom waiting to see what I'll do with it.
Good luck with the Harrier, i was considering getting it, but maybe not now.
Almost forgot about the contamination in the plastic.
@@capriaddict get over it and get hobby boss one :-)
That is truly horrendous. I feel sorry for the young kid spending his/her money on this - it could put them off the hobby for life !
Over the last year I've built some Harriers, all off ebay.
1/72 Airfix GR1
1/72 Fujimi GR3
1/72 Hasegawa FRS1
1/72 Airfix GR7/9
1/72 Airfix FA2
The Fujimi and Hasegawa were older kits but were ten times better than this mess😂
Even 50 years of 899 is confused. 899 had been in existence long before 1972 when it was disbanded after fleet carrier HMS Eagle was decommissioned, 899 reformed again around 1980 which, at the time of this post, was 43 years ago. So what exactly is the 50 years relating to?
This is so bad its actually hilarious I honestly can't believe my eyes! 😅
The squadron number error can be fixed by buying two kits...
Believe it or not they sell this kit as a harrier GR.1 , Sea Harrier , AV-8B and GR.7
They could probably add the Kestrel to that since the engine nozzles are exactly the same fraont and rear.
They can't do that, then the kit may be reasonably accurate- not acceptable .
Hi Gary, have you ever built a Starfix kit? I would like to hear your thoughts on their overall fit and finish. Thanks.
Buy their Army Lynx....it makes the Sea Harrier look like a Tamiya kit in comparison 😊
Kerr-Rikey!! Is it just me or are those fuselage moulding really for a Harrier GR.1 rather than a Sea Harrier FRS.1? Looks like they designed and got the instructions and decals ready for a Shar and then decided to use some old tooling which they found in the cupboard under the stairs.
If you think that's bad try the Mig-29 . It's horrific .
Blimy, I thought I'd seen some crap kits but that is abysmal, it's not even a Sea Harrier.
Omg Gary, life is too short to bother with a kit like that.
I'd love to see your reaction to one of Unicraft's resin kits... Actually, some of them might be better than this...
So this kit came with the parts loose in the box like that? And when you started examining the parts, the scribing is very amateurish and it looks as though parts are missing because that looks way fewer than the 63 claimed on the box.
GR. 1 1/2 in Fleet Air Arm colours 😂😂😂😂
Comes to it when a 1990's tooling makes the 1970's FROG Harrier GR.1 look good (and it's a lot cheaper generally on the 2nd hand circuit).
*Aeroplast* (the polish company that tooled it) should hang their heads in shame; particularly as they tried to pass this embarrassment off as a SHAR FRS.1 before selling the tool to fellow polish company Mistercraft.
Tis not the only stinker from Mistercraft though. I've got a couple I want to review, as it - like this "Harrier" kit - is arguably in breach of the Trades Discriptions Act 🤔😮💨 .
£10 is also a massive rip off, when considering that teo modern Airfix kits in 72nd can be bought for that money.
I’m pretty sure those instructions are a copy of the Hasegawa ones.
This kit actually made me feel a little sick. Horrific
Oh dear! 😳😳
Now Im worried....
I think Ive got 3 different Mistercraft kits in my stash that Ive not yet opened 😢.
I think the best bit of that Harrier kit.....
IS THE RIGID BOX!!!
it is pure hit and miss as they are 100% rebox company :-) they rebox some utter crap and some interesting old Hellers and others as well. Manuals are always crap so you have to look for better ones. I just bought Mistercraft F20 - IL4 Torped Bomber (zvezda rebox), quality is ok and noone else is selling this :-) Avoid their F16 1:72 kits, Me109, most of helicopters as well
Hi Gary what camera are you using.....great channel by the way?
Thanks mate. For stuff to camera I use a Nikon D7500 DSLR, for the table top shots a Sony HD digital camcorder.