Hawker Sea Fury

by Mark Beckwith

Hobbycraft's 1/48 scale Sea Fury is available online from Squadron.com

I bought this kit because I needed the RCN roundels for a different project. Having just completed a long resin kit build I wanted to throw together something relatively simple with a straightforward paint scheme, just for the fun of it. 

Step forward the 1/48 Hobbycraft Sea Fury!

Those of you who have built this kit know that detail is sparse, fit is really quite good, and to my eye, it looks like a Sea Fury when completed. 

Although I intended to build the model straight from the box, I ended up adding some plumbing to the wheel wells, dropped the elevators, replaced the moulded wingtip navigation lights with shaped clear plastic that I drilled out and filled with some green and red enamel paint and I used stretched sprue for the antenna on the fin instead of the kit part.

Click the images below to see the detail additions to the Sea Fury:

As mentioned above, I wanted a simple scheme for this project and the decal options provided one. I chose to finish the kit as a RAN Sea Fury painted overall Glossy Sea Blue. 

First I painted the wheel wells light grey, then I filled them with tissue paper and used tamiya tape to mask the wing tip lights. Next I used Aluminium Metalizer for the canopy frame and Burnt Steel for the exhaust area. These areas were also masked with Parafilm and Tamiya tape respectively. As you might imagine, painting was easy. I used Gunze paints throughout. When dry I shot with a couple of light coats of Future in preparation for decaling. Next time I'm going to try Metalizer Sealer for this instead of future as I've heard it looks better - thanks Lynn!

I've found that Hobbycraft decals usually go down really well, and these were no exception. Decaling was completed in about 4 hours working slowly and methodically. Finally I shot a couple more light coats of future to seal the decals, then Dullcote to bring the shine down to what you see.

After painting and decaling was complete, I added the other bits and pieces to complete the job. 

The whole project took two weeks and I enjoyed this kit for what it is, a simple representation of a beautiful airplane (IMHO!). I builds well, looks good when finished, and is really easy to make. Now, where did I put that Bf 110G-4? 

Click the thumbnails below to view the images full-sized.
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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2001 by Mark Beckwith
Page Created 19 June, 2001
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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