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

[Galligraphics]

Lovely job 

[Johnson]

Hi Andy,

 

I'm in complete agreement with the above, Alex's Seafire is a great model but somewhat over-weathered as can be seen in the photo of the actual plane. Jason is quite correct, the FAA kept their planes in very good order as one might expect.

 

You model is cracking! Absolutely love it, your first photo in the post above is fantastic (and makes me want to get on with mine... so many kits to make).

 

All the best,

[Ngantek]

5 hours ago, Learstang said:

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

Thanks Jason, yes it's absolutely one of the most beautiful aircraft to my eye, and I think the SH kit does it justice. The wingtips are perhaps a shade out, nose a smidge stubby and spinner a touch 'nosey'; but I don't see the issues without carefully looking for them; the overall effect looks great to me.

 

I'd love to build a type 300 one day for a nice comparison but in the meantime there is this.

What's surprising to me is how relatively unchanged the size is, despite packing in well over twice the power. I've always thought of the late griffon marks as 'big beasts' but what's amazing is how much they aren't actually.

 

It's a nice comparison on personal level for me also since the mk 1 was my first kit back to the hobby a few months ago and this one was done with much the same paints and techniques.

 

 

5 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

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

Thanks Chris, yeah I've overall had a positive feeling out of this kit. It was difficult in places, unclear or downright bizarre in others and every bit required a fair amount of work; very little fit right out of the box. But I think if you take an unhurried approach and take as long as it needs to fettle and dry fit, it builds into a really nicely detailed, tight fitting kit. I built it to get experience with limited run kits and while I suspect it's a relatively 'easy' modern one, I'm very happy to have done it. It certainly taught me a lot about the virtues of fitting properly rather than glueing in hope and remedying with lots of filler afterwards.

 

As to the Martlet, I couldn't resist, having quickly wandered into the office to pack my work bag, I ended up happily snipping and tidying bits off fresh sprue for the next hour. If you build as slowly as I do, the joy of a brand new kit is a rare event to savour. 

 

Cheers,

Andy

[Ngantek]

5 hours ago, Galligraphics said:

Lovely job 

 

5 hours ago, Johnson said:

Hi Andy,

 

I'm in complete agreement with the above, Alex's Seafire is a great model but somewhat over-weathered as can be seen in the photo of the actual plane. Jason is quite correct, the FAA kept their planes in very good order as one might expect.

 

You model is cracking! Absolutely love it, your first photo in the post above is fantastic (and makes me want to get on with mine... so many kits to make).

 

All the best,

Thanks very much guys! I'm pretty happy with the result, despite seeing all its flaws, and if you'd showed me a picture of how it turned out when I started, I'd have been very surprised (and skeptical!). I really thought this was destined to become a paint mule.

 

Do have a go if you get the chance, I wouldn't say it's a joyous fun build at any point, but very rewarding. I think SH made it good in most of the right places so that it comes out into a nice model if one takes their time. The horror of stashes lies mainly in how much great stuff we never get around to!

Cheers, Andy

 

Oh a few more pics since I couldn't resist. Not so much of the build, it's such a great looking aeroplane. I wish I didn't build it with rockets in the end!

 

 

 

 

[mark.au]

I just caught up with this one and as you may be able to guess by the “like” bomb I just dropped, I like what you’ve achieved here very much.  For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’ve landed with a overly stylised model, the flat finish really does knock that down.  Nice work!

[Learstang]

As you said, Andy, the kit is a bit off in the wingtips, and the length of the fuselage, but every kit I've ever seen built looks very much the part, and yours is no exception. I found my half-built example, so I suppose I need to get back to it.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[stevehnz]

That is impressively good looking, in spite of the "sport" you had with it.       

Steve.

[AliGauld]

That is a beautiful Seafire. Cracking Job.

I've built the SBS Comet and as a resin kit it requires care but the fit is utterly gorgeous and it builds into a lovely kit.

Give it a go you'll have a blast.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Ngantek]

On 14/07/2022 at 00:34, mark.au said:

I just caught up with this one and as you may be able to guess by the “like” bomb I just dropped, I like what you’ve achieved here very much.  For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’ve landed with a overly stylised model, the flat finish really does knock that down.  Nice work!

Thanks Mark, that's very kind. I think the fuselage has turned out okay, really it's panels and highlighting around the wheel bumps on the upper wing that are a little too on the nose. I think, with my terrible history of not-washes, that I just went full in, expecting it to all disappear again. I suspect there's a certain silliness creeping in also... 'I paid for panel lines so now I'm going to wash them AAAALLL. No waste!'. But yeah thanks I'm overall pretty happy.

 

23 hours ago, Learstang said:

As you said, Andy, the kit is a bit off in the wingtips, and the length of the fuselage, but every kit I've ever seen built looks very much the part, and yours is no exception. I found my half-built example, so I suppose I need to get back to it.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

Great, I'm looking forward to seeing it! As you say, it looks the part as a kit.

 

13 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That is impressively good looking, in spite of the "sport" you had with it.       

Steve.

Yes I think I spent more time fixing mistakes that actually progressing the thing, but that's not down to the kit, just my incompetence! They journey is the reward as they say and whatnot. Anyway thanks for looking in, and for your kind words!

 

12 hours ago, AliGauld said:

That is a beautiful Seafire. Cracking Job.

I've built the SBS Comet and as a resin kit it requires care but the fit is utterly gorgeous and it builds into a lovely kit.

Give it a go you'll have a blast.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Cheers, Alistair. I felt like the Benny Hill music was playing in the background at times, but we got there. Nice to hear about the comet, I'll be looking forward to it!

 

Cheers,

Andy

[Ngantek]

So as promised, a quick overview of the kit and build. Note this is very much with the beginner's eye, and will probably be rather superfluous for more experienced builders:

 

-Overall it's a decent kit. Everything needs some work, and it appears to me that SH's tolerance strategy is to oversize all of the mating surfaces to ensure there's material to remove rather than gaps that require making up. I think this is broadly sensible. It does mean that the finished result, with the caveats discussed above, can create a very nice kit. Just make sure to clean and fit everything early, before you've created a lot of lovely paintwork that will need destroying. In the end, the only major need for filler was on the leading edge whose fit I'd 'modified' when shortening the wing root.

 

-Surface detail is very nice. Some distortion existed on mine, and detail on the curving sides unsurprisingly needs rescribing in places.

 

-locating pins were generally in the wrong place and needed removing. 

 

-The cockpit and particularly the instrument panel is very much an abstraction of the real design to allow the out of scale plastic thickness to have mating surfaces. The big headscratcher is the gap left between the instrument panel and front of the cockpit. I'm fairly sure the 'designed' location is as I've installed it, with this gap. I opted to underlay with styrene and fill to some arbitrary shape. 

 

-Make sure the wheel bay sides are properly squared off and the fit is as sharp and snug as possible before you install. Even so, mine required a lot of material to be removed from the wheel bays to allow the wings to close. The wings didn't need extra curvature to meet the fuselage wing roots in my case (except self-created issues).

 

-The overall wing fit had some issues. In my case, following it around, it seemed pretty clear that the bulk of this was caused by the port fuselage wing root being significantly too long; everything else seemed actually pretty bang on. You will thank yourself later to really take time over dry fitting and rechecking this process.

 

-The choice of canopy comes down to both 2 designs used. For the more complicated panel one used on VP480 (and I used in this kit), SH produced a bodged version of the standard spitfire front canopy, and is consequently a bit off. It'll be very noticeable if you choose to pose the canopy closed, as seen in this lovely build, showing up the odd bump that SH have put in it. I'd go with the other design if you want it closed, or an aftermarket alternative; it is however a weird cockpit shape, so I don't know how well an alternative canopy will fit. People have suggested the rear canopy also had fit issues, mine wasn't too bad.

 

-The spinner needed some work for me; others have reported it leaving a step with the fuselage (mine didn't, ish). The shape leaves a little too much discontinuity where it meets the fuselage in any case, so some reshaping might produce good results.

 

-The chin intake is a little rough, and benefits from drilling out. I'd do this in situ after installation and is not a huge job.

 

-take care with the underside decals and the positioning of the wing ID stripes (if you chose to paint that scheme); the bands need to be in exactly the right place for the decals to fit between them and the wheel bay. Also don't be an eejit when putting those decals on. 

 

-Take care with the wheel fit; the inner covers don't squeeze into the gap between the legs and the sidewall, and need significant thinning and reshaping. Even then, the legs fully inserted into the holes (if that is even possible with the wheel covers!) will leave them too short. 

 

-The rocket mounts are one of the dodgier bits of the kit and in retrospect, I'd rather have not installed the rockets. I believe the front parts are cast with the angle too large and on the wrong side, and the aft parts have a large aero bulb (which can be seen in photos, but I have a suspicion was an an aero 'cover' for when rockets were not carried. There's no locating holes for these, and indeed no pins that would mate with those holes. 

 

-The kit has a huge number of spares, seemingly to produce just about any late mark griffon.

 

-Overall it takes a reasonable amount of work, but is worth the effort. Just don't be in a hurry!

 

I found good pictures of this aircraft in the March 2013 issue of Airfix Model world (which can be found on pocketmags), and in the Seafire issue of Fleet Air Arm Legends by Matthew Willis, that I stumbled upon in a WH Smiths. 

 

Cheers,
Andy

[Ngantek]

RFI is here for reference.

 

[TonyOD]

Fantastic job. That big prop looks the business.

[Mark]

Oh WOW!! That is superb! My second favourite Spitfire / Seafire mark, after the Mk.IX of course!

 

Beautiful work and a model to be truly proud of. 🥰

[Moggy]

On 10/06/2022 at 15:40, Chuuurles said:

My noobs guide to model scales 😛 

 

1/72 - for kids 

1/48 - the gentleman’s scale 

1/32 - boomer scale 

1/24 - giga chad

 

Amazing work on the canopy masking. No chance I would have the patience or steady hands for that! 

 

I made this little doggerel (firmly tongue in cheek) a long time ago:

 

1/32 is for optically challenged people - the parts are so big that one can build it by touch only

1/48 is for people that had problems med Duplo bricks being too small

1/72 is the gentleman's scale - because size does not matter but detail and execution is everything

1/144 is the bonsai scale - for people that like to torture very small trees

 

I'm running for cover in my (small) cat bunker 🤪

 

BTW the problem med appreciation of highly detailed 1/72 models is that you HAVE to look from  6 inches max distance 😜

I put that it in my S.79 model description at a competition; the judges had a laugh an I got a win ! 😊

 

Cheers, Moggy

[TonyOD]

11 hours ago, Moggy said:

1/32 is for optically challenged people - the parts are so big that one can build it by touch only

1/48 is for people that had problems med Duplo bricks being too small

1/72 is the gentleman's scale - because size does not matter but detail and execution is everything

1/144 is the bonsai scale - for people that like to torture very small trees

 

I have just made what I'm calling a "natural migration" from 1/72 to 1/48, on account of my not-what-it-once-was eyesight... I guess I'm galloping towards 1/32!

[Ngantek]

On 20/10/2022 at 22:03, TonyOD said:

Fantastic job. That big prop looks the business.

Thanks. Yeah it's a little overlong, the cowl being a touch short, but the double spinner is such a dominant feature of this aircraft, I don't think the inaccuracy really stands out.

 

On 20/10/2022 at 22:21, Mark said:

Oh WOW!! That is superb! My second favourite Spitfire / Seafire mark, after the Mk.IX of course!

 

Beautiful work and a model to be truly proud of. 🥰

Thanks! It's a lovely aircraft isn't it, oddly I think the best looking one being the most distant from the original design. But do have a quick search, there are some really fantastic builds of this kit on the forums. 

Andy