A Flight of Fanciful Fairey Fireflies: FR.1 & TT.4

[NAVY870]

So today I got our Sea Venom's gunsight operational and a few other electrical bugs

Replaced the Fireflys port side nav light covers whilst swinging bat like from a ladder

Powered up th Bell 47 and finally got the radio working and lastly participated in getting our Buffalo

LVT to start after a long restoration, trying to keep up to a very large radial engine with a priming pump

is not for the faint hearted.

But I still managed to get these

Martin is correct that the chute is used to deploy the drogue, it is a modification of the tube originally used to launch smoke floats in the AS birds

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Buffalo LVT you say.....Any pics hereabouts?

[Navy Bird]

On 12/13/2015 at 03:17, NAVY870 said:

So today I got our Sea Venom's gunsight operational and a few other electrical bugs

Replaced the Fireflys port side nav light covers whilst swinging bat like from a ladder

Powered up th Bell 47 and finally got the radio working and lastly participated in getting our Buffalo

LVT to start after a long restoration, trying to keep up to a very large radial engine with a priming pump

is not for the faint hearted.

But I still managed to get these

<snip>

Martin is correct that the chute is used to deploy the drogue, it is a modification of the tube originally used to launch smoke floats in the AS birds

 

That sounds like quite a day, sir! My hat is off - thanks so much for the photos of the crash pad, I've added that to the TT. Can you describe the shape of the drogue chute? It doesn't look quite round in the photo, perhaps more of an oval with straight sides.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

I was just perusing through my Firefly photos, and this photo of WB518 (which I think I posted earlier in this thread) caught my eye again. It quite obviously has the same drogue chute that we've just identified as being required for my TT.4 model. I take it this means that WB518 (or at least the airframe that is currently painted to resemble WB518) was a target tug at some point in its career. Thoughts?

 

 

I've read that this aircraft was damaged in a crash landing in 2012, but that it "wasn't a total loss." Does anyone know its current status?

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Memsahib needs to have a fourth surgery on her eye. First, they had to repair a macular hole and the second was to repair a completely detached retina. The third was to remove a huge cataract that was caused by the first two surgeries. Now, she needs to have all of the scar tissue (caused by the first three surgeries) removed. After the first three surgeries, her eyesight in that eye was worse than before. Now the doctors think this fourth surgery will significantly improve her vision, and a new eyeglass prescription will help further. They scheduled the surgery for December 23. Happy Holidays!

 

PPS. Huh, just realized from looking at that photo that I've also forgotten to do the wingtip lights on my TT (and the landing light). I hope I have some of that fork left.

[John Laidlaw]

Bearing in mind this is second-hand (the pilot/owner is a friend of a work colleague), WB518 was damaged in a very heavy landing, where as a consequence the landing gear collapsed and some structural damage was done to the wing/landing gear attachment points. The off-the-cuff estimate for repair back to flight status was $500,000. Last I heard it was going ahead, but the work colleague has since retired and moved to Florida...

Crikey, you two have been in the wars. Fingers crossed that the medicos do the job. Keep us posted, please?

[NAVY870]

The rear fuselage of that aircraft is from WD.826 which was a TT.6

[Hamden]

Looking good Bill

Hope your wife's surgery goes well

Roger

[giemme]

Looking good Bill

Hope your wife's surgery goes well

Roger

+1, on both counts

Ciao

[CedB]

Best wishes to your wife Bill, I hope everything goes well, of course

[keefr22]

Ditto on all the good wishes to your wife Bill - & to yourself of course.

Stunning job on that little FR.1, as to be expected!

Keith

[Blogs On]

"Looking good Bill

Hope your wife's surgery goes well"

My sentiments entirely Bill.

Regards

Darren

[Martian]

The drogue chute seems to be a kind of elongated D shape Bill.

Best wishes to Mrs Bill for her forthcoming operation. Both of you take care of yourselves.

Martin

[Ascoteer]

Hope Mrs Navy Bird gets better soon.

[Navy Bird]

On 12/15/2015 at 12:21, Ascoteer said:

Hope Mrs Navy Bird gets better soon.

 

Me too! I'm not a big fan of my own cooking.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

On 12/15/2015 at 00:08, NAVY870 said:

The rear fuselage of that aircraft is from WD.826 which was a TT.6

 

Thanks, I figured it would be something like that. I hope you don't mind if I ask a few more questions!

 

The Special Hobby instructions for the black stripes on the underside show the stripes at an angle of 30 degrees off of the centreline axis (or 60 degrees off the lateral axis). Their sketch matches the underside of VX388 pretty well. Is BS381C:356 Identification Yellow the correct colour for the yellow? I ask since that is the paint that MPM said to use in its Sea Vixen kit. How wide are the black stripes? I've read that they could be between 2-3 feet, depending on the aircraft, and I used 3 feet on my Vixen. But I think that's too wide for the Firefly. The yellow between the stripes looks to be about double the width of the stripe.

 

While we're on the underside, you previously mentioned that the gubbins on the walls of the wheel wells were protected from FOD by a canvas covering. Did this go all the way around the wall? And just the wall, not the roof? Was the canvas an olive green colour?

I know, I know, when am I going to shut up!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[NAVY870]

Arent you lucky I have the paint drawing for the target tugs in my collection

[Martian]

On the Firefly in the Fleet Air Am Museum, a former RAN machine, The stripes carry on across the roof of the wheel wells.

Martin

[Navy Bird]

On 12/18/2015 at 03:25, NAVY870 said:

Arent you lucky I have the paint drawing for the target tugs in my collection

 

Man, don't I know it! I've been lucky to have you on board for this entire thread - it's not that often that I have a chance to hobnob with someone who has their own personal Fairey Firefly.

 

On 12/18/2015 at 03:41, martin hale said:

On the Firefly in the Fleet Air Am Museum, a former RAN machine, The stripes carry on across the roof of the wheel wells.

 

Really? Now that's interesting and likely to be a royal pain in the bottom to paint. From the diagram provided by Special Hobby it appears that only the starboard side would have a stripe going through it in such a case. Does the FAA Museum have more than one Firefly? I know of Evelyn Tentions, but if I recall correctly it is EDSG/DSG over Sky and doesn't have any stripes on her belly.

 

Special Hobby also show the underwing codes, which are black, applied across the top of the black stripes. On my Sea Vixen, the codes had a

rectangular yellow background so that you could still read them when they crossed the stripes. It seems odd that something similar wasn't done on the Firefly. I suppose I could paint the stripes with a very dark grey, like Tamiya NATO Black, and there would be sufficient contrast to make out the code letters.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[AdrianMF]

Just found this thread again... The FR1 is looking great! You need to start taking your granddaughter to "classic" air shows, like they have at Old Warden in the UK (no jets allowed!). Hope your wife's eye op goes well, too.

Regards,

Adrian

[Martian]

Yes the FAA Museum has two Fireflies, a mk1 and a former RAN machine, this is the one that has the stripes in the wheel wells. As you say a right pain to mask and paint, but we all have boundless confidence in your ability to carry it off!

Martin

[Navy Bird]

On 12/18/2015 at 13:49, martin hale said:

Yes the FAA Museum has two Fireflies, a mk1 and a former RAN machine, this is the one that has the stripes in the wheel wells. As you say a right pain to mask and paint, but we all have boundless confidence in your ability to carry it off!

Martin

 

I may change my scheme to a "what if" - as in what if they didn't bother painting the stripe in the wheel well.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. A former RAN machine you say - I wonder if their target tug scheme was different than the FAA? Probably not, but a question worth asking.

 

PPS. Navy Bird's Axiom: Always make at least one mistake on each model because only God is perfect.

[Beard]

Whatever you choose to do will be fine, I'm sure of that.

Anyway, who looks underneath their finished kits?

Edited December 18, 2015 by Beard

[rob85]

Whatever you choose to do will be fine, I'm sure of that.

Anyway, who looks underneath their finished kits?

You Could have said that before I did the brake cables on my spitfires Simon!!

Hey Bill, best wishes to you and your wife!

Good luck masking the wheel wells 😳

Rob

[Martian]

I may change my scheme to a "what if" - as in what if they didn't bother painting the stripe in the wheel well.

Cheers,

Bill

Come on Bill, you are better than that!

Martin

[Navy Bird]

On 12/18/2015 at 15:41, Beard said:

Anyway, who looks underneath their finished kits?

 

Well, when I set the model on a mirror so that the black stripes can be seen, uh, everyone looks underneath!

 

How about some progress photos? Getting ready to close up the canopies, I added the crash protector where the gunsight used to be. I followed the general idea shown in the photo Steve provided. As you can see, I've also added the front legs.

 

 

Next, I found some styrene tubing to use for the drogue chute, sliced off a bit and formed it into what was a "D" shape. However, it seems to have gone back to be more of an oval. I guess styrene has some kind of elastic memory or something! I think it will still be OK.

 

 

The canopies had a Future bath a few days ago. The control column was added to the front cockpit, followed by gluing on the front and rear greenhouses. I used a white PVA-type glue, which I also used on the FR.1.

 

I then used the Montex masking set for the canopies and planned my method for painting the TT. I'll be using the method suggested by Martin with one exception - I'm going to use Alclad Grey primer as a base coat for the silver, and not black.

 

Why? Because Alclad say so! You may recall that I plan on using their new RAF High Speed Silver product (yeah, I know this is an FAA aircraft) and Alclad specifically state on the label to use their grey primer. On-line, they state that the black primer was developed for the high shine and prismatic colours - in other words, for that highly polished natural metal look. But High Speed Silver is not natural metal - it was a lacquer paint. My guess is that Alclad recommend the grey primer to better replicate the actual High Speed Silver. We'll find out!

 

The grey primer went on very nicely. In spite of Alclad's recommendation to spray the primer right out of the bottle, I always thin it with about 20% lacquer thinner. It gives a thinner coat that way, and is less likely to clog the tip of my ultra high-tech Paasche Model H.

 

 

 

Hey, they look nice together! You can't see it so much in this photo, but I've also added some "chips" to the FR.1 with a silver pencil. Both props are assembled and painted flat black. Yellow blade tips will follow - four inches the right amount of yellow tip? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

 

Steve, speaking of prop blades, your TT has silver blades. Special Hobby say to paint them black. Another conundrum!

 

Next, I'll Micro-Mesh the grey primer on the TT to make it nice and smooth, followed by painting the underside yellow. The plan is to then mask off the areas that will remain yellow (including the fuselage band) and touch up, with the grey primer, any yellow overspray in the areas that will be silver. A final Micro-Mesh to the touched up areas, and then I'll shoot the High Speed Silver.

 

I hope to get all of that done this weekend. Once I know the actual width of the black stripes I can mask and paint those areas (including the wheel well if I have to!).

 

In-between doing all of this stuff, I still need to add the landing and navigation lights to the wings. Pass me my fork!

 

Cheers,

Bill