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Seafire III 1/72


Bedders

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A quick update.

 

Wings glued on rear and front; some gaps being filled in between wings and fuselage. First some shims of thin plastic card, and should be OK with a bit of Mr Surfacer 500 over the top...

 

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Underneath it looks to have settled down OK.

 

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Studying photos of the Mark III revealed that those aircraft with the tropical carburretor intake used a one-piece panel under the cowling which incorporated the oil cooler cover and the intake cover too. The little door for the extenal starter was not present. So I'll be filling the panel lines and removing the little hinged door represented on the kit.

 

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Here it is done, and I've cemented in place the carburettor intake which, with a bit of trimming, fits pretty well.

 

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Must say I like that combination of short nose, big carburettor intake and 4-bladed prop - classic Seafire III traits. I'm mulling over whether to trim off the last 2 inches of each propeller blade which was often done to prevent pecking on the deck on take-offs and landings. Something to think about closer to the end. I've also removed the post on top of the rudder which seems to have been removed on many Seafire IIIs as later they didn't use the radio wire running from mast to rudder.

 

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I've drilled out the ports for the .303 guns:

 

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And, what Seafires are all about. It's interesting to read that many pilots thought the A-frame arrestor hook to be superior to the later Sting-type, I understand as the A-frame was closer to the centre of gravity and seemed to retard the landing more progressively. Personally as an aesthete I prefer the Sting-type as it looks less agricultural.  The Sword hook on the Mark III kit looks a little meagre, so I've beefed it up a touch with some scrap sprue and Mr Surfacer 500, and given it a coat of aluminium paint to get the idea.

 

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That's all for now - thanks for looking.

 

Justin

Edited by Bedders
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On the Sword kits the tailplanes-fuselage join is basically a butt-joint, so pretty fragile. I decided to drill a bit of wire into the end of each tailplane, and slot that into a correctly-located hole in the other surface. It still won't be super-strong, but maybe slightly better than without it.

 

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And suddenly we have an airframe! Blu-tack is so great for those da-ga-da-ga-da-ga moments...

 

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Justin

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8 hours ago, Bedders said:

...Must say I like that combination of short nose, big carburettor intake and 4-bladed prop - classic Seafire III traits...

Agree entirely; I find this combination is much more appealing than the Spitfire V's short nose, small carburettor intake and 3-bladed prop.

 

Justin, this is a very enjoyable build to watch unfold that's also serving as good reference for how to handle the Sword kit - I'm looking forward to more.

 

Andrew.

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And so we move closer towards the paint-shop. Here she is, primed with Mr Surfacer 1500 from the rattle can:

 

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Beforehand I added a couple of details such as the front catapult spools (mid-point der the centre section), the slipper tank separation hooks (just behind them), and the rear catapult spools on the rear fuselage. After the primer I found a couple of areas that needed a bit of attention where I've filled, sanded and got impatient to get the Sky paint out...

 

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Here's the underside sprayed up, using Tamiya Sky. I'm still a bit of a novice with the airbrush, but the Tamiya paints are nice to use and go on well.

 

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And given that the base colour scheme will be similar, this might as well go into the paint shop with it. Just tidying up the tailplanes where I got slightly overenthusiastic with the glue and it still shows through the primer. The spinner is Alclad Polished Aluminium, and will get a red stripe and backplate for a Royal Canadian Navy machine.

 

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For the top colours I'm going to use Xtracrylics I think. Does anyone have helpful tips on thinning/spraying those?

 

Justin

Edited by Bedders
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Interesting build with some very useful construction tips and impressive attention to detail.  I love that instrument panel: could you please tell us exactly what make of pencil you used so I can rush out and buy some?  Do you seal the colour afterwards?

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Hi Seahawk. The pencils are 30-year-old Caran d'Ache aquarelle - had em since I was a kid, but still availably singly (I think) or in sets. Really useful for little spots of colour, because they're water soluble. Just make them sharp, give them a tiny lick with your tongue and the tip becomes slightly moist, enough to just (in the case of the instrument panel), run over the surface detail to pick it out. Then a dot of gloss varnish in each of the dials, and the job's a goodun. I didn't seal the whole panel for fear of the colour running. But it might be doable - just never tried it.

 

Justin

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Got the top colours on yesterday. I used Xtracrylics Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey, but lightened them both a touch with a couple of drops of white. Thinned with Xtracrylics thinner and a couple of drops of Galeria Fluid Retarder, they sprayed beautifully. I did the Dark Slate Grey first, and then masked off using the blu-tack sausage method, hoping to get a nice feathered demarcation:

 

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Here the EDSG has gone on:

 

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And with the masking removed, hey presto!

 

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Just a couple of spots on the left wing where the masking tape has pulled up some of the Dark Slate Grey, but that can be corrected and overall I'm pretty happy.

 

Justin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Morning all,

 

After a week with little opportunity to work on this, I've made a bit of progress this weekend. Made a couple of corrections to the paintwork including touching in where the masking tape had pulled up some of the paint. Still a bit to done on that, but in the meantime I've used some unlightened Dark Slate Grey to replicate where the original overwing roundels were painted over before the BPF markings were applied. Just enough contrast to make them visible, which was the idea. Soon it'll be time for decals!

 

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Justin

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Hi folks, 

 

I made it to Telford for the first time yesterday but only after work intervened which meant I only arrived at 5pm. So I missed quite a lot. Oh well, over the past week I've done the decals on the Seafire. 

 

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Cutting and locating those individual 4 inch serial numbers/letters was a bit of a task, but they went on ok in the end.

 

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Overall I found the Sword decals quite challenging to work with - very thin and rather brittle which meant I turned to Xtradecal for most of the stencils. The tail codes are also Xtradecal. As I was applying them I noticed on photos that the S should be slightly bigger than the 121, but I don't think it shows up all that much. The underwing roundel broke into 3 pieces but I managed to save it and it'll probably look ok after a bit of weathering. And there's a bit of touching up to do on the fuselage roundels too.

 

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I'm using this profile as a reference for Victor Lowden's aircraft:

 

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But it's a bit inaccurate as the top camouflage colours are erroneously reversed. But it enables me to do an alternative to S-146 (Reynolds) and S-112 (Murphy) which are often modelled.

 

Justin

Edited by Bedders
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Thanks for the kind words folks. Must say this is quite an enjoyable build. 

2 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Which Xtradecal set comes with Indefatigable's 'S' codes, if you don't mind me asking?  I've been hunting for some.

Cookie, the set is this: X72-064. Two sizes of BPF roundels (neither any good for Seafires I'm afraid - I found the large size too big, and the small one too small), and three sizes of numbers & letters. I used the smallest ones.

 

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Can't remember where I picked this up so treat with a pinch of salt but it might help..

 

"The marking was derived from the "medium" and " large" roundels discussed earlier, and imposed over a white star of similar size to the US insignia. This new marking was applied on the upper left wing, lower right wing, and aircraft sides."


"In actual use, the Corsair II & IV and Hellcat II carried the 48" roundels, the Seafire, Avenger, and Firefly carried the 42" roundel, while the Hellcat I carried the 36" roundel."

 

 

 

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That's interesting info on the roundels. I used the ones from my Sword Seafire XV kit (my boxing of the MkIII didn't have them). The fuselage ones seem about right, and the wing ones, which are smaller, look similar to those in some photos and smaller than those in others. Seems there was some variation of application in the field (or on the water). The roundels on the Xtradecal Seafire sheet don't look right to me.

 

Justin

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  • 3 weeks later...

So folks, after a couple of weeks during which not much happened on this, I'm now close to the finishing line. Painting, decals and weathering almost complete, and undercarriage legs attached (though still quite wobbly). Just need to finsh painting the wheels and attach the canopy, hook and other fiddly bits, and a final coat of varnish to seal it all in. 

 

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