Scale aviation modeller international

attractive marking schemes

available, and the possibility of

conversion to some even more

colourful markings, the Sea Fury

was bound to be a best seller.

In fact, I am surprised how

fast it has sold, as when I needed

to acquire a second kit for this

article (yes, one of the famous

muck ups is coming up), I found

it quite impossible to source one

at any local Airfix stockist.

THE BUILD

When I previewed this kit, I

was very impressed with the

contents of the box, but one thing

I immediately wanted to sort was

the rather deep panel lines.

My main reference was the

SAMi Publications Mini Datafile on

the Sea Fury. Looking at pictures

of the real aircraft you can see

that panel lines are barely visible

in any of the photographs. This

ties up with my memories of

washing Spencer Flak’s G-Hawk at

Elstree aerodrome in my youth.

So, my first act was to clip all

the major components from the

sprue before applying typewriter

correction fluid to all the panel

lines. I use Pentel’s Micro Corrector

which works like a ball pen,

dispensing just enough to fill the

lines. Once dry any excess was

removed by wet sanding with 800

grit paper, followed by 1200 grit.

For the most part this worked

very well, but subsequent painting

did show a few lines that were not

filled perfectly. Next time I will give

the model an overall coat of primer to

show any missed or incomplete lines

that need further filling (to be honest,

I probably spent more time on this

stage than building the model, as

like many Airfix kits this kit just falls

together – but more of that later).

The cockpit is nicely moulded,

and for most modellers there will be

little need to fit a resin replacement,

but a set of aftermarket seat belts

like my pre-coloured ones from

Eduard is a necessary addition. This

is mainly due to the multiple shades

of black used inside the Sea Fury’s

cockpit, which means that little can

be seen even with the cockpit open.

I am guessing that when Airfix

were researching this kit they used

one of the surviving examples, but

this has led to a surprising omission,

as there is no sign of a gunsight in the

cockpit. I added one from my spares

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