Sea Fury Fb.11

[Spey_Phantom]

for my entry for the Piston perfection GB, im entering with a 1/72 Novo (ex-frog) Sea Fury. im gonna make this one up in Belgian Navy markings  ^_^
ive got the decals printed out and the model is ready to be made, as soon as i make some progress in the SAR/CG build.

anyway, just to get things started as i always do, here's a profile of what im planning to make her look like  B)  

[Spey_Phantom]

UPDATE 15.11.07

still a mix of parts in a box im affraid  
but i have already printed out the decals (right bottom)
same as on the profile i posted above, now im gonna start getting this build into full gear, the prop is the only thing thats gleued on, gonna be an all red spinner with a dash of white  ^_^

i might get started on it this weekend, now im just gonna contineu with my other project now for the SAR build  B)  

[Spey_Phantom]

UPDATE:

she's almost ready for the paintjob, but due to the terrible fitting problems of the kit, the entire cockpit had to be left out, so im gonna ad a new one latr on  

the same problem for the wings and the tail; the fitting problems are inmens and this old sea fury is on of the worst kits i ever made.

the wings are gonna need tons of filling, it wont be easy to finish this build in time, but i think i can pul it off, im already fearing what problems i will encounter with the landing gear, just to be on the safe side,i better prepare to scratch it, or look for new gear in the spares box  

here's how she looks at the moment  B)  

[Spey_Phantom]

she's finished  ^_^
i will try to make better pictures later  B)

[Spey_Phantom]

OMG, i forgot the back story  

Back History:
1952, the Belgians bought an ex-US navy essex class carrier and renamed it the "BNS Koning Leopold II". when the carrier was bought, the navy ordered 40 Sea Furies, 20 TBM-1 avengers and 12 Sikorsky S-5's. the carrier was first deployed to the Seuz crisis in 1956, where belgian sea furies operated of the deck of the KLII and of the royal navy's carriers. together they attacked a number of egyptian coastal defences and infantry vehicles. althought this didnt went as well as planned, 2 sea fury's were shot down by anti aircraft fire from the ground, killing both crewmembers.

after the suez crisis, the carrier and its aircraft also deployed on various exercises in Europe, North America and the carrabian. there they didnt have any threat, until in 1963, the Belgian congo siezed to exsist, and the civil war broke lose. the Belgians already had a number of air force planes there including T-6G and armed Fouga Magisters, but the airfield of Basis Kamina (BAKA for short) was under constant attack by rebel forces. the navy sent the carrier there, and was the sea furies final combat mission before being retired. the Sea Fury gave CAS to ground troops and acted as escorts and protection aircraft during the evacuation of civilian in congo. only 1 fury was shot down by a rebel MIG-19, showing that the Sea Fury had no more power in the jet age, the Sea Fury was retired in 1964, after being replaced with the EX-USN F-7U3 Cutlass.

[Brian da Basher]

Nice one, Nils! Looks great in Belgian markings!

Brian da Basher

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Good backstory, and the Belgian markings make it look very different! Well done, Nils.