1/48 Airfix Seafire FR.47

Gallery Article by Mike Regan on July 7 2016

The Ultimate Seafire; Airfix's 1/48th scale Seafire FR.47

 

      

The absolute last of the line, the Seafire FR.47 bears about as much resemblance to the original Seafire Mk.Ib as chalk does to cheese. Whilst the inherent fragility of the Seafire airframe was still there, the Seafire FR.47 represented the culmination of years of development and combat experience. 

The aircraft was a major redesign, with a much deeper nose resulting from the carburettor/supercharger intake being moved from it's long time location under centreline of the fuselage flush with the leading edge of the wings to a more streamlined “chin” intake below the propellor spinner. The tailplane was replaced by the much larger Seafang unit; a much larger fin and rudder with longer span horizontal tailplanes. The big 60-series Griffon engine now turned a six-blade counter-rotating propellor that finally eliminated the vicious torque of the Griffon-powered Seafires.

Although slightly slower that it's predecessor the Seafire FR.46, few other frontline piston-engined fighters could match it's climb, dive, roll-rate and manueverobility in the air. The Seafire FR.47 wasn't perfect though; there was no cockpit heating and the cockpit itself was very cramped with a poor ergonomic layout and any pilot who was taller than average was very uncomfortable inside the cockpit.

Only ninety or so Seafire 47s were built and only one unit, No. 800 Naval Air Squadron embarked on the light fleet carrier H.M.S. Triumph took the aircraft into combat, serving briefly in Operation Firedog over Malaya and more famously in the opening months of the Korean War alongside Firefly FR.1's. 

Korean operations started on the 3rd of July 1950 and ran until September 2nd 1950 when Triumph ceased operations to return to the U.K. The combination of the fragility of the Seafire and the intense pace of operations meant that once flying had ceased, the carrier's Air Engineering Officer grounded all but one of 800's Seafires; the airframes were worn out, “munted” as we Kiwis say! One of the pilots said he spent the trip back to Blighty reading “The Forsythe Saga” he reckoned it was his best trip ever! 800 NAS disbanded on it's return home, and then reformed on the much sturdier Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 and once again embarked on H.M.S. Triumph for more action over Korea. 

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Airfix first released it's 1/48th scale Seafire FR.46/FR.47 kit in 1996. The new kit, along with a Spitfire F.22/F.24 was a revelation in it's day with beautifully subtle engraved panel lines and overall ease of construction and a satisfactory fit. It was followed shortly by the two English Electric Lightning kits of the same quality. Apparently these kits were tooled and produced in South Korea and they represented a major departure and improvement over the extremely mediocre efforts of previous Airfix kits at that time and were very well received by the modelling community. Although the current range of Airfix kits is very good, they have yet to match the finesse of these earlier kits.

Having recently finished the Airfix Seafire F.17 (being on a bit of a Seafire binge...) I dug out this kit which (gulp!!) I hadn't looked at since ...1996! The kit itself has parts to enable either the Seafire FR.46 with non-folding wings or the Seafire FR.47 to be built. Two sets of markings are provided; one for the Seafire FR.46 and one for a Korean War Seafire FR.47 complete with black/white ID bands (not “invasion stripes”) The decals are pretty ordinary and are best replaced if possible. (It should be noted that Airfix reissued this kit a couple of years ago and the new decals are printed by Cartograf and are far superior to the original release kit decals.) The other issue with this kit are the two canopies, both of which are best replaced by Falcon/Squadron items – especially the Seafire FR.47 canopy and windscreen.

It's interesting to compare the earlier Airfix Seafire 47 with the more recent Seafire 17; the 47 has much more restrained surface detail, but the kit cockpit detail is very sparse and simplified. On the other hand, the Seafire 17 has heavier (although crisp) surface detail and the cockpit detail is much better represented.

When I started poking around in the Seafire 46/47 box, I found that all those years ago (!) I had installed a KMC resin cockpit – I also found that it was actually for a Spitfire F.22 – hmm! Thus I made the decision to paint it all up and close it up using the less-than-wonderful kit canopy and windscreen to hide my sins.... After a fair bit of chopping and shoving (and a few choice words) I managed to get a decent fit (as supplied, the base of the KMC cockpit fouls with the wheel wells inside the lower wing) and then mated the closed up fuselage with the wings. I built the wings in the extended position; they are actually intended to be modelled in the folded position and like Tamiya's otherwise excellent 1/48th scale Corsairs, the fit in the extended/open position is not brilliant. However, this was nothing a bit of careful fiddling and some Tamiya putty couldn't put right. I also drooped the elevators on the horizontal tailplane for a bit of interest.

As previously mentioned, I was less than enamoured of the kit decals, and instead opted to use an after-market sheet from Kits World; this sheet has markings for one Seafire FR.46 and several Seafire F.17s or Seafire FR.47s. Most models of the Seafire 47 tend to be finished in the classic Korean War scheme with the white/black/white ID bands – these rapidly appeared on Royal Navy aircraft after a Seafire that was escorting USAF B-29s got so badly shot up by one of it's charges that the pilot had to take to his parachute; apparently the Seafire ventured too close to one of the bombers and the gunners aboard mistook it for a North Korean Yak fighter.

Just to be different, I decided to model a Seafire from 804 NAS embarked on H.M.S. Ocean operating in the Mediterranean (“The Med”) in 1949. This was finished in a non-standard application of the attractive Pattern No.2 scheme with the entire wing root fairing painted in Extra Dark Sea Grey. Also the presentation of the squadron number and roundel on the fuselage was back-to-front. This particular machine VP436 “141/O” ended up (like so many Seafires) in a rather undignified state - she went overboard after the pilot lost control on take-off. Lashed to the side of the carrier, she was off-loaded on Malta and subsequently repaired and put back into service.

I used my usual Xtracolour enamels for the paint scheme, and painted the entire propeller and spinner in Night (black) which looks cool next to the grey and sky. Once decalled, I added the underwing slipper tanks as well as the centreline drop tank; the Seafire definitely looks different with those slipper tanks as opposed to the more common load of rockets!

After twenty years (!!) my model is finally finished and represents Seafire no.8 in my Seafire family. It's an excellent kit and now Barracuda Studios have a small range of after-market resin such as new rocker covers and more accurate prop blades to enhance the kit; I have these on hand for he next time I build a Seafire 47 – maybe this time with black & white bands!

Mike Regan

Photos and text © by Mike Regan