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Hawker Sea Fury 1:48 - Quickie (hopefully!)


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Greetings one and all again,

Whilst pottering through my Fulmar and Wasp builds something special happened to my family and I. After many years of hard graft and jumping through hoops we finally became Citizens of that fine country of Canada. So to honour my adoptive country I thought I would have a go at various aspects of Aviation Canadiana. Going through my stash I dug out numerous kits that could have Canadian tendancies. As shown below:

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So first up was the Sea Fury. I had every intention of building it as an RN version as my collection of FAA aircraft is growing and this one would have filled an important gap. But I did fancy something different to the usual sky/EDSG (not that there is anything wrong with that scheme by the way!). Whilst researching what to do I found a few Canadian aircraft and took a shine to a grey/EDSG version. I quick trawl through Hannants gave me the decals so they were ordered and it was time to crack on! The kit is the basic but relatively accurate Hobby craft version

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I got this on the Evilbay many years ago and it came with a basic airwaves etch and some nice undercarriage

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So it has been gathering dust for many years!. My intention was to go straight OOB and do a nice finish which would hopefully disguise any flaws, but straight away I noticed a couple of things. First up was the exhausts. They looked rather flat so tried to open them up, but as I didn't have a drill small enough I trashed them so replaced them with some cut down brass tubing.

Before

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Mid trash

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And my high developed jig type set up to align the exhausts

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After a wee bit of whittling and a test fit it looks a bit better.

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Typically I got carried away with the build and forgot to take a phot of the cockpit. I used the Airwaves set to embellish it but as can be seen below there isn't a lot that can be seen! Oh hey ho, at least I didn't spend $$$ on something that cant be see!

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It was all sprayed with Model Master acrylic interior black and given a good old dry brush, as is my standard procedure I did leave the seat out as I wanted it to have the correct height so here is a shot again sprayed up and dry brushed. I have gone for all black!

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And then finally for today all buttoned up

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There is a lot to do with the old filler and I think I have lost a couple of tools in those panel lines so more work is afoot.

Later!

Bob

PS For those waiting for the Fulmar, work is still going on and there will be an update very soon :D

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You're off to a good start with this one. The Sea Fury is one of those machines with an elegant brutality about it - don't see them modelled often so will watch out for your continued progress.

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A good start and glad to see you are going with the Hobbycraft kit, rather than the Trumpeter abomination which would have made for anything other than a quick build if you wanted any sort of accuracy.

Martin

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A good start and glad to see you are going with the Hobbycraft kit, rather than the Trumpeter abomination which would have made for anything other than a quick build if you wanted any sort of accuracy.Martin

Not sure if it was on BM but I do seem to remember that someone built a 1/48 Sea Fury using the best bits from both the Trumpeter and HobbyCraft.

I was sure that I'd bookmarked the post but typically, I can't find it anywhere now!

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Not sure if it was on BM but I do seem to remember that someone built a 1/48 Sea Fury using the best bits from both the Trumpeter and HobbyCraft.

I was sure that I'd bookmarked the post but typically, I can't find it anywhere now!

I think that is a 'Frankenfury', Brett Green built one on another forum, just Google it, I would like to do the same.

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Sooo a bit more progress on this beasty. On the last post, last pic you can see the method I used to fit the wings. First fixed the stbd wing then fitted the assembly to the fuselage. I then fitted the port upper wing and it left this gap here

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Now to my eye it could possibly get away with being a panel line, only its not as deep as the others :analintruder: But any hoo I decided to go for accuracy and filled it with half a tub of Halfords finest.

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At least when rubbing it down there was no chance of loosing those panel lines! So what to do with them? I had a can of auto primer that I was hoping was the Canadian version of Halfords Primer but alas it was more like cake frosting than anything I was used to so it has sat empty. I then had the idea to give the whole thing a couple of thick coats and then rub it all down. This was the eventual fruit of my labour

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Better but still not micro fine. This is her with a further coat of Tamiya primer

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I then decided to do something with the wing tip lights. I removed the chunks of grey plastic and then shaped some clear plastic lumps to fit. These will be rubbed down once the glue has set and then polished to within an inch of their lives (hopefully!)

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That's it for now, no soccer training tonight so I can get a couple of hours on it!

Later

Bob

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I have a used but recyclable Vac canopy and may have some resin drop tanks should you need them.

Do it justice my good man and show off that EDSG/Sky scheme on Camm's finest

I will do my best.......pm sent by the way :D

You're off to a good start with this one. The Sea Fury is one of those machines with an elegant brutality about it - don't see them modelled often so will watch out for your continued progress.

Thanks, I will try not to kick the a*** out of this build :D

A good start and glad to see you are going with the Hobbycraft kit, rather than the Trumpeter abomination which would have made for anything other than a quick build if you wanted any sort of accuracy.

Martin

Thanks, I did look into the Trumpy kit but just didn't like what I saw and was happy to read that the hobbycraft version is one of the most accurate.....and cheapest!

Not sure if it was on BM but I do seem to remember that someone built a 1/48 Sea Fury using the best bits from both the Trumpeter and HobbyCraft.

I was sure that I'd bookmarked the post but typically, I can't find it anywhere now!

I think that is a 'Frankenfury', Brett Green built one on another forum, just Google it, I would like to do the same.

I googled that one and found this link

http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/features/seafuryfb1148bg_2.htm

He has taken the HC fuselage and the Trumpy wings, I think the external detail would be finer on the trumpeter version (if not very accurate) and would take a lot of filling on the fuselage to get them to match. If I had the Trumpy kit, I would have followed the link above and got an HC kit cheaply to upgrade it.

Thanks for following

Bob

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good day to all once again,

I have one of my sparse updates for all you followers out there. I am struggling to find time to model at the moment. With my son being the next Manuel Neuer, it has been constant footy, footy and more footy! Provincial training (county level) this weekend so will have to get it whilst I can. I did have a day off from footy on Monday but went to see Billy Connolly as he made the effort to visit us over here. I must say he was on form and made me and my wife cry with laughter but boy is he getting on now, it was quite sad to see how old he is getting and although he is not as animated he is still hugely funny, if you ever think you have run over a cat, always check the wheel well first! But you had to be there lol!

But anyhoo we are not getting any younger so it was back to the cave to try and sqeeze in some work. The Fury was primed

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and then it was a coat of Tamiya grey out of a spray can and then some extra dark sea grey (AKA Model Master RLM 72) and below is the result. Not too bad. I know some Canadian Furies were EDSG/Sky but I opted for a EDSG/grey version as something slightly different. This was then glossed and readied for decaling

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and demonstrating the dury undercarriage arrangement for that spraying

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And then it was onto the decaling using set X48061from Xtradecal. They are nice and bright, went down well and reacted well with micro sol ........

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..............................

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........................... or so I thought, until on closer inspection...............

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Not sure what went on here! The both the upper wing decals have wrinkled. I'm not sure if it is down the the EDSG (not had problems before) or because I sol'd them and had the aircraft resting upside down to dry. So if there is anyone out there with some spare Canadian roundals from the above set please do let me know! I looked at the kit decals but they aren't as crisp, colourful or the same size!

So I have left that there to ponder over the next week or so whilst I do some undercarriage work. The kit doors have been thinned down a bit and the main doors have a touch of extra detailing going on in the inside, but apart from that I have left it alone. The undercarriage has been painted and is currently being muddied up a bit, more to follow very soon on that.

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Next up is the spinner and prop. This aircraft has a star shaped paint job on the spinner, you do get kit decals to fit but they aren't very good at all. So I have been looking at the most difficult way possible to achieve that effect and I think I am there. I will share more details next time! Also on the way from a very generous fellow BMer is a set of tanks and a spare canopy so hopefully they should be steaming past Iceland as we speak!

That's all for this week

Cheers now

Bob

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Good progress, the undercarriage is going very well.

Could be worth putting some more Sol on the wing decals and using a hair dryer (on warm) to try and pull them down?

Steve.

I have used quite a lot of sol but not under a bit of heat. I may try that albeit with great care!

How long have you left the decal thats funny? Try some X-20A thinner on the decal if it's still playing up, that'll help.

I don't have any to hand but if the point above doesn't work I may have to go on a trip Downtown to pick some up.

Thanks for the advice!

Bob

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Sol sometimes wrinkles decals. If nothing else works, try just-boiled water and a smooth sponge. Dip the sponge in the water (watch the fingertips!) and then press straight down with no sideways motion. That usually sorts out even the most stubborn decals.

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Decal crinkling like that happens almost every time I use Micro Sol, and every time they have dried out flat- just wait, they are very delicate when they are in this partially-dissolved state.

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Watching this with interest as I also have a Sea Fury or two in the stash. Not sure what happened with the wing decals - were they still wet when you took that photo, or had they dried already?

Whereabouts are you in the Great White North? I'm about a 3 hour drive from Toronto on the "South Shore" of Lake Ontario. There is a great warbird collection in Hamilton.

Cheers,

Bill

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Bob - I bought that sheet earlier this month and won't be needing the Canuckistani marks. Let me know if you need them and PM me your address.

Thanks PM sent

Watching this with interest as I also have a Sea Fury or two in the stash. Not sure what happened with the wing decals - were they still wet when you took that photo, or had they dried already?

Whereabouts are you in the Great White North? I'm about a 3 hour drive from Toronto on the "South Shore" of Lake Ontario. There is a great warbird collection in Hamilton.

Cheers,

Bill

I am up a bit further in Nova Scotia, although our warbird collection isn't as great as Hamiltons, we do have a few interesting specimens up here! I hope someday to make it down towards the BIG City to see that collection.

Just to clarify the decal issue

I had applied the decals in one sitting and then as I normally do applied Sol and put it aside (upside down) for the night. I know Sol wrinkles the decals but over a couple of hours they normally settle. Next day I noticed the upper wing decals wrinkled. I applied more sol and a bit of pressure but I didn't want to distort them so had to be gentle. The above photo was taken after about 3 attempts to smooth it and was dry. I think the wrinkles are in for good as the last application made no difference, hopefully I have a solution pending :winkgrin:

Cheers now

Bob

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LOVE this aircraft ever since I saw it fly at fairford, such a beast! I have built the old airfix version before... But mine was a poor rendition!

Yours is looking great, shame about the transfer issues etc but you are over coming them well!

Also congrats on the citizenship!

Looking forward to the rest of your work

Rob

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Greetings again all, and its a new month with a new update, before I know it it'll soon be crimbo and then snow :weep: before the spring limps in like an asthmatic snail. My how the time is flying!

So first bit of the update is on the propeller spinner. This particular version had like a star design and Hobbycraft give you a nice set of decals to represent this ......well not really they are like the rest of the kit decals, a bit naff really. So how to paint the design on? I decided to undercoat in white and spray over in red, I didn't want to go the otherway as that would have been too much hard work! (in hindsight it would have been easier and I may even end up going back there!).

So first off the spinner was sprayed white

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I then used the kit decals as a basic shape to make a templte to get a consistent shape

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I did try and just use the shape to mask the wite area with tape but the compound curvature of the spinner made this impossible (for me anyway) So hit upon another idea. I used the cutouts to mask off the red areas as so.

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and then coated the white in maskol and then peeled off the tape to mask off the white area as you can almost see below

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Looking very nice! and the maskol held its shape really well so it was off to the spray booth and coated it in red

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It was looking very nice so then let it dry and then take off the maskol and the final reveal!

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All the b******** paint peeled off with the mask! :banghead::chair::weep::weep: so it was a big :fuyou_2: to that idea and back to the drawing board! I am going down to my LHS over the next week or so, so will see if they have any nice red decal sheet that I can cut out the shapes from.

So apart from that cluster I am cracking on nicely and I am almost there. The donated fuel tanks have been sprayed

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and fitted

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And this is now she stands at this time.

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I have rubbed down the offending decals and have some kindly donated ones plodding on over (thanks again to BMers!), the undercarriage has been fitted and she has had a wash of mid grey gloop of my own manufacture. The fuselage panels lines are quite nice and refined but the wing ones are still a bit mahoosive oh well. Next up will be the cockpit area which I will take a bit of time over and then fit the canopy (another donation!) and then we should be nearly there!

That's all for now

Cheers now

Bob

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Looking good; what's not to like about a Sea Fury?

Not a lot unless you are a heretic who needs an appointment with the Spanish Inquisition and the comfy chair!

Martin

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