1/32 Fisher Desert Fury (Iraq)

This build started by trading the hobbycraft decals for the fisher's. Eveyone seems to be building FAA Sea Furies so I rather took the Iraqi option. Luckily I could easily trade the decals with a fellow modeller.
Beside decals, it was done mostly OOB except for tiny bits of scratch here and there and the removing of the hook bump.

 

 

 

Cockpit it OOB with just small drops of Kristal Clear on knobs. paint here is dark grey rather than black.

Instruments are old reheat decals. Not much remains visible once the model is completed

For long I thought that there were two parts missing from my models, the small panel after the exhausts. While studying pictures of furoies, i realized some were removed and some were installed. I decided to leave them open and detail the innards with some basic and quick scratch. Of course the parts were not missing ;) I found them back right after starting scratching details !

 

 

 

The resin worked and dryfitting the model made me wonder how I would attach the wings to the fuselage ?
Luckily plasticard came to the rescue. I guess that's the reward for working with full resing models.

The engine is the extra opened version available from Fisher as well.
again, the engine cowl was not so easy to mate to the rest of the fuselage.

The prop on the other hand is a pleasure to assemble with the very clever resin part provided.

Early in the build I hesitated to add rivets or not. the concensus I read on the net was that sea furies rivets were flush and very discreete and although I wanted to do it, I didn't succomb to the tentation. And comparing the model to the trumpeter 1/48 sea fury that was build alongside this one) I'm glad I resisted.

One of the biggest challenge for me was also the azure blue.
Being a user of acrylics from tamiya and gunze, there was no equivalent available - so I had to mix paint to try but what I found on other model site didn't give me satisfaction. So I decided to give the vallejo range a try and painted their azure blue without mixing anything. I just added some of their own thinner and retardant. teh retardant I found out is critical, without it, the airbrush is clogged in 25 seconds.

The vallejo colour gave me full satisfaction over the mixing proportions I found on the web.

The rest of the painting was quite easy.
Preshading topsides with XF64 and painting the two tone desert camo with H71 and H72
Underside is full Azure blue from Vallejo with post shading with XF19 smoke.
metal were done with different alclad and exhaust with pastels, oil paint and mists of vallejo gold and heated blue.
The hobbycraft decals went without a problem between two clear coats, then the model received a coat of vallejo matt varnish.

Finally I'm glad I didn't find those cover at first? detailling the innards there give a nice extra touch to the model:

 

 

that's both Fisher 1/32 and trumpeter 1/48. they were build together and looking at the rivet details on the trumpeter, i'm glad i left them out on the bigger fury.

 

Model completed Oct 9th, 2012.