Supermarine Seafang in 1/48 scale by Trumpeter
The subject of a fair bit of criticism, the Trumpeter Seafang & Spiteful nevertheless are well moulded, precise fitting kits that are deserving of some effort to do justice to. Mine is built taking on board some of the points raised by critics & ignoring others. I tend to stay away from micrometers & go for the "If it looks right..." principle. What I have done is:
Widen the fuselage aft of the cockpit. Enlarge & fair in the rocker covers. Fill in behind the cockpit. Deepen the cockpit tub. Put more curve in the spinner - it was too pointed. Replace the sliding canopy. Re-work the oleo legs. Make the radiator housings shallower. re-build the retraction struts. Add brake lines & drill out the exhausts. There may well be other points I haven't addressed or done wrong, but enough is enough; you have to stop somewhere, so what you see is the result. I hope you enjoy it.
Sounds as if you did quite a LOT of "reconstruction"...I guess it didn't 'look right' as per your principles, huh? I'll tell ya, it's a whole lot more than I woulda done (or even KNEW enough to do). It prolly woulda looked right to me OOB. 🙂
At any rate, it's a nice job and it came out looking good.
I'm with you Craig, but never-the-less a beautiful build Tony. I've always loved the medium grey and duck egg?...paint schemes on the Britt a/c.
Good build, though I have very mixed feelings regarding the Trumpy Seafang. Part of me says good on them for being brave enough to produce an injection moulded kit of an obscure Fleet Air Arm prototype that got canned. The choice of subject matter is brave & to be commended. But then what were they thinking when they were doing the cad drawings? The inaccuracies gives me pause, & I would have got this kit in a blink of an eye had it not been for that. I still probably will if I see one cheap enough but I've got a feeling this one would be a bit of a stash sitter.