I'm a fire starter, twisted fire starter!

[The Wooksta!]

"Now, I don't know about you, but about this time of night, I like to put a cheeky little orange thing on the back of a Heron!"

If anyone has been bored enough to read my blogs, they may recall that I've been charting on with a Magna Blackburn Firecrest.  It was started and largely assembled in 2020, but suffered some damage and was dragged out of the loft recently whilst looking for something else.  There was something else in the same box, but that's the subject for another post later in the thread, so we'll put that slightly to one side.

Anyhoo, said damage was easily fixed with some superglue and filler, but I removed the u/c and then added some gun barrels (cut down Tamiya Mosquito rockets make ideal short barrel Hispano cannons), scribed in a large gun hatch using the Airfix Typhoon Ib as an inspiration and then added some bomb racks left over from my Highball Sea Hornet.

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Port side

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Starboard.  This is the damage that was repaired - the wing had sheared off after sudden impact with the floor after being dropped.

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And underneath, showing the bomb racks.  These are frankly stunning.  I don't think I've seen better in any medium in 72nd.  Mike Eacock made a fantastic job.  There's a rack that needs to go on the centreline, but given that the master is still sitting in a bath of silicone, it may be a few days before I can get another coat of primer on.

[The Wooksta!]

"You might be Les' mate, but you're no mate of mine!"

In other news, I've made a tentative start on assembling the Magna Firebrand TF.5.  Except this is his original one from 1993 and it is quite frankly horrible.  I did one of these over twenty years ago and didn't much enjoy it then either. IIRC, I did it in BPF Markings and got the codes wrong.  The wreck is a box somewhere... But this was in the box of loose Firebrands, alongside the much better later Magna one, another Firecrest, and a pair of the original CMR Firebrand.  That's really nice, but the wing is...problematic.

The real problem with this one is that the resin is frankly sh*t.  It's like china, doesn't sand well and chips when you try to do anything.  It's very like the stuff Unicraft has been using for the past 25 years, but unlike Igor, Martin Gromm actually learned from his mistakes and took advice, moving onto better resins.  The stuff he was using in Spain... well, it was workable but warped too easily.  But that's another story.  Another issue is that it's accuracy is somewhat questionable, certainly compared to the CMR one.  It's really a caricature of a Firebrand, but this is just to be built, not a competition entry.

Here, in all their faded "glory, are the bits.

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There's very little detail - Magna never went for much - and the cockpit is just a gaping maw, with literally nothing provided.  Still, it was a 1993 kit and the product of a different mindset, assuming that the modeller would be happy to do a bit extra work.  So I've added a floor, a basic instrument panel and a rear bulkhead, with an attached headrest.

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I'll add a seat and a stick later.  There's no point in adding anything else, because it'll be painted black, and given how rough this thing is, it'll be like putting lipstick on a pig.  You can also see the humungous air bubbles that will need filling later.

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The fuselage loosely assembled. 

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The bag of other bits.  Most of it is bad cast rubbish, but the u/c and prop are usable.

Don't expect quick progress with this, it'll be a long term project.  It'll eventually end up in possibly 813 NAS markings, in the three colour scheme of the early TF.Vs.  The darker colours and disruptive scheme will hopefully disguise quite how horrible this kit is.  I'll probably add bomb racks, for attacks on German shipping along the Norwegian coast.  Had I a spare Magna Firebrand TF.II, that's what I'd do with that.

I've always liked the Firebrand, ever since I saw a conversion article in an ancient Airfix Magazine, using the Airfix Skyraider as a donor.  I actually bought one, but never did get round to it.

[The Wooksta!]

"Come, come, Mrs Pickwick, it's only a vegetable."

This is what was also in the same box as the Firecrest upthread and was something else I'd started in 2020  - a two seat trainer version of the Firebrand, using one of several Rareplanes ones I bought cheap (I have a few others, one of which to do a Blackburn bomber project).

I didn't get much further than assembling the wing, cutting out the second hole and building up the rear fuselage with filler.  Again, a long term project that might see some work in the next few months.

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[PR19_Kit]

The Firebrand, what a MONSTER!

I saw the very last one being towed away from RAF Benson in 1957 when they disbanded the RNVR Air Wings. Sadly no-one seems to know where it went, presumably a scrapyard somewhere.

[The Wooksta!]

"Bob!  I've fallen!"

Having tried out an Aeroclub Spitfire bucket seat in the limited space of the Magna Firebrand cockpit, I've decided against it.  Instead, I'll cast a Hornet seat, which looks to be closer to this:

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This is the painted up cockpit of the CMR Firebrand V (Navy Bird on Britmodeller) and it's what I've been trying to mug up.  The Aeroclub stick has been cut down but the seat is too big, the Hornet seat (using the Skybirds one as a master) looks to be closer in shape.  It's also a tad smaller, so could help fitting into the space.

More on this when I've done some casting.

[The Wooksta!]

"You would not believe what's going on round the back there!"

After about an hour's work playing with bits of plastic card, I've managed to come up with this for the Firebrand T-bird internals.

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Bit rough and ready and I'll get some primer on it tomorrow, but it's a start.  I know I need to cast some seats, but other than those and some sticks, plus probably the headrests, that's about all I'm adding.  No point in anything else as they'll be black.  As black as the endless blackness of space that leads to the chasm of clams.

I'll need to open out the tailwheel bay before closing it up too.  Thankfully, I have some spare Airfix Mosquito tailwheels which look to be ideal and that bag of resin crap in the Magna one may well give me an u/c.  I can cast the wheels and I took a mould off the Valom Firebrand TF5 for the front off the engine cowling, which is an improvement over the kit part.  What I should have copied, but didn't, was the resin wheels from the kit.  Hmmm.  May have to dig it out and copy them anyway, if only to replace the ones in the two old tool CMR Firebrands.  I can however steal the spare TF.5 tailplanes out of the Valom TF4, because it's so much easier than cleaning up the Rareplanes ones - I've just double checked the distructions for it on Scalemates and there's two sets in each kit.  It'll have to get a centreline drop tank, so I may nick one of the large ferry tanks from a Hunter, so that means I'll have to cast a second rack.

I double checked the box that the bits for this were in and there was a white metal prop, tailwheel and wheels.  Think they were by Aeroclub and the later Rareplanes boxings had it included.  The wheels look to be copies of the Frog Hornet ones, so I'll use them on a Frog Hornet and just cast my own.

Possibly too early for a scheme, but likely the late one with the high demarcation and yellow T bands.  It'll be too rough for Aluminium/Yellow.

You know, I may well have this together before the Magna one...

[NARSES2]

Always liked the Firebrand, built a BPF one eons ago. Looking forward to this 

[George the Cat]

Very well done Wooksta.

[The Rat]

I'll be watching this with interest, as I have the Magna 1/72nd Blackburn Firebrand T.F. II in the stash. Never done a resin kit before.

[The Wooksta!]

"Slightly rippled with a flat underside"

Well, after a quick coat of primer and black paint in the cockpit, I glued the fuselage together.  The gaps were filled with superglue and baking soda - I think I did it last time.  The casting quality is Unicraft levels of awfulness, with a rippled and dinted surface.  It's hard to describe and I'n not sure it's an issue at the mastering stage or the casting.  Thankfully Magna DID get better.

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I'll get a coat of primer on it before going any further.

[The Wooksta!]

"Look at the size of that sausage!"

As before, quick squirt of primer and then some black in the cockpits.  A run over with a quilting pencil to highlight a few things.

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Once dry, I glued the fuselage together and got some more filler on, especially around the back end where the instructor's canopy is going.

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The resin front cowling is just a tad too small, so I've used the Rareplanes bit.  I can live with it and its a damn sight better than that in the Magna one.

[The Wooksta!]

I'll be watching this with interest, as I have the Magna 1/72nd Blackburn Firebrand T.F. II in the stash. Never done a resin kit before.

Really?  I've been working with them off and on since 1990, the first being an Airkit Spitfire F21, which was a superb one to start with.  Mind, I've built some absolute dogs too.

I've that very kit on order, so I'll document the build, because I want to do it as a late war strike one.

[The Wooksta!]

"Let's take a trip to Novelty Island!"

So, the last lot of photos show the fuselage together, sort of.  Bit of sanding and more filler later...

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Front cowling is in place and sanded back.  Sadly, much of the detail on Rareplanes kits was raised and quite restrained, so quite a bit is being sanded off.

The wing and tailplane (borrowed from the Magna) is just dry fitted so you can get an idea of what this is going to look like.

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The wing is somewhat sunburned, hence why it looks like resin.  The fin of the wing to the fuselage is somewhat where it touches, with a yawning chasm that will need filling.  But that won't be as interesting as sanding back all the filler on the rear fuselage to get the shape right.  So there's a spare canopy taped in place to help with the shape

But it's looking good so far.  I'm almost - almost - tempted with a two seat Firecrest.

[NARSES2]

Never done a resin kit before.

The problem is that pick the wrong kit and you'll be put off for life, pick the correct one to start with and you'll be hooked. Planet can be a good starting point. Czech Master are great, but can be a little complicated. A firm called Pro-Resin only produced a couple of kits but they are fantastic

[The Wooksta!]

"Strap it to his back and he can pretend he's one of them Kung-Fu Turtle things..."

Well, it's had a bit of a sanding around the rear spine and it looks okay-is, so much so it's had another smearing of filler in a few places. I know it needs some under the forward canopy, but I was happy enough to give it a quick blast of primer to see where I'm going wrong.

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Once I'm happy with the shape, I'll add some canopy rails and then think about putting the wing on.

And this may sound daft, but it's got a Ta 152H look about it.  Something about the long slender fuselage perhaps?