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Special Hobby Supermarine Seafire Mk.III 1/48 Aéronavale, Irish Air Corps & Eyes Of The Fleet (FAA)


Julien

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Supermarine Seafire Mk.III

Special Hobby 1:48


Our friends at Special Hobby have sent us two boxings of their Supermarine Seafire Mk.III Kit.

The first is for those used by the Irish Air Corps and The Aéronavale.

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The second is for The Fleet Air Arm and is boxed for the 70th Anniversary of D-Day.

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It is believed that the Admiralty first showed an interest in a carrier based Spitfire as early as 1938, when Fairey Aviation proposed such a modification could take place. This idea was rejected and subsequently left the Fleet Air Arm to order other less capable aircraft. The matter was again raised in 1939 and a Spitfire was fitted with an A Frame arrestor hook. After further investigation folding wings were added to the specification. At the time one of the major factors holding back a Sea Spitfire (or Seafire as it was to become) was that production capacity was needed for land Spitfires. Due to this Wildcats were ordered from Grumman for the FAA to be called the Martlet.

By the end of 1941 the Admiralty again looked at Spitfire project. 48 Spitfire Mk Vbs were converted by Air Training Services at Hamble to become hooked Spitfires. These would allow the Royal Navy to get experience operating the type, which due to its narrow undercarriage and high nose was not the ideal carrier aircraft. The second major type for the RN was the Seafire Mk II, this used a cropped supercharger to provide greater power at lower levels. The IIc was the first major mark to be deployed in any number.

The Seafire Mk III was the real first true carrier Seafire. It was developed from the IIc. It had manually folding wings allowing more aircraft to be carried. The wing would fold using a system of two straight chordwise folds. A break was introduced immediately outboard of the wheel well where the wing would fold upwards and slightly forward, a second fold would be at the wingtip. The Mk III would use the Merlin 55 engine with a 4 bladed prop.

The Mk III would be used by the Fleet Air Arm, The Irish Air Corps, and the French Aéronavale. The French would receive 65 Mk IIIs which were deployed to Vietnam on board the carrier Arromanches in 1948. The Irish Air Corps were supplied with 12 Mk III in 1947 which were stripped of their Naval equipment (except the wing fold) by Supermarine.

The Kit
The kit arrives in a fairly sturdy box. Inside are three large and three small sprues of grey plastic, a clear sprue, a sheet of vinyl, a sheet of photo etch; and an instrument panel film.

sprue1.jpg


Construction as with most aircraft starts with the cockpit area. The bulkhead forward of the pilot is made up along with the instrument panel. This is added to the engine firewall, the floor area including rudder pedals and control column is added. The seat can then be attached to its backing of armour plate, this along with the headrest is then added to the rear fuselage frame. PE seat belts and harness straps are then added. The next step is to add both of the previous subassemblies onto the main fuselage. Lage side panels with relief details are also added at this stage. The fuselage can then be closed up. The vinyl parts can then be applied to the closed up fuselage.

sprue2.jpg


The next stage in construction is the wings. The upper wing halves are attached to the one part lower wing. The internal sections of the wheel wells need to be placed inside the wing sections before they are closed up. The right cannon bulges need to be glued to the upper wing. There is no internal structure under the bulges. Be sure to use the right cannon bulges as there are four different sets on the sprues.

sprue3.jpg


The propellor is the next sub assembly to be built up, along with the arrestor hook parts If your build needs them). The next major task is to attach fuselage to the wings. Following this the tail planes, rudder, ailerons; and wing tips are added. Attention then turns to the underside of the aircraft. The radiators, engine under cowling, air intake and tail wheel are added. If your aircraft has an arrestor hook this sub assembly is also added, if not then a plate is added to this area. The undercarriage is also assembled and added at this stage.

sprue4.jpg


Finally to wrap up your build the engine exhausts, appropriate cannon barrels, aerial mast, entry door, propellor assembly; and canopies are added to the kit.

Photo Etch & Vinyl
A small photo etched fret is provided for the seat belts & harness, Instrument panel, rudder pedals, escape crowbar, and fuselage stiffening plates. A self adhesive vinyl sheet provides for raised areas on the fuselage where even PE would be too thick. An acetate film is provided for use between the PE instrument panel parts.

pe.jpg


Canopy
The clear parts are very clear and remarkably thin. Care will need to be taken removing them from the sprue. I am not sure if the main canopy will fit over the rear part as the instructions do not show this.

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Decals - Aéronavale & Irish Air Corps

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Decals are provided for two aircraft as used by the The Aéronavale.
  • I.F.12 Flottile 1.F The Aéronavale, Aircraft Carrier Arromanches 1948. FAA Camo, French roundels and a replacement rudder.
  • 54.S.14 (exPR146) Flottile 1.F The Aéronavale, Aircraft Carrier Arromanches 1947. Older airscoops and longer cannon barrels were fitted. This aircraft retained its post war FAA paint scheme and markings. French unit markings were added to the fin.

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Markings are also supplied to make any one of four Seafires as used by The Irish Air Corps based in Gormanston 1947.
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Decals - D-Day Fleet Eyes

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Decals are supplied for two FAA Seafires with Invasion Stripes (The modeller has to paint these)
  • NF541 886 Naval Air Squadron, No3 Air Spotting Wing, RNAS Lee-On-Solent 1944. Full invasion stripes were painted as the aircraft spotted for Naval Gunfire. On 8/6/44 this aircraft flown by Sqn L Chapman shot down a Bf 109. The aircraft was painted in the RAF Daylight Fighter Scheme. The instructions indicate the tail parts were replaced and left in a base green colour (Primer?). This aircraft had clipped wingtips.
  • NF547 885 Naval Air Squadron, No3 Air Spotting Wing, RNAS Lee-On-Solent 1944. Full invasion stripes were painted as the aircraft spotted for Naval Gunfire, in particular HMS Warpite. On 7/6/44 the aircraft was shot down by AA fire and crashed in France. Lt Hugh Land (RNZNVR) managed to destroy the aircraft and evade getting back to Allied lines on 18/6/44.

instructions1.jpg

All decals are printed by Aviprint, are in register and colour density looks good.

Conclusion

From MPM kits I have bought in the past the plastic parts in this kit do seem to have improved. They are well moulded with fine engraved panel lines. There is a tiny amount a flash on some parts but certainly nothing the modeller can not remove. Its good to see this kit available in different boxing with just more than FAA markings.

Overall I would highly recommend this kit.

"Aéronavale & Irish Air Corps" Boxing bin.jpg


"D-Day Fleet Eyes Boxing" Boxing bin.jpg

Review sample courtesy of
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A good review. I bought the earlier Vc incarnation - although I never got to finish it. I think it has a great interior and I do like the panel overlap effect they are trying for, although it does need a little toning down.

Anyway, :popcorn:

Nick

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One point about the history: Fairey did not offer a version of the Spitfire for naval use. He was asked by the Admiralty to produce such an aircraft, preliminary design having been done by Supermarine, but refused. In all fairness, the design was considerably different (see Spitfire The History) from the eventual Seafire and development would have taken some time. Whether it would have beaten the eventual Seafire into service is open to some doubt! Fairey could and did produce the Fulmar much more quickly. It may not have been perfect but it was there, and did end up the FAA's top scoring fighter of WW2.

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  • 2 years later...

Dear Julien,

 

thanks for the review, which I found very enlightening! I am about to build an Irish Seafire and your review pointed me in the right direction!

So out with the order of Special Hobby Seafire Mk. III

Thanks!

 

Michael

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Dear Julien,

Thank you for the review, I must buy one, however, I believed that the eyes of the fleet were Spitfire Mk V.

The fact that they are Seafire is sweetest to me.

Are these eyes only for british ship, or did they work with US ships also ?

Will look more closely but whatever, it's a good review and a bed new for my wallett:unsure:

Thank you.

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

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