Airfix Sea Fury WIP

Box Art

Sprue A

Sprue B

Sprue C

Sprue D

Sprue E

Kit Decal Sheet

Using a few aftermarket parts to enhance the kit. Eduard cockpit zoom set and seatbelts. Aerocraft cowling to replace the poor fitting Airfix one and gunsight as Airfix omitted this.

Xtradecal options

More Xtradecal options

Canadian options from Mike Grant

Option chosen

Brass rod added to the rear bulkhead. The corresponding rail needs to be removed from the rear of the seat.

More detail added that will be where the seatbelts are attached.

Cockpit parts primed, painted and glossed. Conflicting information on the cockpit colours so went with cockpit green lightened with a little sky, to try and avoid a "black hole". The cockpit walls will be in NATO Black.

Cockpit tub painted.

Sidewall detail painted.

All cockpit parts ready for assembly.

Cockpit matt varnished and assembled

View of the instrument panel.

Kit seat with Eduard straps added.

Top view of cockpit.

And one more, just 'cos I can

View showing the Aerocraft gunsight. A useful addition.

Cockpit test fitted into the fuselage.

View of the seat in the fuselage

Photo showing the gunsight slightly off centre. Recommend this is glued in place whilst the cockpit is in the fuselage to ensure it is central.

Cockpit fitted.

There are quite a few prominent ejector pin marks that need filling or scraping. One set is in such a tight space that they proved impossible to remove but thankfully they aren't easily seen once in place.

U/C bay painted, weathered and detailed with various wire and solder.

Underwing tanks glued together

Tail wheel bay

Undercarraige bay matt varnished and glued in place

Not much of the engine can be seen with cowling fitted. Even less when propeller and nose cone fitted.

Not a perfect fit but a little sanding sorted it.

Little bit of filler required.

Exhausts fitted.

Cockpit and tail wheel bay fitted to one side of the fuselage.

Fuselage halves joined together.

Fin shortfall in the moulding process. Most kits seem to have it but it'e easily fixed.

Nose join was difficult to clean up with the protrusions in place so found it easier to remove them, sand the join flush and then make replacements from plasticard.

View of new nose protrusions.

View of fin repair using plastic strip and filler.

View of undercarraige bay fitted to lower centre wing section.

Lower wing section with outer wing supports in place. A neat idea that works well.

Upper inner wings fitted like a dream

Tailplanes fitted. Small amount of filler.

Another view of the tailaplanes.

Rudder and elevators fitted at a slight angle to add interest.

Circled areas need to be removed.

View of the Aerocraft lights.

Holes drilled out before removing with a knife and then cleaning up with sandpaper.

Holes cleaned up.

Lights glued in place.

Outer wing sections glued in place. The wing support inserts really help with this.

Outer wing joints cleaned up.

Ailerons glued in place.

Main doors

Prominent ejector pin marks that need removing.

And again.

Cockpit and windscreen masked off with tape. Masking fluid applied to tape edges as an extra precaution and to prevent tape peeling.

View of rear of cockpit masked.

Canopy masked and play-doh used to mask the inside of the canopy. Never tried this before so will see how it goes.

Chrome finish applied to the exhaust area using K Colors Mirror finish. Excellent product. No thinning and gives a superb finish on top of a gloss black.

View of the other side.

Masking applied to the exhausts.

Rolled paper used to mask the cowling interior.

Wheels finished with Tamiya Tyre black and Vallejo Metal Color Steel.

Propeller finished in a Vallejo glossy black and yellow tips.

All the lower parts finished in the lower surface gray FS36373. Used Hataka A302.

Primer applied with UMP black primer. When dry it is rubbed down very gently with 4000 micro mesh just to remove any roughness. This produces a smooth almost porcelain surface.

Starting to apply the black basing using the underside colour applied in a random marbling action.

Some random colours applied including a blue, a red and a green to provide some interesting tonal variations.

The same random colours applied to the fuselage as the under wing surfaces.

Lighter gray on the underside.

Left side of fuselage.

Starboard fuselage.

Masking tape applied prior to upper surface colour.

Upper surface colour applied using Vallejo 70836 London Grey (FS36118) followed by some post shading with Hataka A031 (also FS36118) and white. This provided some nice tonal variations. This was then followed up with a Vallejo sepia wash along the panel lines.

Second shot showing the other side.

Vallejo sepia wash applied to lower surface.

The wash appears too strong so it will be blended in with the base colour.

Upper colour masked so the lighter shade can be blended. This was achieved using a very thin coat misted on until the shading and various tones just show through.

The same process was done with the upper surface darker shade.

Once happy with the result 2 coats of gloss were misted on to protect everything and prepare the surface for the decals.

Photo showing the undercarriage painted and a wash applied.

Port side decals.

Starboard side decals.

Upper surface decals. The Mike Grant decal sheet wasn't very clear about the upper surface decals. Found better details on the Fündekals instruction sheet that ironically has the same scheme.

Lower surface decals. Almost forgot to apply the large letters.....Had applied all the stencils and thought I was done before noticing the missing decals. Doh!!!

Huge fingerprint on the port upper wing....

Sanded it back using 4000 micromesh until almost gone without damaging the paint finish, then reapplied some more gloss varnish. Success thankfully.

Starboard side showing the exhaust application. This was done using watercolour pencils. Burnt umber and various shades of brown. These are applied dry and then blended using a damp brush. Further blending was achieved using a soft brush.