Hawker Sea Fury FB.11
Test Shot First Look - In Detail!

DBMK, 1/32 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

The Hawker Sea Fury was the final and most powerful piston-engine fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest ever built. Designed during the closing stages of the Second World War as a lighter, more agile successor to the Tempest, the Sea Fury represented the ultimate refinement of Sidney Camm’s long line of rugged, high-performance Hawker fighters.

Development began in 1943 as the Fury for the Royal Air Force, but with the war’s end in sight and the rapid emergence of jet propulsion, RAF interest waned. The Royal Navy, however, saw potential in the design as a carrier-based interceptor. The resulting Sea Fury FB.11, powered by the mighty Bristol Centaurus XVIII radial engine delivering over 2,400 horsepower, combined graceful lines with brute strength. It could reach speeds exceeding 460 mph and climb faster than most early jets.

Entering Fleet Air Arm service in 1947, the Sea Fury quickly earned a reputation as a pilot’s aircraft — fast, responsive, and capable of absorbing brutal punishment. It saw extensive service during the Korean War, where Sea Fury FB.11s from carriers such as HMS Ocean and HMS Glory flew strike, escort, and interdiction missions. On 9 August 1952, a Sea Fury famously achieved what would be one of the last piston-versus-jet victories in history when Lieutenant Peter Carmichael of 802 Squadron downed a MiG-15 over Korea.

RAN Service

The Royal Australian Navy was an early and enthusiastic adopter of the Sea Fury. The RAN received 93 Sea Fury FB.11s and two-seat T.20 trainers between 1948 and 1951, equipping 805 and 808 Squadrons aboard HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance. During the Korean War, Australian Sea Furies flew more than 2,000 sorties, striking transport, rail, and supply targets in punishing conditions. Their ruggedness and reliability earned them high praise from pilots and ground crews alike.

By the mid-1950s, the arrival of the Sea Venom jet fighter signalled the end of the Sea Fury’s front-line career. Yet even as it transitioned to training and secondary duties, the type remained a symbol of grace and power — the last and perhaps finest expression of the piston-engine fighter’s long and glorious lineage.

Perhaps surprisingly, the 1/32 scale Sea Fury market has been quite busy, but also short-lived.

Fisher Model & Pattern – Sea Fury FB.11

First onto the scene was the Fisher Model and Pattern with their family of magnificent limited-run multimedia 1/32 scale Sea Fury kits.

Fisher’s debut Sea Fury offering FB.11, Kit No. 3204, released in late 2006. This was a luxurious and clever model.

The kit boasted crisply recessed panel lines, separate control surfaces, perfect casting, clever engineering, minimal preparation of resin parts, simple parts breakdown, optional folded wings, detailed instructions and beautiful decals. Solid brass undercarriage legs and photo-etched parts added even more detail.

Hobbycraft  – Sea Fury FB.11 (several boxings)

While Fisher Model & Pattern’s Sea Fury was a limited run, super detailed, premium offering with a price tag to match, Hobbycraft released a more budget-friendly kit in 2006.

However, you get what you pay for, and what we got from Hobbycraft was a kit with accuracy and fit problems as well as simplified cockpit and wheel well.

The kit was only available for a short time after release. I cannot recall seeing Hobbycraft’s 1/32 Sea Fury online or in shops any time after its initial production run.

Fisher Model & Pattern Upgrade Sets for Hobbycraft

Fisher Model & Pattern also released four upgrade sets specifically for the Hobbycraft 1/32 scale Sea Fury. These were:

• Cockpit Set (Item No. AHC-1): This replaces the basic kit tub, sidewalls, seat, control column, pedal assemblies, provides photo-etch components and printed instrument faces.

• Wheel Well / Undercarriage Set (Item No. AHC-2): This covers replacement resin parts for the main and tail wheel wells, gear struts, doors, etc. According to the review this set “will have a big impact on the wheel well and exterior of your Hobbycraft Sea Fury.”

• Propeller/Spinner Upgrade Set (AHC-3): A visibly effective upgrade for the front end — correct five-bladed prop arrangement, spinner backplate, alignment jig.

• The Folded Wing Conversion / Set (Item No. A3204WF): Designed to allow a display option with the wings folded (carrier stowed mode). Contains centre and outer panels, hinge hardware, and detailed wheel wells.

Fisher Model & Pattern - Signal Sea Fury / Miss Merced Unlimited Racer

In the meantime, Fisher Model followed up with their striking 1/32 Signal Sea Fury / Miss Merced Unlimited Racer. This kit is even simpler in engineering and parts breakdown than the earlier version, making it a fairly straightforward assembly prospect even for modellers with little or no experience building resin kits.

Fisher Model and Pattern – Sea Fury T.20 Trainer

Next from Fisher was a two-seater 1/32 scale Sea Fury T.20 trainer, Kit No. 3207, later in 2008. This built upon the strengths of its FB.11 predecessor, adding a new fuselage, a second cockpit and new canopy.

Regrettably, Paul Fisher lost his home, workshop and business premises in the town of Paradise, California during the devastating Camp Fire wildfires in November 2018. This spelt the end of Fisher Model & Pattern.

Both Fisher Models and Hobbycraft 1/32 scale Sea Fury kits are now long gone from hobby shop shelves.

Enter DBMK

DBMK has resurrected the 1/32 scale Sea Fury market with their forthcoming all-new Sea Fury FB.11.

I was fortunate to receive a test shot of DBMK’s 1/32 scale Sea Fury FB.11 yesterday. This appears to be a late-stage sample, so what you see here should be very close to the final production kit.

DBMK’s 1/32 scale Sea Fury FB.11 comprises 338 grey plastic parts on eleven sprues, 117 photo-etched parts on one colour and one brass fret, and seven marking options on a large, glossy Cartograf decal sheet. Instructions and box art are still in development.

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Thumbnail panels:

Moulding quality is excellent throughout. Surface textures feature crisply recessed panel lines and fine rows of both raised and recessed rivets. Some of the recessed fasteners are slightly more pronounced, and my studio lighting tends to exaggerate them in close-up photos, but in person—and at normal viewing distances—they look very convincing.

There are a few ejector pin circles in visible in these photos but will be covered up by other parts so you won't see them on the completed model.

The cockpit is highly detailed without being overly complex. The sidewalls and consoles incorporate moulded-on structural detail, while smaller items such as the trim wheel, gunsight and rudder pedals are supplied separately.

The pilot’s seat features quilted cushions. The quilting is a touch sharp for my taste, but a brushed coat of Mr Surfacer should soften the effect.

A colour photo-etched fret provides a layered instrument panel, harness straps and other small details. A second brass fret adds even more refinement.

An optional plastic instrument panel with decal dials is also offered.

The fuselage is broken down conventionally into two full-length halves, with a long upper cowl moulded as a separate single-piece insert.

Engine detail is limited to a single part with cylinders, manifolds and pushrods moulded in place. This is entirely appropriate, as very little can be seen once the cowling is closed. The cowling itself is made up from two halves and is intended to be posed shut.

The exhausts are well handled—one-piece units per side with hollowed outlets.

The five-bladed propeller assembly correctly captures the slanted openings in the spinner. It appears that the blades may be attached as a single part onto the spinner backplate at a fixed pitch.

The wings are built around upper and lower centre sections with separate upper and lower outer panels. The upper centre section looks as if it will act as a saddle for the fuselage.

Gun access panels and landing flaps are moulded shut, for which I will be eternally grateful. The outer wings may be posed folded or extended, and the fold detail is very good.

Elevators, ailerons and the rudder are all separate parts and should be poseable.

The main undercarriage bay is impressively busy, with structural features, hydraulics and wiring moulded in place and supplemented by additional walls and smaller details.

The undercarriage legs themselves look suitably substantial for a carrier-borne fighter.

Two styles of forward undercarriage covers are included—one with a bulge and one without. The bulgeless doors were seen on early Sea Fury Mk X, prototypes and interim aircraft. The bulged doors were introduced to clear larger brake units and are appropriate for the Sea Fury FB.11 and other production variants.

The wheels and tyres are moulded in halves. They are not weighted, but the rear hubs are keyed to the main legs. A choice of diamond and block tread patterns are provided, and hub detail is deep and convincing.

DBMK supplies a generous suite of stores: six 60-lb RP-3 rockets, two 90-gallon drop tanks and two 500-lb bombs. The inclusion of only six rockets is a little surprising though, as operational Sea Furies commonly carried a full load of eight.

Clear parts are thin and fee from distortion. The windscreen and canopy are separate pieces to it may be posed open or closed.

Markings for seven subjects covering four nations are included on the big glossy decal sheet.

These have been printed by Cartograf and they look positiveky luxurious.

DBMK’s 1/32 scale Sea Fury FB.11 is shaping up to be an impressive debut in this large scale.

Surface textures are crisp, the cockpit and undercarriage bays are packed with detail, and the options for folded wings, alternative undercarriage doors and multiple stores add variety straight from the box.

Engineering looks thoughtful throughout, with a sensible balance between detail and buildability.

Even at this test-shot stage, it is clear that DBMK has delivered a modern, well-detailed and genuinely appealing kit of one of the Fleet Air Arm’s most charismatic fighters.

1/32 scale Sea Fury fans are in for a real treat!

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to DBMK for the test shot sample

Text and Images Copyright © 2025 by Brett Green
Page Created 18 November, 2025
Last updated 19 November, 2025

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