**** DONE: 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury FBII, 807 NAS, 1951 - Carrier Aircraft GB

Looks great from here, too!

Airframes said:

Cheers mate. It's got me wanting to do one in 1/32nd scale now!

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might have to do a 1/48 myself

Looking good there Terry.

Looks sharp Terry.

Thanks Andy and Cory.
Got the re-touching done, and some light panel line work and a bit of dirt streaking, but haven't done the clear coat yet - got interrupted by a mate wanting me to check something on the 'net, took bl**dy ages!
Should get some more done tomorrow, and might be able to start on the decals.

Cant wait to see this one done! Reminds me of the Bearcat. Excellent work on the stripes!

Nicely done so far Terry!

Thanks chaps!
Not much to show, just some slow work on the gloss coat, very light weathering, and the start on the rocket rails. I've got the decals made, and should get these applied tomorrow, after allowing plenty of time for the gloss coat to harden.
PIC 1. Light panel line work around the flaps and some access hatches, some dirt streaking and the gloss coat. I've yet to add a little more wiring and pipe work to the wheel bays, and this will then be re-painted to cover the glue stains!
PIC 2. Rocket Projectiles have been sourced from the Airfix Spitfire Mk22/24 kit, and will be adapted to suit the load for the Sea Fury. The aircraft could carry three, twin-mount RP rails, on stub launchers, under each wing, normally utilising the 60 lb HE warheads, as shown on the Airfix example, or 'Triplex' rockets. Study of photos and some IWM film footage shows that a normal load out in Korea was two RPs under each wing, with the third rail left empty, in order to save weight for the relatively long-range sorties undertaken.
The Airfix parts will be separated, and the 'saddles' removed from the motor tubes, and the stubs will be attached to the 'Fury's wings, with the short 'bridge rail', made from plastic strip, fitted between each stub. After the model has been gloss coated, decals applied and clear matt coated, the RPs will be painted and fitted to the rails, after thinning the fins and adding a little detail.
PIC 3. The stubs and rails in place and painted. As there were only four sets of RPs and rails in the Airfix kit, the inner stub pylons were sourced from the HVAR mounts from the Academy P-38 kit and, although a slightly different shape, once the RPs are in place, and the wings in the folded position, this shouldn't really be noticeable. Only the tops and edges of each rail have been painted, in order to leave 'clean' plastic where the RPs will be cemented in place.
So, after 38 hours work so far, that's it for now, but I hope to post another up-date some time tomorrow.
Thank again for your kind comments.

Looks good Terry!

Nice work on the weathering! Great use of streaking, yours is really kicking arse!

nice one Terry love your work

great stuff terry, always something interesting!

Do like that weathering, looks great.

Me too!

Me three.

great job Dogsbody

Thanks very much chaps. Just about to start on the decals - hope to have some pics later tonight.

Catch22 said:

Looks sharp Terry.

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This from a guy that traded his brother for a kit.... How-um-so-ever.... I agree.

Charles

Thanks Charles - I wonder what Cory would get if he had a sister to trade?!!!
Anyway, all the decals are now on, being mostly home made.
Hobbycraft are not the best decals around, and after 20+ years sitting in my cupboard, as expected, they broke up or split when I tried to use them, even though they'd been given a coat of acrylic varnish first.
I was able to find roundels in the spare decals files for the upper wing and fuselage, but had to persevere with the kit items for the under wing roundels. These were soaked for ten minutes, and then treated to a heavy application of 'Micro Sol', and even then, they still wouldn't slide off the backing paper. So, using a wet, soft paint brush, the edges were carefully and progressively teased up, until I could lift the decal from the paper, and place it on the wing. The decals still ripped, but fortunately, after careful adjustment, they appear to have settled, and will be sealed with a clear coat after being left to fully set overnight.
All of the black lettering decals - serial numbers, code numbers, the 'T' on the fin, and the 'Royal Navy' wording, were made on the computer, in 'Word', then printed on to clear decal film, before being sealed with a couple of sprayed coats of gloss acrylic varnish, allowed to set, then used in the normal way. The few stencils visible in footage and photos of the real aircraft, were taken from a 'press fix' dry transfer sheet, originally designed for use with British F-4 Phantoms and, although the wording is not 100% accurate, it can't really be read anyway, and the 'shapes' look good enough to fit the bill!
Next step is to re-touch the white areas of the upper wing roundels where the black stripes show through feintly, then seal the decals, and spray a coat of clear 'not quite semi-gloss' varnish, to replicate the smooth finish of the original aircraft, before moving on to tackle the PE wing fold.
The pics show how the model looks so far, and note that the under wing stripes were painted over the serial numbers on the real aircraft, which meant cutting the relevant decals accordingly.
Thanks again for your kind comments, and I hope to post some more tomorrow.
EDIT: What appears to be grey staining, or misting, on the fuselage above the wings, and above the tail planes, is actually reflection from the grey paint - it's not there on the model!

I should hope I'd get a heck of a lot more than a model...airplane!

Looks good as always Terry.