Amodel Hawker Fury II, 1/72nd, 41 Squadron on, Catterick Yorkshire 1938 # Finished

[Mr T]

With the Supermarine 224 finished and the Dewotine D510 at the painting stage, I think I might have time for least another entry.

So I have started an Amodel Hawker Fury that I have in the stash. This is a 'short run' kit that offers the wheel spats for the Mk II and nice surface detail, but is probably a harder build than the Matchbox kit I first built in the summer of 1973 after my First Year Uni exams.

The Mark II Fury was an upgrade to the original Fury bought by the RAF. It had a more powerful Kestrel engine, wheel spats and increased fuel tankage which gave it a top speed of 223 mph compared to 205 mph of the original Fury. 100 were built and production started in late 1936 and the type entered service in early 1937. It was only ever seen as a stopgap and remained with a handful of squadrons for a short period until replaced something a bit more potent. Front line units equipped with the Fury II were 25, 41, 73 and 87 Squadrons, some as interim equipment for a few months with 41 having them longest from between October 1937 and January1939 when they were replaced by Spitfires.

The Amodel kit is moulded in fairly hard pale grey plastic. Most parts display noticeable mould lines but no flash and some parts like the struts are quite delicate and will require care to remove them. Surface detail is restrained with the fabric areas being muted with none of the sagging associated with some kits of fabric covered aircraft, One small clear part is provided for the windscreen and the decal sheet provides markings for two Mk I's and a Mk II. The decals are matt and some colours look a bit dubious. The only areas of shrinkage on my sample was on the spatted wheels that I wanted to use and the prop, so out has come some filler.

As always seems to be the case work started on the fuselage and cockpit. Some wall detail is provided on the fuselage halves and this was added to with a few scratch-built bits like a trim wheel and map case. There is a seat, rudder pedals and a control column that is added to a floor that never existed on  real thing, but some effort has been made add details of the fuselage structure on it. The instrument panel is the correct shape and the bodies of the two Vickers machine guns are there as separate parts, but the location pins for them would leave them much too far forward.

Paintwork was taken from the Mushroom Model Publication on the Fury and Nimrod and is largely aluminium with the tubular fuselage frames in black. The floor was finished to march doped fabric of the bottom of the fuselage. The lower wings area butt fit and so to make the join stronger and before too much work was done on the fuselage, I drilled a couple of holes and inserted some plastic rod that fit into holes drilled in the wings.

Mrs T is out at the surgery until 8.00pm giving coronavirus jabs and so the fuselage will go together. No location pins, but everything lines up nicely by the look of it

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Mr T

[Col.]

Another great subject choice and good progress made already

[Mr T]

Further work on the Fury courtesy of having to wait around for a parcel for Mrs T. The fuselage is together and although the halves went together well enough with a small amount of filling needed, the upper front fuselage piece caused some issues. If just added so that it was flush with the fuselage top along its lower edge then there is quite a discontinuity along the fuselage top line. This was solved by cementing the upper fuselage piece so that eh upper fuselage line was correct and then packing the resulting gap with some plastic strip chamfered to fill the gap. An annoyance, but it was fixable. After a bit of a clean-up, the lower wings were added and filled, but I think that is not surprising on a kit of this type. The Upper wing and tail surfaces have been cleaned up and the holes drilled out for the rigging. Easier to do now, and although they will need to opened out after painting, I am less likely to damage the paintwork. Only managed to break one drill and the remains will be used to reopen or clear out holes later in the build. Looking at the struts, I am going to rig the Fury with some of my  30+ year old invisible mending thread from the spool I bought in Lewis's on the Headrow in Leeds as it adds a lot to the structural strength of the wing cellule (a bit like the real thing).

Coming on I think. Next stop will be the tailplane and control horns added, before some painting and the top wing added (the bit I hate on biplanes).

[Col.]

Tidy progress and a good save on the upper cowl fit

[John Masters]

On 1/26/2021 at 4:35 PM, Mr T said:

Easier to do now

That's the way.  

 

Nice looking Fury so far.  A pretty aircraft.

[Mr T]

I am slowly making progress with this kit, some of the joint lines have needed extra work and I am now at the stage after several rounds of filling and priming of spraying the basic doped aluminium on the fabric bits and masked of the fuselage for the shiny bits. I have also added the actuator rods and horns on the control surfaces. Fiddly with slivers of plastic and 0.2mm nickel silver rod. 

[Mr T]

Wings together, and it is beginning to look like a fury. Some issues with attaching the top wing as the centre section struts did not fit where they were supposed to so bodged it. I have added the undercarriage, which looks to me to be in the flying configuration rather than under load, so it is a bit long, and I am not going to hack off even more of it.

Rigging beckons.

[Peter Lloyd]

Good work mate. I have done a few A Model kits and they fight, but the restrained detailing means once the gaps and misalignments are addressed, you have a good model.  This seems to be where yours is heading.

[Mr T]

Rigging finished and after a clean-up of the top and bottom wings, some Vallejo White Aluminium was sprayed on ready for decalling. This has now been started using an old Model Alliance sheet and an issue with the decals is that although they are well printed, they are very fragile and will break up quite easily. This has been cured by a couple of coats of Microscale Liquid Decal Film. There are no roundels on the Model Alliance sheet, and so I may use either the kit roundels or some Modeldecal ones. Getting there and should be finished by the deadline for the Group build ending.

 

Some of the more observant amongst you may have noticed the Fury now has a red fin. I had rigged the model and then realised that the fin should be red. A bit of careful painting seems to have done the trick.

[Col.]

Your rigging work looks great - just the right air of intricate strength

[Mr T]

Thanks, I used invisible mending thread in pre drilled holes with super glue. I was first shown the technique at a Sheffield IPMS in about 1979-80 and still use it for rigging if the wings are a bit wobbly as it works like real rigging. I know and have used more modern materials, but this does give a bit of strength which you sometimes need. Got through a couple of 0.3mm drills. Doesn't help when you drop the pin vice. 

[stevehnz]

This is looking good, I've a couple of these squirreled away, one at least to do in the East African colours as worn by SAAF units. I've also got mending thread, I can but hope it goes as well as yours.

Steve.

[Mr T]

Thanks everyone for the comments. The Fury has had the decals applied and varnished and is about to go into the gallery. It has not been a bad build, although the short run nature of the kit has thrown up a few challenges. With the experience I would have a go at another but do some things differently. Where it does score is the much better surface detail compared to the Matchbox kit, although the latter is an easier build.