Here are some photos
and comments on the Hobbycraft 1/32 Sea Fury that I have just built. I have
always liked the looks of the Sea Fury and when this kit came out I bought
one and hoped that the comments on various sites where wrong. This is a very
basic kit of the aircraft. When I was working on this kit the new detail and
wing sets from Fisher Products were not on the market yet and I felt that I
would just carry on and see how it came out.
History
TG117 came from
Hawker Aircraft in the first batch for the RCN. While with Hawker it was
prepared for winter trails in Canada. It was the only one in the group of
26 aircraft that was painted in the scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey and Sky
at the time. It also had 24 inch fuselage codes and red painted on the
non-flying surface on the tail planes and the outer main wing panels upper and
lower surfaces. The aircraft was flown to Watson Lake for testing from about
Oct.1948 to some time in March of 1949. It was then sent to Edmonton for further
testing. During its stay there it participated in an airshow where it was over
stressed and crashed. It was then sent to A.V. Roe Canada where it was repaired
and given a new paint job. The new paint was in the Canadian colours of Dark
Grey/Light Grey. Also it received new 18 inch codes which were different on the
port and starboard side. Port side reads Z*ZA while the starboard side
received the correct style ZZ*A. The aircraft returned to the winter test
program for the 1949-1950 season after which it was put into storage for the
summer. It was brought back into the program for the 1950 - 51 season but
unfortunately it was destroyed in a fatal crash in Jan. 1951.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Construction
The cockpit is very basic with
only floor and console, seat, throttle, control stick and dash. I drilled out
the dials and added some MDC instrument decals and the inside was painted
cockpit black. I didn't like the exhaust pipes that Hobbycraft made so I
installed 9 pieces of plastic tubing on each side. The engine front was painted
black then dry brushed with some gun metal. One of the reviews that I read about
this kit said that the cockpit opening needed to be 1/4 of an inch longer
towards the tail. I don't know if it should be that much but the opening
does seem to be small. The spinner and props don't look right and the
grooves that you see on the Sea Fury spinner are not there. You have to figure
out the angle for the blades yourself. The rest of the kit went
together very quickly after that. I also drilled out the gun
ports and added tubing into them. Next I fixed some seams that I didn't like and
then primed the model. The panel lines are quite deep on this kit so I felt that
by priming the kit they would fill in a bit. Not so. After
the first coat of primer I fixed some more bad seams and then sanded
the kit down. Panel lines still look deep so another coat of primer. Light
sanding after that and then I sprayed another coat of primer on it. After that I
decided it's time to paint.
Paint
I also decided when it was
time to paint this kit, I was going to use acrylic paint for a change. The
colours used were Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey /XF-21 Sky. The red was Tamiya X-7.
Next I sprayed on a few coats of Future on it then let it sit for a few
days. The decals went on with out any problems and after a day I sprayed on
a semi-gloss over it. After everything was dry the landing gear and doors were
glued on and I found out then that the pins on the gear sides needed to be
cut off and then the wheels needed to be mounted and the doors glued to the
right position. You will need to look at some photos of where the bottom of
the gear door and wheel hubs line up.
Final Views
In my own personal opinion now
that I have seen the Fisher sets that are out and if I were to build
another one I would use the sets with the new prop and spinner
with the new blades and the sets with the landing gear and
cockpit. He also has a new folding wing that will go with the Hobbycraft Sea
Fury kit. These items would make a vast improvement to this kit.
Reference
Jim
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