WAK Spanish Fury revisited

[AgaPablo]

Some two years ago I assembled WAK's 1/33 Hawker Spanish Fury. This Hawker fighter was intended to become the staple fighter of the Spanish Air Force in the mid 30's, only to be foiled by the beginning of the Civil War. Three unarmed planes, intended for trials, were in Guadalajara, close to Madrid, at the time of the uprising and ended flying "morale support" flights before the first Polikarpov fighters arrived in Madrid. One hawker ended in Rebel hands when it was forced to conduct an emergency landing, but even eventually being armed with two 7.7 MG Furies had a brief career due to technical attrition and its unsuitability to rough landing grounds.
When I first tackled the model I found some simplicities, especially in the cockpit area that encouraged me to attempt to reduce it in scale, so I scanned it and printed one 1/72 copy. At the time, I got stuck with the fuselage and changed my approach at it, went back to the 1/33 copy but replaced its cockpit with a modified Halinki’s Gladiator.
Today, with some more experience in my hands, I’m going back to my long forgotten 1/72 copy.

[birder]

I have wondered about this kit as I think the fury is a cool plane, with strong influence on the hurricane...is the flight pic your 1/33?

[Rata]

Good luck this time! And when you achieve total success with this attempt, you can then tackle it in 1/100.....

[AgaPablo]

Originally Posted by birder

..is the flight pic your 1/33?

That's right, my current 1/72 build looks as last pic shows.

Originally Posted by rata;

And when you achieve total success with this attempt, you can then tackle it in 1/100.....

In fact I am a 1/72 nostalgic, I began modelling those good old Airfix and Frog 1/72 kits in the early '70s, and got marked for life...

[AgaPablo]

Up to now, most of the assembly went "by the book"; my only departure was using "ticket paper" - the slim one where accounts are printed - rolled tightly and then cut into tiny pieces for the exhausts. Also, I avoided cutting the "ins" in the spars and ribs, as being too thin I feared weakening them.
Of course, the overall result is not as clean as when assembling the model at its original scale, but the model retains a lot of detail that, usually, small scale designed models lack.

[FastEddie]

Nice work... My best regards!!

[Rata]

Originally Posted by AgaPablo

In fact I am a 1/72 nostalgic, I began modelling those good old Airfix and Frog 1/72 kits in the early '70s, and got marked for life...

I can totally relate to that: but with me it was the sixties. I went into paper with the same 1/72 bug. But then I came across a human mass production line that haunts these corridors with the name Bruno Vanhecke......

[AgaPablo]

Originally Posted by Rata

I went into paper with the same 1/72 bug. But then I came across a human mass production line that haunts these corridors with the name Bruno Vanhecke......

Its hard not to be impressed by Bruno's massive output, he's certainly dwarfed other mass production paper-model designers and outpaced my own hyperactive imagination.

[AgaPablo]

Everything keeps fitting smoothly and all details retained as expected. Of course, being my second build of the model is helping a lot.
The easy part of the assembly is finished, I leave serious business for the next week...

[AgaPablo]

And finished it is! Everything went most smoothly, just two minor design bugs: one that I remembered clearly, regarding the propeller blades' roots where the leading end was longer than the trailing, and the blades ended sticking at weird angles from the hub; the other were the wheel supports, that instead of having had two symmetrical pieces printed, both are identical, so one must be glued the other way around after the proper adjustments are made.