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Fairey IIIF Floatplane colour schemes


JOCKNEY

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Like many reading this I have the Contrail Fairey IIIF Vacform kit, and would like to build one with one of the colourful interwar colour schemes.

 

Does anyone know of any aftermarket decals and colour schemes for this aircraft.

 

Also if there are any aftermarket bits, and you have built one yourself. All tips greatly appreciated 

 

cheers Pat

 

ps happy Christmas and a very special Hogmanay for 2018 !

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Hi Pat, I think you best start with:

1. Fairey IIIF (Interwar Military Workhorse), Ad Hoc Publications 2009

2. Fleet Air Arm Aircraft, Units and Ships 1920 to 1939, Air-Britain (Historians) 1998

Both of them with colour profiles and the appropriate photos to them. And you can use also:

3. Wings and Waves (The Fleet Air Arm 1919-1939) - On Target Special No. 5, Aviation Workshop Publications 2008 - no photos here, but all the colour profiles quote their source.

 

And you can most likely forget about aftermarket stuff designed specifically for Fairey IIIF. Sooner you get some for Blackburn Puffin or Martin-Baker MB-9A Sea Rodent to name but a few. But you can try digging into the Aeroclub white metal accessories, in my opinion you will find there at least the propeller and wheels (for the wheel version).

Patrik

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Are you looking for a floatplane, or a carrier-based aircraft would do?

Floatplanes in catapult flights were usually less colourful than carrier-based machines.

large_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=photograph
AVIATION IN BRITAIN BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR. © IWM (RAE-O 650)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

large_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=photograph
THE ROYAL NAVY IN THE INTER WAR PERIOD.. © IWM (Q 92899)IWM Non Commercial Licence

Edited by ClaudioN
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We need decent 1/72 kit of the IIIF first. I would love to have more than one IIIF in my collection and I am not afraid of vacforms either, but the Contrail/Sanger IIIF belongs to the unfortunate group of kits (consisting in my case mostly of Contrail vacforms) that I remove from stash at least once in a year, try to imagine the amount of work needed to convert it to (what I think of as) decent replica, and put it back again with a sad sight.

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Unfortunately all the published drawings are inaccurate and to make matters worse the published dimensions are often mixed up. The wing tips are not the totally rounded shape shown in many of the drawings and the fuselage overall length differs as to which Napier Lion is fitted. The early ones (Lion VA) had the forwards carburetors and the later type (Lion XI/XIA) had the engine moved forwards to accommodate the rear mounted carburetors. A quick visual check to which is which, is that if a circular hole is visible low down on the cowl side, near the firewall, then this is the intake tube for the Lion XI variants. The Lion VA engines triple carburetors drew their air from under the nose just behind the spinner.  RAF variants used a Scarff ring and the Naval ones used a Fairey gun mount.

 

John

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On 04/01/2018 at 1:02 PM, John Aero said:

Unfortunately all the published drawings are inaccurate and to make matters worse the published dimensions are often mixed up. The wing tips are not the totally rounded shape shown in many of the drawings and the fuselage overall length differs as to which Napier Lion is fitted. The early ones (Lion VA) had the forwards carburetors and the later type (Lion XI/XIA) had the engine moved forwards to accommodate the rear mounted carburetors. A quick visual check to which is which, is that if a circular hole is visible low down on the cowl side, near the firewall, then this is the intake tube for the Lion XI variants. The Lion VA engines triple carburetors drew their air from under the nose just behind the spinner.  RAF variants used a Scarff ring and the Naval ones used a Fairey gun mount.

 

John

Thanks very much John

 

I have now received my copy of " Fleet Air Arm Aircraft, Units and Ships 1920 to 1939" a weighty tome of 432 pages A4 hardback !

 

Great colour drawings lots of period photos and details of literally every individual aircraft, ship, unit etc.

 

Being a fan of aircraft that float, I'm tempted to go with these options

 

Chilean Navy ( Decals in Contrail Kit )

Argentinian Navy ( Decals again in Contrail Kit) 

Fleet Air Arm ( Chris "Dogsbody" link above ) picture below, no idea where to start getting Decals for this one !

 

IMG_3726

 

Apologises I should have included this link earlier so show what parts and decal options are available with the original kit.

 

 https://nofineline.com/fairey-fiii-fs-contrail-172/

 

Thanks Moggy

 

I didn't know Merlin made the FIII, I have a Merlin Hawker Osprey, which looks a frightening proposition !

 

Has anyone on here built a Merlin Kit to shed some light on whether their reputation is deserved ?

 

cheers Pat

 

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I built their Meteor mk. 8. It should have been made a hanging offence.

Thankfully it was destroyed during a move - together with what amounted to my worst 9 models.

 

Cheers, Moggy (amid moveus interruptus)

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