By John 'Tigger'
Wilkes
This
article first published in Model Airplane International.
When this kit was
announced I was waiting with baited breath for its imminent release.
I had been lucky enough to have had the chance to Fisher’s previous
kit; the Two Seat Cougar. With that in mind I expected a model of
high quality with lots of extra detail. I was not disappointed as
the model came with resin, etched brass, cast brass, cast clear
resin High quality Decals and Clear film instruments. This whole
package arrived after a wait for the moulds to be re made as the
first set was worn out due to demand, all packaged in a plain sturdy
box with small clear sealed envelopes within. The main parts are
cast in a soft light grey resin with little or no flash. The
fuselage has a small seam along the rear under side near the tail
wheel bay but this was easy enough to fix with a light swipe of a
Master Casters sanding pad. The decals are printed by Cartograph so
quality is assured!
On with the build
The clear written and photographic instructions point the modeller
in the direction of building the engine first. This is followed by
the propeller and spinner. These sub assemblies come together
quickly aided by the prop alignment jig. Careful gluing on this jig
will be the order of the day as excess glue will leave the modeller
with it all stuck to the prop. Once assembled the prop and its back
plate just pop off with all of the blades being in perfect alignment
and all set at the same pitch angle.
In real life the
engine is a monster. Here it is captured perfectly. There is no need
to put too much effort into building it as when finished you will
not see much of it. A blast of Alclad followed by some heavy oil
washes is enough to enhance the look.
Once the engine parts
are painted with Alclad 2 the whole assembly simply slid quite
tightly inside of the cowling. When lined up some reinforcing from
behind with epoxy glue was called for. I didn’t take too much time
painting and wiring the engine as little of it will be seen again on
the completed model added to which I was aiming to build this model
as much from the kit as possible.
Fully assembled and
painted the cockpit tub oozes detail. All that is needed is a good
paint job. I replaced the instruments with decals from MDC and
reheat.
The cockpit, My
Favourite!
This was a truly super part of the model as all of the major
parts are resin with, where appropriate, etched brass and clear
acetate adding detail. I was lucky enough to have a copy of the
pilot’s notes and used this as my main point of reference. There are
a couple of very small errors with the cockpit namely, the
instruments are in a style like the American ones which are mounted
from the front, British dials are mounted from behind and there is
no sign of a flare pistol. These are very small issues and do not
really detract from the overall package. Some of the smaller resin
parts were fiddly but with all of them in place this is a very
comprehensive cockpit. All of which is aided by cleverly mounted
alignment pins. The instrument panel is brass etched with clear
acetate backing which needs the back painting in an off white
colour. I was not convinced that they were as good as could be so I
replaced them with MDC’s excellent British aircraft dials which are
decals. This meant I had to carefully place them on a piece of white
plastic card making sure they all lined up with the bezels. I only
had to find one substitute from a Reheat sheet for one instrument.
With the cockpit together I painted it in Dark Sea Grey from Vallejo
which, being acrylic stood up to my wash of oil and dry brushing to
bring out some of the smaller details. I went over the cockpit with
a small pin and gently applied some mid grey oil paint to represent
the data stencils. The seat was harnessed with the etched seat
buckles threaded through strips of masking tape. There is an
alternative of brass belts with buckles in the kit too.
Once complete the cockpit is carefully slid inside the fuselage and
aligned with the back of the cockpit opening. Lots of epoxy glue was
applied from below to ensure this sub assembly isn’t likely to move
or drop later on!
The Fuselage
This is a single piece casting with all of the rear of the plane
and fin as one.
I found that I had a slight twist on the fuselage but this would be
too much for me to even attempt to straighten anyway It wasn’t that
noticeable! Overall the shape is good but there is one small area
which needs addressing; this is the plate
behind the exhaust outlet at the bottom where it follows a curved
line upwards and over the wing. This in fact appears to be straight
on all the reference photo’s I had so a quick cut with the razor saw
and sanding back with the sanding pad had this fixed in quick time.
I know it is only a small issue but it does make the look of the
area better.
Wings
Here we have a one of the largest single castings in the kit and
on the leading edge of the lower part I had some slight warping,
this was overcome by careful gluing later on and some judicious
clamping in strategic points. The whole lower wing section receives
a multi part wheel bay with all of the necessary pipes cast
integrally. I could have added some more detail but as the
instructions point out some of the later restored Sea Furies around
the world use Skyraider Hydraulics which were simpler. This means
that accurate information will be needed if you want to detail this
area. Some shaving of material is called for to enable the wheel
bays to fit well and a lot of care will be needed when lining up. I
slightly misaligned mine and it caused all sorts of problems to the
positioning of the gear doors later on. So care is the word to use
here.
Once the wheel bays are
centred and attached the upper wing halves are attached. I made use
of Epoxy glue here as it gave me some time to make adjustments and
to give a very strong bond. Single part tail planes are provided and
these are simplicity itself to fit, they are handed and they fit
into slots on the fuselage. I didn’t actually need any filler the
joint is so good.
Now before the wings
were attached to the fuselage I chose to cut them up!! Well actually
following the instructions I cut the outer wing panels in
preparation for the wing folds. The methods I used were to lay down
a strip of Tamiya tape and use it as an edge to cut with my razor
saw. With the wings in bits again it is time to add the wing fold
sections which come with the kit.
They are simplified
resin sections which need careful blending in especially next to the
upper gun bulges. With the use of superglue as filler all of the
fold sections were faired in quickly.
Coming together!
At this stage of the build the wings are joined to the fuselage
and I found that I had to add some shims of plastic card to increase
the height of the gap at the front in order to make the cowling fit
properly. The wing to fuselage joint as explained in the
instructions is not as good as previous kits but with a light
application of Magic Sculpt it was all rectified. The joint was
glued with epoxy for strength!
I jumped ahead here and added the radiator front in the wing leading
edge. These etched parts are too long to fit and some careful
trimming will be required. I used a set of sharp scissors and
trimmed a little at a time until I had a good snug fit.
Gear
The beauty of this model is the appropriate use of the best
material for the job in hand and the gear is no exception. The
struts are cast in Brass which is nice and strong. I found that one
of the legs was not quite straight but with some gentle bending it
was easily fixed. There are several resin parts which in some cases
lack mounting points but with care when attached give the whole lot
a busy and realistic appearance. Some of the gear doors are brass
etched and others are brass and resin. Careful alignment is needed
here but the end results speak for themselves.
Clear resin wingtip light covers are attached and sanded back to
fit. I drilled a small hole inside and put a drop of clear colour
paint in to represent the coloured builds.
I was very fortunate to have been sent a replacement set of wheels
from the manufacturer, the set that comes in the kit are straight
pattern tread however I could not find any period photo’s of that
type. The new sets are the common cross tread and are cast with a
slight weighted bulge to them too.
Weapons
The choice in the kit included rockets, fuel tanks, bombs and
all of their associated pylons. The fins on the rockets are etched
brass and will need careful alignment. The bombs tail sections are
brass and will need to be rolled and maybe soldered for strength.
The Machine gun barrels are added to the leading edge of the wings
and carefully positioned I held them in place with a cocktail stick
until the superglue had hardened enough to hold them in place. All
of the following parts were attached at the end of the build to
avoid then being broken or knocked off and eaten by the carpet
monster. The pitot head, access step, tail hook, outer wing panels
and canopy.
Painting
The model having been assembled was readied for painting;
firstly I gave the whole thing a wash down with pure alcohol to
remove any finger grease. Next it was wiped down with a tack rag to
trap any dust. A coat of car body primer served as the base onto
which everything else would build. Pre shading was achieved with
Vallejo model Air black through the airbrush.
Model Air White was next up for the base of the invasion stripes.
Over this came the black once Tamiya masking tape had been carefully
applied. All of the stripes were then masked and the Sky was sprayed
following the instructions. More masking and the Extra Dark Sea Grey
from an old bottle of Poly Scale Acrylic finished off the block
colours. I must admit that I tend to not get too hung up on exact
colour I am more of the school of thought that if it looks right
then use that! The section of fuselage with the heat shield behind
the exhaust was replicated with a section of Bare Metal foil
burnished down with an artist stump. Non slip texture was added to
the wing walk ways using Cast a Coat.
Decals
Now I have never used Cartograph decals before but they are one of
the best and they lived up to expectations throughout. Firstly I
coated the model with Johnsons Klear. When dry I applied each decal
in a puddle of Klear. As this dries out the decal will crinkle up
but in time settles back down and conforms to all of the underlying
detail. A second coat of Klear to seal them in and the whole lot was
left for a couple of days to dry. In order to eliminate the edge of
the decals before weathering I carefully sanded each decal with the
Master Caster sanding blue pad which in short time levelled the
surface and surrounds of the decals. In the end I had no visible
edge or carrier film on any of the decals. The one thing I did do
was to ensure that the white of the roundels was not ruined by the
demarcation of the colours underneath I masked the circles and
sprayed a base white circle for them to lie over.
Weathering
At this stage the model looks great but very monotone. To spruce
it up a little I love to weather my models. The whole plane was
given rivets with the pounce wheel as described in issue 15. All
panel lines were given a wash of Payne’s grey oil paint and the
excess wiped away in the direction of the airflow. Once dry I
sprayed the high areas of the model with a very thin mix of Tamiya
white and gloss. I concentrated on the centres of the panels and
leading edges too. A similar idea using very thin Tamiya Smoke was
applied over low areas and panel lines. The model was then given a
coat of Andrea Matt varnish. Final weathering was achieved with
pencils in silver, medium grey and primer green. Exhaust stains were
applied with the airbrush; I set my airbrush up with very thin
Vallejo acrylic paint and sprayed a general pattern. I began with a
dark brown and black mix to get the general shape of the stain. Then
I went over this with a lighter tone of the same brown. When dry I
came back over the area where the exhaust exit’s the cowl and
replicated the individual points where the heat would affect the
panel with a very light brown/grey mix. Finally with a very thin mix
of blue I went over the lot concentrating in the middle and outer
edges. The oil streaks are thin dark brown/black streamed black
along the airframe with the air from the airbrush. Each rivet
received a very thin paint streak following the direction of the
airflow. This final effect is very subtle.
Figure
Again I was lucky enough to be sent the figure from Paul Fisher to
compliment the model. I will not give a blow by Blow account of
painting figures but I used acrylics from the Andrea Range.
Sculpting is top notch and the figure comes with a choice of heads
either one with a canvas head gear and one without. One is as good
as the other but I chose the uncovered head for this build, I added
a second rank bar to represent Lt. Carmichael as the figure comes
with just one made from Tamiya tape. I was not too sure that a pilot
of the time would fly a combat mission in his number one uniform but
I painted him just the same.
Final verdict
The wait for the moulds to be remade was well worth it! I am very
pleased to report that despite the first impressions of this being a
high costing model for anyone’s budget in real terms it has almost
everything the modeller could want. When you cost up the average
plastic kit add a set of brass some aftermarket decals, a resin
cockpit, brass etched, cast metal gear, vac formed canopy you could
easily spend more than the cost of this complete package. In the end
it is down to how much you want a Sea Fury but the aggressive lines
of this bird did sell itself to me. The end results are just
stunning and to be honest when I look at the finished model I don’t
think of what it cost just what I have in front of me now! In
reality yes it is worth every penny, well done to Paul Fisher and
his team. I look forward to his next release with baited breath!
Reference
A.P.4018a & b Pilot’s Notes for sea Fury 10 &11 (I found these
available on line via Amazon).
WarBird Tech Volume 37 Hawker Sea Fury ISBN 1-58007-063-9 by Kev
Darling
Squadron Signal publications vol 117 Hawker Sea Fury in action ISBN
0-89747-267-5 By Ron Mackay
Sea Fury Fb-11 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum Yeovilton.
You will need
Cyanoacrylate and accelerator.
Two part epoxy Glue.
Tamiya Masking tape.
Mastercasters buffing /sanding pads. Scalpel.
Needle files.
Steel wool.
Fine solder/ soft wire.
Drills.
Wet and dry sand paper.
Tweezers.
Johnsons Klear.
Pounce wheel.
Good quality airbrush. (I used EFBE Artist 1 with fine needles).For
the first time on this model I also used an Iwata HP CH.
Good quality paint brushes (ranging from sizes 10/0 to 4).
Bare Metal foil Chrome.
Magic Sculpt
Bondo filler
Paints used:
Vallejo
927 Dark Flesh
984 Flat Brown
868 Dark Sea Grey
819 Iraqi Sand
915 Deep Yellow
Vallejo Air
063 Silver
71051 Black
71001 White
011 Tank Green
71040 Burnt umber
Aircraft colours
6120 interior green
Sky
Gunze Sangyo acrylic
H90 Clear Red
H94 Clear Green
H95 Smoke Grey
H342 Oil
Alclad II
Aluminium
Poly Scale
Extra Dark Sea Grey
Windsor and Newton Artist Oils
Lamp black
Paynes Grey
Humbrol
Matt coat (thinned with Cellulose thinners (for our colonial
friends Lacquer thinners)).
927
Tamiya
X19 Smoke
X 22 Clear
XF 2 White
Andrea
AC 33 Napoleonic Red
AC 44 Matt Varnish
