Sumatran Strike Seafire

[trickyrich]

ooo it looks like you're having fun!!!

[Col.]

16 hours ago, trickyrich said:

ooo it looks like you're having fun!!!

If you think this looked fun you should see how the wing 'fits' 

[Col.]

A lot of work since the previous update takes us to here;

 

 

 

...via this...

 

 

...and a serious amount of gluing and clamping and gluing and cutting and gluing and clamping and gluing and clamping. To cut a long and gruesome story short the rear edge of the lower wing panel is about 1mm too short to meet the fuselage, hence the shim, and the right hand upper wing panel is around 1.5mm too thick at its leading edge, hence the need to glue and clamp and cut and... well you get the idea. The latter can be avoided at least to some extent I think by sanding a wedge of plastic away from the mating surface on the front of the upper wing part that starts at the cannon barrels and tapers out to the wing root; I'll try this on the other example of this kit in my stash once it reaches the bench. By that statement you should be able to tell I still like this kit but if not then rest assured I'll gladly add at least one more example to the stash given half a chance  

Also visable in the second photograph is the ailerons (a perfect fit on the left wing but needed attention on the right side) and wingtips along with the oil cooler housing (took a bit of time to clean up the central join and fitting to the wing recess) which has a couple of punched out plastic sheet discs added to hide the internal join and represent the faces of the cooler matrix. The arrestor gear cover is also on as is the tailwheel and again both took a little attention to convince into place.

 

 

The inner wingfold hinge was also scribed using a guide cut into an old plastic bank card. Note also, for your entertainment, the gluey thumbnail mark besmirching the wingtip join

For my next stunt I'll try to represent the fuselage strengthening plates using thin plastic card. *Spoiler alert - there may be more gluey finger marks to marvel at* 

[Biggles87]

The upper wing/ fuselage join doesn't look too bad but the rear underside join seems to create problems wth a lot of Spitfire/Seafire kits, and you can lose a lot of detail sorting it out. Looking good though.

 

John

[Col.]

9 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

The upper wing/ fuselage join doesn't look too bad but the rear underside join seems to create problems wth a lot of Spitfire/Seafire kits, and you can lose a lot of detail sorting it out. Looking good though.

 

John

There's certainly potential for the joins between wing and fuselage parts to create a major issue and as you say a lot of detail in that area could be sacrificed in an attempt to rectify those joins. Hopefully the preemptive work I've done has avoided that happening.

 

Last night was a disturbed one due to my daughter feeling ill and getting up in the early hours so while we had a cuddle on the couch I did some research on Seafire H6-Z NN460. Ever wish you'd not bothered looking into something? It turns up I didn't have to dig deep before discovering that not only were H6-Z and NN460 were not one and the same machine but the red portion of the spinner is a total fallacy as well  I think it's @Troy Smithwho's signature states "Never trust a profile without a photograph" and here's a great case in point. Until now I've been blindly and blissfully forging forth thinking that two profiles in seperate publication that both cite references could be considered trustworth  A little research soon showed me that H6-Z was in actual fact PP935 and was struck off charge due to a particularly hard landing upon returning from the strike on the Sumatran oil fields which can be seen happening at 1:57 on this Youtube clip...

 

 

While I could use some Modeldecal numericals to create PP935 I'm somewhat put off knowing that I can't really depict it after landing from the strike that was codenamed Operation Lentil.

So what options does this leave me? I still want to depict a Pacific Fleet Seafire as part of this GB and have now commited to modelling it as a Mk.III so that narrows my options from the decals sheets I have on the subject and I can't find a supporting photograph for any of those yet. At the moment I'm thinking of staying with NN460 as this was coded H6-X and survived Op Lentil but this means creating the X in a suitable size and colour  

In the meantime I removed the outer cannon stubs and filled in the ejector slot under the wing;

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Col.

[Troy Smith]

54 minutes ago, Col. said:

I think it's @Troy Smithwho's signature states "Never trust a profile without a photograph" and here's a great case in point.

 

yep!  I ended up with it as a sig because it came up as an issue so often.  The chap who could help with marking options here I suspect will be @iang and @85sqn  as they know about this kind of information,  

So HTH

[trickyrich]

gee Col you really are having fun with this build! She is fighting every bit of the way, probably not helped by building a "Franken-Spitfire" from short production run models who's fit was probably a bit suspect in the first place!

 

But you do seem to be enjoying yourself , so will sit back and enjoy the show/build. 

 

The old thumb print model marking trick works sooo much better with super glue! 

[Greg Law]

That looks like a tough one. Looks like what I'm in for with the Do 18 in the other group build. 

Looks like you have it under control though. 

[85sqn]

Heya good progress with the Seafire. I made this one a while ago from various Airfix offerings:

 

 

 

The Xtradecal instructions are a bit of a lie they probably based on some colour profile. The photo of H6-Z is in the current Sqns of the FAA book. IanG helped and we came to the conclusion it was actually PP935.

 

Heres a link to the thread: 

 

Nick

 

[Col.]

22 hours ago, 85sqn said:

Heya good progress with the Seafire. I made this one a while ago from various Airfix offerings:...

 

Nick

Thank you Nick. Your Seafire turned out great, I can only hope my one looks someway towards as good once finished, my I ask a bit more about what kit you used and the modifications you performed to achieve it?

There's a lot of useful information contained within the photograph from Squadrons of the FAA so thank you very much for sharing it. The paintwork looks very dirty and faded with clear differences where the markings have been repainted,that the undersurface Sky colour continues onto the rudder, the style and size of the codes and their possitions, then there's that impressive exhaust staining from an engine that's been run on a lean mixture; plenty to think about 

 

Before I get anywhere near that stage, however, there's still plenty to do around the airframe including adding the various external strengthening plates that were patched on in an attempt to ensure the Seafire would survive the additional stresses of carrier operations. While Special Hobby provide a sheet of self-adhesive vinyl parts to represent the longitudinal fuselage strips and the plate around the radio compartment access door I wanted to replace them with thin plastic items and the same for the etched brass catapult gear plates as this allowed me to sand them down in an attempt to blend them in slightly. In all the photographs I've seen the plates are quite subtle so feathering the edges of these plates will hopefully give the same effect. The small oval buges over the outer gun access covers were also made from plastic sheet. These are provided as resin parts in the kit but as circular items and look as if it would take more effort to seperate from the casting blocks than to scratch build;

 

 

[Biggles87]

That looks pretty good to me.

By a strange coincidence, I was looking through my Spitfire spares boxes a couple of days ago collecting spare entry doors to fill in the gaps in my Tr9 fuselage when I came across a complete Mk V fuselage with the same external  reinforcements. I started building it years ago with the Airways Seafire III folded wings, don't  knows what happened to the wings but they weren't in any of the boxes.

 

John

[trickyrich]

nice work Col.

[Col.]

On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 9:34 PM, Greg Law said:

That looks like a tough one. Looks like what I'm in for with the Do 18 in the other group build. 

Looks like you have it under control though. 

Thank you Greg. Which GB is your Do 18 part of?

On ‎12‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 4:08 PM, Biggles87 said:

That looks pretty good to me.

By a strange coincidence, I was looking through my Spitfire spares boxes a couple of days ago collecting spare entry doors to fill in the gaps in my Tr9 fuselage when I came across a complete Mk V fuselage with the same external  reinforcements. I started building it years ago with the Airways Seafire III folded wings, don't  knows what happened to the wings but they weren't in any of the boxes.

 

John

Thank you John. There's an Airfix Mk. V in the immediate stash under my bench that'll hopefully become a Seafire Ib soon so no doubt you'll see a similar sight to your one; hope you find those wings and can continue with your one. 

[Greg Law]

It might be the Maritime patrol one or the main forum. I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking at the moment I prefer the less pressure of the main forum for this model as it will require quite a lot of mucking around with it. It is not as straight forward as I first thought when I looked into it. However, I'm looking forward to it.

[Col.]

Got the tailplanes on and two sections of the canopy on. All need some work to fit but almost at the paintwork stage now,

 

 

[trickyrich]

she is coming along nicely Col and looks great. it'll be great to see her with some paint on.

[Col.]

More minor progress but now onto the painting stage at last. The cannon barrels are on and some Alclad Semi-matt Aluminium splattered onto the wingroots as a basis for weathering,

 

 

[Col.]

A layer of Colourcoats Extra Dark Sea Grey for the top side. Okay, two layers, after the compressor spat a load of water through the airbrush and ruined a couple areas of the initial coat.

 

 

... a lot of masking tape and White Tack masking allowed for a coat of Humbrol Hu224 Dark Slate Grey...

 

 

... then the masking fluid was picked off to unveil that earlier Alclad in selected places...

 

 

The silver is deliberatly overdone at the moment as I'm planning to spot-paint on repairs in a manner similar to what would have happened shipboard hoping it'll produce the same effect.

[trickyrich]

she does look nice with some colour on her, I like your idea with the "repair work", it'll be interesting to see how it comes out.

 

Not too long to go now, think you should make it easily.

[Col.]

11 hours ago, trickyrich said:

she does look nice with some colour on her, I like your idea with the "repair work", it'll be interesting to see how it comes out.

 

Not too long to go now, think you should make it easily.

Thanks Rich but alas dealing with extended family dramas has kept me from the workbench until late last when I got the initial mask for the roundels and tail flash set on.

 

 

With any luck I'll get that sprayed on later today.

[Col.]

Got some white bits done,

 

 

 

The underwing sections I've painted to standard size in the hope that they will show through slightly under a coat of Sky to give a similar effect to that seen on the real machines.

[modelling minion]

Really coming along nicely Col, going to look superb when its finished.

[trickyrich]

I agree with Craig she's going to look amazing when done.

[Col.]

Thanks lads but alas she'll not be done in this GB  

It's been great fun working on this one and watching all the action on other threads within the GB so thank you @trickyrichfor making it happen.

[trickyrich]

no worries Col, it's been really enjoyable watching this build, hopefully you'll get to finish her soon.