2025-08-17

Finished model 2025-V

Hawker Sea Fury T.61, by PM Model, 1:72.

The Hawker Sea Fury was the last propeller fighter used by the Royal Navy¹, but as such things go, things are more complicated than that—the Westland Wyvern was actually in service longer, though classified as a strike aircraft; then again, the distinction between a strike aircraft and a fighter-bomber, as the Sea Fury was used as, is mostly arbitrary. The Mark 61 Trainer was a de-navalised (without tailhook) version of the Sea Fury, of which a handful were delivered to Iraq and Pakistan. The sources I have consulted give contradictory information on when the deliveries to Iraq were made (around 1950±some years) and if they actually were the same version as the Pakistani trainers, but this is the assumption PM have made.

I built the model as aircraft number ٢٦٣ (263) of 1 Sqn of the Iraqi Air Force.

The kit is about the quality of a 1970s Matchbox kit, in particular it has very shallow wheel wells with overscale detail. I did not do anything about that, but spent a bit of time creating transparent navigation lights. I also ended up having to scratch build the undercarriage covers that had gotten lost at some point.

Kit donated by Tankman, who considered life too short to spend on it.


¹ The RAF cancelled their order for the landbased Hawker Fury towards the end of WWII as being surplus to requirements.

Literature

Aircraft Archive: Fighters of World War Two, Volume 2, 1988, Argus Books.

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