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Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Seafire FR46/47

Started by Jaime Carreon · 63 ≡ · ↻ 10 years ago · Airfix, Seafire FR46/47

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Gregor d said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Hey Jaime, good on ya for persuing this one, i'm sure it will be worth it in the end. May be i'll get mine out of storage, and give it a go after I see yours completed.
Gregor d said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Neil given all the previous comments on this kit, you deserve a medal for building 2 of them, good job mate :).
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:
I was doing some surfing last night and found this shot of an FR47 landing, and I have a few things to throw out:
1. The ailerons on this airplane appear to be much lighter in color than the rest of the wing. Anybody have any ideas as to why?
2. Does anyone know of any aftermarket resin RATOG units for this kit? It would make an interesting addition, as well as doing a wonderful job of hiding that awful wing seam!
Doing a lot of sanding today...
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:

There is an aeroplane on the bench:

Got all the seams sanded and the stabs glued on. Fit there wasn't great, but much better than the wings.

Rudder tacked in place. This is the first point in the build where I'm really happy with it. Just a few small items left to tackle and she'll be ready for paint.
Gregor d said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Jaime, regarding the ailerons - could be that they are unpainted replacement units or that this particular aircraft was previously in use as a trainer. I have seen schemes for 'planes in conversion or training units with yellow painted ailerons. As to RATOG I had a quick look on the net and couldn't see any on offer. Scratch build? Progress on your build so far is great going. Looking forward to your next update!
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:

The weather finally got good enough to do some painting, so I masked and shot the sky lower surfaces this afternoon. It came out pretty well, going to let it cure overnight and shoot the dark gray tomorrow.

All the subassemblies are finished and ready to go on. I've decided to do the theatre stripes, just not sure if I'm going to paint them or wuss out and use the decals!
Gregor d said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Jaime I've never had great success with invasion stripes as decals. They never seem to quite fit and require trimming, ususally on the model! Go for the paint job. Look at Tom's Typhoon in the D-Day Group. He suggests painting on the black area first then masking the appropriate stripes then over spraying with white. I have to say it looks good in his photos.
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:

I am a happy modeler today - the Seafire is painted! It's funny how painting works - you spend three hours masking and two minutes actually shooting paint. This one is the standard FAA scheme of extra dark sea gray over sky. I used Floquil enamel for the gray, and Aeromaster RLM 84 for the sky (thanks, Seamus!) and they came out as I expected. Had to glue the tailhook back on after breaking it off, am really surprised that the itty bitty hooks under the wing survived.

Back to work tomorrow, then off on vacation for a week. I'll get back to it then where the job at hand will be painting the "invasion" stripes, which, BTW, were added to the real thing after a B-29 mistook a Seafire 47 for a Yak-9 and shot it down. This was the only combat loss for this type, the rest were written off in landing accidents or just plain worn out.
4 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Erich Goldbach said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Hey Jaime, your Seafire is looking Great-keep up the good work and happy "stripes" painting to you- I look forward to seeing the finished model.
neil foster said 10 years, 2 months ago:

That's looking great Jaime - you got there at last !, good job so far .
N.
Gregor d said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Looks good Jaime. Take your time masking up for spraying those stripes, and you'll have it made.
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and help on this build, I really appreciate it. It's in the home stretch now, waiting for me to find the time to finish it. I will paint the stripes. The decals will serve as a template, especially for the cutout on the fuselage where the stripes are painted around the serial number. That ought to be interesting...
Jaime Carreon said 10 years, 2 months ago:

Greetings from sunny Florida! Not my usual place, but it's good to be away...

The white stripes were painted on the Seafire just before I left. As usual, two hours masking, two minutes painting. I had some white and black paint in rattle cans and used that rather than get the airbrush out. The black stripes will go on when I get home, then onto decals...
Gregor d said 10 years, 1 month ago:

Well done Jaime! Look forward to seeing the photos in due course. Been doing some striping myself on the P-38, tricky isn't it?!
Seamus Boughe said 10 years, 1 month ago:

Well, as everyone knows, I love Spitfires and all its variants, but I never modeled a post WWII one. Between yours and Neil Foster's Seafire, I was actually inspired to purchase this kit. I will probably get around to it during this coming summer. Anyway, the colors look "spot on". Striping is not easy. It is also very tedious. But you cannot balk about the results. The now defunct "Cutting Edge" used to produce vinyl masks for painting invasion on various WWII crates. I used a couple of them in the past and they were really great. Now its back to going bugger all painting stripes or , as you said, two hours of masking for two minutes of paint. Thems the breaks! Keep up the good work.

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Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Seafire FR46/47