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Old 12-01-2022, 04:17 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
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Seafire FR.47

The Fullback was giving me some headaches over scratchbuilding certain sections, so that will be completed after a short break. Jets are territory I am not yet as experienced with compared to warbirds.



I have a long-term ambition to build all the important marks of Spitfires, so when I stumbled across Gary Pilsworth's design for a Seafire on the downloads section it was a perfect find. The type specifically is an FR (fighter-recon) 47, the very last mark of any Spitfire/Seafire, which entered Fleet Air Arm service after the end of WW2 but did see some service during the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War. It is one of several 'superprop' types (Bearcat, Sea Fury, Skyraider) that continued into the jet era due to the issues with take off and landing on carriers before catapults and arrestors were improved. The late mark Seafires are all based on the Spitfire F.22 with the teardrop canopy and larger tail unit, and most visibly a six-bladed contra-rotating propellor in order to counter the dangerous amount of torque the Griffon engine produced for carrier operations. The wings also folded, but I'll be leaving mine in flight position as these obscure the cockpit. Armament was four cannon plus an number of hardpoints for rockets, bombs and drop tanks. The Seafire never really overcame the weaknesses of using a land-based interceptor as a multi-role naval type, and was withdrawn in 1951.


I have downscaled the model to 1:72 from 1:48 and plan to add the usual extra details. First time attempting to make a canopy using heat over a clay mould. I found that the model printed darker than on the screen or prototypical colours, so ran the sheets through an image processor and adjusted lightness and saturation to correct. Also added the camera ports which would have been present on this particular example.



Starting with the wings, which have the lower surface as a single piece. The skin was backed with another layer of 160gsm paper, and then I decided to put some of the rivet lines using a needle...which I think was worth it. Flaps were cut, doubled and attached in landing position and the wheel wells added. I put on some join lines into the wells to add better texture, and then test fitted the formers. These were meant to slot over the wheel wells but probably due to the downscaling didn't, so I just cut off the tips. Also didn't anticipate the extra skin thickness so needed to shave the formers down to make this fit.




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Old 12-01-2022, 01:46 PM
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Good luck with this one Siwi. I did it a while back in 1/100- it goes together nicely.

Garry G
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Old 12-08-2022, 04:49 PM
Siwi Siwi is offline
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Progress update:


Wings are nearly complete save for the cannons, the small fairings on one side and the rib structure of one of the flaps. I had to shave the formers down a bit to accomodate the double skin thickness, they still seem slightly podgy so might take some more off if I go carefully. Started on the fuselage sections, including cutting the camera ports (this was an FR version, so there are cameras on both sides and the belly). These have a sheet of clear film, and behind it a simple but convincing camera lens, which is just black card, indented and then coloured with a red marker to look like a lens. Should definitely have put these in before closing up the part...



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Old 12-09-2022, 09:43 AM
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chicharrero chicharrero is offline
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Perhaps Brent would be interested in a Supermarine Seafire FR 47 in Korean War colors project?
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Old 12-10-2022, 04:57 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chicharrero View Post
Perhaps Brent would be interested in a Supermarine Seafire FR 47 in Korean War colors project?

Almost nobody here knows that British forces were involved in the Korean War if they've even heard of the conflict at all, and I didn't know RN Seafires fought until researching this aircraft. Could be a means of getting some attention, especially given the relatively high casualty rate.
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Old 12-10-2022, 06:14 PM
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Some years ago, I began compiling information and resources on British and Commonwealth naval air operations in the Korean War, which began, as Siwi I am sure knows, on 3 July 1950 when twelve Firefly FR.Is of 827 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) and nine Seafire FR.47s of 800 NAS from HMS Triumph’s Carrier Air Group 13 joined aircraft from USS Valley Forge to attack Pyongyang, Haeju, and other sites.

I got diverted and never finished the project, but here are some useful sources:

“Air War Over Korea, Part 3 - British Commonwealth,” pull-out Supplement, Model Aircraft Monthly, Vol. 6, Issue 9, September 2007.

Fleet Air Arm Officers’ Association, available at History of Fleet Air Arm Officers Association, FAAOA.

David Hobbs, British Commonwealth carrier operations in the Korean War, in Coalition Air Warfare in the Korean War 1950-1953, edited by J. Neufeld and G.M. Watson, Jr. Washington, DC: Air Force Historical Foundation, 2005, 142-157, available at https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/2...100924-016.pdf. [I have a chapter in the same book: Donald W. Boose, Jr., “Close Air Support in Korea: The Army Perspective,” pp. 99-121.]

Hobbs’s article was also reprinted in Air & Space Power Journal, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter 2004), pp. 62-71, available at https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Por...-1-4/win04.pdf.

Tony O’Toole, "’The Forgotten Cruise’ HMS TRIUMPH and the 13th Carrier Air Group, The First Royal Navy Carrier Force in the Korean War, June- September 1950,” available from the Royal Navy Research Archive at HMS Triumph and the 13th Carrier Air Group in Korea

Tony O'Toole also published articles on the Triumph air group and on building plastic models of FR.1 (Mk.I) and AS.5 (Mk.V) Korean War era Fireflys in the September 2007 issue of Model Aircraft Monthly.

FAA and Commonwealth aircraft carrier Korean War deployments (information derived from the above listed sources):

HMS Triumph (R16, Tail Code “P”) July – October 1950 with 13 Carrier Air Group [CAG]:
800 Naval Air Squadron [NAS] (12 Spitfire FR.47s)
827 Naval Air Squadron (12 Firefly FR/NF Mk Is)
Supermarine Sea Otter JM960 (“Neptune’s Daughter”)

HMS Theseus (R64, Tail Code “T”) October 1950 - April 1951 with 17 CAG:
807 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
810 NAS (Firefly AS/FR.5s),

HMS Glory (R62, Tail Code “R”) April-September 1951 with 14 CAG:
804 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
812 NAS (Firefly FR.5s)

RAN Sydney [Magnificent-class] (R17, Tail Code “K”) Sep 51 – Jan 52 with 21 CAG:
808 Australian NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
817 ANAS (Firefly AS.5s and 6s)

[The Carrier Air Group system was discontinued in 1952.]

HMS Glory (R62, Tail Code “R”) January-May 1952 with 14 CAG:
804 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
812 NAS (Firefly FR.5s)

HMS Ocean (R68, Tail Code “O”) May-November 1952:
802 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
825 NAS (Firefly FR/AS.5s)
[It was during this deployment that Lt Peter [Hoagy] Carmichael of 802 NAS shot down a MiG-15 on 9 August 1952.]

HMS Glory (R62, Tail Code “R”) November 1952 - May 1953:
807 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
821 NAS (Firefly AS/FR.5s)

HMS Ocean (R68, Tail Code “O”) May 1953 through the Armistice:
807 NAS (Sea Fury FB.11s)
810 NAS (Firefly, AS/FR.5s)

Triumph and Theseus would also have had one or two Sea Otters on board and the others would have had a Westland Dragonfly to pull downed fliers out of the drink.

Don
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Old 12-11-2022, 03:53 AM
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Thanks for that info Don.
Modelaid International (monthly mag) from the 1980's published a series about the Air War Over Korea that ran for a few months that had a useful history of the conflict and illustrated with aircraft profiles.
I still have all of them and if I'm not breaking any copyright rules I can scan and put them up on here as a series of PDFs.
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Old 12-13-2022, 06:58 AM
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Amazing project Siwi and great information as always Don!
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Old 12-18-2022, 03:16 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
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Small updates:


Wings are complete, save for the radiators and landing gear which will go on later to avoid damage from handling. I cut out the cannons from the kit but decided it would be better to carve some toothpicks for durability.



I completed the rear control surfaces, via the usual method of making a slot through the fuselage, and wrapping the skin around formers with a long tongue and groove that fits through the fuselage piece. I carved the formers from mount board to match the profile of the entire horizontal stabilisers in order to prevent any surface creasing. The vertical fin has a former supplied.


The rest of the fuselage sections are the expected series of cone sections. At the front I modified the pieces to better depict the long 'Griffon scoop' unique to the last two Seafires, by cutting off part of the former and shaping the side profiles. The sides were also cut to have more realistic placement of the exhaust stubs.


The centre fuselage will require the cockpit to be built before it is closed up, so I started on scratchbuilding that with the help of reference photos and plastic model kit parts. Having printed the model twice I had some extra formers to use for the profile of ribs but most of this is guesswork. I find the inside of the Spitfire's door a particularly tricky part to get convincing in this scale, the framing always seems too thick or not thick enough.


I also came across an excellent site which is a complete reference to all the Spitfires with some lovely illustrations: Spitfire and Seafire | Illustrated guide to all marks and variants





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Old 12-19-2022, 12:05 PM
Siwi Siwi is offline
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Well, the weather here (just off the end of the runway where the Spitfire was first flown, and three miles from the factory) has overnight swung from being well in minus temperatures to anything up to 15 above and wet, which feels strikingly warm. Despite leaving the model to go and watch possibly the most exciting World Cup final ever, I finished and installed the cockpit in the centre and attached the rear fuselage to it. A bit of cutting away between the wings was needed but the parts look as if they fit acceptably.
The cockpit is probably my best effort this year. The seat and seatbelts were downscaled from an existing kit, and the panel was drawn in Inkscape over the outline of a former. Spreading superglue over it and stippling it when half dry gives a suggestion of instruments in relief. In the end hardly any of the detail is visible at this scale, but I still have the drawing saved if I build a late Spit in a larger scale. I correctly assumed that rudder pedals and most cockpit details wouldn't be visible so didn't include them; just the spade grip, compass, gunsight and two larger boxes on the side. A bit of metal marker over the dark grey gives a nice metal sheen. Some very careful work needed with the tweezers to handle and stick all these tiny parts!






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