Supermarine Seafire FR.47; Special Hobby 1/72 - FINISHED

[Johnson]

Well, a few things to learn from, but overall it looks great.

[Ngantek]

On 27/06/2022 at 07:39, bigbadbadge said:

Always a great moment when you get the decals on and you get a idea how the model will look.

Once sealed and washed with what ever you are doing your panel lines in, any poorly defined ones could be pencilled in perhaps???

It is looking good to me,  so great work. 

Chris

 

 

Thanks Chris. They were again a little ill defined. The detail was fairly fine to start with, and my attempt to minimise varnish thickness probably made things a little worse in the end, but I think it's useable. I guess it's an improvement in a way, since post gloss, they're about the same as they were at this stage when I made the Airfix Mark Ia, which as we know doesn't so much have panel lines as panel fjords. Nice idea about pencilling in, I never thought of that.. just a sharp graphite pencil?

 

22 hours ago, Johnson said:

Well, a few things to learn from, but overall it looks great.

yes very many! in the end I've been more conservative on this build than I had originally intended (it being only my third or so, I'm still intending to try new techniques and products as much as possible to learn what I like), but it turns out I still need a lot of practice with the ones I've used before. Worst paint finish and gloss cote application yet! I'm starting to think though, that the really boneheaded stuff (like the decal placement here) might be the unfortunate reality of 'my style'!

 

 

As an update, I've applied a panel line wash... this is something I've always struggled with. For all these lovely youtube videos of pin washes eagerly flowing all along the panel lines at the slightest touch of the brush, I've never had this happen; the surface tension of the wash always seems to dominate, and if anything I get 'beading'. Perhaps I should've tried a drop of washing up liquid or something?? Anyway instead I find I need to 'brush along' the required detail, let dry, then clean up afterwards. The issue arises that on cleaning up, with limited panel definition, it's hard to remove the mess without sweeping the wash out of the detail. 

 

In the past I've applied the wash after sanding down the gloss layer and that had the additional issue of the satin sanded surface gripping the wash and making it dangerous to leave to dry before tidying. In this case, with full gloss, I felt a little more comfortable, and leaving the wash to set for a decent time did help it grip the detail. I'm also (having messed around with washes of just about every sort), starting to settle on oil, which though it takes ages to set, does give you a lot of leeway in messing up. I think with enamel and oil washes, what put me off was the cheap white spirit thinner I was using. To some extent, this was because it's a bit smelly, but mostly added a little too much grubby oilyness to the whole thing. Getting a decent thinner (I tried out VMS universal carrier) keeps it a little tidier.

 

Anyway enough of my gabbing, here's how it ended up this morning. With the limited detail and the firm knowledge that I would make it at least 1700% worse with my dodgy scribing, it took quite a few applications.

 

The cowl area I went with a black-brown; the EDSG a black tinted blue; and the sky, what turned into essentially an EDSG colour. I'm colour blind, so please to say if this looks way off!

 

It's a little heavy in places and a little light in others, but I'm broadly happy. I'll just have to remember to check it over lots of times and carefully before sealing it in (I can already see some seams in the photo), after which we'll sand back, after which I'm hoping, I can pretend the incident involving dodgy gloss optimistically applied over dodgier rough paint never happened.

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

[Ngantek]

So been hacking away at this one for the last few days, and to be honest it's started to get away from me a little bit. I think all stemming from the roughish paint and the decision to try and gloss that, it's all build up a little and got bit bloated and grubby. Most recently, I got rather heavy handed sanding back the gloss layer finally and did quite a bit of damage. Some decals took a hammering and have had to be 'repaired'. The finish had gotten unintentionally rather uneven, and the upshot of sanding back also showed up the panel work to be pretty heavy handed; it's much less subtle than I was aiming for. Ho hum. Here's masking for some of the decal and ID stripe repairs

I cut about 20 circle masks to get it 'just right'. Note also I'd taken the front of the 'P' on the tail fin. Funny story, having masked and painted the front lobe of the P rather nicely, the tape came off and with it the rest of the decal, leaving just the bit I'd managed to sand off! The roundels likewise would get shredded within about 10 minutes of this photo, that tape running over behind the cockpit pulled off the decal carrier film and the nice sling decal over the top with it. In all cases, I thought I'd left some gloss protecting them and so was not at all careful detacking and whatnot, but clearly had gone straight through the layer. I juggled with the idea of putting new ones over the top (there are spares!), but the fight just wasn't in me! I made the mistake of thinking I could repaint the P by hand with predictably dodgy results. Hey ho.

 

Some more decal patchwork.

 

Since then the ailerons got some dark ally (they're clearly replacements in the RATOG photo), various bits of dodgy touching up were done, and I finally gave it some matt varnish, which thankfully toned down some of the contrast and bad paintwork at least a little, and we ended up with this:
 

 

The canopy isn't on yet, but I couldn't resist unwrapping it and opening up the cockpit again. The forward section will need some careful masking and painting when in place to 'hide' the wiggle.

 

Overall, it's looking way too heavy and 'stylised' for my taste, particularly the upper wing panel wash, but I'm fortunate that the matt later hid a vast number of other horrors. Don't judge me too harshly on those panels, it was unintentional and I'm the poor muggins that will have to look at it😆! I think I've struggled so much to get washes to work and particularly over dark colours, that I went all in and got... aaaallll of the panels.

 

Anyone know what colour the 60lb rockets are supposed to be? they're not called out in the instructions, and I'm colourblind! IIRC the airfix had them as a slightly dodgy silver with red warheads, the box looks more green?/brown? all over with a pair of yellow stripes.

 

Anyway, thanks for looking in. I'm getting towards that 'next model please' rush, so frankly anything could happen at this point. All of it bad.

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

 

[Chuuurles]

It’s looking hot, great job! 

[bigbadbadge]

Andy,  it looks great,  you have done a fantastic job  especially with all the issues you mentioned.  Washes can be a pain too but I pencil in some missing lines etc with what ever is to hand really.

Looks great with the Varnish on too.

Cracking work 

Chris

[AliGauld]

What he said 

 

That's looking really really good.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Johnson]

I agree! 

 

And ailerons in NMF - 

 

Looks great Andy.

[Ngantek]

14 hours ago, Chuuurles said:

It’s looking hot, great job! 

 

2 hours ago, AliGauld said:

What he said 

 

That's looking really really good.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks guys! No end of little annoying errors and things that I'm constantly weighing up whether it's worth the effort (and risk!) trying to rectify, but I appreciate the comments. I think on balance I'm happy enough with most of it to forge on, else it'll never get finished. I never really understood modellers saying 'it's never really finished though is it?' until I 'finished' a model myself. 

 

At one point during the sanding, I was beginning to think it might just end up on the shelf of 'should be in the bin but I'm'na pretend I'll do it again someday'; so I'm fortunate that it's come out pretty well in the end. 

 

 

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Andy,  it looks great,  you have done a fantastic job  especially with all the issues you mentioned.  Washes can be a pain too but I pencil in some missing lines etc with what ever is to hand really.

Looks great with the Varnish on too.

Cracking work 

Chris

Thanks Chris. I think I should've been trying to wash the EDSG lines lighter maybe, for a dusty effect. One for next time. Generally I was trying to keep warm colours out of it, as again as I have this entire self created impression that carrier based aircraft don't collect dirt or at least not lots of browny greeny dirt. But probably, dust is dust is dust. Basically I don't like browns and reds and greens (seeing as they all look the same to me) and naval aircraft are a fairly good excuse to avoid them.

 

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

I agree! 

 

And ailerons in NMF - 

 

Looks great Andy.

Thanks, and thanks as well for picking up on those ailerons in the first place, I never would've noticed if you hadn't pointed it out. Adds a bit of interest at least. I've seen a few more photos in Airfix model world from March 2013 (dating to the re-release of the airfix kit; a good source of material for anyone else building a Korean War Seafire, incidentally), and it might just be a lighter shade of EDSG or generic grey that was slapped on; certainly duller or darker than my effort. The RATOG photo however, they really stand out, perhaps due to shine and reflection. Anyway, I'll take the BMF because alcads are cool. 

 

Spend a lot of the day thinking about how to get the right angle on the rather sloppy fit of the landing gear. And seeing lots of wildly different numbers on what that angle should be. 

 

Cheers,
Andy

 

[Ngantek]

Bits and bobs this evening. The gyro gunsight went in. It had a rather uninspiring wedge of styrene on top, so I sanded that out for some acetate cut from one of the posher clear a4 ring binder sheafs.

 

The front canopy has gone on, not quite as well fitting as I remember pre paint. A bit of attempted filling with PVA glue and painting to cover up the wiggle was somewhat unsuccessful (the choice of off black is probably playing against us here) but that will have to do.

 

 

The undercarriage went on... frankly it was a long way out. I'd checked the legs themselves pre paint of course, but didn't think to add the covers in. They needed a fair bit of sanding back to allow the legs to even reach the holes, let alone get a good connection. With a dab of cement on the leg and a dab of CA on the recessed cover, I think it's held in position to the best of my very technical 'that looks probably sort of right maybe' approach. I might yet need to cheat and un flat one wheel to make up the 1mm odd of wingtip droop.

 

So many little things! Landing lights! Rockets! Rear cockpit! Find a way to bodge some replacement wingtip lights which seem to have pinged out. Aiyee. I'll be off on holiday next week, so looks like that might be it for now. Seems close but I know well enough by now that these little finishing jobs really build up, so on balance better to just take it easy and pick it up next week.

 

Cheerio!

Andy

 

 

[Learstang]

My tuppence is you've done a smashing job on her - very nice indeed! When I get back to my SH FR.47, I certainly hope she turns out nearly as well.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Ngantek]

10 hours ago, Learstang said:

My tuppence is you've done a smashing job on her - very nice indeed! When I get back to my SH FR.47, I certainly hope she turns out nearly as well.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Hehe thanks. You'll struggle to find more ways of messing up than I have for sure! Most of the builds of this kit on the forums seem to have been from very accomplished modellers, so a lot of the kit issues are not discussed, although there are the odd pointers here and there, and no end of helpful advice shared by people on this thread.

 

I was planning to add 'beginners debrief' when I'm done, to go over some of the specific issues I found, that hopefully will be helpful to anyone else doing this kit.

 

I snapped one of the legs off this morning in the time honoured fashion of 'testing the glue by wiggling the thing till it breaks'. It being the 'high side' I used the opportunity to make some minor adjustments so hopefully it sits a little better now. 

 

I couldn't resist posing some bits to have a look last night so I'll put the photos here in lieu of any real progress for the next week. The spinner is black rather than the real 'fresh darker EDSG' entirely because I think it looks better.

 

 

[Learstang]

The black spinner looks good on her. That massive propeller unit was such an identifying feature of the FR.47 (and FR.46) that anything that brings it out more is a good thing, in my opinion.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Galligraphics]

This is looking really good  - the kit is certainly a lot nicer than the old Rareplanes vacform which I made back in the 80s.

[Cookenbacher]

Been watching this one from afar, but am back at my computer where I can post how much I'm enjoying seeing this one come together - looks so sharp in Sky and EDSG.

[Ngantek]

On 01/07/2022 at 17:04, Learstang said:

The black spinner looks good on her. That massive propeller unit was such an identifying feature of the FR.47 (and FR.46) that anything that brings it out more is a good thing, in my opinion.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Yeah it's a bit of a love or hate aspect of the design I suspect. I have a soft spot for 'silliness' when it comes to aircraft design, and while the contrarotating props serve a very sensible engineering purpose, they also qualify under that category in my eyes as well. I think the first really nice build of the airfix kit that I saw way back when had a black spinner, and that probably affected what looks 'right' to me.

 

On 01/07/2022 at 21:55, Galligraphics said:

This is looking really good  - the kit is certainly a lot nicer than the old Rareplanes vacform which I made back in the 80s.

Thanks! I have one of those also in the stash. It's looking a bit battle hardened, and I hear it's more like 1/75 scale, but I thought it might one day be a fun first foray into vacform kits.

15 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Been watching this one from afar, but am back at my computer where I can post how much I'm enjoying seeing this one come together - looks so sharp in Sky and EDSG.

Thanks for stopping by! Yes there's something about the high demarcation sky/EDSG which is just perfect somehow, at least to my eye. I'm a bit of a slow builder but hopefully not much longer on this one. 

 

Back from holiday so I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to chisel out a few hours here and there this week to finally get this one done.

 

Cheers,

Andy

[fatalbert]

Absolutely stunning work,what it needs though,is a Firefly FR1 in korean war markings as a stable mate 😜.

[Ngantek]

56 minutes ago, fatalbert said:

Absolutely stunning work,what it needs though,is a Firefly FR1 in korean war markings as a stable mate 😜.

You're very kind! I think stunning might be a stretch, but I'm broadly happy with how it's turned out so far. 

As to the Firefly, I heartily agree! I've not managed to find one as yet, but your comment had me browsing all the usual sources to see if anything has turned up. The old special hobby kits in 1/72 are rather hard to come by. That said, since I have a couple of the Airfix FR47 kits, perhaps I could stretch to 1/48 "just this once". (and I wonder why the stash is out of control!). Anyone know if the pavla kits are any good?

 

I always thought the chin intake of the Mk.Vs matched the FR.47's really nicely, but alas history did not agree with me on that point 😀.

[Ngantek]

Quick update, lots of fiddly bits tonight, exhausts, rocket mounts, pitots, tail wheel guard, cockpit door, ID(?) signalling(?) lights, them blimming cannon barrels. Quite a bit of fussy airbrush work slowed it down, redoing the exhausts, tidying the cannons. The exhausts all seem to have that silvery gleam in the pictures I can see, rather than that rusty brown thang, so I've gone with a fairly lazy option of alclad burnt iron with some steel highlighting over the top. Not quite right, but it'll do for me! There was some nice PE behind the pilot's head that, as is becoming traditional, got lost sometime around the tea break. If it doesn't turn up tomorrow, it'll have to be the plastic instead.

Almost there, I don't think I'll be weathering it; partly because I've made it so messy already, and partly because the smoke and oil stains seem to have been cleaned pretty regularly. Plus I'm lazy. The big outstanding job is making some wingtip lights to replace the ones that have gone missing over the last few months.

Cheers,

Andy

[AdrianMF]

Looking very nice indeed! I think it looks just right for a well-maintained airframe.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Ngantek]

22 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking very nice indeed! I think it looks just right for a well-maintained airframe.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian. You're enabling my laziness! 

A lot of the photos of 800 NAS have these sharp oil splatters from the exhausts which seem to have been cleaned up; a lot of the really nice builds here replicate that beautifully, but I think both because I don't have the cohones to try, and also because it's a nice looking aircraft that looks good clean, I think I'll stay away. The exhausts are perhaps a little bright so I might try some very thin dirty brown spraying in situ, which will probably (through overspray) create a bit of a smoke around them, but we'll see.

 

Spent a good amount of yesterday evening trying to fettle up some wing lights. One of the most fiddly and comparatively unrewarding jobs (they being so small!). It was hard to sand the originals and harder to make new ones once they'd popped out. I settled on dremelling down a big chunk of clear sprue (to leave a handle), and the hand working and polishing it to the final shape; but once cut off, I found it really hard to make the final adjustments without rounding down at the wrong angle. Holding with tweezers risks pinging them off into the ether, blu-tack on a stick lacks firm enough hold, and fingers are just too large. Any suggestions on how to deal with these kinds of parts? In the end I just plugged the gaps and overhangs with CA glue and will try my best to sand them flush and the repolish later, hopefully without destroying the paintwork surrounding.

Otherwise the rockets got some Sky since I had it out (lazy approximation for the eau de nil band), and some lightened XF11 on the rocket body. Later I'll put a bit of olive green on the warhead and some detail painting on the supports, and hopefully they'll be ready.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[AdrianMF]

15 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

trying to fettle up some wing lights

Sounds awfully fiddly! I’ve tended to glue a plastic blob in place (if you heat it up enough to soften it first you can squish it a bit to get a good fit in the nook) after sawing it to a rough fit. Then I can sand it down and polish it in place, all the time trying to sand towards the join so it doesn’t ping off towards the carpet!
 

I also have some clear uv resin and a uv torch for around a fiver, and on my Pegasus Albacore build I tried a couple of drops of that instead of a chunk of plastic - still needed sanding down from its natural blob shape but I think it was slightly easier.

….and TBH I thought the build you referenced was a bit too weathered for my taste. I like your idea of drifting a tiny bit of smoke over the exhausts.

Regards,

Adrian

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looks good to me Andy having just caught up again.  You are very nearly there now, the UV glue that Adrian mentioned is great stuff and use it a lot for making lights although I have not used it for the wingtip nave lights like this before, but can recommend it generally. 

Good luck with the last bits and bobs, looking forward to seeing it in all it's brutish glory.

Great work 

Chris

[Ngantek]

Behold! Model The Fourth is finished*, yea verily!

 

 

 

The final final assembly has turned into a bit of an exercise in probability, finding a moment when the thing existed without any of the 1700 tiny little things knocked off. The rockets are held on in about as waffer thiiin a fashion as possible and the addition of all the pitots and aerials leave basically no safe way of handling the thing anymore. I managed to drop the thing on its gear and popped one clean out and bent the other, so I think I'll leave it a night before taking some proper photos and posting an RFI. Probably it will never exist intact again, so I snapped some quick photos as proof! I might also for my own benefit, just go over some lessons learned, both about this kit, and in general. 

 

It's been a bit of marathon for a wee single engined 1/72 beastie, but we got there in the end. I've had a lovely time building it, and thanks to all who've helped, encouraged, and suffered the misfortune of clicking on this thread. 

 

 

7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Sounds awfully fiddly! I’ve tended to glue a plastic blob in place (if you heat it up enough to soften it first you can squish it a bit to get a good fit in the nook) after sawing it to a rough fit. Then I can sand it down and polish it in place, all the time trying to sand towards the join so it doesn’t ping off towards the carpet!
 

I also have some clear uv resin and a uv torch for around a fiver, and on my Pegasus Albacore build I tried a couple of drops of that instead of a chunk of plastic - still needed sanding down from its natural blob shape but I think it was slightly easier.

….and TBH I thought the build you referenced was a bit too weathered for my taste. I like your idea of drifting a tiny bit of smoke over the exhausts.

Regards,

Adrian

 

Some great tips, thank you! The heating idea is an excellent one, as is this magical UV resin, both of which I have a go at when it next comes up. It had toyed with the idea of building a masking tape jig and filling it with CA, or PVA or thickened Klear or some other misguided concoction, but this resin sounds like the stuff. I had missed your Albacore, it is lovely, I'll be lining that up for a good read later. 

 

And yeah I kinda agree on the weathering, my taste like yours runs to lighter and cleaner, but the build is very impressive nonetheless.

 

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looks good to me Andy having just caught up again.  You are very nearly there now, the UV glue that Adrian mentioned is great stuff and use it a lot for making lights although I have not used it for the wingtip nave lights like this before, but can recommend it generally. 

Good luck with the last bits and bobs, looking forward to seeing it in all it's brutish glory.

Great work 

Chris

Thanks Chris, I will definitely check it out then!

 

 

 

Right so what next... I had initial intended to fit in another build, but this one has taken long enough, that I think it'll be a ship! The 80th anniversary of Operation Pedestal is fast approaching, and I was hoping to build my grandpa's destroyer around that time, so extrapolating my rate of progress, I'd better get a move on with that! WiP below for anyone interested.

 

That said, I wouldn't mind something simple and easy fitting as a palate cleanser. Not that this was an horrific kit by any means, but something gentle to build in the background would be appreciated. Here are some suggestions:

I got very envious during Chris' @bigbadbadge lovely build of the Martlet, so that's a possibility. Not much new stuff particularly to try on that one, I'll probably use it as an excuse to try some different materials, such as colourcoats and other varnishes. Airfix's new Tempest would be another option here. I hear SBS kits fit beautifully, but it would be my first foray into resin. Anyone have an idea about the relative 'ease' of one of these lovely kits? That would be a chance to work on nice gloss finish. The stash is frankly way out of control, so there's a plethora of things that fit the bill. 

 

Anyway, cheers for looking in

Andy

 

[Learstang]

Brilliant job on the Seafire! I think it has the proper amount of weathering - from what I've read and seen, I believe the RN tried to keep their aircraft in pretty good nick. I suppose I should get back to my SH FR.47 now, seeing how beautiful it looks built up. The FR.47 was definitely a very different-looking aeroplane (and was very different) from the somewhat dainty-looking Type 300.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

Edited July 13, 2022 by Learstang

[bigbadbadge]

The Seafire looks wonderful,  great work and persistence Special Hobby kits are nice, but are limited run and now you have completed one you will be able to tackle pretty much anything.  

The Martlet is a cracking kit and you will enjoy that, may be worth doing that as a rest before tackling another more complicated kit   I enjoyed it so much I got another 😉

 

Great work 

Chris