lb bombs. And if your Sea Fury is
heavily loaded, Airfix also supply
quite a good representation of the
Rocket Assisted Take Off (RATO)
gear carried on the centreline. It
was this that sent me off to the
shops to purchase a second kit.
Unwisely, I decided to drill out
the six rocket exhausts but did
not use my magnifier, so although
four were perfect, two were totally
ruined. Fortunately, two members
of the SAMi team both had the
new kit, so Huw Morgan and Tim
Upson Smith donated the parts to
my project. Of course, with two
replacement sets on hand and
using my magnifier I nailed it on
the first try on all six exhausts!
I painted the RATO black with
gunmetal exhausts, which was
much the darker colour on my
references (and better than Airfix’s
recommended sky colour), and it
was put aside for later attachment.
I had decided that I wanted to fit
the rather unique reconnaissance
pod fitted under the starboard
wing. Obviously converted from a
fuel tank, this is a simple assembly
with an upper and lower section,
plus clear glass at the front.
I affixed a piece of plastic rod
to the middle of the tank, which
ended a couple of millimetres short
of the clear parts position. To the
end of the rod, I attached a circle cut
from holographic confetti, which
when viewed from certain angles
changes colour from gold to greenand gives the illusion that there is a
camera lens behind the clear glass.PAINTING AND DECALS
After masking the canopy I started
the painting process. I have become
a fan of the Mr. Paints range
recently, so I airbrushed their Sky
and Extra Dark Sea Grey and had
absolutely no issues. I then masked
off the natural metal areas behind
the exhausts for an application of
Alclad Aluminium, followed by a
light overspray of magnesium.
The propeller and spinner
were painted with Humbrol Matt
Black and Humbrol Trainer Yellow
tips. Weathering was kept to a
minimum, with just a light spray of
Tamiya Smoke to represent exhaust
staining. Then with a gloss coat
applied I was ready for the decals.
The sheet supplies markingsfor two options. The first is an
early scheme that was originally
operated by 802 NAS from the RN
Air Station at Eglinton, Northern
Ireland in 1947. This scheme is
now carried on VR930 of the Royal
Navy Historic Flight and when last
seen did not have a gunsight.
The second is an example from
Korea, flown by 801 NAS over
Korea in 1952; it is this option
that carried the reconnaissance
pod. It also had its black WKJ236
underwing numbers overpainted
in sky at some point. The kit
decal sheet supplies the numberswith the sky overpainting, or
the original black numbers.
Now I must admit that I had
some issue with the decals, as they
took a long time to release from the
backing paper and the sky serials
broke upon application; this is why
my example has the original black
serials. But I was applying my decals
in my unheated loft during the
very cold spell that covered most of
the UK in deep snow (this became
known as the beast from the east,
though our Canadian readers
would just have called it Tuesday).
So, the adverse temperatures
may have had an effect.
Airfix has also supplied you with
a myriad of stencils (with a separate
placement diagram for the 100+
images), as well as wing walkways
and the individual markings.CONCLUSION
Despite my minor issues with the
cowling, I have already laid down a
couple of examples for my retirement
stash, as well as a potential base for
any racer conversion that may appear.
Airfix have already announced
a second boxing of this kit covering
the export versions, and with many
of Airfix’ recent kits selling out fast
and then obtaining inflated prices
on auction sites, I would not hesitate
in snapping up a few of them on its
release in the second half of 2018.
My thanks to Airfix for giving
me the chance to add this beautiful
single-engine fighter to my collection.“AIRFIX HAVE ALREADY ANNOUNCED
A SECOND BOXING OF THIS KIT
COVERING THE EXPORT VERSIONS”
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