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Airfix Seafire FR47


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Not long after I started building kits again I bought the Airfix 1/48 Seafire FR47 from the model shop in Swansea. This must have been over five years ago and the shop is now long gone. In the intervening years I have bought various bits and pieces for it. I could probably have sold it on Ebay for a profit, but the kit was bought to be built and now is the time.

So here is the box, content and a few of the extras. Hopefully I won't lose the cockpit, like I did with my Buccaneer!

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Edited by davidelvy
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I could probably have sold it on Ebay for a profit, but the kit was bought to be built and now is the time.

:clap: Excellent sentiment!

I too have just received that decal sheet and am considering grabbing one of these kits from the stash and adding it to the three Spitfires on the bench.

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  • 3 weeks later...
David - watch for my post this evening - I have a neat trick for the undernose carb intake to make it look nicerer-er :)

cheers

Jonners

I am intrigued.

I was aware Airfix had taken a bit of a short-cut and left the upper surface inside the carburrettor intake flat when it should be curved and was planning to rectify this. I will be very interested to see your "trick".

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  • 2 months later...

Well that didn't go as well as I hoped. I thought I had plenty of time, but unfortunately this got in the way:

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It was a conversion of a kit I built some years ago, so I thought it would only take a few weeks. Unfortunately "mission creep" set in. As a result the porr old FR47 took a back seat for longer than I intended. Nevertheless I shall persevere. Perhaps the mods could more this one to Work in Progress?

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  • 2 weeks later...

After the black comes the detail for the cockpit. As little will be seen I decided not to add very much. I hollowed out the control column and added instrument decals. These were from Aeroscale and I must say they were not as impressive as I had hoped. The detail is not great, so it is impossible to work out what some of the dials are meant to be. Also, whilst the set comes with a list of the instrument dials there is no key. Having said that, I did find them easy to apply, they settled down well on the moulded detail and are much better that any attempt I could have made at brush painting.

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And added a cushion to the seat, which I then painted. I also added a flare rack. I needn't have bothered with this last detail because it can't be seen when the fuselage is closed-up.

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I decided that the camera windows would require something that could be seen other than a black void, so I made a little camera.

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Not terribly accurate, but all that will be seen if the front of the lens. I also installed a bracket to hold it.

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Then the fuselage was closed up and I turned my attention to the outside. The rocker covers are not quite right, so I attempted some correction.

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I also lined the carburrettor intake with card and re-shaped it so that it was not as bulbous. I used John Kunac-Tabinor's technique for adding the missing curve to the inside of the intake, which I think is both simple and effective. The intake also needs to be sanded back at the front as it is meant to be se-back from the propellor hub. This also improves things.

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That's all for now. Next time wing folds.

Edited by davidelvy
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