Supermarine Seafire - Last Fight over the Pacific. ***. FINISHED ***

[Grey Beema]

I’m up and running, my entry into the Journeys End GB is:-

 

Supermarine Seafire LF III LR866/S121

887 NAS 24th NFW HMS IndefatigableJapan Aug-1945

 

On 15.08.45 2 x Mitshibushi A6M Zeros were destroyed, 0.5 Mitsibushi A6M Zero was shared destroyed by S/Lt  Vic Lowden Flying this aircraft.  

This was the last dogfight fought by British & Commonwealth forces in WWII.

 

This is the Special Hobby 1/48 Seafire III ‘Last fight over the Pacific’ boxing.  Typical short run kit but if you take your time they build up really nicely.  I am building this in tandem with another SH Seafire III ‘Eye of the Fleet’ over in the Spitfire, Seafire GB which is headed for the paint shop, so today was catch up time for LR866.

 

Mandatory box & Sprue shots..

 

 

 

 

I got stuck into this model and forgot to photograph the cockpit...  Sorry...

 

Cockpit is out of the box, with some extra plumbing and bits and bobs added.  Surprisingly, no grinding out the fuselage to fit the cockpit (this is SH not Tamiya), I fitted the rather lovely, well detailed cockpit, (as you can see I slightly miss aligned the instrument faces with the etched panel) by taping the fuselage along the top and fitting from underneath then Tamiya Extra Thin around all of the joins with some liquid sprue as reinforcement.

 

This is where I got to, hoped to get a little further, but it’s okay progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well we’re off anyway, hope to be finished by the time of the 75th Anniversary of the Dogfight...

 

Thank for looking in....

Edited August 9, 2020 by Grey Beema

[corsaircorp]

On for another FAA Spitfire !!

I'm in if you don't mind it !!

Sincerely.

CC

[Grey Beema]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

On for another FAA Spitfire !!

I'm in if you don't mind it !!

Sincerely.

CC

Pull up a high stool there, think we’ll sit at th3 bar for this one..

[Wez]

Good start and welcome to the GB, glad to see a Seafire too.

 

I've been dipping into the Drachinifel naval histories which are very interesting, when talking about the British in the Indian/Pacific Ocean campaigns he's always very complimentary about the Seafire's capabilities, we often get carried away by the superlative capabilities of the Hellcat and Corsair and focus on the Seafire's Achilles heel (that narrow undercarriage), but it was in combat, still a very effective aircraft.

[Grey Beema]

41 minutes ago, Wez said:

Good start and welcome to the GB, glad to see a Seafire too.

 

I've been dipping into the Drachinifel naval histories which are very interesting, when talking about the British in the Indian/Pacific Ocean campaigns he's always very complimentary about the Seafire's capabilities, we often get carried away by the superlative capabilities of the Hellcat and Corsair and focus on the Seafire's Achilles heel (that narrow undercarriage), but it was in combat, still a very effective aircraft.

An interesting question is; if Indefatigable and Implacable had more clearance in the hanger space, or if the Hellcat had been in plentiful supply to the Fleet Air Arm, would the Seafire still have been at sea?  I’m not convinced it would have been.

 

The Seafire seems to have had two main issues; it’s deck handling characteristics, as you say mainly down to the narrow track undercarriage which was responsible for the high Seafire attrition rate and it’s short endurance which meant the carriers would have to turn off course and into the wind a lot more frequently than those launching Hellcats and Corsairs thus slowing the line of advance..

 

One area where it did excel was it’s ability to accelerate and as such it was kept as close in Fleet CAP.  The USN recognised this ability and tried to emulate it through the Bearcat, where speed, acceleration and time to height were key design principles..

 

Given all the above though the Seafire scores top marks for being better looking than all the other types...

 

 

[Wez]

2 minutes ago, Grey Beema said:

Given all the above though the Seafire scores top marks for being better looking than all the other types...

Without a shadow of a doubt!

[Graham Boak]

If pigs had wings - the last two Fleet carriers had lower hangars in order to get more aircraft into them.   I'm not sure that the Hellcat would have been a problem, had more been available, it was the Corsair's upright folding wings that was the main problem.  The predominant Seafire problem was its fragility, as highlighted at Salerno, but this showed up a lot better on the Fleet carriers.   Solutions to the range problem, or at least major alleviations, were available had effort been made to adopt them.   The Mk.VIII Spitfire had about 50% more internal capacity than the Seafire Mk.III, and aft tanks would have made that 100%.  Ideally however you'd have been looking at a big tail for the latter.

 

The Bearcat wasn't designed as any kind of "Seafire equivalent" but as a replacement for the Wildcat on escort carriers.  The USN's anti-Kamikaze special was the F2G Corsair.  Given the respective timings I'm sure that the Bearcat was being readied for the job.

[Grey Beema]

19 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

If pigs had wings - the last two Fleet carriers had lower hangars in order to get more aircraft into them.   I'm not sure that the Hellcat would have been a problem, had more been available, it was the Corsair's upright folding wings that was the main problem.  The predominant Seafire problem was its fragility, as highlighted at Salerno, but this showed up a lot better on the Fleet carriers.   Solutions to the range problem, or at least major alleviations, were available had effort been made to adopt them.   The Mk.VIII Spitfire had about 50% more internal capacity than the Seafire Mk.III, and aft tanks would have made that 100%.  Ideally however you'd have been looking at a big tail for the latter.

 

I agreed Graham, I don’t know why their Lordships at the Admiralty where happy to retain the MkIII for so long and I am sure, had the Hellcats been available in large enough numbers, the Seafires wouldn’t have been in the Pacific...

[Graham Boak]

I suspect it was at least partly a matter of intercept performance.  The FAA saw the Hellcat as a superb fighter-bomber, and so superior for general use on the escorts, but the Seafire could climb faster and accelerate quicker, so was superior as an interceptor for fleet defence.    There would also be a matter of number available and the number of pilots trained to fly it.  Their Lordships were of course looking to the Mk.XV, which again would provide superior performance but no improvement to range or fragility.  Given all the long-range US fighters becoming available, you can see why extending the range of the Seafire wouldn't have been top priority.

 

As a more general point about Spitfire development, I feel that Supermarine were simply overloaded with development ideas, perhaps an indication even than that British design teams were just too small.  Something to be seen as increasingly important in the years ahead.

[Grey Beema]

Long time since I’ve done any work on this aircraft.

 

Main airframe construction is complete.  Aluminium primer is on.  Pre-shading, this aircraft had been done.  The aircraft had been with the Squadron since ‘44 so will quite weathered and faded.  Underside Sky S is on, I tried to fade the outer wing panels but think I need to do them a little more as it doesn’t show.  I see lots of post shading and fading in my future... 

 

Here is a couple of pictures...

 

Silver primer and pre-shade

 

 

 

 

Sky S sprayed and sealed - now left to full harden.

 

As you can see, still a lot to do, I had better get a move on, VJ Day is creeping up on us...

 

Thanks for stopping by..

[Grey Beema]

Little more work done today.

 

Extra Dark Sea Grey roughed on.  I lightened the EDSG by about 20% as this aircraft had been in service for quite a time (although I don’t know when its last repaint was).  The Dark Slate Grey will get the same treatment.

 

I have also made up some masks as I want the camouflage on my Seafire IIIs to match..

 

 

 

Now wait got it to harden up before the lightened DSG..

 

Thanks for stopping by...

[Grey Beema]

A little more progress on my 887 NAS Seafire III.

 

Managed to get the remainder of the TSS done this weekend.  The aircraft is painted using Xtracrylics EDSG / DSG.  Both were faded down with about 20% white to lighten the colours.  LR866 was an old Aircraft which had been in service with 887 for quite a while.  I want to represent this with faded TSS.  

 

The aircraft also received a good coat of Klear.  I need to put some fresher DSG on to represent over painted markings, before decalling which once again will need a filter coat to take the colour down.

 

Basic TSS.  The cowling has obviously been repainted at some time in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

I was also doing a Seafire III for the Spitfire & Seafire GB but it will not be finished in time.  This photo is supposed to show the difference in shade between the newer (June ‘44) and the older (Aug ‘45) Seafire.  I must admit it is hard to see.  Maybe a little more lightening with the filter towards the end of the paint job but at least the camouflage patterns look about the same.

 

 

Anyway hoping to have this aircraft complete by the 75th anniversary of its light fight over the Pacific.

 

Thanks for looking in..

[Thom216]

Liking them. There's a good pair of Spits!

[franky boy]

Nice work. 
 

I love the temperate sea scheme and the Seafire carries  it very well with BPF markings. 
 

James

[Grey Beema]

I put this under the wrong thread last night but here in a minor update.

 

Thanks to Cookie I have identified and corrected the mistake on my 887 NAS Seafire III.  The root cause of the was the idiot author not reading the instructions.  Remember everybody - RTFM.

 

It took a bit of effort to cut out the gun fairings but I don’t think I damaged the wing and paintwork too much.  

 

Matching the paint will be the hardest bit (TSS with about 20% white added).  Having said that I was just watching the Repair Shop on BBC.  Apparently matching colours is quite straight forward.

 

Correct gun covers now fitted.

 

Together with a newer PR serial Seafire.  Shows the difference when the finish its matted down

 

Thanks for looking in..

[Grey Beema]

A little bit more progress on LR866 this weekend..

 

I repaired the paintwork around the gun covers, painted out the original ETO roundels.  Coat of Klear.  BPF markings applied.  The serial number was made up from an Xtracrylics generic set.  BPF Roundels came from the kit.  I’m not convinced they are the right size, maybe a bit small but they are nailed on now.  Tail marking is the Kit marking rearranged S121.

 

I have to apply the stencils and then a fading filter over the markings, the roundels would have been painted around April, this is how the aircraft was in August so just to make that look right.  Then the weathering will be finished out and the model completed.

 

This is how it is now - there will be no more photos until the big reveal at the end....

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by..

[Grey Beema]

 

Supermarine Seafire MkIII LR866 / S121.

887 NAS HMS Indefatigable Japan.

Sub Lieutenant Victor Souter Lowden

 

Following the release of the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima 6th August and Nagasaki 9th AugustAmerican Tasks Force 38 remained off the coast of Japan.  It was joined by a token Royal Navy group built around the carrier HMS Indefatigable and the battleship HMS King George V which was designated Task Force 38.5. 

Strikes were ordered to commence at dawn on 15th August.  At 0400 hrsa Firefly Ramrod was launched followed by six Avengers from 820 NAS with an escort of eight Seafire L Mk IIIs from 887 and 894 NAS.  Five L Mk IIIs led by Lt F Hockley (894 NAS) would provide close and middle cover while SLt V. Lowden (887 NAS) would fly top cover with the three remaining Seafire F Mk IIIs.  As the Avengers approached their designated target, Kisarazu airfield, they found it shrouded in cloud, forcing them to attack their alternate target – a chemical factory near Odaki Bay.

 

Odaki Bay airspace was a busy place on the morning of 15th August, not only the fourteen aircraft from HMS Indefatigablebut also six Hellcats and an unknown number of Corsairs from USS Yorktownheading for the airfields at Atsugi and Hokodo

 

As the Fleet Air Arm aircraft climbed through low cloud to 6,000 to 8,000 feet a gaggle of a dozen A6M5 Zekes was seen coming down from the three o’clockhigh position.  The diving Zekes passed the top cover and headed for the Avengers and close escort Seafires.  Sufficient warnings were given to counter the bounce, but R/T failure doomed Fred Hockley and he was shot down in the first pass (the last Royal Navy Casualty of WWII).  SLt Hockley managed to bale out of his Seafire but he was later captured and executed by his captors.

 

The remaining Seafires turned into the Zekes.  With the first element of Zekes out of range SLt VS. Lowden moved his flight into line abreast and engaged the second group of Zekes.   The first Zeke was shot down was at long range, Lowden, opening fire at 800 yards and closing to 450 yards with excellent marksmanship.  His port cannon jammed causing the aircraft to yaw as the starboard cannon fired but he hit a second Zeke at 250 yards and blew it up with three short bursts.  His third victim was engaged at short range but as three more Zekes approached he left it to Slt Williams who had already destroyed an enemy aircraft in the first phase to finish it off.  Lowden was forced to fight the new arrivals in turn and, when he ran out of ammunition, he pulled through into a 425 knot dive to disengage.

 

Only Fred Hockley was lost during the engagement.  Vic Lowden was the last to land, with no ammunition and a badly over heating engine.  At 0700 asignal from Admiral Nimitz had been received which cancelled all strike operations.  CAP however was to be maintained.  World War II was over.  Slt Victor Lowden had launched at war and landed at peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the GB Admins for the great theme for the build...

 

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Grey Beema

[franky boy]

 

Great work and a great subject. 

 

I like the the background story and the weathering on the finished model. 

 

Welldone

 

James