1/32 Hobbycraft Sea Fury

TG 117 RCN 

by Jim Knight

--------------------

 

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

  •  Royal Canadian Navy  Aircraft Finish and Markings 1944-1968 by Patrick Martin with Leo Pettipas     

  •  Hawker Sea Fury  In Action # 117

Jim

Photos and text © by Jim Knight