Peterpools

John Looking mighty good and you might need to build an extension to house all the builds this year - amazing how you work so quickly and beautifully - no errors at all.

Rob Awesome work and a beautiful NMF finish. You absolutely went the full route and way further then I did. Master cannons are a nice improvement over the kit parts and a good decision for sure. Decaling is superb and looks painted as I can't see any carrier film and on a NMF, that's perfection. I had a hunch during the build the prop spinners would be an issue, assembled and cleaned them up with a bit of sanding and polishing, then painted each assembly separate of the model - pretty much following the kit's assembly sequence. A bit more work but seemed to remove any chances of seams showing up when in the painting stages. 🏆

John More then just good, just a badly engineered kit from back in the day.

GETTING THINGS TOGETHER ALONG WITH SOME UGLY WARPED PARTS With the front office completed, the fuselage halves were glued together and the first of the warping issues showed their face; the fuselage halves weren’t flat, as each had an annoying twist from nose to tail. Maybe the fret was removed from the mold too soon, who knows? With the warp issue remedied, time to move on. After the fuselage seams were cleaned up, careful inspection revealed that there were some panel line alignment issues, some ended abruptly short of where they should have reached and some not accurately located. I scribed the lost panel lines from sanding, corrected almost all of the offending miss matched and short panel lines as well, cleaning up what I could see needed attention and didn’t worry about the accuracy issues. The wing and lower fuselage center section were assembled and glued into place; there was a nice step at the rear portion where it glued up to the underside of the fuselage that would need to be dealt with. The rudder, ailerons, elevators were assembled where needed, cleaned up as the Rivet Monster had been hard at work adding all those ugly, oversized rivets; they were removed and a good deal of the panel lines needed to be restored. I decided from the start, I wasn’t going to rivet the Sea Fury and left it at that. The upper inner left and right upper wing panels were glued into place after tweaking the wing fold cutouts. Of course, Airfix would have to offer the kit with folding wings, which is always a test of wills in most kits and my track record isn’t the best. Once dried, mini spars were glued into both sides of the center wing panels, allowing for the extended outer wing sections to be added; upper panels first and then the lower panels. The uppers wing sections went on with little fuss and as I was going to prepare the lower outer wing panels, I discovered both were warped badly by the wing fold area!! I took my best shot trying to keep the Sea Fury from becoming a permanent resident of the SOD. Each wing panel was soaked in very hot water and I started to massage them back into a workable shape. The left-wing panel looked a lot better but not great and the right-wing panel just didn’t want to cooperated very much. First real cuss factor of the build (I use John B cuss factor system and it does work). Each panel was glued in place, tightly taped, clamped and left to dry for a good forty-eight hours. Thanks goodness it worked fairly well but far from perfect, as the procedure kept the build alive and moving forward. Of course, once dried and somewhat cleaned up, the wing fold as well as the outer wing assembles needed sanding and a lot of cleanup … oh what fun; cuss factor number two! Each outer wing section still had a slight warp and fitting the ailerons didn’t go very well as they were straight and true. With the Airfix Sea Fury, I’ve pretty much broke with tradition when it comes to my choice of glue and a good 90% of the assembly work has been done using Revell Contacta Professional Glue rather then Tamiya Extra Thin, which was used were needed. While the wings assemblies were drying, work began cleaning up the two Barracuda detail sets that completely replace the kits nose - cowling assembly, exhausts, spinner, back plate and the engine front. Great care was exercised in removing all the parts from the molding blocks. Parts were kept very wet with clean water to try and eliminate the resin dust as much as possible, the saw was constantly wiped clean and I wore a surgical mask to prevent any chance of breathing in the toxic and carotenogenic resin dust. As a cancer patient in full remission with a compromised immune system, I need to be extra vigilant and normally avoid using resin parts that need to be sawed off the molding plugs and sanded that creates dust of any kind. Test fitting, some tweaking and the Barracuda parts fit very well together and replaced the poorly molded and badly fitting kit parts. Getting close to priming

John Geez, How did I miss this? Awesome build and save. 🏆

John Don't know how I missed your completed Williams C-46 - awesome work on a a very old and tough kit. 🏆

Kriss, beautiful work. 🏆

Kriss. Terrific build and right with Rob 🏆

Brad, right with Mike and Martin - beautiful work - so very well done.🏆

Kev 'Aces' on a terrific build - cammo and markings look so good. So very well done. 🏆

Dave Unfortunately, been there and done that in buying/replacing the original kit with a second kit when I had no option - surely not a good feeling but does save the build. 3D Printed ASROC launcher launcher looks terrifically detailed. Fingers crossed all is "clear sailing' from here on.

Kriss Beautiful work ... a stellar build.

👍

Just 'love them' Voodoos.

Smitty, thank you for posting the awesome pics -

Scott Just get better soon.

Thanks John, so very much appreciated.

Kev Looking good and good prep work is always important. I always go a few steps further with resin to be on the safe side: Cut and sand all the parts in water or very wet to keep the dust down. Wash down the bench area when done. I wear a surgical mask to prevent breathing in any of the dust, as I'm as careful as I can be these days.

Kriss Nice progress on your He-112.

John Nice choice for your latest build and always love to see " A Golden Oldie" on the bench. I built the kit when it first came out OOB as there was no AM back then and thought it was excellent as I remember. I'm afraid it's long gone but it's a warm memory.

Very nicely done.

John Fighting to keep it off the SOD

John Absolutely the case and I found exactly the same. When I get frustrated, tomorrow is another day. It's a lot less frustration and a smaller learning curve with Tamiya and Eduard kits, as the parts fit. The Airfix Sea Fury is a whole different ballgame and is plagued with fil and molding issues - yup, a high cuss factor for sure.

Peter Awesome set and a must for sure

John Just takes some getting used to. I now tend to build in both scales and I'm still getting use to working in 48th scale, which for me has turned out to be a bit more difficult then 32nd scale.