Tom's Seafire Mk.XVII **Finished**

[TomW]

Right, so this little beauty is my definite build for this GB, I might do another but we shall see


Box-art:





Decal Option, I'll be doing the third one with the white tail as it was based at Yeovilton which is only a couple of miles down the road from me :





Sprue shot, quite a few parts for such a small aircraft but all nicely molded:





And a close up of the engraved surface detail:





Finally the decals (by Techmod ), canopy and supplied resin gun barrels and exhaust stubs, a nice touch:






I've built one of these Sword Seafire kits before so know a few of the pitfalls beforehand, hopefully I can solve them a little easier this time around

Regards

Tom

[Chuck Finley]

Right, so this little beauty is my definite build for this GB, I might do another but we shall see


Box-art:





Decal Option, I'll be doing the third one with the white tail as it was based at Yeovilton which is only a couple of miles down the road from me :





Sprue shot, quite a few parts for such a small aircraft but all nicely molded:





And a close up of the engraved surface detail:





Finally the decals (by Techmod ), canopy and supplied resin gun barrels and exhaust stubs, a nice touch:






I've built one of these Sword Seafire kits before so know a few of the pitfalls beforehand, hopefully I can solve them a little easier this time around

Regards

Tom

Can't be any worse than the Valom Bristol Brigand B.Mk.1 sitting in my paint booth. Besides, your Seafire is an interesting variant.

[Dirkpitt289]

I don't know much about Seafire's but it looks like a sharp kit. Cool paint schemes

[TomW]

There seems to be a little confusion over which colour or combination of colours are correct for a Seafire, whether it should be interior green or interior green / black. Plus the interior green used on Spitfires and Seafires wasn't the same as used on other aircraft. Apparently the old Humbrol 90 is a close match for the green as used by Westlands who built this particular Seafire version. It has to be an old tinlet though, pre-Hornby takeover as it was re-formulated to be a better match to Sky a few years back.

Luckily I have a tinlet of both versions and they are definitely different!! 45 minutes of stirring and thinning brought the old tin back to life (I dont think it had been used since '94 / '95 ) and I slapped it on the interior bits and bobs:






I've also started painting various bits and pieces to speed the assembly process later and I've removed the ejector towers from inside the wings and fuselage. Not much but its a start

Regards

Tom

[Sissel]

Luckily I have a tinlet of both versions and they are definitely different!! 45 minutes of stirring and thinning brought the old tin back to life (I dont think it had been used since '94 / '95 ) and I slapped it on the interior bits and bobs:

I admire your patience!!
Nice paint schemes in that kit.

[TomW]

I never give up on a paint tinlet especially when its a colour that you can't get anymore.


One completed cockpit this afternoon:






All simple stuff with a wash and a little drybrushing but it'll do the trick in this scale:





I've also attached the seperate rocker covers to each fuselage half to reduce the amount of remedial work I'll need to do once the halves are closed up:





Regards

Tom

[Sissel]

That looks great. Good idea with dry brushing the side walls.

[PaulBradley]

Very effective, Tom.

[TomW]

Thanks

Buttoned the fuselage up yesterday and cleaned up the seams with no huge gaps rearing their ugly heads Should have guessed things were progressing too smoothly as this is what happened when I added the upper wing halves:









Now the gap on the underside around the flaps I was expecting as this happened on my Mk.XV but I wasn't expecting to have to shave a couple of mm from each wing root just to get the leading edges to line up. Plenty of filler needed to sort it out once the glue has cured

Regards

Tom

[jssel]

Nice stuff Tom. Going so well that if you blink it will be done.

[MDT]

All that stirring paired off I'd say, funny you mention old Hu90 as I remeber it as this shade too! You're going to get me into Seafires if I'm not careful...

[Old_Tonto]

Storming ahead Tom. I love the interior detail & I'm sure you will fettle the gaps.

[jssel]

I see you did the two color cockpit. I just learned about that. Good call.

[Stuart]

Looks good.

[TomW]

Cheers all


Lots of filling and sanding above and below the wing has left me with this:








I've also attached the tailplanes, carb intake and upper wing wheel bulges to give me a pretty much complete airframe, next up is to start getting some paint on the exterior.

Regards

Tom