**** DONE: 1/72 Fairey Firefly AS5 - Your Favourite Aircraft of All Time GB

[Vic Balshaw]

Mike you should be able to get the invisible threat at a Spotlight, Lincraft or any good haberdashers. If you've a problem getting it out your way as I don't think you have either of these stores in your town, just PM me and I'll nip into town and get some.

 

[parsifal]

Vic

I may need to take you up on that, but i will let you know. There is a manchester supplies shop here in Orange, which i will try today. if no luck i will PM and make the arrangements

 

[Vic Balshaw]

No problem.

 

[parsifal]

I managed to obtain the thread durig my lunch hour. many thanks vic, just the same. Am currently working on the canopies, and waiting for my rockets to finish off the the weapons fit

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Good to hear mate, happy stringing!

 

[parsifal]

Ill be practising technique on a lot of scrap before attempting this I might add. the basic problem I have is that I should have attached the line to the fuselage before joining the two halves.

I am thinking the best method of attachment , in terms of neatness, would be to use a pin vice to drill a small hole on the fold point of the tail dorsal area (about ,0.5mm) and poke the line into that hole with CA glue. There is enough width of the fin to drill such a hole. The line would attach to the fin about 2/3 the way up the tail plane......

I dont envisage any big issues attaching the line to the mast above the observer cockpit.

 

[N4521U]

Doin a great job on that entry mate.

One comment on your photos. Get a large piece of coloured construction paper, grey, light blue etc. Keep the bottom half flat, lean the top half up a wall. I use the shelf on the end of my BBQ! Keep the plane on the flat and the plane in full shot.

Looks fantastic!

 

[parsifal]

Im kinda being a bit rough with my progress shots i know, but I have built a small light box out of a largish cardboard box. ive cut the sides and the top out, and replaced them with draftsmens translucent tracing paper. This stuff acts as a poor mans diffuser that tends to spread the light fairly evenly. Last set of shots I was careless and had shadow allover the place, but generally I can avoid this. But i do need to improve the background for the finals shots i know

 

[Airframes]

You've got the right idea for attaching the 'wire' Michael, and better than doing it before joining the fuselage. I normally do the main construction, then drill all holes needed, unless some have to be drilled in areas not easily accessed before construction.

 

[meatloaf109]

I have actually found aftermarket 1/72 kit for 60 lb HVAR napalm rockets. not quite HE rockets, but still okay. i am quite certain that of the 8000 or so of rockets fired by the RAAF and RAN during the Korean war, at least some of these would have been napalm.

Here is the link to the site that sells these 1/72 scale bombs and rockets. Its a pity that the HE rockets are out of stock at the moment. At least i will have some rockets....

Conversions :: RedRoo Models

Any ideas on how I should paint these rockets. USN "masher" rockets were painted green or grey warheads, light sea grey body and bare metal fins. Ive seen RN rockets painted an overall black or maybe dark blue. Ive read that napalm rockets in the RN were painted black with either a white or red warhead, but I have not seen that. I have seen one photo of a Firefly with rockets still attached, that appears to have the warheads white (or at least a light colour, and the body and tail a dark blue or grey.

Any ideas guys?

U.S.N. warheads,
H.E.- olive drab, white markings.
Chemical, casualty,- grey with green band, white lettering.
Smoke- grey with yellow band.
Practice- blue with white band.
I have seen R.A.F. Tiffies with red warheads and yellow band, but haven't been able to track down the picture yet.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

This is what is so great about the forum, a wealth of knowledge and good people ready to share it.

Great info Paul.

 

[parsifal]

Thanks ML, all information is a great help.

Some further progress shots. Have attached the aerial line to the tail, and just about finished the two canopies. Things I have yet to complete:, the two canopies, clean up of the overall finish, arttaching the canopies, fitting of the bombs and rockets. I have to mount the canopy aerial post, and attach the line to that post. Finally, one of the fuselage roundels needs to be replaced, as i damaged one last night. I have also to apply sealant to protect the paint work and the decals.

hopefully my rockets will arrive soon......

 

[Crimea_River]

Be careful applying sealant with your clear parts now exposed.

 

[parsifal]

Its all good Andy, the canopies arent yet fixed.

Your decals really did become very useful BTW. If you look at the shots, the port side cannons are missing. I didnt realize they had fallen off whilst I was attaching the nylon thread to the model. I have since located these model part, and re-attached them, however as I did that I damaged the roundel on the port side. Thus i had two damaged roundels, on on the starboard fuselage, and one on the port side. I used two from your sheet to fix that damage. I have also cleaned up the banding on the fuselage, and replaced one of the "Ks"on the tail. Evrything is drying right now, tomorrow I plan to seal it all up (without the canopies BTW).

Pretty much all that needs to happen is for my rockets to arrive, canopies to be attached aerial mounting completed, and prop to be attached

 

[Gnomey]

Coming along nicely!

 

[Wurger]

Looking very nice.

And an interesting picture I found when looking across the net for something different.

 

[Crimea_River]

 

[parsifal]

Looking very nice.

And an interesting picture I found when looking across the net for something different.

Thats a great pic Wotjek. I notice the differnt colour spinners of the 1st and 5th fireflies in the line up. I woonder what the two spinner colours are???

I wonder if you have there are more photos like those ? Do you have the link where the pics came from?

 

[Wurger]

The link is http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/images/pc1994-201-570.jpg

It it is also available if you click on the pic and choose Show Picture Info or something like that there.

As far as these clours are concerned... my first impression was the the first spinner was of a light blue paint. But later I have thought it might have been of Sky S-type as well. The rest of machines in the line could have had spinners of black

 

[Lucky13]