1:48 Airfix Sea Fury [Completed, Finally!!!]

[Kallisti]

As a break from building weird stuff, I thought I'd return to a kit thats been in the stash for 2 years since I picked it up on first release, the marvellous Sea Fury from Airfix, this thing:

 

 

Here is the sprue shot

 

 

 

Now you might notice there is a duplicate sprue with the fuselage sides -this is because of the infamous shot shot of the tail in the initial run

 

 

which was fixed in subsequent runs and they simply added an extra sprue to the boxes. This is fortunate because the second sprue also contains faults as shown here

 

 

So although the tail is moulded correctly, there is a fault in the engine exhaust vent. This means I've got to perform surgery on both duplicate fuselage sides to remove the good tail from one to add to the good exhaust vent. Thankfully there is a very convenient panel line to use as a guide!

 

As for decal options, I've got a couple of aftermarket decal sets from Xtradecal and Aero Master as well as the kit decals. I've yet to decide exactly, but the Xtradecal set does have a nice option with a red and white spinner.

 

So here we go!

Edited February 6, 2022 by Kallisti

[Kallisti]

One of the first problems to solve is to get a good mix of "Hawker Yellow" colour used in the interior. Referring to multiple threads here, I've seen various attempts to match the colour such as the post by @gareth here: 

I've had a bash with a custom mix which is roughly equal parts XF-4 yellow Green, XF-57 Buff, XF-55 Deck Tan and a dash of XF-3 Flat Yellow and I think it looks like a reasonable match, other opinions would be welcome however

 

 

 

[Johnson]

Hi Kallisti,

 

Looks pretty good, but possibly a tiny bit paler? Have you seen these threads?

 

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/50807-sea-fury-question/

 

http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/pages/Reviews/acft kit/Long Airfix 1-48 Sea Fury.html

 

 

It's a tricky call. 'Humbrol 74 is near as spit to Hawker yellow.' according to Steve Long, who knows a thing or two about Sea Furys. I used Hu 74 in my 1/72 Frog Sea Fury build last year, but personally I found it a bit bright;

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235058066-f154-hawker-sea-fury-fighter-finished/&do=findComment&comment=3459715

 

Whatever you choose, best wishes for the build. I have the same kit, so watching with interest!

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Kallisti]

Thanks for the references, got more reading to do it seems

[alt-92]

Just out of curiosity, I'd guess the Fokker-built 51's for the MLD would not have had the HY primer?

[NAVY870]

Humbrol 74 guys

I put a lot of research into this one when assisting Airfix and so did they.

 

[Kallisti]

I don't use enamels so I have to make do with alternatives.

[Kallisti]

Moving on, the two starboard fuselage halves have had their tails cut off along the panel line

 

 

The bottom one is the tail that will be discarded and replaced with the one up top. Here you can see the two fuslage halves have been joined after the cockpit was built and painted, but I forgot to photograph  

 

 

I added an extra tab using a piece of plastic card to make the joint good since the sawing will have left a narrow gap when the panel line would have been

 

 

Finally for this update - the various lumps on the nose in front of the canopy will end up getting sanded off and replace with plastic card to allow the seam to be sanlded properly.  It not easy to see here as I@ve been experimenting with the exposure of the camera and its slightly overexposed the upper part of the plastic

 

 

 

 

 

[Kallisti]

I have made a decision to build this with wings folded. Now I've done some research and I can find plenty of photos of Sea Furys on a flight deck with wings folded and EMPTY missile rails on the wings, but I've yet to find one that had missiles loaded. Was it common to fold the wings while still armed?

 

Here is a perfect example on wings folded and empty missile rails:

(HMS Glory, 804 Sqn)

 

and again

 

(HMS Theseus, Korea, Dec 1950)

 

I'm tempted to just do it as it will make a change from all these Sea Fury models that are fully armed with wings folded

Edited March 21, 2021 by Kallisti

[Johnson]

They do look good with folded wings.

[Kallisti]

Bit more progress in the week, starting with the engine cowling attached and the fuselage joint seam sanded back, taking off all the raised panels that were present. I'll replace them later with some slivers of plastic card.

 

 

Central wing underside has been attached along with the undercarraige bay which has been painted but then covered over with wet tissue paper in prep for primer. This went on okay the only issue being the joint at the rear which as you can see has a bit of filler to sand off

 

 

The wing fold inserts have been added - I'll think about adding some detail later in the process once the wings are assembled. Got lots of pics of the wing fold to use as reference.

 

 

Tail has been assembled as well, gave the elevators a little bit of down angle and the taili s slightly off to give it a bit more individuality

 

 

The outer wings have also been assembled, just need to fit the ailerons and it ready to prime, as you can see I've drilled out the holes for the missile pylons.

 

 

More later, primer is now on and there are pics in the camera that need to be download to show here - I'll see if I can find time later today

[Kallisti]

As promised here is a pic with the repaired nose detail post primer

 

 

I'm probably going to sand off the remaining rivets for that panel just in front of the windscreen - they do seem rather prominent and that will blend in with the rest of it. I put the first coat of Sky paint on the underside and lower fuselage today, Giving that a bit of time to cure before masking and doing the EDSG uppers...

[Kallisti]

Spinner is now painted

 

 

I had progressed further with painting the sky and EDSG but the EDSG went manky and I had to strip the paint back to bare plastic and start all over again with primer

These things are sent to try us!

[Johnson]

43 minutes ago, Kallisti said:

the EDSG went manky and I had to strip the paint back to bare plastic and start all over again with primer

Looks good now. Nice bit of masking, Always tricky with the spinner, what did you use?

[Kallisti]

The white flexible Tamiya masking tape over gloss white base coat, very pleased with the result here - it needs matting down but my main focus was getting that demarcation line spot on!

 

[Biggles87]

Rapid progress here.

I also like the spinner demarcation, something I always have difficulty with.

 

John

[NAVY870]

On 3/22/2021 at 12:51 AM, Kallisti said:

I have made a decision to build this with wings folded. Now I've done some research and I can find plenty of photos of Sea Furys on a flight deck with wings folded and EMPTY missile rails on the wings, 

The wing fold will happily operate with a 500 pounder hanging off each wing

The reason why they weren't often loaded with RP while folded was mainly because it was an awkward and dangerous operation to be trying to slide the things on whilst

hanging like an ape from the wing

Much more civilised to do it wings spread

[Kallisti]

Thanks for that confirmation!

[Kallisti]

Its been a long delay but finally I've returned to this build having almost completed the 3D print Babylon 5 Starfury in the Non-injectin moulded GB. Last night I started putting decals on - these are from the Xtradecals set. I'll be adding the stencils later...

 

 

 

[wellsprop]

Looks superb

[Kallisti]

So eight months later, I finally summon up the oomph to complete this build! Yayy me

It must be said that in the meantime I've started about 5 or 6 builds that have gone nowhere until I finally finished one the last couple of weeks and since that was the Eduard Tempest II (will be posted later) it spurred me to get out the Sea Fury as it was the next step in the evolution of the Hawker single-seater fighter. 

 

Anyway, here are the completed photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably not my best but its a completed model which has been sparse for me since last August so I'm calling that a win

[Kallisti]

The Hawker Tempest II build has now been posted here:

 

 

 

[Gatesy64]

Excellent results, a beautiful model and I like the empty rocket rails.

[corsaircorp]

Well done Kallisti !!

I have to restart mines too !!

Sincerely.

CC

[Johnson]

11 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Well done Kallisti !!

As CC said!

 

But I have to start mine!! One day...