1/48 Airfix Supermarine Seafire FR.46

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Feb 2 2016

 

      

For your viewing pleasure here are some photos of my 1/48 Scale Airfix Supermarine Seafire FR.46.

The Supermarine Seafire, or Sea Spitfire (the official name), was a navalized Spitfire and was the first modern carrier based fighter fielded by the Royal Navy. It was developed primarily for carrier use. The Seafire incorporated changes such as a tail hook, attachments for catapult use, and on later variants, folding wings. Not the ideal carrier fighter, landings were especially difficult. However, its performance outweighed the disadvantages. The Seafire had a short range, but its fast climb and agility made it a very good Fleet defense fighter. The last Seafire version, the Mk 47, was used in the Korean war, and was retired in 1952.

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Construction
I chose to build the FR.6 Seafire model and it goes together quite well just by following the steps in the well illustrated instruction guide. The general fit of the parts is good. However, joining fuselage to the wings required some serious filling and sanding. There are no major show stoppers building this kit.

Painting
All paints for this model were Model Masters and Floquil enamels.

  • Landing gears          Bright Silver 

  • Wheel Bays              Bright Silver 

  • Wheel Bay Doors     Bright Silver 

  • Fuselage bottom      RAF Medium Sea Gray 

  • Wings topside          Dark Gray 

  • Fuselage topside     Dark Sea Blue + RAF Medium Sea Gray 

  • Rockets                     Bright Silver + Signal Red 

  • Spinners Insignia      Yellow 

  • Rudder Insignia        Yellow

Decals
The kit provides decals for two aircraft. I chose to use the decals for the FR.46 stationed at Royal Naval Air Station, Lossiemouth, Scotland, 1948. The decals were excellent, they were easily placed on the model and responded well to decal setting solution.

Comment
To sum up, this kit was a very enjoyable build. Airfix has done a great job with this kit. The external detail is good, the parts fit is good, and the decals were excellent. I recommend this kit to any modeler.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson