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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Airfix Sea Fury FB.II


Peterpools

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Your painting is flawless Phil, I don't know, how you achieve this super clean look, which is one of your trade marks. Can't wait to see the Fury with all the markings on.
We have the absolute opposite weather situation here, it's very hot and super dry, since over a week and it will last for another week at last. Creeping from shadow to shadow is the best way to handle this, as the nights are equally hot, very untypical.

Cheers Rob

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Thanks Rob

Very much appreciated the compliments on my painting style.

Just don't know which is worse, all the heavy rains or the blistering heat and no rain - neither is an alternative and my vote has always been for something in the middle. Just seems the weather has been changing globally for years and it's now reached the point of climate change. Hurricanes reaching the US are bigger, more violent, more devastating and in greater frequency. The west has been suffering a terrible drought for nearly a decade and both Lake Mead and the Colorado River have been receding for years. With a heavy snow fall last winter and an above average snow melt, that has turned around but needs to continue for years to come.  🤞   

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DECALING IS DONE

What a relief to reach the decaling stage, one of my favorite parts of any build and a sure sign of progress as the build is now heading towards the finish line. I had purchased a set of Wolfpack decals before starting the project, as the markings looked interesting and I was leery on how well the Airfix decals would work – was I in for a BIG surprise.

Decal prep as normal, a super glossy coat of Tamiya LP-9 clear lacquer. If anything, a bit too smooth as the decals slip and slide and take their good old time to bite in place using the Micro Set instead of water to speed up the process.

The Wolfpack decals looked great, are wonderfully thin and the carrier film was kept to a minimum. All went well until I went to apply the upper wing roundels over the ID Stripes and the thinness of the decals turned into a huge issue: you could see the black ID stripe plain as day – not good at all.

What to do, as I only had two decals on the sheet for the upper wings? Unbelievable as it sounds, Airfix to the rescue. The kit   decal roundels were exactly (?) the same size and color and what a happy coincidence, so I gave it a shot. On the left upper wing, I double decaled the Wolfpack roundels and on the right upper wing, I needed to double decal the Airfix decals. Both company’s decals were as thin and translucent as each other. It’s almost as if the decals themselves were printed by the same company? As both sets of double decals dried, I could still slightly see the black ID stripe but very acceptable. No way was I going to triple decal the roundels.

What I should have done in hindsight was either mask the area under the roundels in white or use a mask set, lesson learned.

I was very impressed with the Wolfpack decals and blown away with how good the Airfix decals actually are.

Next up: A seal coat of LP-9 to seal in the decals, panel line wash and then the final clear coat of Alclad Semi sheen/mat. Once dry, it should be time to assemble and add all the remaining assemblies’ parts and of course the landing gear.

Prop and spinner are just taped into place for the pics.

GM60Bo.jpg

HZekxd.jpg

kYngLg.jpg

M5q5fp.jpg

wzSnpz.jpg

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Mike, thanks so much for the very kind comments. The Sea Fury has been a tough kit and a lot more involved then I ever thought it would be and has to be close to my record for the amount of redo's and go-backs. Just glad I can finally see the finish line and I'm she must have a few more tricks up her sleeve.  :construction:

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DONE AND IN THE BOOKS

The Sea Fury has crossed the finish line.

The final assemblies and the remaining small parts have all been added:

The main gear was installed; a little sloppy in fit but referring to scale plans and some very good reference images, the gear looks the part.

The tail wheel assembly also needed a bit of finesse, not a great fit but it’s installed as well.

The remaining few details that were left off until the end, as I knew I would so easily have broken them during construction were now added:

The retractable footstep and the pitot tube. The landing and IFF lights were just decals for the undersides of the wings (pretty poor idea in my book).

Last parts to be glued into place were the kit prop (the prop blades surely appear to be on the skinny side), the Barracuda spinner and finally, the canopy.

Calling her done and in the books.

Looking back on the build, there were more then a few frustrations, a struggle at times, reasonable part fit and of course models with folding wings, there are always fit issues that need to be dealt with. In the end, the Airfix Sea Fury looks the part, a nice addition to the collection.

Please excuse the Sky Type S color in some of the photographs, as the actual color is a bit hard to reproduce correctly in Photoshop.

cV0uCd.jpg

txRMHM.jpg

qTDy44.jpg

spufZG.jpg

 

zc7mPL.jpg

B5jBIv.jpg

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

DONE AND IN THE BOOKS

The Sea Fury has crossed the finish line.

The final assemblies and the remaining small parts have all been added:

The main gear was installed; a little sloppy in fit but referring to scale plans and some very good reference images, the gear looks the part.

The tail wheel assembly also needed a bit of finesse, not a great fit but it’s installed as well.

The remaining few details that were left off until the end, as I knew I would so easily have broken them during construction were now added:

The retractable footstep and the pitot tube. The landing and IFF lights were just decals for the undersides of the wings (pretty poor idea in my book).

Last parts to be glued into place were the kit prop (the prop blades surely appear to be on the skinny side), the Barracuda spinner and finally, the canopy.

Calling her done and in the books.

Looking back on the build, there were more then a few frustrations, a struggle at times, reasonable part fit and of course models with folding wings, there are always fit issues that need to be dealt with. In the end, the Airfix Sea Fury looks the part, a nice addition to the collection.

Please excuse the Sky Type S color in some of the photographs, as the actual color is a bit hard to reproduce correctly in Photoshop.

cV0uCd.jpg

txRMHM.jpg

qTDy44.jpg

spufZG.jpg

 

zc7mPL.jpg

B5jBIv.jpg

 

 

 

 

Turned out really well Peter! A lot of work to get it that way!!! I LIKE it! :)

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