Yugoslav Fury Mk.II – 1/72 A-Model

[Patrik]

With the Fairey IIIF completion going along nicely, time to start another book inspired build. This time it was inspired by the book on the left.

 

 

The book was published in Serbia, and made it to me in quite an adventurous way. I bought it directly from the author/publisher (thanks a lot for the friendly inscription, Aleks), who warned me openly about the height of the postage costs. Therefore, I arranged another way. I am in aerial survey business. We do quite a lot together with an Austrian company from the same branch. Now, one of their employees, herself Norwegian, lives partly in Belgrade. She took over the book from the author in Belgrade in August last year. In September we were making aerial survey job in Croatia, she acted as liaison agent for our crew and handed over the book to one of our pilots in Rijeka, who then flew it then back to Czechia. At that moment the only real complication arose, as said pilot refused to hand the book over to me (his boss), before he finished reading it. Then he even started negotiating in the sense that he did not want to part with the book at all. However, you know how it goes, even nice bosses, as (I think) I am, can have convincing arguments ready at hand, if they really need to.😀

 

The book is very interesting, with amazing detail on Fury, Hind and Hurricane in pre-war Yugoslav service, and also on their gallant participation in the defense of the kingdom against the German invasion in April 1941. Highly recommended.

 

Finally to the kit – nicely moulded in satisfactorily hard white plastic, with fine details and engraved panel lines. The dimensions seem to be spot on, the interior details more than adequate and the differences from the standard RAF Fury seem to be very well researched and represented. Therefore, I intend building the kit OOB, with just a few extras in the form of Yahu instrument panel, aftermarket seat harness and guns, and resin wheels from my spare parts box (coming most probably from Pavla Gladiator as far as I remember). It seems I am unable to escape the Kora connection though, so decals by Kora. The Kosovo crosses from the kit have been unusable.

 

 

One dilemma. The Hawker book shows the letters B (for Belgrade airport) and the numbers 6 (for 6 LP) on the lower wing surfaces of "black 33", whereas Kora decals show nothing like this for "black 31". The profile in the book is correct. The book contains photos of "black 33" after a crash, with the lower planes clearly visible. There are other photos of airplanes of 6 LP in the book, with the B under the upper wings clearly visible too, so I suppose B was standard. Unfortunately, the undersides of the lower wings are always in rather deep shadows, so I have not been able to find confirmation so far that the number 6 was standard marking too. Any opinion among the more educated forum members?

 

 

Otherwise, I must hope the second volume of the Mushroom Yugoslav Fighter Colours will be published soon enough, and it will contain sufficient additional information to dispel my doubts.

 

The last photo shows the fuselage halves after I removed them from the sprue. Both of them bent outwards, but it was nothing that a nice short bath in hot water would not improve.

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Patrik

[2996 Victor]

Hi Patrik,

Looks like a great start on what should be a really interesting build!

I'll be following along, if I may.

Cheers,

Mark

[Patrik]

Started cleaning up the parts. The fit of the fuselage halves is very satisfactory, nevertheless, the principal challenge in this kit is rather obvious right from the start. I am afraid, it cannot be solved until the fuselage halves are glued together, as it requires both reducing the width of the engine cowling and widening the fuselage at the joint line.

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Patrik

[Mr T]

Hi Patrik, I built the kit for the Interceptor GB and I found it relatively straight forward apart from the issue with the upper fuselage you have highlighted. Some care is needed with the struts as they are very thin and drilling out the location holes is a good idea to make them a little more secure. 

Will watch this with interest. 

[Patrik]

 

1 hour ago, Mr T said:

Hi Patrik, I built the kit for the Interceptor GB and I found it relatively straight forward apart from the issue with the upper fuselage you have highlighted. Some care is needed with the struts as they are very thin and drilling out the location holes is a good idea to make them a little more secure. 

Thanks for the hints. Nice built and result with your Fury in the Interceptor GB, by the way.

[Patrik]

First, I thought I would beat @airscale in cockpit detail😉, but then I thought again, considered the differences in scales and skills, took into account the cockpit occupies whole 1.5 centimetre square, and the results is below. I used Yahu instrument panel, steel seat belts by Eduard, removed the lower part of the rear bulkhead and added the oil tank. The fuel tank will be supplemented later, as part of the solution for widening the top of the front fuselage.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Patrik

[warhawk]

Excellent job so far! I had the same gap at the front when I did my A-model.

Please note that the ventral fuselage fabric detail is missing, and the prop/spinner could use some cleaning up.

Mine was one of the poorer copies, so I ended removing the blades altogether and turning the spinner on a lathe before re-attaching the blades:

https://www.maketarskikutak.com/index.php/topic,9511.msg91911.html#msg91911

[ModelingEdmontonian]

On 4/10/2021 at 11:53 AM, Patrik said:

With the Fairey IIIF completion going along nicely, time to start another book inspired build. This time it was inspired by the book on the left.

 

 

The book was published in Serbia, and made it to me in quite an adventurous way. I bought it directly from the author/publisher (thanks a lot for the friendly inscription, Aleks), who warned me openly about the height of the postage costs. Therefore, I arranged another way. I am in aerial survey business. We do quite a lot together with an Austrian company from the same branch. Now, one of their employees, herself Norwegian, lives partly in Belgrade. She took over the book from the author in Belgrade in August last year. In September we were making aerial survey job in Croatia, she acted as liaison agent for our crew and handed over the book to one of our pilots in Rijeka, who then flew it then back to Czechia. At that moment the only real complication arose, as said pilot refused to hand the book over to me (his boss), before he finished reading it. Then he even started negotiating in the sense that he did not want to part with the book at all. However, you know how it goes, even nice bosses, as (I think) I am, can have convincing arguments ready at hand, if they really need to.😀

 

The book is very interesting, with amazing detail on Fury, Hind and Hurricane in pre-war Yugoslav service, and also on their gallant participation in the defense of the kingdom against the German invasion in April 1941. Highly recommended.

 

Finally to the kit – nicely moulded in satisfactorily hard white plastic, with fine details and engraved panel lines. The dimensions seem to be spot on, the interior details more than adequate and the differences from the standard RAF Fury seem to be very well researched and represented. Therefore, I intend building the kit OOB, with just a few extras in the form of Yahu instrument panel, aftermarket seat harness and guns, and resin wheels from my spare parts box (coming most probably from Pavla Gladiator as far as I remember). It seems I am unable to escape the Kora connection though, so decals by Kora. The Kosovo crosses from the kit have been unusable.

 

 

One dilemma. The Hawker book shows the letters B (for Belgrade airport) and the numbers 6 (for 6 LP) on the lower wing surfaces of "black 33", whereas Kora decals show nothing like this for "black 31". The profile in the book is correct. The book contains photos of "black 33" after a crash, with the lower planes clearly visible. There are other photos of airplanes of 6 LP in the book, with the B under the upper wings clearly visible too, so I suppose B was standard. Unfortunately, the undersides of the lower wings are always in rather deep shadows, so I have not been able to find confirmation so far that the number 6 was standard marking too. Any opinion among the more educated forum members?

 

 

Otherwise, I must hope the second volume of the Mushroom Yugoslav Fighter Colours will be published soon enough, and it will contain sufficient additional information to dispel my doubts.

 

The last photo shows the fuselage halves after I removed them from the sprue. Both of them bent outwards, but it was nothing that a nice short bath in hot water would not improve.

 

Great story indeed, thanks for sharing! I look forward to seeing this one progress. Cockpit looks great!

 

I'm soon to begin a Kingdom of Yugoslavia Hurricane over in my "Hawker Hurricanes around the world project" (as well as Italian and Romanian versions both of which originated in Yugoslavia too!). I bet your book could be a good reference for my builds too! For now I'm relying on these magazine excerpts: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hurricane/RYAF/pages/Hariken-Br.2337-Yuvam-Aeroplan-Mar-Apr-1990-01.html.

[Patrik]

11 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I'm soon to begin a Kingdom of Yugoslavia Hurricane over in my "Hawker Hurricanes around the world project" (as well as Italian and Romanian versions both of which originated in Yugoslavia too!). I bet your book could be a good reference for my builds too!

The book is for sure valuable reference for the Hurricane service in VVKJ, which occupies at least half of the 200 pages total. Including the airplanes taken over by Italy and Romania (with colour profiles), and 6 pages long story of the LVT-1 - DB 601A powered Hurricane. Unfortunately with no photographic evidence, as apparently none survived. I just do not know, what the availability of the book on your side of the big pond could be.

There is another one that may be of interest to you, published quite a short while ago, so not readily available yet even in Europe (except directly from Poland) http://mmpbooks.biz/ksiazki/510. Nevertheless, I am sure this one may be easier to find in a few weeks or so.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Patrik

[2996 Victor]

Hi Patrik and ME,

 

First of all, thanks for the link to the MMP Yugoslav Fighter Colours book - that's a very nice surprise. I've recently bought their Portuguese Fighter Colours book from the same series and it is EXCELLENT!!! 

 

The "Hawker - the Yugoslav Story" book is becoming increasingly difficult to find, I've got my eye on a copy and just hope it's still available on pay-day!

 

Patrik, the Fury is coming along very nicely, the cockpit area looks fantastic if I may say so, and I'm looking forward to seeing your next instalment!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Patrik]

1 minute ago, 2996 Victor said:

First of all, thanks for the link to the MMP Yugoslav Fighter Colours book - that's a very nice surprise. I've recently bought their Portuguese Fighter Colours book from the same series and it is EXCELLENT!!! 

 

The "Hawker - the Yugoslav Story" book is becoming increasingly difficult to find, I've got my eye on a copy and just hope it's still available on pay-day!

 

Patrik, the Fury is coming along very nicely, the cockpit area looks fantastic if I may say so, and I'm looking forward to seeing your next instalment!

Thanks, Mark. I bought Volume 1 of the Yugoslav Fighter Colours, and it is very interesting reading indeed. In my experience it is always best to wait a couple of weeks after the new MMP books are published, because then they are usually available for quite nicely reduced prices.

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, Patrik said:

Thanks, Mark. I bought Volume 1 of the Yugoslav Fighter Colours, and it is very interesting reading indeed. In my experience it is always best to wait a couple of weeks after the new MMP books are published, because then they are usually available for quite nicely reduced prices.

Sound advice! Especially as I've had quite a few books delivered recently, and I think it's begun to be noticed by the "boss"

 

Incidentally, I started watching the YouTube video linked from the MMP site, showing the contents of the book - I had to stop watching though, as the person going through the book was treating it so roughly I was nearly crying!!! 

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Patrik]

19 hours ago, warhawk said:

Excellent job so far! I had the same gap at the front when I did my A-model.

Please note that the ventral fuselage fabric detail is missing, and the prop/spinner could use some cleaning up.

Mine was one of the poorer copies, so I ended removing the blades altogether and turning the spinner on a lathe before re-attaching the blades:

https://www.maketarskikutak.com/index.php/topic,9511.msg91911.html#msg91911

Thanks a lot for the inspirational link, My propeller looks nice. Frankly, I wanted to leave the underside of the fuselage without the fabric detail as it is. However, your build made me start reconsidering it, because it really looks much better after your modification. 

By the way, I had to smile when reading "i ošmirglam ih". I was not aware such Germanisms made it to other Slavic languages than the ones in direct influence of the Austrian Empire (like e.g. Czech). But then, in fact you were our direct neighbours at that time.😉For the uninitiated the word comes from original German "schmirgeln" = to sand with sand paper.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

2 hours ago, Patrik said:

The book is for sure valuable reference for the Hurricane service in VVKJ, which occupies at least half of the 200 pages total. Including the airplanes taken over by Italy and Romania (with colour profiles), and 6 pages long story of the LVT-1 - DB 601A powered Hurricane. Unfortunately with no photographic evidence, as apparently none survived. I just do not know, what the availability of the book on your side of the big pond could be.

There is another one that may be of interest to you, published quite a short while ago, so not readily available yet even in Europe (except directly from Poland) http://mmpbooks.biz/ksiazki/510. Nevertheless, I am sure this one may be easier to find in a few weeks or so.

Over 100 pages of Yugo Hurricanes + Romanian and Italian!?!? Maybe I should ask my library to find it 🤔 

[warhawk]

19 hours ago, Patrik said:

By the way, I had to smile when reading "i ošmirglam ih". I was not aware such Germanisms made it to other Slavic languages than the ones in direct influence of the Austrian Empire (like e.g. Czech).

 

As a matter of fact, I was born in Vojvodina - a Serbian province once a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the most ethnically diverse region in Serbia today - Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians, Croatians - You name it.

There was also a sizeable German population living there right up to the end of WWII, so A LOT of Germanisms got adopted over time by Serbian and other folks.

 

Regarding the Fury - maybe the easier approach would be to apply strips of tape (leaving only narrow slits where ribs should be), sealing it all with sprue-goo and a couple of layers of Surfacer, then just 'schmirgling-it down' to reveal and remove the tape 😜

 

Regards,

Aleksandar

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by warhawk

[Patrik]

Fuselage widened with plastic insert, bulkhead with fuel tank added.

 

 

Which, together with careful modification of the engine top cover, ensured acceptable fit of the latter (not glued yet on the photo below).

 

[Patrik]

Fuselage completed, filled, sanded and cleansed, panel lines rescribed. Added locating pins to the wings, holes for the pins drilled and re-drilled, because of my bad measurement🙂. I also started with the empennage today, and found out that the dorsal spine has to be extended, otherwise the horizontal tail would not fit correctly. The extension is in progress, indicated by the arrow.

 

[Patrik]

Attached lower wings and completed the empennage except tail skid, which will come later, as it is the part most easily harmed by my frequent chaotic hand motions. As suggested by @warhawk I added some detail to the flat ventral part of the fuselage, using my own method of scribing straight grooves, filling them with stretched sprue and than schmirgling them down.🙂 I am sure it will look fine under few coats of silver. Now I am going to take short break, because the replacement decals for my stalled Fairey IIIF build arrived, so Fairey takes precedence now.

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by Patrik

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, Patrik said:

schmirgling

Is this technique patented? If not, I think you should consider it - it sounds rather effective! Perhaps try a coat of Mr Surfacer and a second schmirgle before the silver dope?

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Patrik]

Even as wheelless and propellerless monoplane, the Fury is an elegant machine. Painting started this evening.

 

[Patrik]

Painting in a kind of intermediate state. Basic colours on, details still to be painted. Nice weather, released covid restrictions and EURO 2021 are not exactly progress-supporting factors most recently.😀

 

[Patrik]

After rather unproductive period, once again some progress to show. Supported by the latest addition to my reference books' collection, which - mercifully - did not bring any groundbreaking information for my build, except probably the correct position of the Venturi on the starboard side in front of the cockpit. It also confirmed that the "Lift here" stencil should be written as "Diži ovde", whereas Kora interpreted it as "Hore tunaj" in their decals. Which felt rather suspicious to me from the very start, because it sounded much more like an expression from the dialect used on the Czech-Slovak border than Serbian or Croatian. So unless our Yugoslav colleagues here prove me wrong, I am inclined to think it was meant as joke by Kora. Still not decided, if I should support the joke and actually place the stencil on my model.

 

Now I fully understand, why the model is labelled "For experienced modellers". Because cleaning the mould gates and mould seams from the interplane and central section struts would convince anyone but real seasoned modeller to stop modelling and start with less stressful hobby, like e.g. taming alligators, right away.

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Patrik

[Patrik]

From unknown reason the system failed to recognize the post above as new, so bumping the post this way. Happened to me twice already, although on separated occasions.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

7 hours ago, Patrik said:

After rather unproductive period, once again some progress to show. Supported by the latest addition to my reference books' collection, which - mercifully - did not bring any groundbreaking information for my build, except probably the correct position of the Venturi on the starboard side in front of the cockpit. It also confirmed that the "Lift here" stencil should be written as "Diži ovde", whereas Kora interpreted it as "Hore tunaj" in their decals. Which felt rather suspicious to me from the very start, because it sounded much more like an expression from the dialect used on the Czech-Slovak border than Serbian or Croatian. So unless our Yugoslav colleagues here prove me wrong, I am inclined to think it was meant as joke by Kora. Still not decided, if I should support the joke and actually place the stencil on my model.

 

Now I fully understand, why the model is labelled "For experienced modellers". Because cleaning the mould gates and mould seams from the interplane and central section struts would convince anyone but real seasoned modeller to stop modelling and start with less stressful hobby, like e.g. taming alligators, right away.

 

 

 

Looking so good, and I continue to be jealous of your books! That lovely colour photo of the Hurricane on the front is a real tease!

[Patrik]

On 7/19/2021 at 4:57 AM, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Looking so good, and I continue to be jealous of your books! That lovely colour photo of the Hurricane on the front is a real tease!

Thanks! However, I am afraid the colour photography was just appropriately "photoshopped" for the book cover. The same photo appears on page 48 in its (as I suppose) original panchromatic form, said to be an airplane from the initial batch photographed flying over Brooklands. So I doubt it was colour photo, I am sorry to say.