Hawker Sea Fury 1/72

Now, I cannot remember for all that is dear to me what kind of fun build I had in mind when I wrote that in my last post, but hey, a Hawker Sea Fury is fun. It is one of the coolest prop fighters ever built and certainly one of the fastest. 

So I had this model in my stash, made by an unknown designer because all I had was the sheet with the parts, no instructions whatsoever... I hope it wasn't illegal, because then I will buy the model in retrospect.

The model was weathered and that is something I see too little on paper models. A nice black streak of soot out of the engine and some dirt on the plane's surface. I decided that with the lack of space in mind i'd build it with the wings folded, since there were some parts indicating that this was one of the possibilities.

I really liked the design and the tight fit. It all went together reasonably quick. I didn't have to reprint it. The cockpit was very rudimentary and because the canopy was paper anyway, I decided to leave the tub out of the plane. The canopy was very well designed. It had the right curvature, a nice fit and it looks great on the plane. I gave it a quick dab of transparent acrylic paint to give it a glassy shine.

I didn't make any photos of the build, by the way, I wasn't really that inspired to do so. Sorry. (Life is a bit hectic nowadays and I needed my time alone just for myself and I wasn't thinking about making it into a blog build.

More photos are after the jump.

The wings were easy to cut, a little less easy to fold, because of the complex leading edge. There are two small inlets in the wing roots and they were a little hard to get into the good shape. Also the parts (chines?) that make the transition from the fuselage into the wings were a little difficult to get right. In the end I got there. 

Well, anyway. The wing base was a little modified by cutting out the black parts of the main gear bay and replacing it with some green textured parts that resemble the main gear bay a bit better. After the attachment of the wing roots I worked on the folding parts and used doubled up green card for the hinges. I cut four L-shaped bits (in a 45-50º angle) and slid them into both sides of the wing. It looked just right immediately.

So all that was left were the landing gear and the propeller. The prop was made from a piece of sturdy but very thin wire and some tiny beads to provide free spinning. The axle was put in a paper cylinder and secured with CA glue. A cardboard cylinder served as end cap for the engine and the cowling. The spinner needed to be built first and the cowling needed to be put around it because the opening between spinner and cowling is very very narrow. I of course didn't know that but in the end it did work and I got the spinner in the cowling without damage. CA did the trick of keeping the spinner in place. The prop blades needed to be glued one by one on to the spinner and here too I used CA. The

The landing gear was rolled and the gear bay doors were cut and the wheel parts were joined and voilà there she was.

I also built a mice chequered MiG (TSMC) and a tiny Curtiss Wright CW-21B. More on that later.

This is it for now! See you soon!

--PK