Airfix 1/48 Sea Fury

[Chewbacca]

Away for a few days break and realised that there was space in the car to put some modelling kit in and didn't fancy trying to transport any of my current maritime builds (including the scratchbuild HMS BULOLO) and after looking around the stash though the Airfix Sea Fury might be the easiest to move safely.

 

 

Now despite being an amateur naval historian with a focus on the Fleet Air Arm, the Sea Fury is an aircraft about which I know little, perhaps because as a former Observer my main interest was more towards multi-seat aircraft.  I apologise therefore to the Sea Fury purists if I make some fundamental mistakes or ask some real numpty questions.

 

I was hoping to model it as Hoagy Carmichael's aircraft (purely because I met him about 25 years ago and have got a signed copy of the Robert Taylor print in my study)but I can't seem to find any AM decals in the right scale so I'll stick with the 801 Sqn HMS GLORY option in the kit.  At least that means I can put a little more underwing.

 

I have got a couple of questions though which I hope the Sea Fury aficionados may be able to advise.

 

Firstly I note that the instructions suggest the inside of the wheel wells should be H74 Linen. Is that correct?  I would have thought it should be either natural aluminium or interior green.

 

Secondly. the instrument panel has a long slot at the top but there's nothing that I can see that connects to it.  It just looks odd.   Is this correct or is there a fault with that part?  

 

 

[Kahunaminor]

Great kit. I am currently building it.

 

The colour call out for H74 is the closest for the colour used by Hawker on the interior of the aircraft. There are a number of on line references that show it, including a great thread here on BM 

 

The kit instrument panel is a mystery to me as is the lack of any gunsight by Airfix. 

 

No doubt others with more knowledge will chime in shortly.

 

Regards,

[Chewbacca]

Well I didn't get very far before I hit the first hurdle.  I checked it when I first got it to see if I suffered from the short shot tail (which it does but its fixable) but I didn't notice that the entire Frame D is missing which comprises at least half of the cockpit.  Have emailed Customer Services so lets see how quick they respond.

[Ventora3300]

3 hours ago, Kahunaminor said:

The colour call out for H74 is the closest for the colour used by Hawker on the interior of the aircraft. There are a number of on line references that show it, including a great thread here on BM 

 

Agreed! The H74 is a match for 'Hawker Yellow' apparently - in the thread link on Sea Furies, it also says that although the inside of the wheel wells was that yellow, the inside of the undercarriage doors was the same blue as the underside - you can imagine this was done as those parts were painted before assembly to the u/carriage legs and aircraft. Good luck with the build!

[Bigdave22014]

I recently built this and had a lot of fun doing it. Now, wings up or out?

[Sturmovik]

17 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Have emailed Customer Services so lets see how quick they respond.

Do keep us posted, I'm interested how the issue is solved.

[Biggles87]

I bought mine about 3 months ago and the fin was OK, I don't know if the've sorted out their quality control or if I was just lucky.

I'm not planning to build mine anytime soon but I'll be watching anyway looking for tips

 

John

Edited April 9, 2019 by Biggles87

[Witness]

10 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

Do keep us posted, I'm interested how the issue is solved.

 

Airfix typically have great customer service.

[Chewbacca]

On ‎09‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 04:57, Bigdave22014 said:

I recently built this and had a lot of fun doing it. Now, wings up or out?

I tend to go for wings up for 2 reasons.  1, it takes up less space on the shelf and 2, it's unique to Navy aircraft.  But I was planning to put the camera pod, small drop tank and 2 x 500lb bombs on and I haven't yet found any photos of Sea Furies with wings folded and fully loaded.

 

15 hours ago, Witness said:

 

Airfix typically have great customer service.

I've heard mixed stories recently ranging from parts arriving in under 24 hrs to no response 8 weeks later.  This has got to be the first time I've tried them out since the extremely helpful Rita left and that has to be 10-12 years ago.  Fingers crossed the frame will be waiting for me when I get home.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Chewbacca

[Chewbacca]

Time to tackle the short shot tail.  My original thought was to wait until the two halves were mated and then used filler but then I thought I would get a better - and stronger - result if I used plastic strip.  So armed with some 30 thou Evergreen, it went from this:

 

through to this with the edges squared away and the strip ready to be applied:

 

to this:

 

I basically tacked it in place with some CA and once that was set brushed the whole join liberally with Tamiya Extra Thin.  When that was completely dry, I took a sharp scalpel to the edge to fair it in in and then finished with wet/dry.  I've deliberately left it standing very slightly proud so that I can finish it off after I've joined the two halves and probably given it a coat of primer.

[Graham T]

Good fix!

[Greg Law]

I know of another one of these being built with the Australian scheme and wings up. It's going to be good. What scheme are you going for?

[Chewbacca]

17 hours ago, Greg Law said:

What scheme are you going for?

In the ideal world it would be Hoagy Carmichael's WJ232 from 802 Sqn embarked in HMS OCEAN but I can't find any decals in 1/48 scale.  I can find his wingman, "Shmoo" Ellis (whom it is alleged was the actual pilot who shot down the MiG) but I never met him whereas I did meet Hoagy back in the late 80s.  So it'll be the 801 Sqn HMS GLORY cab from the kit decal sheet.

 

What I can't find is any photographic evidence that Sea Furies folded their wings once armed.

[Rabbit Leader]

26 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

What I can't find is any photographic evidence that Sea Furies folded their wings once armed.

Hard to tell really, although this video would suggest that armament was loaded whilst on deck and with wings down. One would think that any armament was only loaded just prior to a designated mission. Anyway, if they ever did, I'm sure someone on here will be able to tell us. Good luck with your build. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

p.s - If your gonna do the kit's scheme, I also reckon the side fuse pennant number was applied in 'rounded' numerals and not the square type as supplied. '155' is shown in the video below and you should be able to see what I'm talking about at approx the 0:41 second mark. The lower photo also shows the gear door '55' in square font? 

 

 

 

 

[NAVY870]

As per AP4018A & B -PN there are no limitations on weights for power folding the wing (not that you'd do it manually)

RP's could be loaded with the wings folded however getting a thousand pounder up there would be quite the trick.

I'd suggest the aircraft were loaded, power folded with the engine pump then pushed back on the flight deck.

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Dave and Steve.

 

Certainly the way that you describe it from the AP is what I would expect to occur and there is photographic evidence of other aircraft - e.g. the famous photo of a Seahawk line up fully laden with wings folded - doing just that.  The fact that I cannot find any evidence of armed Sea Furies with wings folded suggests to me that although they could, general practice suggests they didn't.

[Chewbacca]

On ‎08‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 12:35, Chewbacca said:

 Have emailed Customer Services so lets see how quick they respond.

Can't complain at that service.  Emailed then last Monday and when I got back from holiday yesterday there was a padded envelope from Airfix with a replacement frame.  That's pretty good I would say.

 

Unfortunately now I'm back home I really do need to press on with BULOLO as I've offered it for a D-Day 75th anniversary display thinking it would be finished well ahead of time (though I'm doing her as she appeared in the Pacific, she was the command ship at Gold Beach).  So back to the Fury in a couple of months

[Chewbacca]

Hanging head in shame now, for having said that I would be resuming the Sea Fury in a couple of months when I finished BULOLO, I note that was over 4 years ago!

 

In the end it took over 12 months to fully finish her.  And by then I had been challenged to see what I could do with the aged Fujimi Westland Wasp kit.  Well what I could with it was throw away the vast majority of the apology for a kit, and spend 6 months scratch build a somewhat more accurate Wasp around those few bits that were left.  Then, back to maritime to make my initial foray into all-resin kits with Atlantic Models' PUMA.  She took 18 months to finish almost to the day but I learnt a huge amount about resin kits which would prove a dividend later.  By then, the Falklands GB had started and since that was my first operational deployment, literally straight out of training by a few days, I scratchbuilt/3D printed my ship from Op Corporate, HMS HECLA.  Then it was time to finish off HMS LONDONDERRY, extensively converted from the Airfix 1/600 LEANDER before the Salty Sea Dog GB started back in January for which I went back to resin 1/350 warships and, taking the lesson learned from PUMA, built HMS BRAVE in which I served for Op Granby from the somewhat aged White Ensign Models kit.  I plan to continue with the Op Granby deployment theme with my next GB, converting the Airfix 1/48 Lynx back into a HAS 3 SGM to represent XZ 733, my Lynx when BRAVE's Flight Commander.  But the Fleet Air Arm GB doesn't start for another 10 weeks or so, so I thought I could make good progress with the Sea Fury, even if I don't actually finish it.

 

Initial progress of Day 1 of the resumption has been a little slow.  I took the time to read the entire "Ask all your Sea Fury questions here" thread and so now, I think, have a better idea about which bits should be Hawker yellow, which bits sky and so on.  I've also had an updated search and found that I can now get aftermarket decals for Hoagy Carmichael's aircraft which were not available 4 years ago.  So I am very tempted to go with his aircraft from 802 Sqn.  And if I order the decals, to make the best use of the postage costs, I might as well also order some aftermarket PE and seat belts.  But looking at the opening for the cockpit, I'm minded to say that even with the canopy open, there's not going to be a lot of detail visible in there.  I can scratch build the harnesses from tin foil which I think are the only bits that might be readily visible.  For those who have made this kit, is it worth the investment in aftermarket or is it simply a case of only I will know that it is there?

[Dr. Quack]

As I recall the seat belts and gun sight are fairly visible with an open canopy. I used the Eduard belts and Aerocraft gun sight for mine. The ip and sidewalls are much less noticeable. Pics here.

 

Niall.

[Chewbacca]

So made a start, mainly tidying up the cockpit and getting the major components cleaned up ready for praying the interior colours.  As part of that, I decided to drill out the 20 mm cannons.  Why is it, I wonder, that the first three drilled perfectly in the middle whereas the fourth was fractionally off centre allowing the drill to slip off to one side and open up the sidewall?  Fortunately, I don't think it will be that noticeable.

 

Earlier on, I reported that there was an odd slot in the instrument panel.  After scrutiny of various cockpit photos, I concluded that in reality that space should be the lighting switch panel so filled it with a strip of 40 thou styrene.

 

 

The other issue I had was with the aft cockpit frame on which the seat is fitted.  Now I don't know whether this was my fault and I cut it away inadvertently thinking it was part of the sprue, or whether it was Airfix's fault and the part was short shot, but as I went to fit the seat I noticed the lower mounting lugs were missing.  Fortunately It wasn't a major problem as there was sufficient to hold the seat using just the upper attachment points and once the liquid poly had set, I made up replacement lugs/frame using styrene strip and rod though with hindsight, I think I should have made the cross brace from 20 thou rod rather than 40 thou.  But in fairness, once the cockpit tub is fitted into the aircraft and the fuselage closed up, I doubt whether much of it will be visible.

 

.

 

The cockpit is now in the spray booth having been partly assembled, primed and give a first top coat of Tamiya NATO black.

 

And finally, I think I said earlier that it was my intention to build this largely OOB as it is simply a "quick build" between two larger projects.  But I can't build it without a gyro gunsight because as Niall has said, it is pretty visible.  I have, therefore, based on the photos that @NAVY870 kindly posted in the "Ask all your questions" thread, drawn one in CAD ready for 3D printing.  The render looks like this:

 

 

I'm hoping that I have made the mounting bracket long enough to clear the coaming as it is near impossible to measure it while holding everything together dry fit!

 

Thanks for watching

[Grey Beema]

Not sure if you are already aware but I understand from Fundekals that the fit out on that fateful day was drop tanks and bombs..  

[Chewbacca]

Thanks - I wasn't aware.  The Robert Taylor print in my study shows a clean aircraft but I guess any fighter pilot worth his salt would have banged off any underslung weight before getting into a dogfight.

 

I still haven't made the final decision but I think I will stick with the HMS GLORY 801 Sqn option using the kit decals.

[bigbadbadge]

Nice start, again 😉missed the initial start but will tag along if okay. Some lovely work on the short shot bits.

Chris

[Chewbacca]

18 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

missed the initial start but will tag along if okay.

Please do, the more the merrier 🙂.

 

Thanks for your kind words

[Biggles87]

I’d forgotten all about this ( presumably you had too ), good to see it back.

Four years, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

 

John