I've got for Christmas the Harrier. Very impressive piece. Sadly, no openable canopy, so I tried it. Not such a good idea, it is strongly cemented to the fuselage, so I had some small cutter issues. Then, trying to seat a pilot in place: not possible! Even with removed legs, his torso is in the front panel and the pilot seats too high for the head-up visor. So, I removed the ejection seat and tried to make it smaller (+ add a back part). Cut a slice under the seat and an oblique one at the rear, removed the seat and rear cushions (replaced with a green, thinner piece of foam). Just to gain some millimeters, but... OK, I wasn't skilled in geometry as a student. So no change... I then removed the rear cockpit panel, tried to place it differently. Again a problem: when I rectified the oblique angle to put it more straight, I had a longer space between the back of the seat, OK, but in the same time, the ejection seat is higher in the cockpit... It should have been an evidence before I started. There is an oblique panel in the back of the cockpit, that covers the front wheel, so nothing to do. I choosed a compromise, as you'll see on the pics. Finally, the pilot seats about 3/8" too high and 3/8" too forward, but I'll keep it like that. I can put it in and out with no difficulty. For the canopy, I used some small brass rails that had to be curved in 2 dimensions, not so easy. But the canopy snap into it well (closed position) and squeeze gently the outboard faces of the rails in opened position, the rear of the canopy caught between the 2 small air intakes. Breefly said, it holds well in both position.
By the way, I think that Merit did'nt intended to make the Harrier in a flying state. The flaps don't go more than 10 degrees down, the engine exhausts can't be turned down to a vertical position and the small wing wheels can't be really lifted in a closed position (no moveable doors, wheels too backward in an up position) and the cockpit problem... When I'll find a 2nd pilot figure at reasonnable price, I will cut slices in its bottom to make it smaller when seating. Would be glad to know how other (more skilled) customers solved these problems.
But, as other board member noticed, 3 of the 4 undercarriage wheels have a real, moveable shock absorber and the horizontal stabilizer can pivot to a start and landing position, that's really fine.
