1/48 Trumpeter Sea Hornet NF.21 FINISHED!

Started by Eric Berg · 115 · 3 years ago
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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Thanks to Erik’s group invite, the much maligned and deservingly so Trumpy approximation of the DeHavilland Sea Hornet NF.21 in 1/48 scale currently sitting on my shelf of ultimate doom will get built after all instead of being tossed in the trash or donated. Lot’s of work ahead, but I’ll try to make it look good from two feet away. Big dilemma is, wings up or down?

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    Tom Cleaver said 4 years ago:

    You're a glutton for punishment, sir! I can assure you, if you do everything and more to try and get this to look like a model of a Sea Hornet, you're still going to be Nowhere Close at the end.

    Of all the Trumpy misfires, the Hornet series doesn't even qualify as door stops.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years ago:

    Hi Eric @eb801!

    Welcome to this Great GB!

    Well, as much as an approximation of the real thing your kit selection might be, I confess I love your choice! Inasmuch as a not properly researched "new" kit this might be, still, such kits are with "us". Definitely not promoting a bad researched kit, but, still, I love trying to bring the best out of such "misfires", even more so to see them built by skilled fellow modelers.

    So, welcome on board!

    Eagerly waiting to see your progress!

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    Erik Gjørup said 4 years ago:

    With only three (AFAIK) to choose from in 1/48, I think the Trumpeter might be as good a choice as any (OK, there was a VAC-form once too) There are not many AM details available, and it will indeed be very interesting to follow your efforts once there is a vacant spot on your bench.

    In my humble opinion you are assured points just by taking it on. Good show Eric (eb801)!

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    TC - I know. I know. It’s either build the damn thing or toss it.

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Spiros - thanks for your support here. Your Vampire is really looking good. You’re really crankin’!

    Erik - I built the Classic Airframes Hornet. F1 years ago and thought it was one of their better kits and figured the Trumpy N21 would be a nice shelf companion. Wrong. But, I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for the encouragement.

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Ok, here goes nothing as I venture forth to try and make this Trumpy De Havilland Hornet look, well, like a Hornet. In this case a Sea Hornet NF.21. First of all, the bizarre texture Trumpeter molded on all the surface controls looks absolutely ludicrous . When the Hornet went into production, it was an all metal plane and all the control surfaces were skinned with aluminum and not fabric - just like the NF.21 tail in this photo:

    Now compare this with the kit tail halves:

    Pretty sad eh? Time to get to work. I taped off and filled the valleys with white putty and then sanded trying to keep an essence of the metal ribbing still showing...

    until finally I got the tails looking something like the real thing and sprayed them with Alclad light grey primer. They look good enough for now.

    On to the flaps and elevators...

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 4 years ago:

    Hi Eric @eb801.
    This was a great process and fine craftmanship! The reconditioned parts look nothing like before and they actually look very close to the real thing!
    Was the white putty the Squadron one? Looks to work great!

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    Erik Gjørup said 4 years ago:

    Eric (@eb801), with that attention to detail, it is going to look just right when you pass the flag!

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Spiros - this time I used Tamiya basic white putty. I like it better than Squadron (which I’m guessing is actually Vallejo these days as they seem identical) because the Tamiya sets up slower and you can dial it in easier. Smooths out easily.

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Erik- as TC said I think I am "a glutton for punishment" when it comes to this kit.

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    Josh Patterson said 4 years ago:

    The Sea Hornet is on my list of planes I would like to get yet. I really like the Royal Navy colors from this era. (And the Hornet/ Sea Hornet has such nice lines!) Can you build it without the thimble radome?

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    Eric Berg said 4 years ago:

    Josh - No you can’t as the radome is molded to the fuselage on the NF.21 as you can see below. You would have to get Trumpy’s F.1 or F.3 Hornet kit.

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    Eric Berg said 3 years, 11 months ago:

    Been a week or two since I last worked on this as I have two other models in full production - a VW bug and a Devastator, aside from getting unintentionally sidetracked by this awful kit. As you can see I'm almost finished modifying the screwed up wings and controls, but wait til you get a load of the kit's pilot and radar operator seats!

    Who the heck at Trumpeter thought up this Barcalounger of a Hornet seat below? Time for a little imagination here, so I substituted two spare Ultracast Hurricane resin seats. Since the cockpit was painted black anyway, I figure who the heck is going to notice? Any replacement, accurate or not, seems like a big improvemen to me. Next up, sticking the fuselage halves together and slogging forward.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 11 months ago:

    A lot of quality work is put here, Eric @eb801 and it shows!
    I love the cockpit!
    About the Trumpeter seats (among other things), looks like Trumpeter improvises (sic) the shapes in their own interpretation, which has little to do with reality. I would really like to know what the seat designer was thinking, upon creating that seat...