Hawker Fury

This is a 36 year old Airfix kit that hasn't had any updates since it's release except for two box art updates and different decals. The age shows once you open the box to look at what's inside; there are cut-off sections of sprues/runners that have a lot of flash around them, which needs trimming and clean-up before you start assembling. There aren't a lot of parts and the ones that you have are very basic. It was probably good back in its day, based on the machining equipment available 36 yrs ago as compared to today. The exterior surfaces have raised panel lines and rivets, and some of those rivets would be very big if scaled up to full size. The engine cowling doesn't fit well at all, so I left mine unglued, which is an option for showing off the Rolls Royce Kestrel IIs engine block included. Not that you'd want to show that off, because again, it's very basic. Don't bother painting the cockpit like I did, which again is very basic...just a seat, a joy-stick and a instrument panel which is the totally wrong design...because once buttoned up with the Pilot seated, his body blocks any view into the cockpit through the small opening that he sits inside of. Even without him sitting there, all you'd be able to see is the seat, everything else will be out of view. Regarding the seat...mine wasn't included...it had obviously fallen off the sprue during handling at the manufacturing facility before it was packaged and shipped. I, therefore, just put in a block of styrene to glue the Pilot onto, to raise him up to the correct level. When assembling the lower wings and fuselage halves, there were gaps at the joints that required filling and sanding. I chose this kit as an entry into a Spanish Civil War group build being hosted on YouTube and because I only work with 1/48 scale or larger, due to my aging eyes struggling to cope with anything smaller. I searched for after-market Spanish Republican Air Force Decals at this scale, but couldn't find any. I couldn't even find kits of this scale or larger that included decals representing the Spanish Republican Air Force, only in 1/72 scale. Therefore, I decided to airbrush my own markings in the Spanish colors as can be seen in the photos included. This kit would be okay for a quick build between larger more advanced kits, when you just need to do something simple to break up the attention requirement necessary for the better kits, or when you might have lost your modeling mojo and need something easy not requiring lots of effort...except for the trimming, sanding and filling. For the rigging on my build, I used Heavy Black EZ-Line (1.015 thick) and for the antenna cables, I used Fine Black EZ-Line (1.010 thick). I scratch built the rudder mounted hard-points for attaching the antenna cable to...it's not included in the kit. Would I recommend this kit?....To the serious builder that likes to adorn his/her shelves and/or display cabinets with eye-catching builds, NO. For the novice...I'd say yes...it'll provide some exercise in trimming, filling, sanding, fitting and rigging, should you attempt the latter. If you are looking for a 1/48 scale Hawker Fury, then sadly, the market doesn't help you, this is the only one available, unless you go to 1/32 scale, then you can get one from Alley Cat, but be prepared to spend a lot of money for that one.