1/48 Airfix Hawker Sea Fury FB.11

Started by George R Blair Jr · 102 · 2 years ago · 1/48, Aeromaster, Airfix, Eduard, Hawker, Sea Fury FB.11
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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years ago:

    Did some net research, my friend @gblair. Found many pics of restored "115" bird, some depict it with white spinner only, some also with white framing, some with dark gray/black wash spinner and blue framing.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years ago:

    The following is a very interesting pic, my friend @gblair, depicting the original "115" in 1969, before being shipped to Canada...
    https://www.airhistory.net/photo/14050/WH589

    White spinner and framing, so the bird might have been painted like this from some point onwards .

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 years ago:

    Thanks for the photos, Spiros (@fiveten). I have been through some of the same photos, but have not seen the photo above. Like you said, there are a lot of photos of restored warbirds painted like this. I suspect that early in its career it had a blue-frame on the canopy, and the white frame was added later. I really like this paint scheme, but it appears to be a one-off scheme, since I haven't found photos of any other plane in this scheme. I love the kangaroo on the insignia. Have a great New Year.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years ago:

    Indeed, the scheme is very cool, my friend @gblair!
    Have a great New Year too!

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    Erik Gjørup said 2 years ago:

    The "Hurry-up-and-wait" approach works wonders on your research George! Good stuff, looking forward to the next updates and the chosen mix of color!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years ago:

    Some nice research, George @gblair
    I think it is safe to go with either of them, for sure the white accents will look great on it.
    Have a great New Year.

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    Stephen W Towle said 2 years ago:

    Back in the late 80s Amjet or Polar Aviation used to have a unrestored Sea Fury. A lady in waiting and you could see this stuff being stored at Janes Airfield. I've had an opportunity to see that Yellow British Chromate paint in the wheel wells. This is a accurate photo of that color.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 years ago:

    Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten), Erik (@airbum), John (@johnb), and Stephen (@stephen-w-towle). I'm with you, John, I think the white canopy would be a great accent color to the all-blue scheme. Thanks for the photo, Stephen. It really is an interesting color. The instructions call for Humbrol Linen, which is a perfect match for the primer color. I wanted to use acrylics, so I found that ModelAir US Interior Yellow plus some white is also a good match. I should be able to do some painting this afternoon. Hopefully some photos later. Cheers everyone.

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    Louis Gardner said 2 years ago:

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    Thanks for sharing the YouTube video. I never knew that Tom Cruise had his own Mustang, much less flew it regularly. I met him once, many years ago when they were filming "Days of Thunder" here in Daytona Beach. He was driving in a brand new turbo powered V-6 Pontiac Fiero, and he was passing everyone...I think he was racing with a Corvette, who turned off going into the Spruce Creek Fly Inn because Tom had won. Then he came right up behind me. He passed me like I was sitting still, and I did something REALLY stupid thinking back on it now... I was in my old 1966 Plymouth Fury III two door hardtop. I had stripped out all of the interior, air conditioning and heater, (reducing all excess weight), so I could race the car at the nearby New Smyrna race track as part of what they used to call spectator races. I had also installed a really nasty big block 440 V-8 in the car, along with a race transmission and race gears. You see where this is going... The engine was one I had built specifically for drag racing, and it made well in excess of 500 horsepower. It was basically a street legal race car, fully insured, tagged with operating lights, horn and so on.

    So Tom passed me, looked over and smiled as he had it floored. I had enough of this, so I hit the throttle on the old Fury. It instantly slammed me back in the seat and I caught up with him easily. I drove right along beside him as he had his car floored, and he was still accelerating. I looked over at him, smiled and gave him a salute, then I stepped on the accelerator in the Fury all the way to the floor, and quickly drove off leaving him behind.

    Once I showed him who was who, I slowed back down to normal driving speeds, and so did he, but this time he was behind me. Dumb, dumb, dumb... Then I turned off into a small parking lot at the next intersection, and to my surprise he pulled in too. Now here is where I did another dumb thing. You know, young and foolish. I told him "You're not Top Gun !" and I floored the Fury again from a dead stop, smoking the tires like there was no tomorrow.

    I left him in a huge cloud of tire smoke. In hind sight, I should have got out and had a conversation with him. Oh well... young and dumb. Doing stupid things like this, now make me wonder how I managed to live as long as I have. I definitely have had a guardian angel (or two) looking after me.

    Thanks for sharing the video. I still have not seen the movie, but I did go see "Devotion" about Tom Hudner and Jesse Brown. It was a good movie. I can see myself buying these two (Top Gun and Devotion) on DVD.

    This is so cool to have other Imodeler's help with finding additional pictures for your Sea Fury. I had to share the story with you about my Fury... since you are building another type of Fury and you posted the Tom Cruise Mustang video...which was VERY cool.
    Hope you get some painting done. Happy New Year.

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    Louis Gardner said 2 years ago:

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    I just realized I never answered your question about the doctors office visits. I went back on 22 December and I had the last of the 40 plus stitches removed. The news from the last skin sample came back with all clear margins, and the melanoma skin cancer did not break through the back side of the skin. So this was the best Christmas present I could have had. It means I will not need chemotherapy or radiation treatments now. All is good, no further treatments are required. All I have to do now is have regular visits for screenings every 6 months. This will be done.

    This was better than getting a 1/32 Tamiya F4U under the tree. 😉 That didn't happen, but I will definitely take this good news in place of any model kit.

    Thanks for asking.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 years ago:

    Great news, Louis (@lgardner). You dodged a bullet, that's for sure. Now you just need to be sure to stay on top of your checkups. I had a Trumpeter 1/24 Hurricane IID under the tree, and it is really big. I know what you are saying about being young and doing things that are regrettable in hind sight. Sometimes I am amazed I have lived this long. It is a weird thought that I am now an age that I never thought I would be. I have been trying out the dark blue paint for my plane. It is a gloss color from Tamiya, and I religiously avoid gloss colors because they will get pebbly if they aren't thinned correctly. I tried it on some spare parts from the kit and I got pebbles, so I need to look at the amount to thin the paint and the air pressure. I hope to get some painting done later, if I can figure out the pebble problem. Take care.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 years ago:

    I had some time this afternoon to get some small things done. I applied the canopy masks to the front and rear canopy sections. I painted the inside of the wingtip lights and glued them to the wings. These pieces are pretty cool. They are clear plastic that fit into a recess in the wingtips, but each one also has a round "bulb" that extends into a small hole in the wing. The wingtip lights look pretty cool when they are installed. I finally added the gunsight that was built up from the Eduard PE. I figured there was 100% chance that the gunsight would get knocked off it I attached it too early, so I glued the gunsight and then added the front windscreen to protect it. I found a ModelAir color, Dark Mediterranean Blue, that looked like it might work for this plane. I tested it on one of the extra gear doors, and then painted the other gear door using the Tamiya Royal Blue. I think I will probably go with the Tamiya paint, even though I worry about getting a smooth surface with gloss paint. More tomorrow.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years ago:

    The windscreen will surely protect the gunsight, my friend @gblair! Good decision to go for the Tamiya blue. Looking forward to your progress!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years ago:

    Great progress, George @gblair.
    The Tamiya paint looks way better than the ModelAir in this case.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 years ago:

    Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). I think the Tamiya looks better, also. I haven't had good results in the past using gloss, so I hope it works better this time.