Dutch East Indies...1/48 Fairey Firefly FR.I, Koninklijke Marine Luchtvaartdienst

16/2024

Dad finished the next one. The first of an upcoming Firefly trio.
Trumpeter kit wih decals from the Special Hobby Firefly Foreign Post War Users kit. Used seats with molded on seatbelts from Quickboost, which seem slightly undersized. The kit exhaust tubes are angled straight but should look downward, replaced them with pieces from Quickboost too. The kit wheels are rather thick and primitive, replaced them with some from Barracuda Studios. The rear canopy lacks the dorsal frame strut, masked and painted it. The kit comes with no pitot tube, "stirrup", rearview mirror and t-shaped antennas? under the horizontal stabilizers. Used a British pitot tube from the sparesbox, the rest is scratchbuilt. The tailwheel broke off when the model had a maiden flight to the ground...the wheel wasn´t usable anymore afterwards, replaced it with one from the sparesbox. The Dutch Firefly had an antenna? under each wing and one on the left upperwing. Used some plastic pieces to simulate that. They also had four RP-3 rockets under each wing, always two mounted on a base plate. The Special Hobby Firefly kits include two base plates as PE parts. Used the PE stuff as template and did cut out four plates with plastic sheet, rockets came from Special Hobby kits. EZ Line was used for the antenna wires. Used a piece of plastic sprue to simulate the landing light. Could have added some more detail or correct other flaws but put a fork in it.
Painted with AK RC Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey, Tamiya Sky.

Build thread here
https://imodeler.com/groups/serving-under-another-flag/forum/topic/siam-brit-1-48-fairey-firefly-mk-i-royal-thai-navy/

The Netherlands were the first foreign user of the Firefly FR.1. In January 1946, 860 Squadron received its first Firefly aircraft. They were stationed aboard the carrier Karel Doorman, former HMS Nairana. They soon saw combat action and were used for counter-insurgency and fighting the Indonesian nationalists who didn´t want the Dutch masters to return and who wanted an independent Indonesia. The final ceasefire was in August 1949. An accord was signed on December 22nd 1949 in which the Netherlands ceded independence to the nationalists. The Dutch Firefly Squadron 860 was disbanded in March 1950 and the surviving 11 Fireflies were shipped back to the Netherlands.

Reader reactions:
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24 additional images. Click to enlarge.


7 responses

  1. Really nice Firefly build, Reinhard @grimreaper
    This Dutch scheme turned out beautifully.
    It was a pleasure to follow the build thread.

  2. Great work - looks really good in Dutch colors.

  3. That's a pretty good model.

  4. Excellent result Spreitzhofer Family!

  5. Nice result, Reinhard. Fireflies and Dutch East Indies stuff are two of my favorite subjects.

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