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1/72 Frog Sea Fury X


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Painting of the 'Sky' undersides generally complete and again needed several coats to cover the kit colour (which approximates to ESDG). Still to touch up around the 'gills'. Wing tanks are now fitted.

 

Black stripes are on - a bit of bleed through to touch up - should have touched on some more white to seal the edges of the masking tape but thought that white was pretty thick already.

 

Extra Dark Sea Grey on the upper surfaces comes next.

 

Construction-wise, still to finally sort out a solution for the 9 per side exhaust outlets, fit the tiny brass pitot tube, fit rocket rails and rockets and mask and fit the canopy.

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Edited by Ventora3300
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Agree, she’s looking the part there Mike. She scrubs up quite OK for a fairly ancient bit of plastic. Looking forward to seeing her past the finishing line. 

 

Cheers.. Davd

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9 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Thats coming on smartly now

Many thanks BK - I can feel the deadline looming on the not so distant horizon now - still got the second kit to start and it has all the 'luxuries' to add but hopefully all the practice on this first one will speed it through...

7 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Agree, she’s looking the part there Mike. She scrubs up quite OK for a fairly ancient bit of plastic. Looking forward to seeing her past the finishing line. 

 

Cheers.. Davd

Also many thanks, Dave. This is the first time that I have done a FAA scheme and the first Frog kit for many a year. Bags of enjoyment, though! This should finish in time nicely for the Airfix GB - hope you're feeling better in time for that.

Edited by Ventora3300
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Extra Dark Sea Grey is on and masking removed. Lots of touching up done to remove all the little bleed-throughs (although the photos are always unkind enough to show you some more!). Took the opportunity to add in the wing walkways in black. Yellow tips now on the prop blades.

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I’m getting a sense of how the pilots felt being perched on top of this powerful beast!!

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You can tell it’s a brush painted model! Not all that much in the way of surface detail to detract from the ‘thick’ finish the paint gives but that’s the feature and challenge that I first noticed with Frog kits (all those years ago!).

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Rockets and canopy next and not forgetting the exhaust stubs of course. Leaving the pitot tube until last, I think!

I’ve been doing a bit or research on squadron markings etc. and have had a tremendous amount of help from the ‘Ask all your Sea Fury questions here’ thread.

 

 

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Rocket rails are on and pitot tube mounted (so small a bore that you can hardly see it). The kit doesn't come with a pitot tube so luckily there is a brass one included with the Master cannon barrels set. I also put a 'radiator matrix' in the oil cooler opening - spotted a silver fabric bow that looked the part so I cut a strip from that. Now I'm wondering if I should / could do the same to represent screens in the carb inlets.

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Canopy is masked ready for paint and I've decided that the top surface EDSG on the fuselage isn't wide enough so it's back to the paint shop with a line masked further down.

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 By the way, that hairbrush in the background is the solution to the engine exhaust outlets...

 

I've been madly trying to get an actual picture of a Sea Fury on HMS Theseus to confirm the code letter for the tail and here it is, titled 'Snow almost covers a Sea Fury aircraft parked on the flight deck of the Light Fleet carrier HMS THESEUS in a mid-winter storm off the West Coast of Korea'

HMS THESEUS IN WINTER WEATHER OFF KOREAN COAST. 8 DECEMBER 1950, ON BOARD THE LIGHT FLEET CARRIER HMS THESEUS OFF THE WEST COAST OF KOREA.

 This also confirms a whip aerial behind the canopy and looks like a mast below the starboard wing...and there appears to be only two rocket rails just like the Frog kit. I can't see a serial number but the aircraft looks to be '116'.

 

In the meantime, I've started on the second kit, to be posed with undercarriage down and wings folded - wing and stabiliser sections put together and fuel tanks assembled - I'm assuming the pitot tube will be safe enough this time as the folded sections will be last to be fixed to the model.

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Number 1 is looking really good Mike and it would appear that you've caught the Sea Fury bug and stared Number 2! I quite like building in pairs / multiples and believe it helps when all you've got is Sea Fury (insert your chosen kit type) reference gunk crammed inside your brain. 

 

Now that snow covered aircraft in that great photo can't be too hard to replicate. Just add a little too much matting agent to your clear product and I'm sure you'll get the desired effect. Some other (nameless) Matt Clears may also provide this finish even when applied straight out of the bottle!! 

 

Cheers.. Dave. 

 

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That has come up really nicely Mike. I wouldn't rush to put grills in the carb intakes, with the oil cooler you are looking at an actual radiator matrix but the carb intakes were open ducts which, AFAIK, didn't have grills or filters in them.

Steve.

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On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 22:01, Rabbit Leader said:

Number 1 is looking really good Mike and it would appear that you've caught the Sea Fury bug and stared Number 2! I quite like building in pairs / multiples and believe it helps when all you've got is Sea Fury (insert your chosen kit type) reference gunk crammed inside your brain. 

 

Now that snow covered aircraft in that great photo can't be too hard to replicate. Just add a little too much matting agent to your clear product and I'm sure you'll get the desired effect. Some other (nameless) Matt Clears may also provide this finish even when applied straight out of the bottle!! 

 

Cheers.. Dave. 

 

Thanks Dave and yes, I have really come to appreciate and get excited about the Sea Fury - the pilots must have loved them. The reference material that everyone has been coming up with is endlessly interesting. I've actually started doing the cockpit detailing in the second kit and what it means now is that I'm motivated to be doing some more around the cockpit area on the first, before the canopy goes on.

 

That would be 'weathering' in the extreme to cover the model with 'snow' (I take it you've had at least one bad experience with matt coating). If I was ground crew for a Sea Fury, I would be out brushing the snow off every 5 minutes as well as polishing the wheel nuts. Maybe a dusting with flour, which could be blown off later would do?

All the best. Mike

 

On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 22:46, stevehnz said:

That has come up really nicely Mike. I wouldn't rush to put grills in the carb intakes, with the oil cooler you are looking at an actual radiator matrix but the carb intakes were open ducts which, AFAIK, didn't have grills or filters in them.

Steve.

Thanks again, Steve. You may be right although I seem to remember reference on BM somewhere on possibly a bigger scale kit of a Tempest II that showed a grille on the carb intake but you definitely can't see anything on the Sea Fury reference photos of the real thing, that I have seen. Just thinking practically though, is it prudent to have a clear route to the cylinders for any debris that may be in the air? Maybe this monster can digest anything!

Cheers. Mike

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The Tempest IIs had a filter in the upper fuselage behind the engine cowl that the intake was diverted to in dusty conditions, i"m not sure ig the Sea Furies were similarly equipped but maybe being shipboard aircraft it wasn't the same issue. :unsure:

Steve.

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Extra Dark Sea Grey on the top of the fuselage has been widened and I've prepared an area on the stripes to take the aircraft squadron number.

 

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Rockets were on but two have come off again to do some underwing navigation lights - got some inspiration from the 'Ask all your Sea Fury Questions Here'  thread I noted. I drilled a slight depression, painted silver and dotted in colours for the lights using the flat end of a small drill bit. I've still to put a clear cover overall and am thinking about a blob of PVA glue or even floor polish.

 

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Added wingtip navigation lights just painted in with silver to represent the clear cover then a blob of colour paint to represent the coloured bulbs - I'll give that a clear coat over as well to finish off.

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I see that we can see past the spinner to the 'cylinders and exhaust pipes' however, I haven't forgotten about the exhaust outlet stubs on the sides  - just need a clear run to do it properly. I'll get some gloss on now in prep for the transfers/decals - that is going to be interesting since I am going to use those supplied with the kit but 'edited' to create the identity I think is most relevant to an 'X' or FB.10.

 

In the meantime, kit no. 2 is progressing with initial paint going on bits on the sprues and other pre-assemblies.

 

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Assembled the resin seat in place of the kit one and started the PE cockpit innards - very, very fiddly and another first for me. I had to shorten the side consoles slightly to move the instrument panel back to a position flush with the end of the cockpit opening in the fuselage. The instructions say to put a piece of black card behind the IP so I think that will improve it.

 

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Edited by Ventora3300
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  • 2 weeks later...

Getting the last bits and pieces done to the 'in-flight' Sea Fury - the PE set I bought for kit 2 actually has two of everything in it so I borrowed the pieces for the canopy slide rail behind the cockpit. Also, I drilled a small hole and put in a piece of dark fishing line as a whip aerial. Areas where the transfers are to go on have been given a gloss cote.

 

Through a bit of trial and error involving kit 2, I made up two pieces of photograph paper cut to shape to fit in behind the seat (which was left as an empty space) and above the IP at the front of the cockpit (I am thinking about putting in something to represent the gunsight and will need something to mount it on. I pushed and pulled the pieces of paper into place, loaded up with glue on the edges, using a staple pushed through the centre then withdrawn once the paper had stuck in place. It worked and the paper was then painted matt black to match in with the cockpit. I'm pleased with that!

 

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(Oh, no! Looking at the photos too closely reveals all the little touch-ups still required)

 

All rockets are now on and I popped the canopy on to see what it looked like...

 

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Got carried away and got the transfers/decals on! The roundels are as supplied with the kit but I turned the provided '106' (from the Canadian option) into the number '116' by cutting out the '0' and slicing off each side of the 'N' from the 'NAVY' decal supplied. The 'Royal Canadian Navy' was turned into 'Royal Navy' in the same way and the 'T' on the tail was made by cutting off the tops of the 'O' supplied (for HMS Ocean) and putting a 'top' across a 'side'. All very, very fiddly and a lot of manoeuvering done using a small paint brush. There were lots of accidents with decals on then off on my fingers but I eventually got them lined up and coated with decalfix.

 

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Looks OK! Also have the hole drilled for the small radio mast under the starboard wing - borrowing that from a spare Airfix kit. 

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Only (only!) the Serial Numbers to do now and I'm deluded into thinking I may be able to cut up the provided ones and edit to suit...

 

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Now, a bit more progress on kit 2. I found a hairbrush with plastic bristles which looked small enough to have a couple sliced up to pose as exhaust stubs...

 

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Laid some cement on the fuselage sides and had a go at dropping the slices on then pushing into position, nine per side - you can see that my technique improved a bit for the second side. Needs to be re-done, I think. Also hoping to return to the 'in-flight' kit to do the same, once I master it sufficiently.

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I thought I needed to do something about the 'empty' wheel wells that the kit has so used photo paper again to create a back surface. It was obvious also that the tabs on the wings protruded into this space unnecessarily so I filed them back leaving just enough to locate the wings in the fuselage (just dry-fitted at the moment). There isn't much depth in the space so no sidewalls, just built out with a couple of strips of paper. I've also put in the 'fillers' at the front and rear of the cockpit opening. (Unfortunate newspaper picture behind!)

 

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Here's what it looks like fully fitted up with some 'formers' added.

 

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Looking now at the wing folds, here is the PE kit which actually is designed to fit in hollow spaces.

 

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 This kit has solid ends to the wing folds with projecting tabs so I have thinned these with a file (before and after shown) so that the PE will fit, with a bit of trimming but still leave me a tab to fix the wings together. There are hinges with the PE but I think they will be more decoration rather than being strong enough to hold the outer wings by themselves.

 

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Wing fold joints and wheel wells now with first coat of 'Hawker Yellow (H74) - some of this will be exposed behind the PE to be fitted at the fold joints.

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Bit more painting of bits on the sprues and PE fitted to the undercarriage doors - these will be 'Sky' inside and out. The finished cockpit is also there - I put in the PE rudder pedals but didn't add in the provided 'knobs and levers' - far too small and fiddly. The cockpit PE didn't include a 'stick' so I pulled one out from a spare kit and altered the top to a spade grip. Finished off with a dot of red for the gun firing button!

 

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The cockpit is in and the fuselage closed up, thank goodness. Only now have I noticed that the seam behind the cockpit is looking off .....

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The end is approaching  -- of the GB but I feel the pressure mounting to get this 'wings folded Sea Fury finished.

 

Sorted out the misaligned seam in the fuselage and got the rudder, stabilisers and inner wings on. 

 

Propeller blades assembled to the spinner - quite a tight fit - and fitted to the cowling, after finishing the painting of the engine innards - it's worth it, honest! Spins a treat, for now...

 

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Fitted the PE parts for the visible wing inner sections. Outer wings will end up more vertical when in their final position. The PE bits handily create a 'pocket' for the tab on the outer wings to fit in to.

 

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At this point, I had been thinking about a gunsight and radio equipment for the upper cockpit which will be visible under the canopy - made up from some spare sprue shaped to fit, and painted to represent reflector etc. I put a blob of gel superglue on top of the radio box as I had seen a photo with some sort of clear item mounted on top of the housing, being  either transmitting or receiving equipment.

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And sorting out what I was doing for a gunsight and radio equipment allowed me to finish the cockpit on the 'in flight' version - maybe I will start calling it '116' now. 

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Canopy on and additional radio mast fitted under 116's starboard wing - used a plastic 'bristle' from the same hairbrush that I'm still hoping to make the exhaust stubs from.

Also dropped a blob of gel superglue on top of the underwing navigation lights to represent the lenses.

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Rumble on...

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I love a good 'wheels up' project - looks like it has been a lot of fun - I've never done 'INVASION STRIPES' - kudos to you sir :thumbsup:

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27 minutes ago, BIG X said:

I love a good 'wheels up' project - looks like it has been a lot of fun - I've never done 'INVASION STRIPES' - kudos to you sir :thumbsup:

Thanks, BigX. This is the first time I've done stripes as well and (as usual) there was a very helpful thread already in place - I included the link somewhere. It is turning out to be great fun but I'm always amazed how I think I'm getting a good finish until I see the photos and they really show up the 'warts and all' I'm determined to get a better brush paint finish on the 'wings folded' version - which is going to be '115' btw. Must keep rumbling....All the best. Mike

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I know what you mean about photos - all my models look 'brilliant' to my eye - but then I take a few snaps and 'whoo - where did that come from'.

 

Age brings many benefits - sadly eyesight isn't one of them :doh:

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'116' now has it's serial number - 'TF915' in tiny letters - cut and applied individually from the kit decal options. (The 'F' came from a 'G'  with a bit removed and will need a slight dot with a fine Sharpie to complete). This took ages but was a satisfying experience - honest! Just the satin cote to do on the uppers and matt on the undersurfaces now - plus a last minute go at the exhaust outlets.

 

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 Option 2 '115' is moving on with carb inlets and oil cooler enhancement done and cowling on. Prop has the yellow tips painted.

 

All parts on the sprues are now painted and stripes on the wings are ongoing.

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I've still to cut the top off the undercarriage doors to produce two pieces covering the legs

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Time is short now so I am wondering if the modelling gods will be kind and free up some of my time this weekend.....

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Sea Fury X '116' in flight has its final matt cote on so I will post it in the gallery. Its stablemate '115' with wings folded is still under construction so I'll finish it as soon as possible. 

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My research so far has flagged up that there were 50 F.10's produced before production switched to F.11's / FB.11's. The serial numbers which I am assuming for these are TF895 to TF928 and TF940 to TF955 (seem to be the first serials issued for Sea Furies).

 

807 Squadron NAS was the first to receive Sea Furies, I believe, and they served on HMS Theseus at the time of the Korean War, so I tried to get an idea of what their squadron codes were. Info from the 'Ask all Your Sea Fury Questions Here' thread gave the following from the Air Britain tome:

TF915/114

TF951/115 (?  code unconfirmed)

TF952/123

TF954/125T

They also used 920,921,925,927,928,948,949,950, and 953 but no codes are listed for these.

However, they started to get FB11s in Feb 1948 and the last FB10 had gone by December, so this is some time before HMS Theseus was off Korea in 1950/51.

 

I was going to leave the supplied rockets off the kits to represent the 'F' option but the content of the 'Hawker Sea Fury, Archives of Neil Stirling' document has given the option of a 'long range rocket fighter' armed with 4 cannon, 2 x 45 gallon fuel drop tanks and 4 x 180lb rockets - just as provided by Frog.

 

Edited by Ventora3300
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Made more progress on '115' - stripes all painted now on the wings and fuselage and ESDG applied to the wing top surfaces. A bit of touch up still required at the wing roots. Rocket rails are on.

Assembled the tail wheel and main undercarriage to the fuselage - I had stuck the two pieces of PE to the inside face of the one-piece main undercarriage doors provided by Frog so now cut off the top section to replicate the real thing. There are no locating pins which position the undercarriage doors on the legs so a best guess was necessary. There is a bracing strut which does have locating holes and so it is fairly solid when all put together. The wheels just popped onto the spigots at the bottom of the legs and stayed put so I thought I would be tempting fate by trying to do the 'hot-knife' technique to keep them in place as recommended by Frog!

Once the legs and doors were in, the wing tanks could go on.

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Made up and put on the wing folding hinges and actuators from the PE set - again, very fiddly and I found that the Humbrol cement was easier to use than superglue. All set very solid. Added in the canopy rails behind the cockpit.

 

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I tried fitting the pilot into his seat but he wouldn't squeeze in past the side consoles - oh well, he'll just need to sit on the wing meantime.

 

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 Added in the grilles (not sure what these are for as yet) below the front fuselage. These should actually cover a cut-out but I thought I would get away with just attaching to the surface and painting over. A piece of PE is provided for the oil cooler grill so that is in.

 

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Also fitted these grilles to '116' (I had spotted what looked like a brush bristle stuck to the cowling and a piece of grit on the spinner of '116' in the last photo so I sorted these at the same time - it is lethal to go back to what you thought was a completed build, isn't it?)

 

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Still very keen to get '115' with folded wings finished as it really is a very interesting subject.

Edited by Ventora3300
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Sea Fury X '115' now has rockets on and finally exhaust outlets in place - bristles from a hairbrush sliced up and settled in position in a 'bed' of liquid poly. Very, very fiddly work done under a magnifying glass with tweezers and the edge of the craft knife. All a little scrappy since the bits were of approximate length, not all equal, and had to be long enough to handle. However, it is done!

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ESDG applied to '115' and a load of touching up of edges done (after seeing the last photos).

This time I put a little more white under where the upper wing roundels will be as the black stripes were showing through on '116'. Wing walkways are done.

Still got the Sky base to put on top of the fuselage stripes for the large numbers there.

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Exhaust outlets now on '116' and a bit of paint touch up around the 'gills' completed.

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Did a test fit of the folded wing sections on the PE hinges and I think the existing tab on the wings provided by Frog will be redundant and may even get in the way. Having a look at this while I get the transfers on.

 

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Looking great Mike. Fine effort on all those black and white stripe masking. It may sound easy, however applying these along the fuselage curves and still ending up with a good result is no easy feat. The wings also deserve mention, especially as you’ve retained the kits prominent raise panel lines. Good skills on show there on these classic kits. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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On 3/2/2018 at 2:13 PM, Ventora3300 said:

All the pieces seem to be there and there is a small amount of flash - it was later that I started to go for the earliest boxings I could reasonably get to try for better quality before the molds began to possibly wear.

Apologies for the late arrival here and a very likely out of sequence replies.

 

I've got this kit too and mine is a very "flashy" example! A lot of scraping and cutting off of flash.

 

Regarding a couple of points, I thought I'd go for representing the exhausts and tried holding 6 very, very fine Albion alloy tubes together with masking tape and cutting the ends off. Other more experienced model lets might hold of the Sharp intake of breath, shake of the head and saying "that won't work" - I know!

 

I do like your idea of hairbrush bristles!

 

The other thing I've tried with success is to use bare metal foil for the plate behind the exhausts - dulled down with some tamiya smoke it looks quite good.

Edited by Whofan
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On ‎27‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 21:42, Rabbit Leader said:

Looking great Mike. Fine effort on all those black and white stripe masking. It may sound easy, however applying these along the fuselage curves and still ending up with a good result is no easy feat. The wings also deserve mention, especially as you’ve retained the kits prominent raise panel lines. Good skills on show there on these classic kits. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

Many thanks, Dave. The method of using the five strips of 5mm flexible Tamiya masking tape I got from another BM thread really worked well on the curves for me - being brush painted, the masking did leave some raised lines which thankfully looks conveniently like more raised panel lines! I must do it again some time...

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Added an area in 'Sky' on top of the stripes on the fuselage sides for the aircraft number and put on some gloss where the transfers will be.

 

While that was drying, I had a look at the last piece of 'bling' that I will be adding to this kit - a canopy from Falcon. You actually get a whole raft of them in the box but there looks to be two for the Sea Fury.

 

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This is the first time I have handled a vac-form canopy and the flexibility was worrying. However it cut out beautifully with sharp scissors and once I had cut a slot in the back to fit over the canopy rail, I tried a test fit - so light that I had to put the aircraft horizontal to stop it sliding off.

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Now, I'd like the canopy open on '115' so I am now going to try to separate the front windscreen from the bubble portion. Teeth gritted....

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