Hawker Sea Fury Airfix 1/48 part-2

Paint and markings

I have decided to paint my model as an airplane that participated in the Korean War. I select VR943/105R belonging to No 804 Squdron of HMS Glory on the condition with the accuracy of painting verification in the recorded photograph. There is a photo taken from the back quarter of the starboard in "From the Cockpit" book, and I can check details such as the typefaces of the aircraft number, position of the black/white bands etc. The photo was taken in the spring of 1951, and a rocket was installed under the wing. The aircraft number below the nose is uncertain, so I follow the example of other aircraft in this squadron. As for the lower wing, I guess the way of painting the bands and the typeface of the cereal. The number on the gear cover can be confirmed in the photo. I guess that there is no black paint on the root of the wing. But it is unclear.

This way of markings is not the same for every Sea Fury. Even within the same unit, there may be different cases for each aircraft. The lower picture is example of these variations. The VR937/106R is the same 804 Squadron, and this aircraft's wing band is shown on the port side of this top view. As it can be seen from the comparison with the above image, the position of the black and white band is greatly changed. I feel that the wing band is closer to the inside in the early days of the war, and more outward in the later stages. This is also another variation on the starboard wing in the lower picture.

As for the lower surface, the band is often painted avoiding serial number, but there are also those that are painted over serial, or those painted only on the upper side of the wing and not on the lower side, and those that are painted without on the aileron. The band of the fuselage is roughly divided into two examples in which the rear end is immediately before the tail gear door (upper picture) or the rear end is the front panel line (lower picture). This is also applied to avoid the aircraft number, the machine number is in the opposite color of the band. Also the typeface, size and location of the aircraft number are also different.

On the other hand, each roundel and serial may basically be factory painted (excluding the early production aircraft that was repainted from the previous paint scheme), so they are generally common. The fuselage roundel is 30 inches in diameter, the wing is 35 inches, the lower wing serial is 24 inches height, and the black and white band is 12 inches width each. However, if you look closely, there are variations in delicate positions and typefaces.

Surfacer
Clear parts and aluminum parts are masked. Black is painted on the window frame, Hawker Yellow on the wingtip lights, metal primer on the aluminum part. And then, very thinly diluted safacer is sprayed. The main purpose of this is to find defects in the surface work, not the base of the paint. After this, these defects will be fixed.

Windows are masked with Scotch tape. It is cut after pasted.

Surfacer is sprayed.

Painting
Looking at the existing original color photos, I feel Sea Fury's Extra Dark Sea Gray is quite blackish, almost like Sea Blue. This time, I want to paint with this image. Then paints are the same brightness and hue as my 1/32 Seafire FR.47. The recipe is Mr.Color C333 EDSG with a small amount of C125 Cowling Color. It is painted on a waste mode (Hasegawa's old Spitfire I) and confirmed the color image. Sky is mixture of C26 Duck Egg Green and C128 Gray Green in 3:1. White is mixture of GX1 and C62 Flat White. Black is C92 Semi-gloss Black with 20% of White, Roundel Blue is C322 Phthalocyanine Blue, Post Office Red is C327 Thunderbirds Red.

Defects and forgotten works are repaired. After that, surfacer is sprayed as the paint base.

The color image is checked. The EDSG on the starboard side was used for my 1/72 Seafire XVII, the port side is for Sea Fury.

After the sufficient coating of surfere is done, color painting starts from Sky of under side. Then I found a new defect. I've become forgetful recently. I don't want to be old. Anyway, I repair and touch up. If a plastic surface appears in a sanding work, be sure to spray surfacer and then spray color paint. This technique is important.

Next, Sky is masked and EDSG is sprayed. I want to make the thicknes of paint layer thinner, so I also mask the band and roundel and paint them in side-by-side. Especially if the fuselage band is not masked, the gap of EDSG and Sky will be visible throuth white paint.

First, Sky is painted.

Surfacer is painted on repaired portion.

EDSG is finished.

The slide hood and spinner are painted as well. Panel line and small holes are added to the spinner.

Dilution of paint
This theme has been written many times on this page in the past. I feel like painting with colored thinner. I haven't measured it strictly, but I think it's diluted more than 5 times. I use Mr. Color Rapid Thinner or Mr. Thinner without using retarder. When this very thinly diluted paint is sprayed directly on plastic surface, the surface tension causes paint to clump at the edges.

Therefore, the foundation layer of surfacer is important. Surfacer can make a uniform coating layer even with the same thinness (because there is little clear content?). If normal color paint is sprayed on the surfacer, the paint will not clump. Thus, this painting method results in the thinnest coating layer. Although it is paradoxical that painting with surfacer becomes thinner than without surfacer. When the thickness is sufficient to obtain sufficient color with only color paint, the clear layer becomes thicker, and as a result, the total layer becomes thicker. Another advantage of thin paint is that it can be sprayed even on rainy days. I have never experienced fogging. Conversely, if you can't paint on a rainy day, the paint is too thick.

The concentration is adjusted with the feeling of flowing by the stirring brush on the edge of the cup. So the exact concentration is unknown, but the cup can be seen through the paint. Air pressure is quite low. The nozzle does not open very much, and a narrow area is sprayed. The amount of spraying is that the painted surface just becomes wet. It is not enough to get wet. Paint is forcibly dried with a dryer and sprayed again several times.
Marking
Next, marking. The procedure is the same as usual. EDSG and blue and white are painted side-by-side, and black and red are overpainted on white. Before spraying each color, very thin flat clear is sprayed at the border of masking tape to prevent leaking out.

Masking for blue. In order to prevent spilling, the edge of the masking tape is folded.

Blue has been sprayed, then masking for white is applied.

White has been painted. It is stopped at just balance between coloring and the thickness of the layer that does not fill the rivet.

In the middle of the mask for the black band. White is an expanded color, so I make it thinner than black (about 0.3mm), it looks in the equal width.

This is masking for red circle. It is 5.6mm in diameter, so it can be cut easily with my tuned-up circle cutter.

All masking is removed. Roundel and identification band are finished.

Masking sheet for the serial number is cut by a cutting machine.

The serial number is finished.

Flat clear is over sprayed, and the steps on the boundary and orange peel of the paint are lightly polished with Mr. Laplos # 6000.

Lightly washing with powdered pastel + soapy water is applied.

Painful mistake
I made the wrong size for the main wing roundel. The correct size is 35 inches, but it was mistaken for 32 inches. I try to recover it.

This is masking for the correct blue circle.

The wrong blue portion has been removed with a knife, and white has been painted. This photo shows masking for red.

Blue and red are painted with a brush.

Next day, steps are polished out with Mr. Laplos. After that, flat clear is over sprayed.

Dry decals
The aircraft number and seria on the fuselage, letter "R" on the fin, caution stencils (black and red) are depicted with custom made dry decals. The yellow dot line on the canopy frame and caution on the spinner are decals. They are hard to set on the correct position. After applying, flat clear is over sprayed for fixing of dry decals.

Dry decals are applied.

These letters are all dry decals.

The yellow dots are kit decals.

These cautions are dry decals as well.

Tire and wheel
Painting & marking are finished and the main part is almost finished. After that, I finish the landing gear, flap, propeller, and other small items. First, tires. The kit parts are a little dull. I have bought the Barracuda Cast's block tread tire to replace. Its tread mold is fine, but the diameter of the wheel is too large. The balance of appearance is not good.

The kit tire is good balance of tires and wheels. Block reproduction is not good at the limit of injection. It maybe a little thin.

Barracuda resin. The wheel is too big. When it is lined up with the kit, the imbalance is remarkable.

There is a 3D printer in such a case. The rubber part of the tire can be cut out from the resin parts, but I try to model 3D prints of the tire. First, I designed a single column of block pattern, and the next block column is a horizontal flip of it. Then, they are deployed on the circumference of tire and cut out the tires surface. Looking at photos of the actual aircraft, and I reproduced the number of blocks as they are.

Next, the problem is the printing method. When the tire is placed on the slicer, there are discontinuous points located on the lower side on each individual block which cannot be printed well. To avoid this, it may needed to add supports to individual blocks or modify the model so that it do not have discontinuous points (such as a way of cutting grooves). As a result of various trials and errors, it seems that the tire should be placed horizontally and designed so that the groove is cut horizontal (lower right image).

When blocks are designed as the actual aircraft, it looks like this. The wide groove is because the block swells during printing. This is the fate of LCD printers.

When blocks are designed to print horizontally, grooves are cut horizontally as well.

The wheel also seems to be good in a horizontal output. If the layer thickness is 0.05 mm, stacking marks will stand out. The top image is 0.02mm. Maybe it is better to print with different parameters in tires and wheels. The wheel on the other side is also made.

3D model of tire and wheel is finished.

Trial print. Silver paint is sprayed so that a mold is easy to see. Its details is more crispy than kit parts.

Tire & wheel

3D data file DL

Landing gear legs of the actual aircraft
Next is the gear leg. I'd study before work. There are two types of legs for the actual aircraft; the early type and late type. Aircraft in the Korean war have the early type. Many existing aircraft have late type. The difference in the late model is that the oleo is added below the front column above the fork. Looking at the existing aircraft, this oreo has completely shrunk on the ground. I guess that it is only intended to absorb the impact of the landing. So, I also guess that complicated double columns structure is to introduce this oreo. But, I guess, Tempest and the early Sea Fury were not in time. It is difficult to understand with words. See pictures below.

Early type. The gear cover is also different. There is the panel inside and no blister outside.

Late type. There is the oreo at the top of the fork. For this reason, the front column is thick. The frame arrangement of the cover is also different. There is the blister outside.

Early type. The so-called ordinary oreo is hidden in the rear column, and the link that connects the front and back columns pushes the oreo up.

Late type. The oreo of the front column is extended.

3D modeling
I design the early type. A photo in a good condition are captured as the background in Fusion360, and the size and position of each parts are adjusted to the photo. Basic shapes can be designed by Sketch and Extrude. It's not particularly difficult, but it's a lot of work because there are so many design elements. Some details are different from the actual ones for convenience of output. If it is exactly reproduced as actual one, it may not be printed exactly. As the result, the sence of precision will be decreaced.

The curve at the top of the fork is created with a basic shape by Sketch and Extrude and corners are rounded with Fillet, but when it comes to such a complex shape, Fillet can not work well. Since some orders cannot be done. A file will come into play after molding. The brake line is also integrated.

To draw a 3D curve, use Sketch -> Project/Include -> Project to Surface and project the curve to a curved surface. You can Extrude it out as a surface in Patch Work mode as well.

Sweep the circle along the purple line on the left. Move the resulting brake line and attach it to the column.

Then you may take away. Since the brake line is designed as the separate body, if it is unnecessary, it is turned off and STL data is output. Also, although it is off in the screen, there are spare parts such as catch rings.

Gear leg

3D deta file DL

Output
The gear leg is output vertically so that the traces of layers are not noticeable. LCD resin is weak and easily cracked. Therefore, a hole is made in the center of the column and a brass wire is inserted. In addition, the tire is glued tightly to the column, the column is glued tightly to the gear cover, then the gear cover shares most of the load.

The gear leg and wheel are painted with Mr. Super Fine Silver. Weathering is lightly applied with Tamiya Weathering Master. On the right are kit parts. Pretty poor.

The catch ring looks like this. The details is not so crisp as an injection kit, but this is the limit of Photon.

Barracuda Cast metal gear
Actually, I bought the Barracuda Cast's metal gear parts. However, it is strangely soft although it is called brass. I guess it may white metal. The details are not so crisp. So, I tried to reproduce with 3D printing. As a result, I might win with the accuracy of shape and dimensions, and the details is even. By the way, I doubt that the Barracuda's basic parts themselves are made with a 3D printer.

The left is Barracuda. The right is my 3D part.

Propeller shaft
Although the cowl has already been glued on the fuselage, the propeller bearing has not yet been worked. The kit is designed to attach the propeller shaft to the base part behind the spinner and to insert it into the front of the engine. However, for the convenience of correcting the position of the spinner rearward, it cannot be assembled as in the kit. First, the front of the base part is cut by 1mm. This will move the spinner backward by 1mm. Next, the bearing box is made on the rear surface by plastic sheet.

The light blue part is the spinner base part of the kit (after processing). Originally, the diameter of the kit base part is the same as the spinner. But after cutting, this part disappears.

Gear cover
The kit's main gear cover is the late production type with the blister on the outside. However, the inner ribs reproduce the early type. The kit cover is flat, it is bent according to the wing airfoil. Kit parts are also used for the small upper cover, wheel cover and tail gear cover.

Right, kit original. Left, after correction. The blister is sanded off and extended the top by 2mm.

Additional work is almost finished. Rivets are engraved with a #1 beading tool. The inner plate area is extended with 0.2mm plastic sheet.

Flaps
The flap is made of 0.5mm plastic sheet. After engruving rivets, the edge is sharpened and ribs are added with 0.3mm plastic sheet. The actual aircraft has the hinge pipe on the front end, but this work is troublesome, so I ignore it. The inner and central flaps overlap so that there is no gap even in the down position. The inner flap is on the outside of the central flap in overlapping. The overlapping part of the flap is step down.

Work finished. Attaching joints are glued on the front edge. The overlapping part is made of 0.2mm plastic sheet.

Landing gear again
I continue to work and paint of the gear. The main gear retracting link is Barracuda metal parts. Well, actually, I tried to make 3D data, but the test output was too thin. The tail gear is also from Barracuda.

Upper, Barracuda. Lower, kit. One hole is added on the triangle plate.

Barracuda including tires.

Details are added on the cover and they are painted. Handles made of plastic sheet are temporarily glued where it cannot be seen after completion.

The main gear leg and cover are glued tightly. However�E�E�E

Hawker Yellow is the correct color for both the leg and link. They are masked and repainted. Sigh.

The brake line between the front and rear column is also added with 0.3mm lead wire.

LCD resin is very weak and easy to break. If there is no countermeasure, it will break at the root. Therefore, 0.8mm brass rod is inserted into the rear column from the top to the middle (the length is about 1cm). The hole is opened at the time of 3D design. As for the middle - lower part, load is shared to the gear cover part. For this reason, the column and cover are glued thightly to each other with CA glue where they cannot be seen from the front. The side of the tire is also glued to the fork with a spacer. The wheel axle alone is insufficient.
Flap
Brass rods are added on the flap front end. This is convenient because it can also be a paint handle. Masking of B/W band is done with careful alignment. Flat clear is sprayed after painting colors and steps are polished off.

Mask and paint. Since it is painted in five colors, it is quite cumbersome. Red is Mr.color GX3 + a small amount of C45 Sail Color.

The gear & flap housing is also Hawker Yellow. It is 2:1 of Sail Color and Zinc Chrome Yellow.

The gear is glued on the wing. The completion will be soon. The leg angle will be described later.

The flap can't be seen unexpectedly.

Angle of the tire
The main gear legs of Sea Fury are slightly opened in downward viewing from the front. In another ward, they lean inward. The tire is more opened than the leg. See the image below. This is the hawker tradition that continues from Hurricane and Typhoon.

Details
In general, propeller blades in actual aircraft photos appear narrower than the actual code width due to the pitch, and therefore the blade width is often narrow even in plastic models. However, in this case, when I verified with actual aircraft photos, the blade width of the kit is accurate. Rather, it is thicker than the margin due to sanding. The pitch is generally accurate. However, the blade width may be slightly insufficient near the root. The curve of the leading edge is also somewhat unnatural near the root. And the blade is a little thicker overall.

Right, kit. Left, thinly sanded and the curved front edge shape is corrected. The blade width is not changed.

The tip yellow is painted with side by side. Undercoat with silver is painted to prevent see-through. The blade is painted in black with 20% white.

Blades are glued to the spinner, paying attention to the pitch. The caution is from kit decal. Clear is oversprayed and the surface is polished. Finally, flat clear is sprayed.

The wing tank is a kit part including decals. Weathered with Tamiya Weathering Master. It is correct that the black square is larger.

The seat, compass and bulletproof plate are Barracuda resin parts. The upper part of the seat harness is not included in the set and is added with thin lead sheet.

Rods are added to the back of the seat. It is slightly different from the actual aircraft. The control stick is a kit part.

The gunsight is also Barracuda. The glass is 0.2mm clear plastic sheet. The thin edges is painted with dark gray so as not to stand out. A small tip of plastic sheet is glued on the bottom of resin part, and is glued to the cockpit with liquid cement.

The tip of the hook is a kit part. Expression of the cross section is good. I don't know it was painted actually in yellow. The rod is a 1.0mm brass pipe.

Finishing work

The white of the brush-painted touch-up is dirty. So white is oversprayed. After drying, it is polished with Laplos #6000.

Details are added. They are touched up with a brush after gluing.

Open the slide hood handle hole. Whip antenna is 0.3mm white wire.

I was almost forgotten, but here is the gear indicator.

The wheel door rod is made of metal rod. IFF rod is brass band.

The retractable footstep is from the kit. It is shaved thinly. The correct color is unknown.

The door-type step at the upper front of the footrest opens in conjunction with the landing gear down in the actual aircraft. I had noticed this before, and noticed after gluing the left and right sides of the fuselage, so I couldn't open it. In addition, the retractable step is not interlocked with the landing gear or the flap. The machine gun is a 0.7mm brass pipe. Pitot tube is 0.7mm brass pipe + 0.5mm white wire.

The surface is lightly polished with Laplos #6000 to get glossy satin gloss. Finally, Weathering Master Gray (for Japanese ships) + Rust with soapy water is applied as the weathering wash. This makes rivets stand out. If it is too conspicuous, the tone is reduced with Soot.

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