lancfans' 7 Sea Fury kits- * * FOUR KITS FINISHED * *

[lancfan]

Had a problem, the model is now as seen here, what is not visible in the picture is the discolouration of the varnish altering the colour in different places, I can only assume that I have managed to pollute it somehow (but it was fine when I did the RCN SF) the varnish has been discarded and replaced and another Airfix Sea Fury kit has been acquired to provide new decals, the model will today be carefully rubbed down to remove as much varnish as possible and the paint will be freshened up and the application of varnish & decals can begin again.


David.

[PaulBradley]

One thing to remember about "real" aircraft is that their paintwork weathered very quickly in service - especially in the rather tough conditions on a carrier off Korea.

[lancfan]

I do appreciate that Paul but this is no lucky happenstance it is weird and 'orrible- I promise you no aircraft had this effect!!


David.

[TimJ]

Sorry to hear about the problem with the varnish. Looks good.

[lancfan]

The repainted model with clear varnish and fresh decals, the detail parts will now be fitted today followed by restrained weathering to complete the model. Having found images of Sea Furies in Korea I know that they were kept quite clean apart from extended exhaust stains and a little water staining presumably from being at alert on deck.


Still having colour problems with the German aircraft, all the pictures I have found of this show unfortunate colour casts and the various captions report different colours, I have narrowed the colour down to a RAL colour between 3000 to 3004 but the high visibility panels applied later cannot be tied down for the same reasons- yellow or orange? we are now racing towards the finish of the GB and a decision has to be made soon.
I will not now complete all seven kits but will certainly achieve five and if I can push things along a little I may just get to six.

David.

[Old_Tonto]

I love your production line approach.

I should do the same with my Spitfires.

[lancfan]

My fourth Sea Fury is now complete, the drop tanks supplied with both this kit and the Trumpeter model seem to be long range ferry tanks and are larger than the combat tanks I have seen in pictures of aircraft operating in Korea. The tanks supplied with the new tool Airfix P-51D are very close to these and only need the horizontal seam to make much more realistic Sea Fury combat tanks and have been used as such on this model, also the fins on the kit rockets have been reduced in size by half to more accurately represent the real thing.






With one model to complete and two more kits left to build and only three days left for the build the time has come to decide what to do with the German T.20, I will be buying more of these in the new year and do want to model other examples of these aircraft so if the correct colour is too different to live with I can replace this model for one painted in the correct colour. Using a small quantity of Humbrol 220 ferrari red with a couple of drops of 33 matt black I have mixed more than enough of the chosen RAL 3001 to complete the model. The first thin coat of red has now been applied, when the second coat is down and dry I will post a picture of it prior to applying varnish and decals. I don't want to rush a model so will end this GB with the German T.20 and the other two will await their turn in my workshop window queue.

David.

[TimJ]

Another great build David.

[lancfan]

I have been told of the correct colour red and have started to repaint it but the gloss paint I was using covered so poorly (one guess who made it) that the surface detail has begun to disappear and I have decided to kill this model and end my thread in the GB now. Although I do have a complete Airfix FB.11 kit and the parts for a spare T.20 fuselage I do not have time to rebuild from scratch in the time left so will turn spectator for the last three days.

David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Valiant effort, and ol' 114 really looks good !!!

[lancfan]

Thanks for your kind comments everyone, it has been fun and some important models in my new Sea Fury theme have been built, there will be more built next year when I restock the stash.
The build has attracted a good number of models of all makes, I was surprised at the number of PM models, largely because of the adverse comments often made about them although I find them to be quite a good model, there are minor faults that can be easily fixed and the kit is well supported by aftermarket goodies and decals. This is the last day and at midnight I will total up the builds to see how many models we managed to make.

David.

[mightymikeD]

I, personally, wasn't surprised at the number of PM kits: they do lots of variants with some unusual schemes (Iraqui, Canadian, Pakistani) and are cheap as chips. I can only speak for my FB11 kit but it went together really easily. I know from experience that this isn't always the case with PM Kits.
Your four completions look amazing and you've laid the groundwork for the other three. Seven builds was always ambitious.. so good work, David!