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Navy Trainer - Fairey Firefly T2 - Finished


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Hi all

 

With work on the house going on a pace , I have not had much time for modelling unfortunately.  However whilst waiting for the electrician to attend I have had to stop until he has completed his work so I have had some rare modelling time, so I made the most of it. I have made a start and progressed this little beauty, as well as doing some of my 32 Spitfire build also.

 

I bought this some time ago and it will hopefully sit well with the Sea Fury T20 and Airspeed Oxford T2 I have already built.

 

It is a nice Kit, although being a short run Kit some preparations are needed along the way for fit in later stages.  The Kit has a combination of Injection moulded plastic, some resin parts and some Photo etched parts.

Box shot

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The resin cockpit parts really do look nice under a coat of paint

 

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A Test fit revealed work was needed o the wing to fuselage joint at the front end to get it to sit right and all the mating surfaces were flatted to ensure as good a joint as possible.

 

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Resin cockpit pieces assembled wand glued in place, fitting was checked regularly and all went in fairly well, although the resin seemed to be resistant to CA at first.

 

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I have got a bit of a gap along the top of the rear cockpit area but I did not have enough hands  at the time !!!

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Undercarriage bays in place, I thinned off the top of the bays until I daren't take any more off and then took a small amount off the bottom of the front cockpit floor lug and they now go together well.

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That's it for now, I can't wait to get on with some ore now.

 

Thanks for looking

All the best
Chris

 

 

 

 

Edited by bigbadbadge
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21 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Smart progress already Chris. Hope things going as well on the house too sir. :thumbsup2:

Thanks Tony, yes progressing well with the house too, just not enough time what with work as well.  Hopefully will get a major part of the ceiling downstairs installed this weekend, can't wait.

 

21 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'm keen to follow this one Chris, I've got the kit in stock & its always good to see someone of your ability point out the traps & pitfalls. It's looking good to date. :)

Steve.

Thanks Steve, I thank you for your kind comments fella too.

 

20 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

An interesting build. Fairey seemed to have a thing about cockpits in series with the Battle trainer and then this. Looks nice with all your work on the resin bits.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

Thanks Adrian. Yes indeed and they do make for interesting aircraft to model. I want to do a later machine with the same arrangement too will have to do some cross kitting for that one though.

 

Thanks guys

All the best

Chris

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Looking good Chris,.......I`ll be watching this with interest because after building my 1/48th model I have a 1/72nd one lined up myself.

 

Cheers

           Tony

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1 hour ago, tonyot said:

Looking good Chris,.......I`ll be watching this with interest because after building my 1/48th model I have a 1/72nd one lined up myself.

 

Cheers

           Tony

 

Thanks Tony it is a nice kit and should look good with my other Navy Trainers.  Your 48th scale build has been very helpful too and you will like this kit as there is only a small amount of photo etched included. 

I would also like to convert the Airfix mk 5 to a trainer too, after seeing a piccie of one in a book,  using the suitable parts from The 72 nd Pavla Firefly kit.

Thanks again fella

All the best

Chris

Edited by bigbadbadge
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Lovely subject choice Chris :speak_cool:

Been looking for a copy of this kit for a while but the last couple have been on eBay for silly money so will just have to live vicariously through watching your progress. As for converting the Airfix Mk.5; I'd not bother as it's rather inaccurate to start with. Better the find the Special Hobby kit if you can.

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13 hours ago, Christer A said:

This looks like a proper short run from Special Hobby, and not to their current Medium run style ;)

I've got a Mk I of similar vintage in the stash so I'll follow this with great interest!

Thanks Christa, yes it is a proper short run kit and did fight me a bit getting the fuselage together what with the arrester hook area too. I needed an extra pair of hands again.

For you guys building the kit I found a gentle clean up such as a few gentle passes only on the arrester hook inset helps to spread the fuselage area at the rear of the wings enough to help seat the rear of the wing section and I found once that was dry then I added some glue to the sides of the cockpit under at the front and this seemed to help with the wing tops which I left off until the lower being half section had been attached. The wing tops are slightly longer than the lower parts but not by too much. The test fitting early on helped in establishing the potential problems. There are not to many fortunately and now I have all this together it really is starting to look like a Firefly.

 One last tip here is that the top wing sections needed sanding back slightly where they meet the fuselage.  

 

9 hours ago, Col. said:

Lovely subject choice Chris :speak_cool:

Been looking for a copy of this kit for a while but the last couple have been on eBay for silly money so will just have to live vicariously through watching your progress. As for converting the Airfix Mk.5; I'd not bother as it's rather inaccurate to start with. Better the find the Special Hobby kit if you can.

Thanks Col. Hope you are well fella.  They do seem to have dried up a bit. I may well have to use the Airfix one as I have it in the stash and will need to get hold of a Pavla or Octopus kit and use the parts for the trainer on the Airfix kit. I have to find one first at a reasonable price!!!

 

I hope that helps if you are looking to build the kit, although I might want to wait until this assembles before you start Incase I have messed it up.

Will post some more pics soon although electrician is due tomorrow so this weekend will be putting up ceilings hopefully.

 

Thanks for looking

All the best

Chris

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Hi All

 

Bit more done on the Firefly this week, fuselage went together very well apart from needing an extra pair of hands what with the arrester hook area.  There is some filler on the starboard carb intake and a small bit around the top of the radiator/Spinner area.  Any gaps in the fuselage and wing joints are filled with CA and flatted as this gives me a better finish and less likely hood of a joint line.

 

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Sorry about the quality of a couple of the photos.

 

Starting to look like a Firefly now.

 

Thanks for looking

 

All the best

Chris

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 10:23 PM, Martian Hale said:

Coming along nicely!

 

Martian 👽

 

Thanks Martian, I have done a bot more too.  Not much though, Navigation lights added after cutting them out and using clear sprue, same has been done for the navigation light, and all have been polished up.  Tail planes have been added, these are butt jointed so metal rods have been added to the joints to make stronger. The Two intakes on either side of the chin have also been added. these are resin items and needed to have a shim of plasticard underneath to bring them out to the correct position.

 

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Thanks for looking, some tidying up and minor filling and rescribing and then the yellow bands can be painted on then the alley paint wahoo.

 

All the best
Chris

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  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎2‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 6:37 PM, Courageous said:

Looking nice and clean before the primer.

 

Stuart

 

Thanks Stuart, very Kind of you.

 

Firstly I would like to apologise as I am not able to get onto the site as often as I would like and comment on peoples builds, I am only getting a bit of time on Saturday and Sunday mornings before I start working on the house and what with work during the week I am really pushed for time and bloomin knackered.  I hope every can understand, thank you. 

 

I have managed a small amount more , I have added the cannons and the yellow stripes.  I have added the tailwheel U/C doors as most of the images I have seen show the wheel out with doors closed.  The hole for the tailwheel is on the wrong place too.  I had to cut down the tailwheel leg to get it to sit at the right height.

 

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I have extended the cable duct/run on the starboard side as on the kit they are both the same length and the starboard run is longer.

 

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Quite pleased with the look of that, got a couple of minor nits to fill and hopefully ready for paint.

 

Thanks for looking

 

All the best

Chris

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Lovely clean build on this Chris.  The trainer Fireflys always look a bit different from the norm.

Thank you, painted canopy Frames now so hopefully she'll get a proper paint coat this weekend.

All the best

Chris

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Very nice build! I have this kit so it's nice to see it turning out so well, with the filling and fettling that seems inevitable with most limited-run kits. I need to remember about the cable run on the starboard side, but I'm sure I'll forget it by the time I ever get round to my kit.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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16 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Looking really distinctive now Chris: as James said, a right clean build. :thumbsup:

Thanks Tony I love the unusual look of the Navy Trainers. I will look to do a Firefly MkV Trainer soon.

 

16 hours ago, Learstang said:

Very nice build! I have this kit so it's nice to see it turning out so well, with the filling and fettling that seems inevitable with most limited-run kits. I need to remember about the cable run on the starboard side, but I'm sure I'll forget it by the time I ever get round to my kit.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Thanks Jason, it is a nice kit but as with all short run kits lots of test fitting. Re the cable run, I forgot until it initially too. For some cracking inspiration check out TonyOT's lovely build of a 48th kit using a conversion from Belcher bits . His build looks absolutely stunning.

 

All the best

Chris

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2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Thanks Tony I love the unusual look of the Navy Trainers. I will look to do a Firefly MkV Trainer soon.

 

All the best

Chris

that will be nice, even more distinctive than the T.1, I guess that will be a scratch build?

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3 hours ago, 71chally said:

that will be nice, even more distinctive than the T.1, I guess that will be a scratch build? 

A conversion. I have been generously given the Pavla 72nd Firefly mk 1 kit which includes parts for MK1, T1,T2 and TT versions. So was going to use the rear cockpit on a Mk V to create. 

Fingers crossed.

Thanks and all the best

Chris

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