Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Seafire FR.47

[Lee]

Started this a little while ago and it's one of those I pick up do a little work then put it down again. Not sure why as I love the subject but, I always take my time with Airfix kits because they're like a box of chocolates....lol. Don't get me wrong, love Airfix, grew up on them just, well you know.....

I did a review on the kit a while ago, which you can see here....

[youtube]EfOk9Z1AMKc[/youtube]


Box and sprue shots.....

[Paul]

I really fancy this kit myself, and you just can't beat air fix box art, awesome

Currently trying to pick my next model to start, really want to do that italleri hurricane, but don't want the problems you have had lee

[Lee]

All the starter pieces off the sprue and ready to go after much de-burring!




Now, I want to do the FR.47 model which was around at the start of the Korean war but, the problem is the model only comes in wings up fashion for the FR.47 (of course I want to do wings down) and wings down for the FR.46. I contemplated putting the FR.6 wings on as it would be a LOT easier and the end result would look better. Only thing is there's a couple of quite noticeable differences on the wings between the two variants as you can see for these pictures....





As you can see the wheel housing pods are much larger on the FR.47 and on the underside of the wings the paneling is different too. So, I've decided to bite the bullet and try and do the FR.47 wings down, just because I love a challenge

[Lee]

Today I managed to get some 'me' time and get most of the cockpit sorted. Bit of a strange one this as it's not like modern models where the cockpit is a separate entity in itself, it's just two halves that have to be glued to the fuselage... PITA Airfix...!!!

Anyways, weathered the foot platespedals and runners....


Joystick...


Seat (still more to do on this yet)...


Fuselage halves.....




Instrument Panel


Then added some micro crystal clear for the dials...


And waited for them to dry.....


Drilled out the exhausts too....


Cut out the right shapes of the fuselage (you have to do this yourself!) for the cameras....




And finally, got the ID lamps in....



Really enjoyed my bank holiday Monday today.

More to follow (when I pick it up again....lol

[Paul]

Great work mate, look forward to your next instalment.

[Bagpiper]

What a fantastic build thread. Love seeing what parts your doing and in what order.
Excellent detail.

Many thanks for sharing with us

Jim

[Lee]

Cheers fellas.....

[BrummieModeller]

Great build so far lee *thumbs up*

[Modelpro72]

That's a great start Dan. I do have this kit in my stash (somewhere) Will be following your build.

Cheers Dan

Lenny

[Lee]

That's a great start Dan. I do have this kit in my stash (somewhere) Will be following your build.

Cheers Dan

Lenny

Cheers Lenny....and it's Lee mate ....lol

[Gav0909]

The Seafire is coming on nicely! I have the Mk17 version sitting on the shelf built and part painted. I decided to build mine with the wings folded, just as something different. Got a bit put out when I made a slight pigs ear of the airbrushing of the basecoats, and she has sat on the WIP shelf ever since!

[Lee]

Know the feeling Gavin, I have several models sitting in the same place....lol

[Gav0909]

So yeah I dug my Seafire out today. Decided that I would never manage to get a decent paint finish on it with the wings folded, and with the work I would have to do.

Sooo...I ripped the wings off it and I am in the process of putting the normal wings on it. Going to have it wheels, flaps and tail hook down as if its coming in to land instead. Have had to order up a few replacements from Airfix though, as I couldn't salvage the underwing air intakes and oil cooler intake, or the main undercarriage legs.

[Lee]

Excellent! Make sure you post up your progress pics Gav - Will be very interested to see how you go

[Gav0909]

Yeah I will get some pics up shortly.

[Lee]

Managed to get a little more done tonight...

As you can see Airfix have opted for a strange way to get the cockpit in, two miniscule fixing points for a whole cockpit.....Grrrrr








Let's get that fuselage together. Actually goes together well, a nice snug fit...






There were a LOT of gaps in and around the cockpit area. I've managed to get rid of them by flooding the gaps with Tamiya Extra This, which has welded everything together nicely. Just got a few touch ups to do with the paint and the cockpit is finished.....

[Paul]

Managed to get a little more done tonight...

Spot on mate, when are you going to tackle that hurricane again

[Gav0909]

Does the FR47 not have a split colour cockpit? The Mk17 Seafire I am doing has a green/black split colour to the cockpit interior, is this not the same on the FR47?

I have been working on mine this evening as well. Fuselage has been re-primered. Will be held up a bit now til I get my replacement parts from Airfix though. Pilot is now painted though.

[AlexModelling]

AWSOME Dan... great pictures... great atention on detail!

[Lee]

AWSOME Dan... great pictures... great atention on detail!

Lee

[Paul]

Managed to get a little more done tonight...

Spot on mate, when are you going to tackle that hurricane again

Ahem, cough, cough

[Lee]

Managed to get a little more done tonight...

Spot on mate, when are you going to tackle that hurricane again

Ahem, cough, cough

Can't hear you, sorry

[Paul]

Can't hear you, sorry

Get back to work

[Lee]

Managed to get quite a bit done before the weekend. Lots of little fussy bits like scraping, de-burring, filling, sanding, re-shaping, re-aligning, re-scribing and swearing.

Got to say I'm starting to fall out of love with Airfix! Not once have I done a kit and really enjoyed building it like say a Tamiya or Trumpeter. There's always fit issues, always alignment issues, flash, flash, and yet more flash (even their new tools have flash!), always burrs. I spend more time with these little jobs than I do building and painting put together, just gets a little tedious after a while.

Anyway, pics of work so far.......

Joined the fuselage to the underside of the wings (wish I'd replicated Dan's idea here!) as you can see how poor the fit is...




The wing roots were painful too...


Stuck the underside on first...


Then the uppers (at least one side the fit was OK!)...




Next, guess what? Another poor fit on the outer wings (mind the gap please)...


Easily solved with a two part filing session...


Drilled out the rocket ends same as the exhausts...


An finally, all extremities primed ready for paint...

[Paul]

Nice progress mate

[Gav0909]

Are you going with folded wings on this then? I think the wing folding method was different on this mark to the Mk 17 I am doing, as I didn't have any of those fit issues at all when building mine. I don't know if the F47 and the Mk17 share a common fuselage or if they are different moulds from Airfix, as again when I put the wings on the fuselage I didn't have any issues. In fact my wings stay on the body with friction alone.

Looking good though, I look forward to seeing more. Update on mine coming shortly!

[Lee]

Yes Gav, going to have a crack at folded wings mate. Suddenly realised I hadn't done one before so, am going to have a go at it.

I've had no end of problems with this kit. I don't know if it's just this one but, it's fighting me all the way. I'll bash the bitch though....!!!

First off, to start my session I had a glue run and decided a swirly pattern would look nice on the model...




Then the cowling would not fit so, filling now required!






And then the underbelly too! WTF.....!!!




At least I managed to melt this gap away with a ton of extra then...




All the gaps are filled now and looks a lot better, unfortunately the pics didn't come out very well. More pain to come

[Tamiyasnob]

Scotland Yard would be proud of that finger print ,ah the joy,s of an Airfix kit, still fair play to you for persevering with it. Looking forward to seeing this finished.

[Nige201980]

I'm had the same problems with the spitfire I'm doing for the group build. And if I remember rightly every airfix spitfire build I've done has had the dame problems why airfix can't fix it I don't know if they did they would have very good kits.

[Gav0909]

Still don't get it, the Mk17 Seafire kit I built was a dream, so much so that I could sit the fuselage on the wing assembly and the wings held in place by friction, even the bit behind the lights were you had that big gap didn't need any filling.

Now lets see some more progress on this please thank you!

[Lee]

OK OK - Pushy so and so's...!!!

I promise to get some done over the weekend - dib dib dib dob dob

[Lysion]

Hi, that is a nice looking model. What did you use to weather the cockpit?

[Lee]

Hi Lysion, just a little dry brushing and a verlinden silver pencil....

[Joesdad]

That cockpit gonna be so good.....

[frack]

great build