Hawker Sea Fury FB.11

Trumpeter, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

Trumpeter's 1/72 scale Sea Fury is available online from Squadron.com

Background

The Hawker Sea Fury is a navalised version of the aircraft designed to replace the Typhoon/Tempest in production. It was designed to be much smaller than the earlier aircraft hence the short wing span but the fuselage grew. The RAF was not interested because they were getting into jets so only the Royal Navy took up the option. It is now considered to be one of the fastest single piston engined aircraft ever build and has been extensively used in air racing.

The Model

When Trumpeter released their Wyvern in 1/72 scale we were rapt. The level of detail was almost unbelievable. Then along came the Gannet from the same company and although it was a gigantic improvement over the old Frog/Revell kit, it lacked somewhat in detail.

So, when Trumpeter announced a Sea Fury we all wondered, would it be like the Gannet or Wyvern? Well, I'm here to tell you, its not quite up to the Wyvern but pretty close, and a big jump above the Gannet.

Seriously Guys and Gals, this is a superior kit.

The first thing I did on getting it home was compare it with some plans. Now the only Sea Fury plans I have are those in the Warpaint book. The shape looked good but the panel detail differed. But then again, the panel detail in the plans also differed from those on the colour profiles in the same book. So much for the plans. Well, it quacks like a duck.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The first thing you will notice on opening the box is the folding wing option. It is nicely detailed but the joints are slightly simplified.

Detail in the cockpit is far superior to the Gannet. The consoles look very short in the shallow cockpit, but comparison with the Special Hobby and High Planes Sea Fury cockpits shows the same proportions so this may be correct.

Next comes the five bladed prop. The shape of the blades does not conform with photos and they do not line up with the centre. I should point out at this juncture that the Special Hobby propeller is not real good but it is better than this.

Perhaps this is something that Quickboost should look at although it may not be all that noticeable once the propeller hub is hidden under the big spinner.

The two piece canopy is very clear and reasonably thin but it has a noticeable seam down the middle of the sliding section. Like the Gannet, it is only on the outside so it should not be too hard to clean up.

Okay, that's got the nit-picks out of the way. Let's have a look at the good bits.

The “A” sprue carries all of the fuselage parts, separate engine cowl halves, cockpit interior, prop and spinner, some under-carriage parts and all the small bibs and bobs that are unidentifiable on the sprue. All are beautifully moulded and detailed as we've come to expect from Trumpeter.

“B” carries the 9 wing parts, horizontal tail plane, drop tanks and outer gear doors. The 9 wing parts consist of a lower centre section, two upper inner wing sections plus two each of the upper and lower outer wing parts. The two ailerons are separate although I don't think they are positionable.

Sprue “C”, which is attached to “B”, has the six rockets with separate tails and the inner gear doors.

The last sprue, “D”, is the clear one and has eight parts attached. The sliding canopy, as stated above, has that seam which I can now confirm is only on the out side and therefore should not be a problem, is very clear and thin. The windscreen is also very clear but is some what thick but us Braille Scalers are getting used to that and it can either be ignored or replaced with a vacformed item. There are two wingtip navigation lights, two circular landing lights, a gun sight and rounding out the eight is a little unidentified circular piece that goes in the side of the left fuselage beneath the cockpit.

The decals are as we have come to expect from Trumpeter, well printed with good colour density, perfect register and minimum carrier film and all the major markings are present including Korean War stripes for Lt. Peter Carmichael's WJ232 of 802 Sqn on HMS Ocean when he and some colleagues shot down a North Korean Mig 15. The other aircraft present on the decal sheet is WE683, an FB.11 from 1831 Sqn at RNAS Stretton in September 1953 with temporary Red and Yellow wing and fuselage bands for Exercise Mariner. There are no stencils of any kind and this is also true of both the Special Hobby and High Planes kits.

The instruction sheet is quite clear and easy to follow with a parts plan and 11 build diagrams but no history (There is a small amount on the box side). A separate colour guide is supplied in the form of a full colour A4 sheet with Gunze colours called out and decal positions indicated.

This is by far the best Sea Fury available at the moment (not including the AKI kit for millionaires), and should be far easier to build than either of the other two. This release is also a great improvement over the Trumpeter Gannet in terms of detail.

No excuses fellows, get out there and build one, or two, or...

Highly Recommended.