RAN Fairey Firefly AS5

[NAVY870]

12 hours ago, abat said:

I'll see how I go. I like the idea - but don't want to over-promise.

You are most welcome in any capacity Steve, especially as you have the real VX388 to hang around with. Few questions if I may: do you know anything about VX388 when operating as 207/Q off Vengeance? Special Hobby has two arrangements of boxes on the rear deck of the observers cockpit (above) Does either look OK for 1953 or thereabouts? And I presume I need to fashion a new gunsight. The one in the kit doesn't look right.

Cheers, Andrew

You'll definitely need a new gunsight, the kit supplied item is the reflector sight from the Mark 1 

You'll need a gyro sight.

I've got a copy of the AS.5 manual in the library, I'll compare the AS.5 rear pit to the kit and let you know.

[abat]

Thanks Steve, I've found some pics of a gyro. Looks pretty easy to knock one up in 1/72. I'd appreciate some diagrams fore and aft in the observers cockpit if the manual is within easy reach. Infectious aircraft, I'm starting to get firefly fever. 

[CJP]

On ‎31‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 8:06 PM, CJP said:

Interestingly Wolfpack Design have had had a Firefly wing fold in their resin accessories for a looong time so not sure if they will ever eventuate -

 

W48021	Fairey Firefly Mk.I Folded Wing set (for Special Hobby 1/48)	TBA
WW48022	Fairey Firefly Mk.4/5 Folded Wing set (for Special Hobby 1/48)	TBA

Sorry I missed the 1/72 tag - I have the Special Hobby Firefly 4/5 & MK1 in 1/48 so assumed this build was 1/48

CJP

[abat]

2 hours ago, CJP said:

Sorry I missed the 1/72 tag - I have the Special Hobby Firefly 4/5 & MK1 in 1/48 so assumed this build was 1/48

CJP

No problem. They'd build up very nicely I'm sure. 

[abat]

Scouring the web, I found an article by our Steve on another forum reviewing the 1/48 boxing of the same special hobby kit. These include two pages from the manual showing the AS version of the observers cockpit. They look markedly different from the kit pieces that you can see in a previous post above. 

 

 

 

So I set to work with some plastic card and some of the boxes from the kit pieces. Certainly not perfect, but a better representation I think. The blocks on the firewall are location pins for the resin side pieces and won't be seen (I hope) in all the blackness. I could add the batteries to the floor but they might not be seen either. 

 

 

And here's the rest of the cockpit with a bit of colour added to the blackness. I still need to gloss coat these and do a wash to add some depth - black wash on the cockpit and sepia/brown on the seats. I also need to paint some buckles (brass?) on the belts. I can't get over how fine some of the moulding was on the belts. There's also a tiny gyro gunsight (minus the glass) on top of the IP, which has a white face to accept the IP gauge transparency. 

 

 

More to come. 

 

 

[abat]

It took a while but I finally made progress on the cockpits. I had some trouble laying down a matte coat on the cockpit components after I'd added the washes and finally achieved a respectable finish today after receiving some Vallejo Matte varnish in the post. I'd heard a lot of good things about it and it worked nicely for me. Thinned 3;1 with water/flow aid mixture, sprayed at 15psi and dried in the warm Aussie sunshine.

 

I didn't really like working with resin and hope that I don't encounter many more resin cockpits, but it went together OK in the end. There's some largish gaps at the edges that need filling, sanding and painting but that's about the worst of it done. At the moment they're taped in, but some glue will follow shortly. 

 

 

So the back 'pit with the re-modelled boxes on the shelves ...

 

 

... and the front. with just a little colour to pick put some instruments. Still need some glass on the gyroscopic aiming thingy.

 

 

Next steps will be paining and fitting the engine exhausts and checking the fit of the canopy before closing up. In his inspirational build, Navy Bird fitted some plastic shims to the fuselage in between the canopy in order to get a better fit. I'll look and see if that is necessary with mine as well.

[perdu]

Lovely work with the resinny bits

 

Er, shall I pop my Gannet bits over to you so you can get some life into them for me?

 

😁

Jesting apart it looks really good in there

 

 

Got to believe in Faireys don't we?

 

😉

[abat]

23 minutes ago, perdu said:

Lovely work with the resinny bits

 

Er, shall I pop my Gannet bits over to you so you can get some life into them for me?

 

😁

Jesting apart it looks really good in there

 

 

Got to believe in Faireys don't we?

 

😉

Ah, Gannets. Lots more blackness and three cockpits to look after. There's something very special about the aircraft coming out of Fairey aircraft corporation, very British, very purposeful. 

[Martian]

The interior is looking good and well done for changing the kit parts to the correct mark, something that many people, manufacturers included overlook.

 

Martian

[abat]

1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

The interior is looking good and well done for changing the kit parts to the correct mark, something that many people, manufacturers included overlook.

 

Martian

Thanks Martian, I really do enjoy the scratch building bit, especially in plastic. It's still an approximation of reality at this scale, but it looks more right than wrong as it did before. 

[abat]

In preparation for closing the fuselage I've been looking at the fit of the canopies, in particular the width. Navy Bird inserted a thin shim of plastic card to widen the fuselage slightly between the front and rear canopies and I found this an excellent way to get the front canopy to fit flush with the fuselage sides. The special hobby kit provides two forward canopies and I've selected the one above with a slight "peak" towards the front which appears to match reference photos. The other is a bit more rounded and perhaps shallower.

 

 

The main modelling issue is however what to do with the observer's canopy. This is a two-pice affair (both sides meet in the middle). Even with the shim, the canopy sits much too proud above the fuselage. I'd need to widen the fuselage by 1.5-2mm to get them to meet in the middle, something that would then throw out the front canopy and no doubt the shape of the fuselage itself.

 

 

 

I can see three options and would like some opinions from those who've trod this path before me -

1. sand down the fuselage sill by about 1mm which may affect the alignment with the forward canopy in profile

2. sand 1mm off the bottom of each canopy side which takes out the entire sill and may then compromise fettling it neatly into the fuselage

3. sand a 1mm off each of the top edges which would make the top glass windows appear narrower

 

What do you guys think? The first might be easiest and least obtrusive.

 

The shot below, but this shows the overlap of nearly 1mm. Doesn't sound much but thats nearly 72mm (3 inches) in real money.

 

 

 

[Procopius]

I'd definitely go with option one. 

[abat]

21 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I'd definitely go with option one. 

Thanks. That does seem the right way to go. The Observer's cockpit does sit just a little lower in photos. I'm also going to put another narrow shim behind the observers cockpit to match the forward one and that way I only need to sand off around 0.5mm. Multi-tasking at present - sanding fuselage sills, cooking banana loaf and stirring bolognese on the stove - what could possibly go wrong. 

[Procopius]

Just now, abat said:

Thanks. That does seem the right way to go. The Observer's cockpit does sit just a little lower in photos. I'm also going to put another narrow shim behind the observers cockpit to match the forward one and that way I only need to sand off around 0.5mm. Multi-tasking at present - sanding fuselage sills, cooking banana loaf and stirring bolognese on the stove - what could possibly go wrong. 

A delectable (and lightly sanded) banana bolognese sounds like just the thing for a hearty repast.

[abat]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

A delectable (and lightly sanded) banana bolognese sounds like just the thing for a hearty repast.

Luckily I managed to keep the three component processes seperate and so have afternoon tea, dinner and firefly observers compartment  all under control. The Special Hobby plastic is very soft and so it sanded down in no time at all using dymo tape as a backstop. Gluing, filling and sanding the join on top of the canopy should be a piece of cake! 

 

 

The wings and undercarriage bays now await lashings of the sanding stick. 

[71chally]

Cracking work.

Hope the canopy fit rectification works, I've never built this kit but I think you've chosen the right way to deal with the fit issue.

[perdu]

Sanding sticks

 

Dammit you reminded me I was checking out some prior to purchase on Sunday and allowed Mr Butterfly mind to get distracted

 

Still no lovely sanding sticks, must make list for Telford

 

Now back to the Fairey, I agree with you and PC that the sill needed lowering, much the right way to go about it

 

The frame seems an unusually complex part, split along its centre like that

 

A proper recipe for catastrophes, glue on clear stuff, who doesn't enjoy that huh?

 

Imenjoying this more than my own stuff lately, but that's reasonable

 

You do it so nicely

 

😉

 

I'm off to mess with stuff that needs to look cast for a rough tough naval aircraft, no place for sissies

 

 

 

☺

[abat]

1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Cracking work.

Hope the canopy fit rectification works, I've never built this kit but I think you've chosen the right way to deal with the fit issue.

Thanks! Looks all OK but the test will be when the glue goes on. Not used to these limited run kits but I sooooo want a firefly in my collection. 

48 minutes ago, perdu said:

Sanding sticks

 

Dammit you reminded me I was checking out some prior to purchase on Sunday and allowed Mr Butterfly mind to get distracted

 

Still no lovely sanding sticks, must make list for Telford

 

Now back to the Fairey, I agree with you and PC that the sill needed lowering, much the right way to go about it

 

The frame seems an unusually complex part, split along its centre like that

 

A proper recipe for catastrophes, glue on clear stuff, who doesn't enjoy that huh?

 

Imenjoying this more than my own stuff lately, but that's reasonable

 

You do it so nicely

 

😉

 

I'm off to mess with stuff that needs to look cast for a rough tough naval aircraft, no place for sissies

 

 

 

☺

Ahhh, sanding sticks. Now at least you can drop into the Telford show for some stock, and a peak at some other plastic stuff. Glue on clear stuff? Hmmmmn, we'll see how successful that is. The canopy is frightfully complex, which makes me wonder why they didn't cast it with open options. Oh well, glad you're enjoying the build. Nice tough naval aircraft are the go. 

[Courageous]

Bit late but I'll watch with interest after just buying one of these. 

[abat]

I've now closed up the fuselage and done a couple of rounds of putty and sanding. I'll wait until after the primer goes on before re-scribing the lost panel detail and touching up the seams. There's some hefty gaps between the cockpit sides and the fuselage but these are mostly unnoticeable once the canopies go on and I may not fill them at all. The gyro sight interferes with the forward canopy so some work to be done re-locating and resizing that. I also discovered the starboard exhaust had drooped whilst the expoxy was drying so I had to pop that out, remove the glue and re-affix it. 

 

 

Here's the wings and undercarriage wells. There's a bit of evergreen strip glued in as alignment aids. I'm thinking it will be easier to paint the bays before gluing them in so a trip to the paint shop is now in order. Any advice on the colour for the undercarriage wells on this mark? Interior green?

 

 

[abat]

8 hours ago, Courageous said:

Bit late but I'll watch with interest after just buying one of these. 

Never too late Courageous, were only on page 2 so it's easy to catch up. 

[perdu]

My friend at the modeling club is making the Airfix sweetie and brought the outer wing panels along for perusal

 

He wondered at the kit painting which showed the stripes further out board than he did

 

Sighs of relief when I pointed out that the box was showing a different Firefly

 

Seeing John's one made me wonder if we'd see yours soon

 

Et voila she comes

 

The fuselage looks kinda "Ain't I pretty, are you going to build one too?"

 

 

I think I'll leave it to you

 

😉

[CJP]

Interesting build and some good reference drawings of the cockpits too which will be of use for my 1/48 Firefly when I get around to it - checked out your other builds on BM and love the RAN theme

CJP

[abat]

55 minutes ago, perdu said:

My friend at the modeling club is making the Airfix sweetie and brought the outer wing panels along for perusal

 

He wondered at the kit painting which showed the stripes further out board than he did

 

Sighs of relief when I pointed out that the box was showing a different Firefly

 

Seeing John's one made me wonder if we'd see yours soon

 

Et voila she comes

 

The fuselage looks kinda "Ain't I pretty, are you going to build one too?"

 

 

I think I'll leave it to you

 

😉

Thanks perdu, there's always room for another firefly build - such a sleek and interesting aircraft. I reckon there's one in your stash that needs starting!

6 minutes ago, CJP said:

Interesting build and some good reference drawings of the cockpits too which will be of use for my 1/48 Firefly when I get around to it - checked out your other builds on BM and love the RAN theme

CJP

Thanks CJP, this would be wonderful in 1/48, there's wealth of lovely detail to add. Cheers on the RAN theme too, I grew up around ships and planes so it's only natural that I lean towards FAA. Andrew 

[Courageous]

5 hours ago, abat said:

Thanks CJP, this would be wonderful in 1/48, there's wealth of lovely detail to add. Cheers on the RAN theme too, I grew up around ships and planes so it's only natural that I lean towards FAA. Andrew 

Not always the case Andrew. I spent the first 9 years of my working carrier serving in RN Subs, my father was in the Army and from a subject point of view, I'm not interested in ships, subs, tanks , etc but aircraft...go figure.

 

Stuart