Special Hobby 1/48 Fairey Firefly Mk.V by Remi Schackmann

Special Hobby's 1/48 scale
Fairey Firefly Mk.V

by Remi Schackmann

Fairey Firefly Mk.V

Special Hobby's 1/48 scale Firefly Mk.I is available online from Squadron.com

Introduction

Here is my 1/48 scale Special Hobby kit.

The Fairey Firefly is a british naval fighter bomber

Design to replace the Fairey Fulmar, it make its first flow in 1942. The Mk.I version is powered with the RR Griffon IIB. The engine is improved with the Griffon 74 for the Mk V version. This conduct in a significant change of the nose design. The under engine radiator migrate to the wing giving to the nose a certain smoothness. The other major difference is the add of two fuel tank wing.

The MkI and Mk V version participate to Korean War. In the mid 50’s, the Fleet Air Arm start to retire from service. But it’s not the end for the Firefly. It flown under another flags like Dutch, Canada, Sweden even Ethiopian until the mid 60’s. The remain of Ethiopian Firefly fleet languished on their airfielsd until the 1990s

More than 1500 Fireflies were built

Only AZ Model had the Mk.I version in his catalog until the appaerence of the Special Hobby Firefly two year ago.

Now, Special Hobby offer a complete line of this important british aircraft going to the MkI version to the Mk V and even the TT and drone version.

I choose the MkV “Korean War” version for his artbox showing a Firefly with it’s black and white strippes.

Construction

The construction starts classicaly, with the cockpit

The cockpit pilot is very well detailled. The navigator a little less.

The instrument panel is finely moldel. I cut the instrument decals one by one for a better look. I add also the seat belt.

After that we can close the fuselage. I choose to glue all the cockpit elements on a fuselage side because it is too difficult to adjust each element like on the notice

The fuselage close present no major difficulties. It fit very well. I not glue the under nose cover. I glue it in the final stage for avoid to mask the resin exhaust pipe.

The next step is the wing. I choose to present a Firefly with his flap deployed. It is not realistic because on the ground the flaps are always retracted. It need to cut the under wing.

I choose also to add 500lbs bombs and not the rockets of the kit. My Trumpeter Wyvern kit give me two sample of this bomb. I make the bomb rack not inclued in the kit.

The flap system must be created. It is very specific on this aircraft. The flap slide on a rail and and are maintained by 4 fasteners.

The wing radiator cover need to spent time for test fitting and needs putty.

The place of the fuel tank is not marked and the notice is not clear. A photo help you to find the place.

Painting and Markings

With the wing in place, the paint start.

I start by the black and white stripe. I paint the white first and cut 7mm bands for masking it.

After the black paint I mask all the stripes I start the camo with the upper wing Extra Dark Sea Grey, mask it and follow with fuselage and under wing sky paint. The sky is masking on the fuselage for painting the Extra Dark Sea Grey upper fuselage. It’s all for the painting.

For the decals, I choose the HMS Theseus decals. The decals is a pleasure to fit. They are very fine and need only micro set solution.

The final step is the canopy

All the canopies are closed but I prefer open it to see the details of the cockpit. The pilot canopy is not difficult to cut. The navigator is more difficult.

I cut it in 3 parts. The central part is cut into 4 parts. With this we can present our Firefly “open”. Before this, you should adjust the rear canopy to the fuselage and keep in memory that the final cutting canopies will be a little less large.