1/48 Airfix Seafire XVII

[Avgas]

Two grey plastic sprues and one transparency sprue.





This is the scheme I'm doing.



AM is a set of masks and some photoetch.



A bit of blurb on the Mk XVII.

The Seafire F Mk XVII was a modified Mk XV; the most important change was the reinforced main undercarriage which used longer oleos and a lower rebound ratio. This went some way towards taming the deck behaviour of the Mk XV, reduced the propensity of the propeller tips "pecking" the deck during an arrested landing and the softer oleos stopped the aircraft from occasionally bouncing over the arrestor wires and into the crash barrier. Most production XVIIs had the cut down rear fuselage and teardrop canopy (the windscreen was modified to a rounded section, with narrow quarter windows, rather than the flat windscreen used on Spitfires) and an extra 33 gallon fuel tank fitted in the rear fuselage. The wings were reinforced, with a stronger mainspar necessitated by the new undercarriage, and they were able to carry heavier underwing loads than previous Seafire variants.[20] 232 of this variant were built by Westland (212) and Cunliffe-Owen(20).[21]


Let the butchery begin!

[Hackovsky]

Great choice! Looking forward to seeing the build

[Twokidsnosleep]

Coo topic
I like the box art, especially the Spit in the background with the wings folded and the tips fold in again...never seen that before

[Fridgy]

Do you have the option for the folded wings in the kit??

[Twokidsnosleep]

Do you have the option for the folded wings in the kit??

There are two bellies in the sprues and two sets of wings.... so it does look like it has a folded wing option

[Fridgy]

Do you have the option for the folded wings in the kit??

There are two bellies in the sprues and two sets of wings.... so it does look like it has a folded wing option

Ah so there is... I did miss that when I looked the first time.
Might have to put this on my list

[Willem]

It's a really nice kit to build, Dave. Lovely stuff.

[RossiM1]

Hi Dave this is a brilliant kit built it a while ago with the wings folded, it goes together like a dream look forward to seeing how the etch improves on the kit detail mine was straight of the box.
Good luck and enjoy.

[Avgas]

Thanks guys, I'll be doing it wings folded so am at the moment figuring out how to paint it. I think I'll go for spraying the wing bits separately then assembling after.

[Joesdad]

Can't wait Dave

[Avgas]

Bit of work done.

PE done for the gunsight and gunsight tray.



Door chopped out for open door version and parts removed ready for PE.





IP sanded back ready for PE.



I marked the PE instructions with PE that can go on before spraying.



Pre spray PE fitted to sidewalls.





The compass housing required a bit of plastic to be glued on, dimensions weren't something you would have in your evergreen so I heated a bit of sprue up to varying thicknesses.





Cut a piece off, shaped it up and fitted it to the compass housing PE.





Then fitted it to IP.



Had a bit of a spray session.



And started the IP. That's where I shall desist for the evening as I feel a G+T coming on.

[RossiM1]

Nice progress there Dave the p/e looks really good raises the detail to another level.

[TommyKillander]

Awesome!

Lots of lovely PE there - keep up the good work


Tommy

[Avgas]

Thanks chaps. I got the PE finished and oiled, two afternoons work there. Could have built the rest of the kit in that time.





Now to try and fit it all in the fuselage without knocking bits off...

[RossiM1]

that looks terrific Dave very neat p/e work and great weathering mate

[Avgas]

Thanks Rossi. Worth mentioning that the 'self adhesive' PE looses it's grip when you give it an oil wash. I noticed in the pictures that some of it had shifted so I secured the errant pieces with CA after I saw the photos.

[TommyKillander]

Wow!
That cockpit looks amazing!

Thanks Rossi. Worth mentioning that the 'self adhesive' PE looses it's grip when you give it an oil wash. I noticed in the pictures that some of it had shifted so I secured the errant pieces with CA after I saw the photos.

I have experienced the same thing. Also the surface needs to be perfectly flat for the adhesive to grip and the adhesive makes it difficult to align multilayered PE (you only get one chance to get it right)

Honestly I'm no big fan of Eduards "S.A. products". At some point Eduard provided both types, but now it seems that for some kits only S.A. versions are available


Tommy

[martin57]

thats great work with the P E ,
Looks like this will go on my list to buy .

[Stokesy44]

Cockpit looks superb. The relatively basic Airfix pit must be a distant memory now.

Great work

[Avgas]

Thanks guys. I managed to get the fuselage halves together without loosing too much PE although the gunsight housing suffered a bit. Having said that I think the gunsight looks better on it's own without the frankly out of scale tray it sits on, so I removed it from the tray and will fit it at the end of the build. There was a bit of a gap on the front fuselage but I filled that with liquid sprue. The rest of the fuselage is an excellent fit. I've started the folding wings and they also are a top class fit. So far I can highly recommend this kit.

[Hackovsky]

The PE put the kit in the different dimension! I like the details a lot! Great work so far

[Cymru]

Coming on a treat, this is going to be a feast for the eye's

[jnbattleship]

Very good progress! And the cockpit is amazing.

[martin57]

Moving along very nicely.
Great work so far

[Avgas]

Thanks guys. Bit more done tonight. carrying on with my theme of doing the foldy wings separately.

Primer done in Ultimate grey.



Pre shaded with Model Air black at around 6 psi and thinned about half and half.



Bangers done in Vall metal colour aluminium, brush painted and XF7. It's supposed to be X7 but I picked the wrong pot up off the paint rack. It's all getting a coat of satin at the end anyway.

[RossiM1]

Really coming along nicely there Dave ,

[Lysus]

Wanna do my cockpit for Warring Weather?

Stunning.

[Avgas]

Really coming along nicely there Dave

Thanks Rossi.

Wanna do my cockpit for Warring Weather?

No.

[Avgas]

Getting there, final furlong. First attempt at doing the underside went weirdly wrong. Haven't a clue what was going on there.



Second attempt much better.



Decals done.



Rockets attached to wings. Light weathering with Mig pin wash.



Same weathering on fuselage, exhausts fitted after drilling out. Finished in Vall metal colour burnt iron and washed with Ultimate rust. Exhaust stain is Tamiya weathering master oil stain.

[Stokesy44]

Looking nice. Really like the colours.

[Avgas]

Thank you David.

[TommyKillander]

Wow!

Looks stunning with the decals on.

Good that you managed to fix the paint on the underside



Tommy

[Avgas]

Thanks Tommy, don't know what went wrong with the first paint pass. Maybe some grease on the primer.

[RossiM1]

Looking really good there Dave on the home straight by the looks of things

[pourquoi61]

Fantastic cockpit detail and she is coming together nicely now.

[Avgas]

Looking really good there Dave on the home straight by the looks of things

Fantastic cockpit detail and she is coming together nicely now.

Thanks guys. Calling this one done, final pics on reveal page.

[Hackovsky]

Nice work! I need to start working faster on my build