1/48 Hobbycraft Sea Fury FB.11

by Seán Langley

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This is Hobbycraft’s original version of their 1/48 Sea Fury, the one without the armament.  I’ve added the Airwaves etched brass set (their first in this scale, and I think I bought it just after it came out), Aeroclub prop blades, and Almark decals.  All the As, then.  Plus a number of mistakes that I couldn’t be bothered to correct, like aligning the retraction jacks fore-aft instead of up-down (although I suspect I may not be the first person to do that).  Can anyone spot the upside-down decal and the burr on the end of the prop blade?  No prizes, though, for spotting the misaligned ID stripes on the port wing.  I’m blaming a heavy sea and a cack-handed rating.

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I still don’t like PE much.  Most of it’s invisible in a black cockpit with a coal-chute for an entrance, and it’s all bent and poking out at the wrong angle.  And with a one-piece canopy, which I lack the skill to open, there doesn’t seem to be much point.  The one good idea I had was to glue the instrument decals onto the back of the PE instrument panel while they were still attached to the backing paper.  A fairly good compromise between strength and convenience.

The prop blades were nice - and they only cost me a pound each!  I fixed them to the spinner by eye so at least one is slightly off and the pitch is almost certainly wrong.  But they all lie in the same plane, and the leading edges all point the same way (which, as a bonus, is the right way); and if you park the prop just right, the duff angles magically disappear.

The decals were nice too, but it was galling to see far too late just how translucent they were.  I’ve seen speculation that Almark’s decals are 1/48 while the kit is 1/50, but I think the real problem may be that the ID stripes are just a bit too long.  Still, better that than too short, eh.  Everything else seems to be about right.

The only other detailing is the pitot head and the whip aerial, both in fine florist’s wire, to replace the kit parts (which scaled up to about two inches across).

The paintwork is all Humbrol, all brushed on.  Weathering is diluted Tamiya Smoke (the world’s greatest modelling invention), Citadel ink, 3B pencil for the panel lines, and chalk pastels.  Plus Johnson’s Klear (Future), matt varnish, and hairspray to keep the pastels on without darkening the finish too much.  So, if nothing else, my Sea Fury smells nice.

Seán

Photos and text © by Seán Langley