Seafire MkIII

[825]

Here's my contribution, a Seafire MkIII operated by 894 Squadron in both the Indian and Pacific Ocean in 1944 and 45. 

 

 

The boxing gives 4 options including another 'Eastern' bird from HMS Hunter in the Andamans., as well as a home based aircraft and an Aeronavale option. 

 

 

Nice looking transfers, mind you there's a lot of tiny stencils. 

 

 

It's on three sprues. I think the original boxing was a MkV Spit, and the fuselage and wings have been replaced by Seafire mouldings and associated props and cannons. The moulding looks good if a little 'soft' and there are some ejection pins, most in places it doesn't matter but there is one in the middle of both undercarriage bays, which will be difficult to remove.  

 

 

There's a set of resin exhausts and injection moulded canopy, gunsight and mirror. 

 

 

Reasonably good and clear instructions 

 

Thats the scene set so let's get going!

[825]

A coat of interior grey green on along with some black. 

 

 

always good to get started. If the fit of the wings is good I'll do a lot of the painting before construction. I find this give a really crisp demarcation on the wing leading edge, even better than using masking tape.  I'll have a closer look at the parts to see what cleaning up is necessary. The sprue gates are quite big for such a neat little aircraft so this may be a rate limiting step. 

[modelling minion]

A nice choice of subject, and Seafire's do look good in either the East Indies or Pacific Fleet markings.

[Grey Beema]

Ooh a Seafire, mind if I plonk myself down here?

[franky boy]

Excellent I love a Seafire.

 

Am pulling up a chair!

 

James

[MikeR]

Nice start!

 

I currently have Sword's Mk Vc on the bench. Based on what I've discovered so far, watch the fit of the radiator parts - 55 and 56. You'll need to do some sanding so part 10 fits over the top. Likewise, take care when working on the canopy as you also need to do some sanding to get a good fit with cockpit opening.

 

Mike.

[Max Headroom]

Ooh. A Spit wiv an’ook!

 

Bunch up everyone, I want a good look.

 

Trevor

[Col.]

Top subject choice

[trickyrich]

welcome aboard, glad we could fit your Seafire in, as expected it's a very popular aircraft, I'm am surprised that no one else is building one.

 

plus you've off to flying start.

 

Good luck with the build, hopefully all the heads peering over you shoulder won't distract you too much.  I think some of these guy's should join in with a Seafire as well!!

 

Look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

[Col.]

7 hours ago, trickyrich said:

welcome aboard, glad we could fit your Seafire in, as expected it's a very popular aircraft, I'm am surprised that no one else is building one... hopefully all the heads peering over you shoulder won't distract you too much.  I think some of these guy's should join in with a Seafire as well!!

Will if I can find the time Rich  

[trickyrich]

[825]

15 hours ago, MikeR said:

Nice start!

 

I currently have Sword's Mk Vc on the bench. Based on what I've discovered so far, watch the fit of the radiator parts - 55 and 56. You'll need to do some sanding so part 10 fits over the top. Likewise, take care when working on the canopy as you also need to do some sanding to get a good fit with cockpit opening.

 

Mike.

Thanks for the heads up Mike. My experience with Sword kits is that there are usually a few fit issues that need some gentle fettling. The plastic is quite soft so I'll have to be careful though. 

 

12 hours ago, trickyrich said:

welcome aboard, glad we could fit your Seafire in, as expected it's a very popular aircraft, I'm am surprised that no one else is building one.

 

plus you've off to flying start.

 

Good luck with the build, hopefully all the heads peering over you shoulder won't distract you too much.  I think some of these guy's should join in with a Seafire as well!!

 

Look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

I'm glad it's a 'goer'. Seafires, like Spits, are just such beautiful aircraft and they were widely used by the British Pacific and Indian fleets. Like you, I'm surprised there hasn't been one before in the GB. 

[Beard]

If you've not built a Sword Spitfire VC  Seafire II/ III before, beware of the wheelwells parts, they can interfere with the fit of the upper and lower wings.

[825]

6 hours ago, Beard said:

If you've not built a Sword Spitfire VC  Seafire II/ III before, beware of the wheelwells parts, they can interfere with the fit of the upper and lower wings.

Thanks, forewarned is forearmed. Any tips?

[Beard]

7 hours ago, 825 said:

Thanks, forewarned is forearmed. Any tips?

I didn't bother using the bit the undercarriage leg goes in (if that makes sense), on the basis that no-one ever looks at the underneath of my models; a more committed modeller would probably sand it to fit.

[825]

3 hours ago, Beard said:

I didn't bother using the bit the undercarriage leg goes in (if that makes sense), on the basis that no-one ever looks at the underneath of my models; a more committed modeller would probably sand it to fit.

I'm applying the same principle to the ejection pin mark up there. It would be hours of work to clean it up and make it look good. It took me nearly two hours to clean up the nose undercarriage well on the Scimitar and life's too short. I probably won't use most of the stencils either. Experience has shown me small black lettering on EDSG/DSG doesn't show up. 

[825]

Interior almost finished. I'll put a wash on it before closing up. I also think that I'll close the fuselage up and inser the cockpit from below. It's nicely detailed and I've added belts from Tamiya tape. 

 

[825]

Wash on fuselage interior. I also have put a strip of plastic card over the exhaust 'holes'. I can just see them falling in at some point in the future. It should also let me affix them near the end of the build once painting is complete. 

 

I've also got the radiator to fit after a bit of gentle sanding. 

 

 

a little bit of polishing still required. 

[trickyrich]

nice work with the cockpit. Those injector marks look plain scary!!! The joys of building limited run models.

[MikeR]

8 hours ago, 825 said:

Interior almost finished. I'll put a wash on it before closing up. I also think that I'll close the fuselage up and inser the cockpit from below.

 

That's what I did on the Vc although I did that first then painted the interior.

 

I'll second Beard's warning about the wheel well inserts although I did use them on my build as they provide a bit of extra support at the root for the upper wing pieces. In my case I stuck them on then carefully sanded, checking the fit of the wing as I went.

 

Mike.

Edited September 16, 2018 by MikeR

[825]

13 hours ago, MikeR said:

 

That's what I did on the Vc although I did that first then painted the interior.

 

I'll second Beard's warning about the wheel well inserts although I did use them on my build as they provide a bit of extra support at the root for the upper wing pieces. In my case I stuck them on then carefully sanded, checking the fit of the wing as I went.

 

Mike.

Thanks Mike, I've glued the fuselage together and now it's dried I've checked the cockpit fit and it slides in easily. I was thinking for the wings to glue the lower wings in place and once solid to add the upper wings. This should help with the wing root join, which is always a challenge on a Seafire/Spitfire as well as give a solid base to sand down the undercarriage bays. It will also give me access if there is some touching up needed. 

[825]

Fuselage closed up and joints cleaned up. Not much needed but I was probably a bit obsessive on it as the airframe is delicate looking. 

 

 

Lower wing ready to add.  Dry fitting shows it should be fine. A little bit of paint touching up required as the leading edge was a little ragged. Mustn't forget the cockpit. 

 

[trickyrich]

she's coming along nicely.

[825]

The cockpit is in. I had to do some keyhole surgery to repaint the air tanks after glueing everything in. Sword suggest interior grey green but the discussion in Procopius's Spit is that they were not and Aluminium, grey or primer. So they were repainted carefully using a fine brush through the holes. And to be honest you can't see much. The detail is nice but not much can be seen anyway through the cockpit opening never mind once the canopy will be on. I know it's there, but I also know there's some massive ejection pins as well. 

 

[trickyrich]

she looks good fitted.