Sanger/ Contrail 1:72 Fairey IIIF vacform

[Jonners]

Hi folks,

This old Sanger (later Contrail) vac kit of the once-ubiquitous Fairey IIIF was sold to me for a very fair price by @Patrik who, quite sensibly, had waited for the injection-moulded Kora kits of this interwar workhorse.

 

 

The Fairey IIIF was used primarily as a general-purpose type by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force through the 1930s in both landplane and seaplane configurations. I chose to model a wheeled Mk3 variant from 824 Squadron aboard HMS Eagle in 1933, using a side view from the 'Fleet Air Arm Colours' feature (ironically printed in monochrome...) in the August 1985 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling as my reference.

 

 

The kit includes enough plastic to model three different aircraft and includes white metal parts, extruded plastic strut material and a decal sheet which is, frankly, rather poor.

 

 

The mouldings are pretty fair but are known to have several inaccuracies; correcting these isn't helped by none of the various published plans seeming to match one another, and all seem to have dimensional inaccuracies themselves. I consequently decided to build this model without worrying too much about precise 'accuracy', believing instead that life is too short (like my modelling attention span).

 

 

There were a few basic improvements that I thought necessary, though. The interior was completely scratch built as the kit seats are undersized, the metal control columns oversized, the floor basic and other interior kit parts nonexistent. The upper wing centre section was narrowed so that the upper wings didn't overhang the lower wings, although admittedly not enough to accurately replicate the square 'box' of each wing pair that was a feature of the original aircraft. Exhaust pipes were fashioned from brass rod, the radiator under the chin was scratched from bits of plastic and the clunky white metal undercarriage legs were modified. Wing struts were cut from my carefully-hoarded (and slowly shrinking) selection of brass aerofoil-section strips.

 

 

I added plastic card slats to the upper wings, but the curve that I put into them has straightened out - quite irritating! Decals came from the spares box for the roundels and white '85' numerals. These white numbers were sourced from an old ESCI Aermacchi MB326 decal sheet, behaved like pieces of thin vinyl once separated from their backing sheet, initially silvered horribly, refused to react with Micro Set and Sol and then lifted completely from the fuselage. In the end I resorted to the 'puddle of Klear' technique which has at least stuck them down. The serials were printed from my PC onto clear decal paper. They aren't in quite the correct font, but who's going to notice...

 

 

The model was rigged with EZ Line and a display base was made from scribed and painted plastic card. The fuselage parts have some inaccuracies that I didn't try to correct, but I think it looks sufficiently like a Fairey IIIF to pass muster!

 

 

It definitely isn't my best work, but it's an interesting addition to the display cabinet. At some point I'll pluck up the courage to build one of the remaining two kits still in the bag, but not just yet!

 

 

Thanks for looking.

Jon

Edited January 1 by Jonners
Kit parts pic added.

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Well I think it’s bloody lovely! 🫡

[JWM]

Great result! The vacu kits have this charm or esprit....

Regards

J-W

 

[Head in the clouds.]

Always good to see a vacform kit built, they can be basic but then you have a blank canvas. Good job.

Gary

[Patrik]

I am so happy you built the kit, Jon. The result is excellent. I can say that, because I once held the raw material in my own hands😉.

[RidgeRunner]

Luvverly

[Remus389]

Very nice result! 👌

[Roberto]

Wow. This is simply an amazing work.

[pheonix]

First class model on an equally stunning base. I abhor vacuforms and admire greatly anyone who can make one as well as this. Many congratulations.

 

P

[gaputz]

Awesome!

[Armorrich]

I can't imagine what it takes to create something that nice out of a sheet of vacuform. Amazing. 

 

Cheers...Rich 

[Horatio Gruntfuttock]

That is just fabulous Jonners - great, neat construction, rigging and finishing - green with envy down here in Oz. Trust you are keeping well.

[corsaircorp]

Well done Sir !!

And a vac formed one at that !!

Congratulations !!

Sincerely.

CC

[cngaero]

This is another fine example of the old modellers equation of:

 Vacuform + Skill × Time +TLC

= Showstopper.

Well done Jonners, your Fairey IIIF is a beauty.

 

Chris.

 

[Jonners]

Wow, thanks for all the very generous comments, especially from modellers whose work I admire greatly and with other excellent vacforms showcased in the RFI section at the moment.

 

On 1/1/2024 at 3:22 PM, JWM said:

The vacu kits have this charm or esprit....

Indeed they do, J-W; more effort but also more satisfying!

 

On 1/1/2024 at 3:24 PM, Head in the clouds. said:

Always good to see a vacform kit built, they can be basic but then you have a blank canvas.

That's definitely one way of looking at it, Gary! Some more blank than others...

 

On 1/1/2024 at 8:29 PM, Patrik said:

I am so happy you built the kit, Jon. The result is excellent. I can say that, because I once held the raw material in my own hands😉.

Thanks again, Patrik. I had wanted one of these kits for ages and was aware of its problems. I will definitely build another of the models in the set, but with more effort to correct the inaccuracies. I'd like to fold the wings, but would first have to correct the dimensional inaccuracies!

 

On 1/4/2024 at 11:02 PM, pheonix said:

First class model on an equally stunning base. I abhor vacuforms and admire greatly anyone who can make one as well as this. Many congratulations.

From a master scratchbuilder, Pheonix, that is praise indeed! (I'm intrigued by your Short S.27 project.) I think vacforms are definitely one of those things that you either love or hate.

13 hours ago, Horatio Gruntfuttock said:

That is just fabulous Jonners - great, neat construction, rigging and finishing - green with envy down here in Oz. Trust you are keeping well.

Very well, thanks, HG, though there's a good chance that we'll start to evolve gills with all of the flooding in this part of our little island! Thanks for the kind words.

 

Upward and onward! I have three more vacforms to get stuck into in addition to the remaining Fairey IIIF parts, plus a few injection-moulded kits and 2 or 3 others to repair and complete after disasters or loss of interest before completion. In addition I have a few scratchbuild plans that I want to crack on with, but unfortunately there are only 24 hours in each day of Real Life!

 

Jon