1:48 Fairey Firefly

A two-seat carrier hunter with a long canopy

The Fairey Firefly carried a navigator beside the pilot, who worked the radar and guided the machine over the sea with not a single fixed point on the horizon. The wing had extending flaps of a special profile, four cannon and a folding mechanism for a carrier deck. It served from the middle of the war until the 1950s, when it also reached Korea as an attack machine.

The Fleet Air Arm insignia as the main item

Three complete sets of marks is a high number and they have a practical reason. Carrier machines carried roundels on the upper and the lower surface of the folding wing and on the fuselage as well, and it is precisely across the fold line that a decal settles worst. Paint applied through film goes over the fold with no crease and after unmasking the line stays straight even where the surface is interrupted by engraved panels.

A breakdown of the contents

The masking of the glazing is dealt with from both sides, which on a long two-seat canopy pays off more than on a single-seat fighter, because through the cockpit you can see as far as both seats. For the insignia the same applies as with the other sets of this type: they are applied in paint and a sheet of decals is used only for numbers and tactical symbols.

What to obtain with it

The recommended equipment is a sharp new scalpel and a moistened cloth for wiping the fingers, because a greasy print on a clear part is visible even under the finish. If you plan the wing folded, mask and spray before fixing it in position, otherwise you will have difficulty getting at the inner side of the fold.