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Fairey Firefly FR1


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As seems to be my habit recently I came across this when looking for something else. 

 

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and one of the options is for 826 Squadron of the RCN. 

 

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The kit is an early Special Hobby kit (2003 according to Scalemates) and has a real 'limited release' look about it. There's a lot of flash on the three grey sprues and the surface is a little rough. But the transparencies look nice. 

 

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There's a lot of resin, which is much more delicately and finely moulded than the Injection plastic. 

 

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Good selection of transfers and some film for the IP. 

 

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And a small bit of etch. 

 

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Reasonable instructions and although they do suffer from the usual SH mode of 'stick this piece somewhere round here' there are some detail drawings. 

 

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And decent colour call outs and transfer application guides. 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I've been finishing off some other builds, as well as concentrating on a fairly challenging resin kit with a complex colour scheme so this has been sitting on the back burner, with bits being done from time to time. I've removed many of the interior parts from their moulding blocks, the vast majority being resin. In general beautifully moulded but big blocks and really hard resin. I suspect there will be some fairly aggressive scrapping needed to get the wheel wells into the wings. And possibly the cockpit into the fuselage.  There were substantial ejection pins on the large fuselage and wing parts which have been removed 

 

Anyway some paint on many of the detail parts. A bit more to go before the glue tube is got out but moving along. 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I’ve returned to the Firefly and cleaned up a lot of the resin parts, many of which have large amounts of extra resin that needed sanded off. Most of the interior parts painted and assembly started. There is a lot of detail, but I suspect much won’t be visible. I will try and highlight everything with a dry brushing of some aluminium paint to lift the detail. 
 

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There’s not many plastic parts to this kit but a lot of resin. 

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Interior complete, apart from a sliver of black pint to go on the top of the control column. The detail is nice and dry brushing* has highlighted it but to be honest once everything is closed up not much will be seen. The IP IS 5 parts, a resin base, two films and two etches, but nothing can be seen until the panel was dry brushed with aluminium. 
 

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Paint on some more of the resin and dry brushed with aluminium. There is more, or probably not quite the right, resin than strictly necessary for the kit. The cheek intake fronts are just pieces of resin, which aren’t quite the right size, no moulding or hollow front and could easily have been injection moulded. While the ASH radar pod is of two sides of injection moulding, and will sand and polish up OK, but it would have been ideal as a one part resin piece. The less said about the radar pod support the better. But that’s for later. 
 

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All the interior parts inserted. Not quite ready to close up as there’s a little tidying up needed. Also there’s an insert for the arrest or hook that SH suggest adding before closing. I’ve had problems with this approach before so I’ll add a couple of plastic card supports inside before I .close up and add it afterwards. This means I can trim it to fit rather than end up with something misaligned. I don’t know why SH have done this as the Firefly is always going to have an arrestor hook. I can understand with a Seafire where a Spitfire fuselage can be used, and similarly with a Sea Hurricane but not a dedicated naval aircraft. Anyway utilises one’s modelling skills. 
 

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Also the wheel well inserts in. Not quite symmetrical but I think that’s the well opening which I can fix once everything is solid. 
 

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Fuselage closed up. On dry fit everything was fine but once glue was added everything went awry. It took a fair amount of time, lots of patience tape all over the place and some brute force. And the equipment shelf in the rear part of the observer’s cockpit came off. 
 

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Thankfully once some filler added and a bit of sanding down things don’t look too bad. Though I think the cowling will need a bit more work. 
 

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The lower wing took a lot of cleaning up to get it to fit. The fuselage had a big chunk of extra plastic blocking it and there was resin that needed trimmed. 
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tailplane on, butt join and the joins needed sanded smooth before attaching. But have gone on well and ended up with a form join. 
 

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Upper wings on 

 

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Canopies removed from the sprue and cleaned up. 

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Fit checked before dipping in Klear. 

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A little bit of fettling needed   

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It is fighting me all the way. I’ve had to glue parts of the wings together at least three times, hence the tape. The seams just don’t seem to want to go away, despite layers of Perfect Plastic Putty and Mr Surfacer, sanded and polished down, when paint goes on there’s a tiny seam or imperfections. I’ll keep on working on it but it’s slowing things down. It looks good as long as you don’t look too close. 
 

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That doesn't sound fun. I had a similar problem with seams on the F-5 I'm building. After three rounds of filling and sanding, I just gave up and decided to live with it. Good luck fixing yours.

 

James

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It's really annoying when seams won't disappear.  For what's it's worth, try putting more coats of primer on and then sanding very gently, so that you don't get back to bare plastic.  It's sometimes the contrast in surface texture (primer v plastic), that remains visible.  Hope that makes sense!

 

Cheers

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I have had success with sanding gently, running extra thin cyanoacrylate along the seam and sanding again, the sanded paint/plastic/glue becomes a good filler. Just let the cyanoacrylate partially dry, the sweet spot is when it is the same hardness as the plastic for sanding. All this takes less than a minute and the good news as you can scribe and paint it within minutes. 

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I had lost sight of this since your first posts, I've now followed it through & I'm impressed with your perseverance at what appears to be a challenging kit, pity that 'cause guess who has one in stock. :( :shrug:

You appear to be overcoming the hassles well though & it is looking very promising. :)

Steve.

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I am hanging on in there and I think I’ve finally got the seams beat. Or beaten enough that I can live with. Some more paint on and the interiors finished. I’ve masked the canopies with a Montex mask. I’m not a fan of vinyl masks as they aren’t good for curves but this has gone on reasonably well. It’s also the only game in town. 
 

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On 10/14/2022 at 2:01 PM, zebra said:

You're beating it into submission! Hang in there, just a bit more than a week to go, you can do it!

 

Thanks Zebra, it does feel like I’m fighting it every way. 
 

The transparencies on and despite my fettling and dry fitting to get a good fit once glue is applied it all seems to go to pot and a fair amount of filler and cleaning up was required. I’m not sure it’s perfect but I’ve got to the stage that I’ll live with it. 
 

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And now masked up for the Extra Dark Sea Grey. 
 

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Im hopeful I’ll have the painting done by 5he end of today and perhaps the transfers on but the undercarriage is really complex with a mixture of plastic, resin and etch so I’m not hopeful of getting over the finishing line in time. 

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Missed this one so far, but well done for sticking with it! Looks like it really doesn't want to make it easy! 

 

Looks like all your patience and perseverence is paying off. In the true style of SH, I'm sure it'll turn into a great model once you've endured the prerequisite misery. 

 

I managed to snag a copy of this kit recently after much searching, and all that resin looks totally out of proportion as you say. I'll certainly be referring back! Good to hear about the montex going down nicely, as you say it's the only game in town for this kit but I never trust vinyl either, nor do I relish the idea of cutting a firefly greenhouse from scratch!

 

Great job, keep at it! Looks like you've got the worst bit beaten.

 

Andy

 

 

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8 hours ago, Ngantek said:

Missed this one so far, but well done for sticking with it! Looks like it really doesn't want to make it easy! 

 

Looks like all your patience and perseverence is paying off. In the true style of SH, I'm sure it'll turn into a great model once you've endured the prerequisite misery. 

 

I managed to snag a copy of this kit recently after much searching, and all that resin looks totally out of proportion as you say. I'll certainly be referring back! Good to hear about the montex going down nicely, as you say it's the only game in town for this kit but I never trust vinyl either, nor do I relish the idea of cutting a firefly greenhouse from scratch!

 

Great job, keep at it! Looks like you've got the worst bit beaten.

 

Andy

 

 

Thanks Andy, it has been a challenge though it does look good. Though much of the resin is unnecessary and the detail could be easily replicated in injection plastic. 

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Some paint on now. 
 

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Looks not too bad with the masking off. 
 

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The transparencies unmasked and it’s a bit of a curates egg, there’s a bit of cleaning up needed. I’ll wait till I’ve put a new scalpel blade in. It’s not irretrievable but will take a little bit of work. 
 

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Transfers on, went on fine, lovely register. Getting the small maple leaves aligned took a wee bit of time. 
 

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Still have to put on the serial but I’ll wait till the rest are firmed up and dry. 

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I was a bit apprehensive about the undercarriage, especially with there being four resin struts on each side but went together OK and without much of a problem. 
 

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I was also worried about the cannon, drilling holes in leading edges is never easy, but there’s a panel moulded on which makes fitting straightforward as well as giving a reasonable surface for glue. 
 

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Props painted but that spinner will need a bit of tidying up. 
 

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Cannons on and the spinner has cleaned up nice. 
 

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I was worried that I wouldn’t finish this in time but it looks like I should finish off tomorrow. Just some tidying up, the undercart doors, the prop and radar on, along with a small amount of sticky out bits. Hopefully in the gallery. 

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Last few bits attached. Not quite there but close. The radar pod was really fiddly but I got there in the end, albeit not perfect. 
 

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