1/32 Fairey Firefly F1

[iang]

Here are a few photos of my PMC vacform Firefly. I managed only one photo outside in natural light before the rain arrived (and that has depth of field problems).

Many of the details were scratch built, including most of the cockpit and undercarriage. The panel lines were drawn in with a fine pencil after the model was painted. Weathering was with pastels and a silver pencil.

The wheels are from an MDC Typhoon, as are the prop blades. I'm grateful to Roy for producing the kit, though it took the best part of two and a half years to complete on and off (so not exactly a "shake 'n' bake"). There are some annoying mistakes on the model, which I intend to avoid on the current Firefly build.

The 45 gal tanks are from a Grey Matter Hurricane set. These seem to have been used quite extensively during Operation Iceberg.

If I get a chance I might re-do the photos in natural light to loose the shadows.

Edited September 7, 2010 by iang

[Iain Ogilvie]

Has come out well - worth all the hard work!

Very nice - more pix please

Iain

[Old VG 33]

Very interesting subject and you've nicely made it.

Patrick

[AnonymousDFB1]

A very nice build

[Doug Rogers]

May have taken two and a half years Ian, but look what you've got now.

Makes it worthwhile, great build, nice realistic sheen to the finish as well.

[brianthemodeller]

Brilliant - well worth the effort. Nice to see an aircraft from a carrier that isn't Ark Royal or Illustrious (also helped by me being very intereted in anything to do with Indefatigable!)

Brian

Edited September 7, 2010 by brianthemodeller

[spitfire]

Absolutely fantastic, hopefully if you build another, just as you finish it one of the mainstream manufacturers will come out with an injection kit !

Cheers

Den

[bertie]

OOOOOH!AAAAAH!!

Your Firefly looks spiffing. Well worth the effort.

[jenko]

There is only one word to describe what I am seeing.......

CLASS

Dick

Edited September 7, 2010 by jenko

[Davec_24]

Nice! I love the detail touches, most of which by the sound of it are scratch-built. In particular, I love the fold-down canopy for the observer, and the rear-view pilot's mirror. That windscreen captures the way the Firefly looks in that area to perfection. Nice weathering - did I see evidence of some nicely applied staining underneath (on the gear door)?

[Alan P]

Great subject and a very subtle finish, a fine piece of work!

The world needs an IM Firefly in1/32. When, oh when?

[iang]

Yes, agreed. An injection 1/32 Firefly would be terrific. Here are some more photos taken in natural light:

And a couple at eye level in natural light:

And in artifical light:

Edited September 7, 2010 by iang

[Davec_24]

Still love it in natural light.

Especially this:

Magnificent.

[Tizzy]

That is a beauty.

[tonyot]

Hiya Ian,

You finally finished it then........it looks stunning.......what a fabulous job you`ve done of it!! I`ve been toying with the idea of getting one of these and you may just have made my mind up for me!! Thanks for the heads up on the Hurricane wing tanks too, I might have to get myself some of those as well.

All the best mate

Tony O

[iang]

Glad you like the model. I'm quite hooked on vac forms now - especially since the ID models are becoming available again. I learnt a lot building the model, as well as more fully understanding the limits of my own skills.

I hit a number of problems that made me want to either throw the kit at the wall or put it down for a few weeks. I found that the wing fillets were too high on the fuselage. The leading edge intake should be roughly in line with the wing fillet, but I found that the latter was significantly higher causing a hump in the line from leading to trailing edge. The solution I adopted was to cut out a portion of the fuselage and replace with plastic card and make new fillets out of milliput. As you can see from the photos, I opted to drop the cockpits in after the main construction was completed.

The nose radiator and leading edge intakes also requited a fair bit of reworking.

And I didn't like the representation of the fabric and stitching on the rudder, so rebuilt it with Milliput.

I make the mistake of setting the wing dihedral insufficient at first. From memory, I think it should be 13 degrees and as first constructed it was significantly less than this. This meant cutting through the wings and their metal wing spars and bending the wings to the required dihedral. Of course, the milliput wing fillets meant that they didn’t want to bend easily, but the dihedral is now only a degree or so less than it should be – though to my eye this is still quite noticeable.

I managed to drop the model a few inches onto the table while applying the decals which detached the observer’s seat (the observer’s position wasn’t open at this point). This required surgery in situ to remove the canopy entry point for the observer, so that I could reattach the seat. I also realised that I had set the pilot's position too far back, so after the model was painted and decals applied I reduced the depth of the pilots position by inserting a 60 thou piece of plastic card against the fuselage bulkhead and filling and repainting. This was such a simple measurement error, I could hardly believe that I'd nearly finished the model before discovering. It is very obvious in these two photos:

Makes it worthwhile, great build, nice realistic sheen to the finish as well.

Doug -the sheen is due to Hannants Xtracrylix flat varnish, which doesn't seem to dry completely flat. I quite like this finish rather than a dead flat one.

just as you finish it one of the mainstream manufacturers will come out with an injection kit !

I wouldn't complain. I'd buy two or three!

Nice! I love the detail touches, most of which by the sound of it are scratch-built. In particular, I love the fold-down canopy for the observer, and the rear-view pilot's mirror. That windscreen captures the way the Firefly looks in that area to perfection. Nice weathering - did I see evidence of some nicely applied staining underneath (on the gear door)?

Dave - I was forced to fold the observer's canopy down, but I think it looks better for it. I did stain much of the underside with very dilute enamel (over Future). This was the dirty thinners that I wash my brush out in.

Thanks for the heads up on the Hurricane wing tanks too, I might have to get myself some of those as well.

Tony, I think the wing tanks are identical, but may be wrong. IWM film of BPF operations shows both Indefatigable and Implacable's Fireflies operating with wing tanks. Implacable's Fireflies also flew with one wing tank (starboard) and two rocket rails (port). I've never seen this combination described before and contemplated modelling my Firefly like this, but couldn't find suitable decals.

Also, if you do get one, you'll need MDC Typhoon wheels, as these were the wheels used on wartime Fireflies. The FAAM's Firefly F1 is fitted with post-war wheels (hence the Hobbycraft Sea Fury wheels in my build photos).

Edited September 8, 2010 by iang

[bigbadbadge]

Crikey she is amazing, fabulous work, hats off to you, I wish I could do something like that.

All the best

Chris

[perry]

Beautiful work Ian, I hope when I build mine, it comes out half as good- well done!

[tonyot]

Having seen how much work you`ve had to put into it Ian I may just wimp out and hope for an injection moulded one to appear one day before I kick the bucket instead. Its a brilliant bit of modelling mate and you deserve to put your feet up and `mellow out' with a click together Tamiya kit now!

All the best mate

Tony O