Airfix 1:48 Seafire FR 47

[colin m]

I've been waiting for this contra rotating prop Seafire for, well quite some time. It's a re-box of an old kit, which until recently would easily fetch around the £30.00 mark on ebay. This re-box was about £15.00, normal price around £18.00.

And for that sort of money, it's good. There's not too much going on in the cockpit, but the surface detail (and there's loads of it) is really very good. The original kit was considered by many 'experts' to be just about the best Seafire around, and for once, I think they might be right.

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As I said, the cockpit was a little sparse. As this is basically an old kit, there is already lots of after market stuff available. So, I've gone for an Aires resin cockpit kit. I've never used this much resin before, should be fun !

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And finally, hopefully a pic trying to show the detail of this 1996 kit.

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Now to try and make the cockpit fit the fuselage. Good job the weather is nice so I can do all the sanding outside !

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[Ian M]

Its a great kit in it. I have two in the stash, ripped off the Airfix shop site as soon as they came in! ( I been waiting for them as well)!!

I will have to look at the Aires cockpit. Do you have a link to it?

I was looking at starting one the other day, but the Mojo is low at the moment. (and still not finished the display case). So I will enjoy watching your build.

Ian M

edit! Found it! Costs as much as the kit almost. lol

 

[mossiepilot]

Looks a nice build, I got stuck with my 1:48 spitfire and it's back in it's box waiting.

I'll look forward to seeing you do this one justice.

Tony.

 

[colin m]

You found it Ian, well anyway it was this 'Aires 4311', I got mine from ebay. I nearly bought the kit with the engine included. That would have been double the price of the model kit !

A bit more work done today. I've spent what seems like ages trial fitting everything so many times, then sand and fit, sand and fit.......you get the picture. The cockpit is well detailed, but takes some work to get it to fit.

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Colin M.

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[Ian M]

Looks good but how will it look when its all painted black....

I did look at the full set with the cockpit and the motor....£30 yikes!

Ian M

 

[yak face]

Excellent choice colin, its supposed to be a very nice kit. The resin cockpit looks fantastic too , ill be watching with interest , cheers tony

 

[colin m]

Well gentleman, what will it look like when it's all black, well a bit like this.

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It's all a bit dark ! I didn't have much look finding any decent pics of the cockpit, but did find some

references to it being all black, although earlier Seafires were cockpit green from about half way down.

Anyway, tonight I have persuaded the fuselage halves together, a bit of a tight squeeze. Now then, the wings, it might be time for a bit of a cheat here.

Colin M...

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[papa 695]

That office looks very good indeed Colin well worth the pennies spent on it

 

[Vajled]

I agree with Ian.... great cockpit

Roman

 

[Ian M]

Jeps still looks good. Nice work Colin. I am getting tempted.

Ian M

 

[AJay]

Excellent work, Colin

 

[MORIARTY1177]

Nice job on the office Colin, I'm watching with interest as this is a kit I'm also thinking of addin to the stash. Having been impressed with the Airfix MkXII seeing your helpful review I think I'll be getting one.

Regards

Chris

 

[colin m]

Thank you all for having a look, and Chris, yes, do get one - it's a very good kit. Probably the only down side is the canopy is a bit thick. Plenty of replacements are available.

Well, all the bits are stuck on to make it look like a plane. The wing roots were so tight, I had to sand the upper wings back a bit to get the fueslage inserted. Which of course means no gap at all - bonus ! Everything has lined up really well.

However, as I want to build the FR47, I need to use the long air intake which will leave a ugly step right behind the lower area of the propeller spinner. Help is at hand from Mr airfix. In the kit, part number 26 is used in the FR46 build but not in the FR47 build. So, this can be used (suitably sanded down) to fill the area of the step behind the spinner.

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Here is part 26 suitably shaped and fitted. The correct long air intake part 104 goes over this in its normal place and job done. It's a minor point I know, but it just felt wrong leaving this strange little step there when the solution was so easy.

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[colin m]

Well it's been a while. Anyway, I wasn't really happy with the canopy. And so bought one of these.

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And following on from my last post, a pic of the modified air intake.

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And then finally a bit of pre shading ready for the 'Sky' paint. I used brown on another build, and I think it works well under 'sky'.

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So, razor saw in hand, and I attacked that canopy. I think it survived.

Colin M...

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[MORIARTY1177]

Looking good Colin, Looking good!

Regards

Chris

 

[colin m]

Thanks Chris,

If you're still thinking of adding this one to the stash, I now feel more qualified to say - do it. It's a good little kit.

So, lots of painting today. Starting with the underside. I've gone back to my trusty Humbrol enamels simply because I already had the right paints ready to go, well sort of.

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The upper surfaces are H123, so here I would have used black for the pre-shading, except I haven't got any enamel black, so no pre-shading. Having said that, pre-shading may not have worked under such a dark colour as extra dark sea grey. Therefore post shading was used which worked very well, but the pic doesn't pick that detail up to well. But get a load of that surface detail, and yes it's an Airfix kit !

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And H90 'sky' for the underside. Hopefully the second underside pic shows the, in my opinion, great surface detail Airfix put into this 1996 kit.

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[colin m]

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Well I've actualy managed to take a pic that shows the result of a bit of post-shading. I didn't got for pre-shading, simply because I had no enamel matt black. But to be honest, I'm not sure pre-shading would have worked under this colour.

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Onwards, loads of Klear. For some reason I find that H90 soaks the Klear up ? Anyway, the decals are behaving themselves really well just as I coming to expect from Airfix. They really are doing well these days.

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[Rowan]

Comeing along well.

 

[MORIARTY1177]

Bloomin marvellous looking bird Colin! I went did it and bought myself one and I must say at first glance the detailing is very good. The panel lines are much finer than on the MK.XII. It'll sit in the stash for a bit but am looking forward to building it, I just hope I do as good a job as you.

Keep up the good work

Chris

 

[yak face]

Looks absolutely beautiful colin, a fantastic build. The kit looks excellent and youve made a superb job of it , looking forward to the finished pics , cheers tony