Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1
Somewhere in a German forest circa 1974..

Somewhere in a German forest, a Harrier GR1 starts its engines..

The Harrier was the closest thing to real life science fiction when I grew up, and I've always been attracted to it's brutish yet graceful lines. My primary goal with the build was to showcase some experimental analog jet engine sound effects and navigation lights packed into the tiny spaces afforded at 1:72 scale. Second, I was keen to learn some new techniques for scratch-building some pretty convincing(?) trees.

This all came together in a diorama that was inspired by a fairly famous photo of a GR1 on forward deployment in a (West) German forest, sometime between 1970 and 1977.

Features of the final build:
- a jet engine startup sound effect designed around a mix of PLL tone and zener noise
- wingtip, fuselage and front wheel lights (0805 LEDs)
- power and control line connections to the diorama base through the rear landing gear
- external controller powered by 18650 battery with USB charging

More notes, photos, videos and schematics are available at leap.tardate.com/kraft/harriergr1/