1/72 Revell Fairey Seafox

Gallery Article by Dietmar Carstensen on Apr 20 2018

 

      

This is a old Matchbox kit, reissued by Revell in 2007. The box contents are very basic, however it is a nice kit about a lesser known airplane. 

The Seafox floating plane was in service with the RAF in WOII until 1943. 64 production aircraft were built.

I started with the idea of a short and simple project, just to improve my basic modeling skills. However for me it turns out into a challenging and longterm project with a lot of disappointments. I could not withstand improving the kit, and I imagine how it would look with authentic details when finished. This is my first biplane, and when assembling the wings, I found the kit parts (struts) difficult to use, therefore I built all the struts from scratch. 

A few good pictures on the internet are very helpful when improving and detailing of the kit. I scratch-built some further parts. These are the cockpit and gunner station (instruments and seat belts), footsteps for boarding, antennas (also those on the lower wing ends), panel lines around the engine and on the floats, screws around the engine cowling (imitated by drilling small holes), landing lights and little details to the water rudder, to the floats (hook-eyes) and to the float struts. I also opened the engine exhausts. Flaps and elevators were cut out, filed to shape, and glued in lowered positions. The ailerons underwent the same procedure, showing port position. 

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The rigging is made by steal wire and glued between the wings using superglue; little spacers made from plastic were used to make the double rigging possible. 

The machine gun delivered with the kit has been detailed, this has a great effect. The canopy provided with the kit was too thick. I made the windshield and the gunner canopy from 0,25 mm heated clear plastic sheet, using the kit canopy as a mould. Than the gunner canopy has been cut into 2 parts. 

After spraying a grey base color I applied Revell's acryl aluminium in different shades (a dark aluminium hue on the engine cowling), and a gloss cote before decaling, using an Aztek airbrush. The kit decals are good and were attached with the help of Humbrol decal solution. Little weathering was done to the fuselage, the whole model than sealed with a satin code. 

I attached the floats after everything was done, due to easy handling of the model when building and painting. Also the gunner canopy (2 parts) was glued in the open position as a final step, as well as attachment of the machine gun and the antennas. 

Finishing the project, I made a little water-beach diorama, and painted two crew members from a Hasegawa pilot figures kit. Fotos were made with Olympus cameras at daylight, using a sky poster as a background, omitting the use of photoshop. 

An old kit as a base can be a real challenge, if you like to improve the kit contents. 

Although no etched or resin parts are available for the Seafox, I had (beside some difficulties) a lot of fun making those from scratch. 

Enjoy the photo's.

Dietmar Carstensen

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Photos and text © by Dietmar Carstensen