WiP +++ D.H. Sea Venom Mk. 23, MFlGr 1, Deutsche Marineflieger; Jagel, 1961

Rick Lowe · June 21, 2026, 10:24:47 PM

The canopy looks like the inside of my cars' windscreen after being parked in the sun all day...

Old Wombat · June 21, 2026, 11:15:39 PM

Watching this has reminded me that I need a 1/48 DH Sea Venom FAW Mk.53 (Mk.21 in RAN service) for my virtual RAN FAA Museum Flight.

Accordingly, I have advised Airfix that they need to manufacture one a.s.a.p.*

[*: The Classic Airframes version, although not overly expensive, is relatively difficult to come by.]

Dizzyfugu · June 21, 2026, 11:47:03 PM

Painting phase, and the livery is quite simple, the German interpretation of the Sixties NATO standard naval paint scheme (a dark grey over a light grey), in this case RAL 7012 Basaltgrau (which is virtually identical with British Extra Dark Sea Grey) on top and RAL 7035 Lichtgrau underneath (instead of the British rather greenish Sky, or pure white). Deviating from SPINNERS' inspiring profile I gave the German Sea Venom a high waterline on the front fuselage, though, matching the high demarcation line on the tail booms – adapting the layout from the German Marineflieger Seahawks. From these I also copied the straight waterline in front of the cockpit (most RN or RNZAF Sea Venoms had only a rounded "bib" in front of the windscreen), and the dark wing leading edges as well as the air intakes were adopted.
I only used a very soft black ink washing on the model because Luftwaffe aircraft would hardly look weathered, I just used post-panel-shading to bring some virtual surface details back after the raised panel lines had mostly disappeared through all the sanding work.

1:72 de Havilland DH.112 'Sea Venom' FAW.23; 'VA+247' of the MFlGr 1 (1st Naval Fighter Wing), Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe, Fliegerhorst Jagel near Schleswig (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany), 1961 (What-if/FROG Kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 de Havilland DH.112 'Sea Venom' FAW.23; 'VA+247' of the MFlGr 1 (1st Naval Fighter Wing), Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe, Fliegerhorst Jagel near Schleswig (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany), 1961 (What-if/FROG Kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Further details: The cockpit tub became very dark grey, as well as the ejection seats, and to make them more visible under the blurry canopy I provided the crew with bright orange jumpsuits and white "bone domes".
The landing gear struts became a brownish metal (not certain if that's magnesium? I used Humbrol 56 and added a bit of sand brown), based on lengthy WWW research, while the wells became Humbrol 56 and the wheel discs became white – again inspired by the Marineflieger Seahawks. The Sidewinders became all-white, while the drop tanks were painted in RAL 7035 to match the rest of the aircraft.

PR19_Kit · June 22, 2026, 12:30:21 AM

Here's a thought, did the Marineflieger Sea Venoms actually keep the arrestor hooks in the fairings over their jet pipes?

And if so,, why?

Dizzyfugu · June 22, 2026, 02:13:26 AM

In my world they retain them, together with other naval details. The German Sea Hawks were also kept "as is", and these went later to India and were deployed on/from Vikrant.

Dizzyfugu · June 22, 2026, 11:36:59 PM

Some more painting progress, while I try to solve a markings/decals puzzle...

1:72 de Havilland DH.112 'Sea Venom' FAW.23; 'VA+251' of the MFlGr 1 (1st Naval Fighter Wing), Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe, Fliegerhorst Jagel near Schleswig (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany), 1961 (What-if/FROG Kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dizzyfugu · **Yesterday** at 01:57:01 AM

Currently not much progress here - Germany is caught in a (severe) heat wave... $:-\$

PR19_Kit · **Yesterday** at 03:36:44 AM

We all are.

Rick Lowe · **Yesterday** at 10:57:50 PM

Stay safe and cool, everyone!

And don't take a nap in the car...

(too soon?)

Dizzyfugu · **Today** at 12:22:18 AM

Little progress to share - the markings, which caused some headaches. The markings differ from SPINNERS' profile, because I tried to stick closely to early Sixties Seahawk liveries. These did not feature unit badges yet, and the "MARINE" tag was also still missing. The Iron Cross roundels did not feature a black outline – just the black base with white edges. For the tactical code I used the MFlGr 1 code VA (MFlGr 2 had VB für the fighters and RB for reconnaissance aircraft) and gave the Sea Venoms a set of numbers after the Seahawks. The code was puzzled together with single DIN font letters/digits, and this became quite a challenge because there is not much space on the aircraft to place them, esp. with the Marineflieger icon on the nose! Eventually I used smaller markings than originally envisioned, but it still looks O.K.

1:72 de Havilland DH.112 'Sea Venom' FAW.23; 'VA+251' of the MFlGr 1 (1st Naval Fighter Wing), Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe, Fliegerhorst Jagel near Schleswig (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany), 1961 (What-if/FROG Kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 de Havilland DH.112 'Sea Venom' FAW.23; 'VA+251' of the MFlGr 1 (1st Naval Fighter Wing), Deutsche Bundesluftwaffe, Fliegerhorst Jagel near Schleswig (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany), 1961 (What-if/FROG Kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The early Iron Crosses (poorly printed, later replaced with better material from TL Modellbau) and the Marineflieger badge came from a Hobby Boss Seahawk Mk. 101. The code letters and the German flags on the fins came from TL Modellbau aftermarket sheets, as well as the Iron Cross on the fuselage – due to the little space under the canopy and behind the large Marineflieger icon I had to make the tactical code shorter and smaller than originally intended – I used "251" instead of "247" (saving 1.5mm per side...), reduced font size to 5mm and also used 5mm national markings. Not as intended but still looks good and plausible.
The stencils were mostly taken from the Sea Venom's OOB sheet (probably the best thing about that kit...) and enhanced with a few more decals from the scrap box, including dual language ejection seat warning triangles from a German Tornado.

PR19_Kit · **Today** at 01:27:09 AM

And the problem with all DH's twin boomers is the sheer lack of fuselage space into which you can put the markings. Or they have to be done in TINY sizes to fit on the booms.

Dizzyfugu · **Today** at 02:10:03 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on Today at 01:27:09 AMAnd the problem with all DH's twin boomers is the sheer lack of fuselage space into which you can put the markings. Or they have to be done in TINY sizes to fit on the booms.

Yup. I actually considered moving the tactical code to the tail booms (the Marineflieger Sea Hawks had them far back at the tail, but quite large, thanks to ample space!) when I realized how little space I'd have under the cockpit, but eventually cramped everything there - looks better, and it's closer to SPINNERS' design.

Some shiny varnish comes next!