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Revell (Matchbox) Hawker Fury Mk.I 1/72


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Apologies for the late showing, be pleased to join in if you don’t mind. I’m building a Lanc at the moment but couldn’t pass this GB by (already had to miss the De Havilland and 70s NATO GBs much to my annoyance :rant:). This is my contribution. The wonderful Hawker Fury. A lovely stylish and classically looking aircraft. I remember building the Airfix version years ago. This time though it’s Revell’s re-boxing of the Matchbox classic (wot’s not to like) and if I’m not mistaken it was Matchbox’s first kit, so I best be doing her proud. Aside from that I absolutely love the box art. Takes me back to the age of model train sets and trying to get drunk on Shandy Bass.

 

IMG_1932.jpg

 

Anyroad enough nostalgia. Here are the sprue shots. Reasonably detailed for its age and by all accounts quite a nice kit to build. Plus the plastic is a different colour to that of the Lancaster so hopefully I won’t get the parts mixed up :P

 

IMG_1929.jpg

 

Instructions at quite straightforward.

 

IMG_1930.jpg

 

The decals look nice and you get rigging instructions.

 

IMG_1931.jpg

 

Nice colourful markings, good quality transfers, classic aircraft, brilliant box art and a Matchbox kit. As above, wot’s not to like. As per my usual modus operandi, I’ll probably add a few bits and bobs, have fun. What could possibly go wrong…

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I've run out of 'likes' for today Tom, I'll be back with one soon :).

 

This is a lovely subject for a build; Matchbox too. I stared it years ago but managed to bend the cabane struts. It's still around somewhere....

 

The Revell boxing had rigging instructions? Great, I'll search their website for them.

 

I love this series of Hawker biplanes. Quintessentialy 1930's British. The beautiful streamlined polished cowls.

 

I'm on the front row on this one.

 

:popcorn: 

 

Best regards 

TonyT

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Looking on with interest. I have a stalled one in the stash somewhere.

 

It's a nice little kit if you rub the heck out of the sagging fabric effect!

 

As for the box artwork, the buildings look more German than British to me :lol:

 

Trevor 

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Top choice Tom. Both the subject and the kit :thumbsup: There were some lovely British aircraft around in the 30s and this, to my mind at least, has to be the loveliest of them all.

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Great choice. I love these old Matchbox kits.:speak_cool: They have some issues, but they are very easy to build (Matchbox in general).

I will watch this one with interest. :popcorn:I have got one in the stash to be build together with the other 100+ Matchbox kits.

 

Cheers,

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  • 4 weeks later...

Okay I best be getting on now I’ve just got back from my holiday. Made a start, and as is my usual way of doing things back to front, I started on the tail. I sanded back the ribs a little as they are quite pronounced (not as bad as the wing ribs which as Trevor remarked above, are bonkers over-scale).

 

Then I re-scribed the elevators as they lacked definition. I also separated the rudder and fin, cut out the hinges and added control horns (the one on the rudder is too low so will need to be moved), added the aerial post, and drilled out holes for the rigging.

 

IMG_1989.jpg

 

The aerial post is made from Slater's rod, kindly donated by Bill (Perdu). It is quite hard and more robust than normal plastic rod, and you can even drill through it with a 0.2mm drill. His will make attaching the aerial cable easier (I think and hope…)

 

IMG_1954.jpg

 

Next up I started on the fuselage. I have some scale plans in the Mushroom Model’s Fury & Nimrod book. I must admit the kit aint far out when compared to the plans, and the panel markings aint far out either, which is testimony to what a fine kit this is given its age. However, they could do with a lift in places, and for the most part consist of raised lines. Which to be fair is to be expected of a kit this age.

 

So I’ve started re-scribing the fuselage. Here is the inspection panel at the rear starboard side:

 

IMG_1962.jpg

 

I sanded this out and reinstated it along with the other panels (mostly inspection panels given its fabric covering). Here is one side done compared to the other side:

 

IMG_1987.jpg

 

Although technically the raised rivet details are over-scale, I do want to preserve them, so I’m having to carefully and slowly scrape and sand the panel lines back to retain as much of the rivets as possible. The front section is natural polished aluminium, which will look nice contrasted with the yellow and silver painted fabric. Hence I think the rivets will make it look like metal…uh well I think you know what I mean. Not keen on the exhausts though and will have to do something about them. Not sure what yet, but will think on that one.

 

I also need to add some work to the interior. Not much can be seen, but as you can see I need to improve the kit offering – the plastic blob I’m assuming is the old Matchbox lettering and date which Revell appear to have “redacted”. Also is the underside of the tail showing the elevator control cable guides I’ve added.

 

IMG_1991.jpg

 

Didn’t quite intend to start doing all these additions, but it’s a lovely aircraft, there is a nice feel to the kit so I intend to do it proud. Back in a bit.

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Thank you sirs. A tad more progress and prep work on the fuselage. Right then. I left the tail bits alone for a bit and finished re-scribing the fuselage. Here is the finished job, not perfect, and I wouldn’t say technically 100% accurate, but I broadly followed the plans in Alex Crawford’s book mentioned above, and when compared to reference piccies on tinternet that aint far out at all:

 

IMG_2035.jpg 

 

Anyroad I think they are an improvement upon the original raised lines. There are still a few sunken screw holes to re-instate, and I need to drill out the rigging holes but they can wait.

 

Next up was the guns. To be hones not bad at all for a kit of its age, but I want a bit of depth and more contrast against the NMF finish, and I didn’t fancy faffing around painting up the guns. Here is the kit offering. As I said earlier for a tooling circa 1972, quite reasonable:

 

IMG_2012.jpg

 

I removed the moulded guns and knocked up replacements from Albion Alloys tubing (original scraped off remains of gun for comparison):

 

IMG_2029.jpg

 

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They fit into holes I drilled out so should be reasonably hassle free to fit. Also they should hopefully look better after a coat of Humbrol Metalcote gunmetal.

 

The next thing is to sort out the exhausts. As remarked above, while not bad, they really could do with a lift. Here is a piccie of the real.

 

IMG_4420.jpg

 

As you can see they have lot more definition than the kit offering (understandably).

 

IMG_2018.jpg

 

I have used the blue silicon moulding putty stuff to make a copy and use as a reference. My plan of attack is to carefully remove the exhaust stubs. Drill out and sand the ovular apertures, and replace with small pieces of Albion Alloys brass tubing, flattened slightly to emulate the ovular originals. Sounds bonkers and complicated? Will yes, but after a dry run it works perfectly well (gulp) in practice. So I shall indulge, afterall it all seems reasonably straightforward on paper…what could possibly go wrong…

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That looks like you're doing a fantastic job.  It's a lovely kit, I built a Matchbox one straight from the box a few years ago, with absolutely no problems.  If it's going to be sat on the ground with no pilot you'll need to shorten the undercarriage as it's modelled "in flight" from the box, I didn't and it looks a bit "stalky" on the shelf.

 

Cheers

Wll

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On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 10:32 PM, malpaso said:

That looks like you're doing a fantastic job.  It's a lovely kit, I built a Matchbox one straight from the box a few years ago, with absolutely no problems.  If it's going to be sat on the ground with no pilot you'll need to shorten the undercarriage as it's modelled "in flight" from the box, I didn't and it looks a bit "stalky" on the shelf.

 

Cheers

Wll

 

Thanks Wil, it will be sat on the ground and you are indeed correct sir: Here is an undercarriage strut compared with the plans:

 

IMG_2081.jpg

 

It is longer and the angle is incorrect. I will have a look at correct it when the time comes, although I suspect reducing the length and angle will means the location points on the fuselage will no longer match. I’ll have a few beers and come back to that one.

 

On with exhausts. Well as pointed out above I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the kit offering – never a fan of moulded on exhausts, and it would be difficult to get them to look sharp when painted. Here is the look I’m after:

 

It is longer and the angle is incorrect. I will have a look at correct it when the time comes, although I suspect reducing the length and angle will means the location points on the fuselage will no longer match. I’ll have a few beers and come back to that one.

On with exhausts. Well as pointed out above I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the kit offering – never a fan of moulded on exhausts, and it would be difficult to get them to look sharp when painted. Here is the look I’m after:

 

Exhaust.jpg

 

First up was to remove the nubs. I drilled a small hoe 0.4mm as a reference, cut off the lugs, but not flush with the fuselage – firstly so as not to damage the rivet detail; secondly to serve as a reference point. After drilling out the pilot holes I steadily and slowly elongated the holes with a reamer.

 

IMG_2041.jpg

 

As the saying goes: “it is a good game played slowly”. After much tedium I ended up with something like this:

 

IMG_2056.jpg

 

The next step was to cut short collars from brass tube, clean them up, and compress them a little until they take on the distinctive oval / elliptical like shape:

 

IMG_2063.jpg

 

For the time being I blanked off the back with some black insulation tape, but I will glue a thin sheet of plastic to the back which will be painted matt black. Here is a dry fit mock up to give you an impression of what they’ll look like:

 

IMG_2069.jpg

 

Here is the Tomoshenko upgrade compared to the kit offering.

 

IMG_2073.jpg

 

IMG_2079.jpg

 

When eventually glued in place they will be aligned better (but viewed from 4 foot away you won’t notice), and they will receive a coat of Humbol Metalcote gunmetal. Okay the port side is up next, shouldn’t take so long this time. Quite chuffed with the outcome, not Eduard or Quickboost aftermarket perfection, but I think offers a little more depth and exhaust like looking than the original. Back in a bit.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I very much like the exhausts :thumbsup:

 

Could I ask; where did you get the tiny reamer? I would like one of those!

 

Best regards

TonyT

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On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 5:29 PM, TonyTiger66 said:

I very much like the exhausts :thumbsup:

 

Could I ask; where did you get the tiny reamer? I would like one of those!

 

Best regards

TonyT

Got them from mail order here:

 

http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Broacher--Reamer-File-Set-Small-0.4-1.4mm---Set-Of-6-prcode-999-510&query=cutting broach&channel=uk

 

But have seen them in larger model shops and at model shows, so not a rarefied item and something you should be able to pick up.

 

On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:15 PM, Old Man said:

Great work on this, Sir!

 

As you are so far into it, are you going to trick-out the tail as well? With the rudder off the fin you're on your way to it....

Apologies for the delayed response, but yes! The kit offering connects the rudder and fin to the tail via a couple of lugs as seen above in one of the earlier piccies. I’ve tried to represent the real thing, admittedly you can’t see it too clearly below but the fin and rudder are raised with a noticeable gap where the fin joins the rudder.

 

Tail.jpg

 

I removed the lug, filled in the hole, and sanded away some of the excess to get where I am below which looks a little more like the real tail.

 

IMG_2141.jpg

 

It’s dry-fitted for the time being, but this is just to give you some idea. Also simulated some hinges and glued the rudder back in place but slightly offset.

 

IMG_2142.jpg

 

On to the interior, which is a bit naff to be honest. You can’t see an awful lot, but the seat looks like a high-backed chair and is far too tall, and the floor support, well it’s pants as you can see. To be fair I wouldn’t expect an exquisitely engineered cockpit frame in a Matchbox circa 1972 tool.

 

IMG_2118.jpg

 

First I knocked up a new seat from plastic card.

 

IMG_2127.jpg

 

I did attempt to salvage the cockpit floor but gave up, and decided to scratch build one. Anyroad in reality the seat is supported by a frame with no floor as such. I made the foot runners (don’t think that’s their technical name but it does for me) by gluing plastic strip to some card. The grooves are quite distinctive in reference piccies, so no harm in replicating them here even if a tad overscale.

 

IMG_2133_(2).jpg

 

This is where I’m up to with the bits and bobs roughly assembled and dry fitted to give you an idea (yes I know the seat angle is too acute). Made up some foot rests and I’ve started scratching a control column as you get diddly squat in the kit. Harnesses and bulkhead to do.

 

IMG_2148.jpg

 

I shall get the framing sorted and then move onto the IP.

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I can't understand how I have missed this one, especially when these inter-war bi-planes produced by Hawker always seem to grab my attention. Fabulous scratch building work here and I particularly like your solutions for the exhaust and the radio post. Keep up the good work and I will be following your progress from now on.

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Thanks gents

 

6 hours ago, spaddad said:

Hi Tomo,

looking good, can I ask how do you cut the brass tubing?

I take a fresh sharp blade (It's easier with larger sizes such as X-ACTO 24) and gently press down on the tube and roll it too and throw, gently increasing the pressure like thus:

 

IMG_2149.jpg

 

You will get a reasonably respectable cut. Of course beware of smaller pieces pinging off into oblivion being fodder for the carpet monster - I don't think you need me to explain how I know this ;)

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