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


Tomoshenko

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  • 3 weeks later...

Roight then, sorry for the absence, but I’ve been busy. Here is a belated shot of one of my purchases from Telford:

 

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That along with some chisels Bill (Perdu) made me buy and some other stuff, including varies grades of mesh, but more on that later. A belated thanks to all the Britmodeller crew who met up at the Brum stand, very nice meeting you all. To be continued at future shows I’m sure.

 

Anyroad back to business. The next big job was to sort out the radiator housing. I’d been putting it off for a while, and I wasn’t surprised it took me longer than anticipated, and was a fiendishly fearsome fiddly affair! Like many aircraft radiators and intakes or scoops etc, I believe they are quite distinctive and go some way to defining an aircraft’s character. Consider the Tempest / Typhoon, Stuka for example and you get my idea. The Fury isn’t much different. Here you go courtesy of Wings Over Europe.com copyright:

 

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Quite a busy affair as you can see, including an oil filter which unlike the Nimrod, whose oil cooler is mounted externally. Now here is the venerable Matchbox offering:

 

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Fair dues, can’t expect it to compete with some Eduard etch from a ProfiPACK, or Airwaves etc. If it was painted black and dry brushed silver, it would come up quit decent, as a casual surf of Matchbox Fury builds on tinternet (including this forum) will testify. But I wanted something with a little more depth and dimension. I knew I wouldn’t be able to replicate a scaled down version, but reckoned the game was afoot to give a better rendition than that of the kit offering.

 

First I cut out the grill and added a flange. I also scribed out the radiator middle section to provide better definition as the real article is clearly in separate sections. I also replaced the raised panel lines with thin plastic strips as the originals were way over scale.

 

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This is how it looks in situ (note I also opened out the little ducts either side). Frustratingly I realised that I needed to remove the ridge moulded into the fuselage and the two little nuggets behind. Would have been much easier to do this when I original zipped up the fuselage. Also it’s one of those things that required careful use of the scalpel as it’s clearly a potential trip to Brum’s Queen Elizabeth A&E Triage Dept and a blood transfusion waiting to happen! Fortunately I survived digits intact, but blimey I seem to make hard work for myself.

 

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So with that job done the oil cooler was up next. This was damned fiddly. Strips of beer can foil, Albion Alloy rod and brass tubing, plenty of cussing, and this was the end result with a few abortive fans out of focus. I wasn’t satisfied with this as I’d tried to cyano it together, but there was blobs of cyano here and there, and the fans were uneven, resulting in a somewhat British Leyland look. I took it apart and made little spacers from the cast off fans – more cussing and fiddling around, with little bits of beer can foil pinging off into infinity and this was the final result:

 

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Perhaps a tad overscale, but this is how it should look when in place:

 

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Now for those pesky slats. Yep I’d been putting this off for a while. The aircraft had venation blind type slats which could be opened and closed. To be honest I confess I was a tad stumped at this stage. I didn’t have a clue as to how I could fix them in place convincingly without the whole thing looking a bloody mess.

I decided to fall back on my usual modus operandi – make it up as I go along! As it aint served me too badly over the years. Anyroad first up was to cut thin strips of beer can foil (take-away foil is too flimsy).

 

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So I had the little slats sorted. How to mount the blinkin’ things still alluded me. Also how to space them evenly - well almost evenly – so they don’t look amateurish, well not too amateurish. Well I cut a little strip, then using the remains of the grill I removed, this served as a pattrn and guide with which to score little grooves in the strip, which would support the slats (must change that razor saw blade).

 

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I know that makes little sense, and the above piccie isn’t very clear, but this is what I mean:

 

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The little grooves allowed me to fix the slats in place with ickle pickle blobs of cyano. After tons of fiddling around, resting periods, alcohol and cussing, here they are all in place:

 

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Not perfect but I’m pleased with the outcome. I realise that the housing around the slats  is a little thicker than it should be, but I was limited by the thickness of the plastic. I think to improve upon I would opt for a crash moulded plug or vac-formed jobbie. Something I will turn my hand to in the near future, but for the time being that is a battle for another day.

 

Onto the final stage which was the mesh, front and back. I’d left this until last thinking it would be a bit more chilled out than the palaver I’d had with the other stuff above, but as ever it was a task I’d underestimated.

 

I mentioned earlier that Bill made me buy loads of stuff at Telford. Okay that’s a little white lie as I did set about purchasing lots of different grades of mesh. In fact Bill had to stop me from buying loads of mesh, but a bloke can never have enough mesh, and as we remarked to Steve (Fritag) at our meet up, we are not addicted, we can stop anytime!

 

Anyroad I stumbled upon this mesh, which is almost a perfect match. It is truly exquisite, a work of art in itself and all credit to RB Productions, as try as I may, I could never replicate anything like this from scratch in a 1000 lifetimes! Even better is the nickel finish which means I won’t have to paint it.

 

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You have to be careful cutting the stuff though. What baffled me was how to fix it in place. Any kind of glue would easily clog up the intricate little honeycombs. Well I made little folded L sections from take-away foil, which with careful little trickles of cyano allowed me to glue them in place. I also made little stiffeners from 0.1mm nickel rod, carefully glued in place with a miniscule drop of cyano, accompanied by more swearing. I then applied a thin layer of Klear over the take-way foil L sections for a bit more strength. They are still held in place by what seems like the mere surface area of a proton, but held in place they are:

 

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I know using the mesh is cheating a little bit, but we all need a little humility from time to time, and as I said, no way in any alternative universe I could match it. I suspect one day I may have to turn my hand to home brew etch as per Mr Cheshiretaurus and Mr Fritag have one. That too is another battle for another day.

 

Finally then how to fix it all together. The mesh is so fine, yet so damned clear and well defined that you can see clear daylight through the housing. I got round this by gluing a thick chunk of plastic in the middle which will be painted black, plus two little pins from rod to fix it in place. This is how it looks dry fitted:

 

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The rear mesh:

 

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And finally, finally the front end:

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This is how it compares with the real article, courtesy of Wings Over Europe.com copyright:

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The oil cooler is a little wonky, but it is not glued in place yet. It will be painted Alclad gloss black primer and then dry brushed silver. The mesh won’t need to be painted, the front and rear parts of the radiator housing will be painted Alclad polished aluminium, and the middle section plain silver.

 

Phew that was quite an ordeal which I’m glad is done. I intend to paint this up next so hopefully it will cover any (well most of em) little flaws. Perhaps a tad overscale but I must admit to being well chuffed with the outcome. Back soon.

 

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Tremendous stuff Tomo, brilliant result! My Airfix Brisfit build has stalled as I need to do something similar for the front cowl. I don't know if your most excellent tutorial has inspired me to pick it up again & try something similar - or chuck it in the bin & build another Spitfire....!! :lol:

 

Marvellous modelling!

 

Keith

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Thank you gentlemen.

 

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 6:08 PM, Nigel Heath said:

Inspiring work there Tom, you really do push to the limit of what is achievable.

 

the mere surface area of a proton 

 

I think that may be an overestimation.

Heh heh, thanks Nigel. I confess I do have a tendency to exaggerate a tad on occasion with a little hyperbole thrown in, but afterall we are on the telly so I can't resit the temptation to sex it up a little for the benefit of the viewers :P

 

A very brief update. I got painted up the rad housing, Alclad aluminium for the central housing, and Alclad polished aluminium for the end sections. It provides the contrast I’ve seen in piccies, albeit often restored. The raised lines will receive a wash in time to provide more contrast.

 

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Dry fitted in place. The bottom edge where it meets the fuselage looks a little gunky (blinkin’ macros know where to hit), but it looks a lot better in real life…honest ;)

 

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Okay, glad that’s done. Little bit to do on the rear underside, then on to the front cowling and cabane struts.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Roight up then. Grabbed a bit of time to finish off the underside. The tailskid, while not the most prominent, eye catching, aesthetic or defining feature of the Fury, nevertheless deserved a little more attention. I scratched a replacement from trusty Albion Alloys tubing, crushed and shaped at each end. A little shaped plastic, shafted with a piece of thin rod to fix it in place, and a small piece of beer can foil glued in place with Micro Kristal Klear as the finishing touch.

 

Not particularly special or skillful, just damned fiddly to hold and work with. Here it is with the lumpy kit version and the plans:

 

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I then scratched the tail struts. The kit offerings aren’t bad, but they are a little overscale and round, whereas the real struts are streamlined. These were easy to make: sections of Albion Alloys tubing inserted with a rod, then lightly flattened and sanded smooth.

 

Here’s it all dry-fitted in place (I can’t affix the struts until I rig the tail, and the tailskid will only get busted off).

 

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Now onto the pesky cabane struts, my personal bete noire when it comes to biplanes. Well the kit offerings are fine, just more flash than a vulgar nouveau riche wideboy:

 

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That took some careful sanding to avoid busting them:

 

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Stuck together, and sitting in the locator holes on the wing. A nice fit I must say.

 

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The kit provides a gunsight, which to be fair is reasonably accurate, but is still a little lumpy and overscale (I’m not moaning as I suspect modern day kits either wouldn’t bother, or offer something similar, or cynically deliberately offer you something substandard and encourage you to purchase their aftermarket version). Anyroad I knocked up a replacement from bits of tubing and rod. Fiddly but I like the result. What the kit doesn’t provide unsurprisingly, is the crosshairs and the aiming bead. I will have to scratch those, but strewth, Dickens knows how I’m gonna knock up the crosshairs.

 

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One casualty. I lost the windscreen to the carpet monster, well at least I thought I had. I rediscovered it while rescuing another kit part from its evil clutches. However, not before I appear to have trodden on it several times and given it a flat pack treatment. Annoyingly it would have been good enough to use. Henceforth a little more fiddly scratch building awaits before I can get the cowl and cabane struts in place. Back soon.

 

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Well...I'm not used to 1/72nd scale and thus this level of detail seems unthinkable to me!!!:rage:

You'rereally transforming some bits of different materials into the real thing!!!

You've got all my respect!!!:clap2:

Chapeau!!!

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Choice of iconographs to use here

Heart;        for top job matey

sad;            for "Oh that poor little busted window, now look what he's going to have to do!"

confused;  for well I am, always usually

happy ;       because why not on a Tomo build?

thanks;       for thanks for sharing macrogenius with us

 

Tell you what, have 'em all Tomo, you deserve 'em

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Just caught up now, working from undercarriage to gunsight.

Grinning broadly - such pleasure to see work of this quality and depth Tomo.

You are making jewels that just happen to resemble aircraft.

:worthy:

Tony

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Lovely work on the tailskid and gunsight, I can't say I go to anywhere near that level of detail. My gunsights are usually just a couple of pieces of plastic rod!

 

Ian

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