Korean War Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 - RAN VX730, K 109, HMAS Sydney

[nimrod54]

Way back in 1997 I bought the Hobbycraft 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury kit along with a Flightpath white metal, resin and etch detail set. Scroll forward to 2020 and to the 'In the Navy Group Build' where I would finally make a modest attempt at putting this together, I should also mention that the intervening years had seen me pulling this out of the to do pile only to then return it to said pile for another time. Anyway, filled with enthusiam 2020 would finally see me put glue to bits and sticking them together. On that occasion, along with boasts of 'once I get started I will get it finished', I got as far as assembling some of the cockpit parts before it was put aside again.

Another couple of years would pass before I would give it another 'good coat of looking at', and with a slight lull in my planned model building activities at that time  I had decided that I really wanted to get this finished. Then in late January of this year I thought it would be an ideal subject for KUTA 2022 hoping that this Group Builds end date would give me something achievable. It didn't make it over the line then either but on this occasion I have persisted with it and I am pleased to say that some 26 years after my orignal purchases I completed it Friday. 

 

I dropped the flaps and opened up the gun and ammunition bays on one wing then used the wing fold details on the opposite side, all of which meant that in the end I only used around half of the Flightpath set but tried to make as much use of those parts to show what is possible. Although the cockpit is well detailed I messed up when trimming the vac-formed canopy and had to use the kit version, so little can be seen of that. The main painting was airbrushed with Hataka's Orange Line series of laquer paints. It has been a long time coming but I hope that you enjoy looking at the end result.

 

John

 

There is also quite an interesting story behind VX730 in the link below.

 

AN IDENTITY CRISIS

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Roberto]

Lovely 👍

[28ZComeback]

I really love this build and finish. 

[Keeff]

Nice.  Very, very nice! 👌

 

 

Keith 😁 

[nimrod54]

1 hour ago, Roberto said:

Lovely 👍

 

Cheers Roberto. Thanks again for your support through the KUTA part of this build.

 

 

44 minutes ago, 28ZComeback said:

I really love this build and finish. 

 

Thanks for your comment. Glad that you like the result.

 

27 minutes ago, Keeff said:

Nice.  Very, very nice! 👌

 

 

Keith 😁 

 

Thanks very much Keith. I am pleased with the way this turned out too.

[Winded Penguin]

Hard not to love a colour scheme like that 👍

[NAVY870]

The mistaken identity story is a load of old codswallop. VX.730 was written off after a nasty belly landing at Callala beach and was struck off charge.

We had the AWM bird in very unrestored condition at the RAN Historic Flight and the only bent bits it had were the wing fillets where some goit tried to sling it when lifting it.

What it did have was the serial VW.232 all over it. A case of wishful thinking.

 

On the plus side you've done a very good job on a very underrated kit.

 

 

[Guest]

Absolutely stunning ...

[Donald]

Superb looking model well posed.

[Daedalus72]

That is a lovely Sea Fury!

[Spitfire31]

Beautiful Sea Fury. She looks like a museum piece.

 

Kind regards,

Joachim

[Hewy]

Top job john👍

[nimrod54]

@Winded Penguin, @NAVY870, @Murfie, @Donald, @Daedalus72, @Spitfire31, @Hewy

 

Thanks to all for taking time to comment, it is really appreciated.

 

Special thanks to @NAVY870 for the update re  VX730, I came across the article whilst trying to find images of VX730. It shows how easy it is to be misled by internet sources.

 

Cheers again guys.

John

[CJP]

Very neat Sea Fury from the old Hobbycraft kit

[Richard S]

Lovely job, what is the Hobbycraft kit like, would this kit be the best starting point for a good Sea Fury or would either Airfix or Trumpeter be a better option?

 

I note that you had the HC in your stash for quite some time so wondered if you kept it because it was so good or built it over one of the alternatives because you already had it?

 

Many thanks and congratulations again on a really nice model.

 

Richard

[georgeusa]

Having built more than a few Hobbycraft kits including their Fury in 1/48 and 1/32 you have done a superb job on a sometimes difficult fit kit that lacks a lot of detail.  With the accessories you have applied to the Hobbycraft kit, you have turned it into a winner.  Thanks for sharing this well done Fury.  

[Pantherhawk27263]

That looks fantastic and I love the Sea Fury in this scheme. Excellent work!

[F-32]

Beautiful work, looks superb

[nimrod54]

On 01/05/2023 at 23:32, CJP said:

Very neat Sea Fury from the old Hobbycraft kit

 

Thanks CJP, the Flightpath set helped improve it a lot though it does make it quite a weighty model.

 

John

 

On 02/05/2023 at 07:41, Richard S said:

Lovely job, what is the Hobbycraft kit like, would this kit be the best starting point for a good Sea Fury or would either Airfix or Trumpeter be a better option?

 

I note that you had the HC in your stash for quite some time so wondered if you kept it because it was so good or built it over one of the alternatives because you already had it?

 

Many thanks and congratulations again on a really nice model.

 

Richard

 

Thanks very much Richard.

 

To answer your questions re the kit, I returned to modelling in the late 80's/early 90's bought it after seeing a magazine article where the modeller had used the predecessor of the Flightpath set, and this upgrade set was designed to fit the Hobbycraft kit - as is the Flightpath set. At the time that I bought both kit and upgrade set I was looking at pushing my modelling skills and not having worked with etch/white metal/resin parts before, thought that this would be a challenge. 

Each time that I made an attempt to start the kit the prospect of cutting up the kit parts to fit the detail parts was something that I was not quite ready to do. This would be my first attempt at working with multi-media parts and in between that time and 2020 I had honed my skills to the point that I felt more confident about tackling this project. What was not a good idea was to set myself the additional challenge of building it in a Group Build environment - 12 weeks soon goes by for a project of this complexity and especially when I had other builds going on too, hence there was little progress to show at the end of that time. In short, that is why it has taken so long to complete.

 

As for the kit itself, overall the shape looks right and the plastic is of a hard type. There is not a lot of detail to the cockpit but the panel lines are nicely done. Assembly does have slight challenges but the issues are not insurmountable, the mainwheel bay has quite a few ejection pin marks and would be one area to benefit from further detail or replacement (sadly not one of the improvements offered in the Flightpath set). There are probably more detailed kits available today, but if you don't mind some scratchbuilding and extra detail work, then I feel that this could be a good starting point. 

 

Regards

John

 

On 02/05/2023 at 15:48, georgeusa said:

Having built more than a few Hobbycraft kits including their Fury in 1/48 and 1/32 you have done a superb job on a sometimes difficult fit kit that lacks a lot of detail.  With the accessories you have applied to the Hobbycraft kit, you have turned it into a winner.  Thanks for sharing this well done Fury.  

 

Thanks a lot for your kind comments George. 

 

John

 

On 02/05/2023 at 16:37, Pantherhawk27263 said:

That looks fantastic and I love the Sea Fury in this scheme. Excellent work!

 

Cheers matey, I am glad that you like the end result.

 

John

 

On 02/05/2023 at 16:44, F-32 said:

Beautiful work, looks superb

 

Thanks bud. It was a long time coming but it was worth the effort in the end.

 

John 

[Johnson]

Superb build John. Did you do a WIP? If so I'd be interested to read it.

 

Cheers,

[nimrod54]

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

Superb build John. Did you do a WIP? If so I'd be interested to read it.

 

Cheers,

 

Many thanks for your comment Charlie. There are a couple of previous threads, this one from when I started it as part of the In the Navy GB back in 2020.

 

 

And this was my second crack at getting it finished earlier this year as part of KUTA 2022.

 

 

John.

[djos]

Clean and very well done model, i like the details

BR

Djordje

[Johnson]

Thanks John, a good read and great build. Flightpath certainly provided a lot of extras. I was particularly impressed with the gun bays, nice detail. May I ask what paint you used for the yellow primer? A difficult colour and yours looks about right (to my mind anyway! I'm not trying to start a debate).

 

Cheers,

[mackem01]

A little bit clean for me, but you've created a thing of beauty. Great job.

[nimrod54]

29 minutes ago, Johnson said:

May I ask what paint you used for the yellow primer? A difficult colour and yours looks about right (to my mind anyway! I'm not trying to start a debate).

 

Cheers,

 

The Flightpath set is quite a comprehensive set Charlie, the wing options are available for both sides and I didn't use any of the weapons options available, there are also several parts that make up a RATOG pack.

 

For the yellow primer I used this acrylic from MIG.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers

 

John.