Restoring A 1/72 Frog Fairey Firefly Mk.1

[bigbadbadge]

Great Progress Brian,  definitely looking Firefly like now and looking good, some lovely extra details fella.

Cracking work.   Happy New Year to you and yours. 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great Progress Brian,  definitely looking Firefly like now and looking good, some lovely extra details fella.

Cracking work.   Happy New Year to you and yours. 

Chris

Thank you very much Chris.

Happy new year to you as well.

 

[Back in the Saddle]

Impressive work again, this will look great when finished!

[Brigbeale]

I printed the propeller bearing today and offered it up to the propeller. The fit was very good on the shaft and the intended movement was there on the fuselage to align the spinner with the fuselage. 
While taking the photos, I dropped the bearing, felt it hit my foot and that was the last I saw if it despite 10 minutes looking for it. I just printed another fully expecting the original to suddenly pop up somewhere obvious - but it hasn’t yet. 
 

Tonight I started by sanding back the Mr Surfacer again. 
Then it was into filling the wing to fuselage joints and the underwing gaps where the wings and centre sections meet using my Revell Plasto filler. 
After about 20 minutes, it was dry enough to sand back. 
Once the sanding was done, it was time (again) to clear the panel lines out.

 

The next step was to cut the Falcon vac formed canopy sections to replace the originals.

The instructions say the canopy is designed to be slid back if required. Looking closely at the canopy, I couldn’t see a clear cut line between the fixed and sliding sections, so I’m considering leaving it closed (although I may change my mind, take a brave pill and go for it). 
The instructions state the rear canopy requires the front section of the kit opening to be removed to allow the canopy itself to be placed in, which seems simple enough, but I’ve got a radio added in under that section so avoiding that will be fun. The rear canopy also has a section which can be left open, but that’s also not very well defined, so again it may remain closed.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Blooming typical that the carpet monster got the bearing, still at least that's your sacrifice sorted so you should be safe for a while Brian.  Nice job on the bearing and the canopies too.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

I’ve now decided the canopies are staying closed!

 

Work re-commenced in the rear canopy getting it to fit as per the Falcon instructions as it’s the neater fit - rather than trying to get the triangular side windows to match the opening on the fuselage.

 

With a Tamiya 0.1mm saw, the front of the opening was cut away - missing the radio - and the sides filed down level with the added ‘office’ to remove the excess glue which held the original canopy in position. a knife was used to shave the corners square as I couldn’t get the file in there.

The canopy was trimmed at the front by marking the outside with the tip of the knife where the fuselage opening could be seen underneath. 
The excess was then simply cut off with a pair of scissors, and sanded smooth. 
More sanding and checking happened to get the canopy to fit into the opening so the top and sides fitted in. I think I’m about there.

 

Now the time consuming bit - masking the canopy itself

I started by trying the original canopy’s nicely exaggerated framing to cut a couple of masks as the replacement’s framing is very shallow and can’t be cut easily. The problem is that the framing spacing is different sizing on the Falcon one, so that idea was scrapped.

So I resorted to my usual method of adding short strips of masking to frame each window. Now- being essentially a greenhouse, that would have taken me absolutely ages to complete.

So I had an idea of adding long strips lengthways and then sideways over the top to make simulate the framing - Burberry style!
The idea was, where the framing met, the tape would be cut away to form the cross part. The only issue with that was, as the tape is thin, it moves when it’s being cut -even with a brand new blade.

Another idea popped in there. As I’ve got to cover the windows with masking solution anyway to fill in the squares, why not use the solution to fix the tape in position, let it set and then cut the framing crosses out later.

So, using a cocktail stick each window segment was filled in making sure the solution went onto the tape to secure it.

 

We will have to see if it works in tomorrow’s thrilling instalment…………

Edited January 2 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Well, the cutting out of the framing cross sections was not without issues. The tape still moved even with another brand new blade fitted to the craft knife. 
With a glove on with some wadding (folded tissue) under the finger, I had to put the blade on and rock it side to side to cut through the tape. 
If I ever get a Fulmar to complete the Fairey set (I already have two restored Battles), then I’ll need to find a better way of doing it.

Still, it’s done now and it looks good.

 

The next thing to do was mask the pilot’s canopy. 
Again the framing is only just visible. 
This one was done with just individual strips of tape applied and trimmed when they were all in. 
The windshield panel was done with 4 strips of tape and I left a gap at the top where it’s rounded off. I thought there’s no way I’m going to be able to follow the curve by cutting the tape - so the plan was to apply masking solution with a cocktail stick and make the curve with that. It turned out better than I had hoped.

The two canopies were placed on the fuselage to allow the fresh masking solution to dry. 
 

Damn - missed one!

 

 

Also, today, I had a delivery from Airfix.

A couple of items from their sale.

A 1/72 Vintage collection P-61 Black Widow - I’ve always wanted one of these since I was a kid.

Also a 1/72 BAE Hawk in NHS colours - bought on a whim.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Nice work on the glazing Brian looking good and a couple of great purchases too. Great work fella.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

Before I could fit the canopies there were a few things to sort first.

 

The first was a filler piece to the starboard side of the cockpit opening where the canopy would sit. I think I may have trimmed off a little too much on the canopy and also the starboard side of the opening wasn’t straight - both producing a gap too big to fill with Clearfix. 
A small piece of styrene card was shaped and TET’d into position. Once dry enough it was trimmed back and an angle added so it (hopefully) won’t be seen though the canopy once the masking is removed. Just in case, I painted the edge flat black.

The fuselage just in front of the cockpit was also painted flat black where the canopy would sit.

A small piece of lexan was added to form a gunsight.

 

The observer’s position required the front and rear bulkheads covering as there was a very visible seam down the centre. Masking tape was placed on initially to trace the shape. Once the shape was cut out, it was placed onto a piece of 0.5mm card, cut out, filed and placed into position. They were then painted cockpit green to match the rest of the area. 
The sides were also painted with cockpit green incase the bare plastic would be seen from inside the vac form canopy.

The same was done to the cockpit surround for the same reason.

 

Once the paint had dried, the pilot and observer canopies were cleaned inside with a cotton bud and then fitted into position with Clearfix.

The pilots canopy needed some extra adding around the front section to fill/blend the joint. 
The rear one needed a little persuasion to stay lined up with the sides - maybe the tape masking was pulling it open. I left it for a few minutes and pushed the sides in and it stayed there.

 

The wheel wells were painted with Tamiya flat aluminium. They will get a wash added at a later date to show off the detail a bit more and to grubby them up.

 

Thats when I saw that I’d forgotten to 3D print and fit the radiator before joining the two halves of the fuselage together. As a substitute, a piece of foil was rippled using the edge of a CD case and a knife blade to crease it. Once trimmed to size, it was fitted. I’m not overly enthralled with it though. I painted it with Tamiya Metallic Grey and it looks slightly better, but it’s not my best effort. I think I’m going to remove it, 3D print one in two halves and fit it in. It’s not a big item, but with the amount of work that’s gone into the rest of the Firefly, it’d be a shame to skimp on that bit. I just need a good image of a Firefly radiator.

 

Lastly tonight, I masked off the wing tip navigation lights. This was done by masking the outline of the lenses and painting masking solution on them. The tape was then removed while the solution was still wet leaving neatly masked light units.

[Brigbeale]

After a bit of searching I found an image of a Firefly under restoration on a 1-1 scale
The radiator looks like a simple box shape item with one lower corner chamfered.

 

So I designed a similar looking radiator with both lower corners chamfered. Two were printed out - one at 45* to the left and the other 45* to the right. This was to get the lines from the FDM 3D printer to run top to bottom on one and side to side on the other. I could then use whichever ever one I liked best.

 

The radiator was painted with Tamiya Gun Metal with Tamiya Flat Black framing and then installed into the housing after the interior had been painted matt black to hide the foil and the unpainted plastic inside. 
 

Once the sprue goo had set, the wheel wells and the radiator housing were masked off with Tamiya tape and damp tissue.

 

The Firefly was given a wipe down with IPA, allowed to dry, had 3 cocktail sticks inserted into the wheel mounting holes and taken to my shed to have some Halfords grey plastic primer applied.

After about 1/2 an hour, the primer was tough dry so it was transferred to the modelling stand (as the cocktail stick arrangement was a bit wobbly) for photos and to allow the primer to fully dry.

There’s a couple of areas which need a bit more filling - most  notable is the port front and rear corners of the observer’s canopy.

The seam lines look good though.

 

Edited January 6 by Brigbeale

[AdrianMF]

Looks good in the primer. That dark blue plastic really looks a mess when you are working on it until you get some paint on.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Oh wow, great progress Brian, looks fantastic now.

Are you going to sort out the top of the chin radiator air intakeas the kit is moulded with it as a flat top under the cowling but they go all the way to the top where the sides meet the cowling with the underside of the cowling acting as the top of the intake. If that makes sense.

Great work 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oh wow, great progress Brian, looks fantastic now.

Are you going to sort out the top of the chin radiator air intakeas the kit is moulded with it as a flat top under the cowling but they go all the way to the top where the sides meet the cowling with the underside of the cowling acting as the top of the intake. If that makes sense.

Great work 

Chris

Thanks Chris

I’m assuming you mean this

There I was thinking I was getting ready for paint, but now you’ve mentioned it, I can’t not do it, as it’ll stick out like a sore thumb now.

[bigbadbadge]

1 hour ago, Brigbeale said:

There I was thinking I was getting ready for paint, but now you’ve mentioned it, I can’t not do it, as it’ll stick out like a sore thumb now.

Yes that's it, sorry Brian,  but after all that hard work you've put in I thought you would want it looking spot on and it is such a feature of the aircraft too.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

No worries Chris. 
In the end, it wasn’t that big of an ordeal to sort out.

First, I trimmed the opening to cut cut back the sides and angle the under-propeller fairing to get the shape that it should be. 
As I was doing that, the radiator popped out. I’d have had to get it out anyway, so it was nice that it was willing to depart so easily.

The sides and bottom leading edges were rounded on the inside edge so simulate the rolled metal forming the shape of the intake opening.

 

Then it was out with the filler.

3 applications were used to get the shape. Various tools were used to get the angle of the filler somewhere near where it should be and the radiator was put in to check there was enough gap for it. 
It was gingerly sanded back around the opening and a file was used side to side to level the filler inside the intake as I couldn’t sand in there fully.

Then a generous application of Mr Surfacer was added to cover the filler and fill blemishes. Also it was added to other blemishes on the fuselage to fill gaps and pin-holes.
I will have to come up with some device for sanding in the intake - maybe a thin stick with some wet&dry stuck to it??

 

On the whole though, it looks more in keeping with how the intake should look.

[bigbadbadge]

Brilliant job Brian,  it is such a big part of the type's character,  it looks much better now.

Chis

[Brigbeale]

The reshaped air intake was sanded to get a smoother finish - not tray in such a confined space, but it’s better looking now.

 

The other areas which had Mr Surfacer on them were sanded back to level.

 

Looking at the images, there are two extra intakes under the side intakes. I decided to add them by using some wire casing from the telephone wiring I used in the Apache build. It a bit of an unorthodox way of doing it, but I thought it was worth a try.

They were cut to about 1.5mm long and superglued into position. They were then given a generous application of Mr Surfacer to blend them in a bit. They turned out quite well - maybe a little too small, but I didn’t a]want to go overboard with them.

 

The primer and Mr Surfacer were sanded down with fine wet/dry to smooth the finish ready for painting. 
 

Then it was out with the airbrush to pre-shade the panel lines. NATO black was used for this.

 

Today, I was pondering on whether the replacements of the original Frog/Novo decals were usable. I’ve previously given them a coat of matt varnish so stabilise them, but I was still unsure. 
A test was called for and the outcome would decide the colour scheme of the Firefly. If they were good to use, then the Firely would be painted with Slate Grey/Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces. If not, then a replacement set of decals would be called for and it would be painted either the same colours to represent the above photographed Firefly or the the more later standard Sky undersides and sides with EDSG uppers.

A scrap wing was used and the ABO from the Canadian option was cut from the sheet.
This was given a good soak in warm water. It didn’t take that long for the middle to release from the backing paper but the two ends stayed stuck for a while longer. 
With some coaxing, the ends moved without tearing the decal. I placed it on the wing in the usual manor and applied Decal fix on the A and Mr Surfacer Decal Setter Neo over the BO to guage which would be better for setting the decals into the detailing on the wing.

Tonight, I checked it and both appear about the same. 

 

The Firefly has the undersides airbrushed this evening. I had a choice of Tamiya’s XF-21 Sky (which I use on my two tone FAA aircraft) or Mr Color’s Aqueous H-74 Sky (Duck Egg Green) which I used on my Hurricane restoration. 
I went with the Mr Color version as, if it didn’t look quite right I could re-paint it with the slightly darker Tamiya Sky which is slightly greener in colour.

 

So the underside is painted now, which means the next step is masking off to paint the camouflaged SlateGrey/Sea Grey combo. 
I just need to find out which colours I used on the Swordfish to dig out the right paints.

 

IMGBB isn’t working at the moment, so these are from Imgur instead.

[Max Headroom]

Looking good. Yes it does have a rather large smile, but there is enough plastic to play with. Here is my ‘during’ shot

 

 

I seem to recall mocking uP some kind of radiator details to make that area look busy.

 

WatchIng with a interest

 

Trevor

 

[Brigbeale]

Masking took place today for the much anticipated airbrushing of the camouflage colours.

Thin strips of Tamiya tape were used for the demarcation lines on the sides of the fuselage. 
Using the improvised light box method that I used on the Junglie Sea King, I made two masks for under the rear stabilisers where the Sky colour goes up the side of the fuselage in a certain shape. 
Once the outlining of the masking was done, more tape was used on the fuselage to fill the space covering the still exposed Sky paint. 25mm standard tape was used to cover the underside of the main wings - just in case of a Venturi effect putting paint on the Sky paint.

 

Then, out with the airbrush and the selected paints.

First the Slate Grey. Only I had to source a compatible colour for the Swordfish which was a close match - Mr Color Aqueous H455 ZementGrau (which I presume to be Cement Grey). I’ve not used the paint since, so, as it’s still good, I used that.

That was thinned and the airbrush pressure turned down to about 15psi. I also used the needle stop screw in the airbrush itself to limit how much paint went through the nozzle. 
Slowly, the paint was built up to cover, but still show the pre-shading.

 

For the EDSG, I was a bit dubious of using the full on EDSG as a was afraid it would be too dark in this scale, so earlier today, I brush painted a section of the ZementGrau on the scrap Kingfisher and applied smaller blocks of Tamiya IJN Grey, Mr Color Dark Sea Grey and also Mr Color EDSG. 
The IJN Grey and Dark Sea Grey came out practically the same colour while the EDSG was - well - darker.

Comparing the two lighter shades against the Swordfish, both seemed a good match (even though when I looked back at my Swordfish WIP, I didn’t say which actual colours I’d used).

So I just selected the Dark Sea Grey as it was the same brand of paint as the ZementGrau.

This too, was thinned and applied at a low pressure free-hand to paint the camouflage pattern using a Pavla colour call-out as a guide.

 

As usual, I couldn’t wait to unmask it, so off with the tape!

 

I’m happy with the result.

I also got the Swordfish out to share the photography moment!

[Brigbeale]

During the day, I applied two coats of Astonish Floor Polish in preparation for tonight’s decalling session.

 

So come the evening and with it, some trepidation on the Frog decals and whether they would apply properly with the coating of matt varnish applied previously. 

The decals were individually cut from the sheet and trimmed as close as I dared to the shape of the decals themselves. The underwing ‘F6’s’ were left as their pairing to keep the spacing equal. The roundels were also trimmed very close to the border using a small pair of curved scissors.
 

Gingerly, the upper wing roundels were soaked in warm water and allowed to sit for a minute on an old plastic lid. 
The area to receive the decal had a liberal amount of Decalfix applied.

Then came the crunch - moving the decal on the backing sheet. 
Surprisingly, it moved just like a Cartograph decal!

The application went without a hitch as well, so each decal was applied in the same manner.

Only one gave a hint of the reputation old Frog decals have got, and that was the port side ‘6’ with a split on the top left of the number (these had been separated from the accompanying roundel when cut from the sheet). Fortunately, it went back together with no visible evidence of the failure.

 

With the main decals applied, the stencil decals were also added (what there were of them - two rear’Trestle Here’ and four ‘Jacking Point’ decals!). 
Then that was it, I was out of decals.

Some MicroSol was applied on top of the decals to help them adhere and conform to the the panel lines where applicable. It’s just a case of waiting to see if they conform with the matt varnish on them.  If they don’t, then another application and a toothpick should press them into the lines.

 

Edited January 11 by Brigbeale

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Looking great! I love the look of roundels against TSS for some reason.

[bigbadbadge]

Looks absolutely lovely,great to see thepaint and decals on great work Brian.

Chris

[Brigbeale]

The Firefly looked too clean, so it was time to ‘grubby’ it up a bit whithout (hopefully) going too far.

 

I have a pot of home-made black wash made from black oil-based paint and white spirit. 
This was applied to the panel lines and left to dry for about 5-10 minutes before initially using a cotton bud to wipe the excess off in the direction of air flow,  but tended to wipe some wash out of the panel lines, so a second application was made and a pad of kitchen towel was used this time. This worked much better, so more panel lines were highlighted this way on the top and bottom of the Firefly.

Not all of the excess was removed either side of the panel lines as I wanted some staining marks left.

 

On the underside opening behind the radiator housing, I added a longer dirty streak to denote oil/fluid leakage from that area. 
Similar lighter marks were made in the underside panel after the wheel wells. 
 

The exhausts were painted with a burnt number acrylic paint to denote rust, but they look a bit bright at the moment, so once the paints dried off, I’ll dirty them up too.

Talking exhausts, I’ll look at some pictures to get a feel for the exhaust staining on the sides of the fuselage.

 

The propeller tips were painted white and then two coats of yellow. Then the spinner and blades were painted Tamiya Flat Black. The propeller looks to new when compared to the dirty fuselage/wings, so they’ll need some weathering/chipping too.

 

I thought the carpet monster had been at it again, claiming the radiator.

I was looking for it for 20 minutes, thinking it had been dropped on my shoe and inadvertently transported to another part of the house.
I just couldn’t find it so I resigned myself to printing a replacement.

 

I was just about to type this up and got the IPad out. 
Wouldn’t you know it - the radiator was on the screen under the cover! 
I’ve no idea of how it got there either!

So the radiator was glued back into position before it went walkies again and the propeller assembly was fitted to the fuselage.

 

It looks more like a Firefly now!

After 50 odd models, I think I’m beginning to get the hang of this modelling lark!

[Brigbeale]

I some more weathering with my cheapo powders to emulate gun soot and exhaust staining. 
Some brown acrylic paint was used on the aerelon and stabiliser wings, while more was added into the underside staining to give a bit more definition.

The Firefly was then given a good coat of matt varnish to dull the shiny surfaces.

While I had the matt varnish out, I gave the two Fairey Battles a coat as they were still in the shiny floor polish which was applied to decal them. Now they’re dry, they look a lot better.

 

Yesterday, I repaired the attachment point of the starboard main gear leg by splicing a piece of 1mm styrene rod into it, as the locating pin was practically non existent.
Fortunately, both sides worked out to the same height and the Firefly sits level across them. They were fitted with superglue, as even the sprue goo wouldn’t hold them securely enough. The gear legs were painted flat black.

I did some light chipping to the leading edges of the wings and the propeller spinner assembly. I tried to do some chipping around the gun access panels, but the paint went on a bit thicker than I wanted, and it started to look a mess. So, gingerly using Mr Color paint remover on a cotton bud, the silver was removed from the access panels. Thankfully, the various coats of varnish acted as a barrier and the camouflage paint was unaffected. Some silver still remains though and it does still look like some light chipping, so that’s a bonus. 
I need to watch the ‘University of YouTube’ and practice chipping for future projects.

 

Tonight, I made the secondary wheel bay doors out of 0.5mm card. A correctly sized colour call-out was used to get the shape. Once cut and sanded, they were added to the fuselage behind the main gear. 
The interior of the wheel bay doors and wheel centres were painted flat aluminium.

While that was drying, the exterior of the gear doors were painted with the same Sky paint as used on the underside. 
The tyres were painted with tyre black and a tail wheel was sourced from the spares box. This was fitted and painted the same way the main gear was painted.

The canopies were unmasked - they’ve turned out very well. I’m happy I decided not to used the original kit ones as the vac-form ones are so much clearer.

 

There’s just a couple of nightly bits to add/finish off and that will be the Firefly restored and finished.

Which means I’m back to that predicament of deciding what to do next……….Hmmmm.

[Nerazzurri]

Looks great Brian. The retrospective effort you put in on the radiator was well worth it, looks the part