Supermarine Seafire III Conversion
Airwaves Seafire III conversion is a multi-media set, specifically intended for the Airfix Spitfire Vb. Conceivably it might be adapted to fit the Italeri or Tamiya kits.
The resin parts consist of two one-piece wings, with appropriate wing fold lines scribed in (the set is also available with the wings folded); a replacement spinner and four-bladed prop (each blade is moulded separately, with no alignment aids); an insert for the underside of the rear fuselage, with the arrestor hook moulded in the retracted position; a narrow oil cooler for the underside of the port wing; two 20 mm cannon barrels, mainwheels (unflattened) with plain disc hubs; and two catapult spools.
A pair of six stack exhausts are the only white metal parts in the set. In my sample these suffered from mould shift, and will likely need to be replaced.
A small fret of photo-etched brass provides all the external reinforcement plates, new maingear doors, and a centreline fuel tank/bomb carrier.
The final component is a vacuformed canopy. The windscreen and sliding section are moulded as one piece, while the rear fixed section is separate.
The resin and vacuformed parts are of excellent quality. A single air bubble marred the mating surface of the oil cooler. The recessed panel detail is somewhat soft. If the parts are used with the intended Airfix kit, the fuselage will likely need to be rescribed to match. The wheel well detail in the replacement wings is basic, but the wells themselves are nice and deep.
A single double-sided A4 sheet provides instructions, and numbers all the photo-etched components. The required cuts to wing and fuselage are shown reasonably clearly, though the reinforcement plate locations are less apparent. A profile view of the fuselage with the reinforcement plates would be useful. I believe Seafire III plans have recently appeared in Scale Aviation Modeling (SAM), and these would be useful during assembly.
The kit provides no decals, nor does it suggest any schemes.
In comparison with the Octopus/Pavla kit, I can summarise the following differences:
- The Octopus kit wings feature finer detail, with sharper panel lines. The Airwaves wing features a sharper trailing edge. The Octopus lower wing has no moulded-in dihedral, and is missing the gull wing section, which is would be present on the Airfix donor kit for the Airwaves conversion.
- The Octopus kit features a separate arrestor hook, allowing it to be displayed in the deployed position. The Airwaves part can only be shown closed. The Ariwaves part features the correct curved front edge of the hook panel, whereas this is straight on the Octopus part.
- The Airwaves prop requires less clean-up, but since each blade is separate, alignment can be tricky. The blade shapes are similar, though I would say that Airwaves is a little nicer. The spinners are identically shaped, though Airwaves includes more detail, although the panel lines are a bit heavy.
- The Airwaves kit provides only the long barrels for the 20-mm cannon, Octopus provide both long and short barrels. The short type seems appropriate for French Seafires.
- The Airwaves exhausts are poorly moulded in white metal. The Octopus exhausts are resin, and more cleanly moulded.
- The Octopus kit provides a choice between solid disc wheels (in plastic), and flattened four spoke wheels in resin. The Airwaves kit provides only the solid disc wheels. Spoked wheels seem approporiate for French Seafires.
- Airwaves provides resin catapuly spools, these are missing from the Octopus kit.
- The Airwaves kit provides etched brass gear doors. These seem too thin to me, but the shape is better than the very thick plastic parts in the Octopus kit.
- All the fuselage reinforcements are provided as photo-etched parts in the Airwaves kit. They are moulded to the fuselage in the Octopus kit. In both cases they are likly too heavy, as the reinforcements barely show up in many photos, whereas they are quite prominent on the kits. Airwaves provides reinforcements for the forward slinging plates (just aft of the cowl), which are not included in the Octopus kit. The shape of the radio hatch reinforcement differs between the kits, but I am unsure which is correct.
- Airwaves provides a bomb rack in photo-etched brass. Though very fiddly, this is a nice detail, not present in the Octopus kit.
- The Airwaves oil cooler is shorter and narrower than the Octopus part. The Octopus part matches the plans in Frelaut and Pierquet.
- The Airwaves vacuformed canopy is more cleanly moulded than the Octopus part, and includes a separate rear section.
- The Octopus kit includes decals, the Airwaves coversion does not.
References on the Seafire include the monograph by Frelaut and Pierquet as well as the old Aircam Spitfire/Seafire book.