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Supermarine's best? [Now with added Seafire 47... & Seafang!]


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Bit busy with real life at the moment, but I think the cockpit side walls are now complete - I have done some final painting + added some Airscale placards.  I am now working on the seat etc before starting to put the cockpit together (and thus hide most of this!)

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I am pretty happy with how these are coming out; it helps that the resin casting is of such high quality, because the detail is nice and sharp.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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As I said in the Walrus thread, today I have been down to Yeovilton for the annual opening of the Reserve Collection - taking squillions of photographs, obviously.

 

So all you wing fold geeks can no doubt tell me what aircraft this is (taking ref shots for a future build...):

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They are still collecting Barracuda parts (and I'll tell you for nothing that the hinge above is definitely not from a Barra!), including this one which I haven't seen before - it was forming part of some old gent's chicken coop until last month, apparently.  I show it for the remarkable preservation of yer actual genuine British Interior Green, even over 70 years on:

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Anyway.  Nothing to show you on the Seafire itself, but I can show you something that will be an important element of the way I plan to display it:

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Followers of my Sea King build will know that I am a fan of flight deck tractors to give a sense of scale, so here is the appropriate model for the late-40s - the so-called "bumper car" tractor (not hard to see why it got that nickname).  I've already glued 8 pieces together here, plus some drilling and wire / tube for the steering column and (invisible here) pedals.  Usual high F4 standard.  Mine will be yellow and fairly battered, unlike the pristine blue one on the box.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Nothing gets past you lot!  Yes, it's Firefly MK1, Evelyn Tentions - moved out to make space for the post-restoration Martlet, I think.  They move stuff in and out all the time; in Cobham yesterday I saw quite a few airframes that I recall seeing / photographing in the main museum quite recently - Hunter T8M, Wessex HAS3 "Humphrey", both Fireflies, Sea King HAS 5...

 

But I spent most of my time hanging my nose over a Vixen FAW1 (XJ481), 2 Wasps (XT778 & XS527, plus the Saro P531 Prototype), Supermarine 510 (VV106), Hawker P1052 (VX272), Albacore (N4389) & a shiny black Harrier T4.  

 

Yum yum.  

 

If you have never done it, I highly recommend keeping an eye open for when they next open, and booking to go take a look.

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Construction of the Light Flight Deck Tractor is now pretty much complete; I will add the wheels (and the fire extinguisher - that's the hole in the dashboard) only after I have done the main paint job.  20p piece added for scale; dinky, huh?

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As you can see, one small pice of filling to be sorted out (a combo of a tricky join and a couple of tiny resin bubbles) - but for the most part this goes together beautifully. 

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Nothing gets past you lot!  Yes, it's Firefly MK1, Evelyn Tentions - moved out to make space for the post-restoration Martlet, I think.  They move stuff in and out all the time; in Cobham yesterday I saw quite a few airframes that I recall seeing / photographing in the main museum quite recently - Hunter T8M, Wessex HAS3 "Humphrey", both Fireflies, Sea King HAS 5...

 

But I spent most of my time hanging my nose over a Vixen FAW1 (XJ481), 2 Wasps (XT778 & XS527, plus the Saro P531 Prototype), Supermarine 510 (VV106), Hawker P1052 (VX272), Albacore (N4389) & a shiny black Harrier T4.  

 

Yum yum.  

 

If you have never done it, I highly recommend keeping an eye open for when they next open, and booking to go take a look.

It certainly is worth looking through there. Before I left the Navy my colleagues arranged for a day trip to the museum as a special treat, where we were given a personal tour of the museum and the Martlet restoration (who knew paint removal could be so fascinating!) by Dave (I think his name was - was 6 years ago though). After lunch they took us to Cobham hall and we had free range for the afternoon. It was great, unfortunately I burnt most of my camera battery in the museum but we did have great access to everything. In the end we got forcibly ejected because the staff wanted to lock up! Definitely a special day! Even if most of the exhibits did generate gash pre-Falkland dits from my mate!

 

Smashing work by the way!

 

Bob

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I'd absolutely love a 1/48 Fordson.  For the 820 Sea King I am going to use a bog standard Pusser's deck tractor, 1980s vintage.  For a future 819 SAR build I have a Houchin!

 

Anyway, here's our diddy tractor again, only this time primed.

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More soon

 

Crisp

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OK, so things are getting even more bonkers.  @Beard & @Corsairfoxfouruncle are not the only people with multiple Spitfire builds.... except mine aren't Spits, as you already know; they're post-war (Griffon) Seafires.

 

To recap for any new readers...

 

FR46 (the original subject of this thread) is done, and I am slowly building a detailed FR47, with engine exposed, Aires cockpit, added camera bays and a dinky wee flight deck tractor.

 

For some reason I have decided to expand operations to a third simultaneous Supermarine aircraft (with the Walrus) [in truth I have been tinkering with it for a few days].

 

Enter THE FANG.  I am using the only game in town for the Seafang in 1/48 (as far as I know), namely the Trumpeter kit.  It's bit basic in places, and I'd lay you money that the cockpit is completely made-up - but the fit is actually excellent.

 

First up some pics before the fuselage was glued, to show what I have done with the cockpit.  No after market or the like for the cockpit (I don't there is anything anyway, even if I wanted it) - just some Airscale dials and some painting to liven things up.

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Since these photos I have added some generic seat belts made out of wine foil, but otherwise the cockpit is as you see it [note to self; still need to glue in the stick!].

 

Then this afternoon I got onto a bit of a roll, and ended up here:

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You will note that I am using resin tail & rudder; these are the Barracudacast ones designed for the Airfix 46/47.  I used them on my Mk46 and thought the separate control surfaces added a lot of life, and since the 46/47 & Seafang tail was the same, I'll be using it again here.  That meant I had to saw off the Trumpy rudder, and I am having to do a bit of modelling at the root of the tail, but nothing too silly.  

 

Other than that, we're pure Trumpeter.  This aircraft will have its wings folded, like the 47 but (obviously) unlike the 46; I have therefore done the requisite surgery - slightly tricky because the wing fold join is not a straight line... but safely complete.

 

I have put the FR46 away in a safe place to avoid damaging it, but at some stage I will get it out again and photograph it alongside this beast.

 

You will not be surprised to learn that I have the Revell (nee Special Hobby?) Seafire XV and the Airfix XVII in the stash... and I have assembled parts of Airfix PR.XIX and unused FR46 wings to form the basis of a Seafire 45 in due course.  That will complete the Griffon Seafire set.  One day I might even extend it yet further - Attacker in one direction and Merlin Seafires in the other... but not yet!

 

What started out as a Mojo-restoring build has morphed into a serial Seafire frenzy, and I am having so much fun!

 

More soon

 

Crisp [Wibble]

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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4 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

OK, so things are getting even more bonkers.  @Beard & @Corsairfoxfouruncle are not the only people with multiple Spitfire builds.

 

Thanks for commenting but i think you wanted @corsaircorp hes got multiple spitfires. Ive built a few but nothing recently. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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21 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

What started out as a Mojo-restoring build has morphed into a serial Seafire frenzy, and I am having so much fun!

[Wibble]

Fantastic to see and yes, the mojo does appear rather well topped-off!

That is a rather long and svelte fuselage there. A very pretty aircraft indeed.

 

I'm looking forward to this.

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6 minutes ago, hairystick said:

Fantastic to see and yes, the mojo does appear rather well topped-off!

 

 

I reckon when he finishes this lot he'll need another mojo restorer. Something like a forgotten Sea King maybe....:whistle: :D

 

Keith

 

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30 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

OK, so things are getting even more bonkers.  Beard & Corsairfoxfouruncle are not the only people with multiple Spitfire builds.... except mine aren't Spits, as you already know; they're post-war (Griffon) Seafires.

 

You only have to say my name once and I'll appear (unlike Beetlejuice).

 

There's some lovely work going on here, even though it isn't in 1/72 and they aren't Spitfires.

 

(PS. I have Seafires to do too. I think they might have moved up my to-do list.)

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