The UPS man rang the bell today while I joylessly fiddled with this godless 1:24 Trumpeter Spitfire floatplane today. He was bearing a box from Squadron. “What could this be?” I wondered, signing for the parcel with trembling hands.
Could it be? Yes! A Czech Model 1:48 Ryan Fireball, with lots and lots of lovely True Details resin and the “Fireball Mini In Action” book inside the box. My building schedule is stacked up like traffic over O’Hare, but I’m gonna sneak this little beauty in somehow. I’ve been playing with the parts all evening, since as we all know that’s at least 60 percent of the fun of modeling (for me, it approaches 80 percent, I fear).
TOM
Alright Tom!! [:)]
Sounds like you’re getting you a “Stack of Stuff”… as you eluded to; priority goes out the window sometimes when a nice one comes along! [;)]
Have fun and take care,
Frank
Congratulations, Good luck on your new build
Jerry
I just placed an order for the same kit. Always wanted to do a Fireball in 1/48.
Regards, Rick
Tom and Rick,
Please let us know how the builds go once you get started! I’d love to get my hands on this kit seeing as how I love the “transitional years” planes. I’m so glad that Czech Models is producing the kits that everyone else is ignoring. Unfortunately I’ve got about 35 kits under my workbench which I told my wife I’d tackle before getting more goodies.
Tom, I’m so glad you bumped up your fun percentage to 80%. That’s about the same for me too! LOL!
Best wishes to all,
Eric
While I still think the Fireball kit is a beauty, and well worth having for anyone interested in the type. However, having had time to examine the kit, you will find that the engraving is pretty overdone. I had the Skyknight, which I had to reluctantly hand over to a colleague because I’m grossly overscheduled for builds, and the engraving on it was beautiful. However, I’ve heard there are some pretty tough fit problems on the Skyknight, specifically with the “bulges” on the fuselage, which are separate parts and basically follow the lines of the intake trunking. If you look at a photo of an F2D you’ll see what I’m talking about. Because of the shape of the plane, it had to be molded in an unusual way, and there’s major clamping and seam-hiding involved.
I hope this Fireball fits nicely. That airplane was, except for the little jet engine buried in it, conventional in every way. The resin Cyclone engine, with its separate heads, cylinders and crankcase, are especially nicely molded, as are all the cockpit components, also resin.
The inclusion of the Mini In Action books is nice, given how hard it is to find detail photos of this a/c. There’s only one Fireball left of the 66 that were built. It was in the Maloney collection for a long time, but I don’t know where it is now. Does anyone know? I’d like to find some color photos, though the black and white photos I saw of the restored Fireball show it to be inaccurate, with white gear legs, wheels and wheel wells. The wells and legs should be Gloss Sea Blue like the rest of the plane, and the wheels can be GSB or natural metal. Either is accurate. There weren’t many variations in color among these 66 planes. Pretty boring, all in all.
TOM
Tom,
I have two photos of the FR-1 at Chino, taken in 1991. They show the white gear legs and wheels on all 3 legs. The wings are folded up at about a 45 degree angle.The wing ribs and fold mechanism is OD while the main wheel well is medium gray. Gloss black prop blades, yellow tips, silver hub with yellow spinner. Silver frame on main canopy while the windscreen frame is GSB with what looks like silver gasket, (like the yellow on F-105s).
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Well, I did it. I swept aside about a year’s worth of projects on my tiny “workbench” today and began that Fireball. So far, I’ve mostly been cleaning up resin and dry fitting. For a short-run kit, I can’t complain much about the fit, though there are no locating pins and few locators for anything important like, say, the cockpit.
The True Details cockpit is the usual TD excellent. However, unlike the rest of the cockpit, the instrument panel is injected. It has nothing but a little raised detail and then a large conglomeration of blank raised circles. If it were going to display it with the canopy open, I’d punch out those circles, sand the panel very thin, and add Waldron instruments to the back with a white card backing to the whole thing. But instead I’m going to use instruments from the outstanding sheet of Mike Grant Decals Instruments and Data Plates sheet.
And I plan to put data plates everywhere they showed on the Fireball, like the front of the gear legs. Anything, and I mean anything, to break up this endless ocean of Gloss Sea Blue that’s on this airplane. Yes, the correct color for the legs and wells is GSB, as is every inch of the exterior. I had hoped for at least a striped tail hook on the post-war birds, but even that is the cursed GSB! (Note: On the Fireball, the hook actually is mounted on the plane’s center under the aft wing center section, not it’s tail. Apparently, the FR-1 landed on three legs at once!)
There is a black anti-glare panel along the usual area. I’ve just painted the engine bulkhead aluminum, and the inside of the cowling FS36231, Dark Gull Gray, which was allowed by a Navy Tech Order that was in effect at the time. (Not that FS no., since obviously this was before the modern FS system was initiated, but I’m close.) Some Corsairs’ cowlings insides are painted this way, though it appears mostly the tech order was ignored (There was a war on!) and the insides of these cowlings were either unpainted, GSB, interior chromate green of any shade they had laying around, or the gray. Take your pick. I’ve also seen a Navy painting tech order from the same time calling for gray wheels, but I’ve never seen that one in practice.
But enough babble. Back to building this Fireball. I’m looking for quick but quality. I’ll let you guys decide if I’ve achieved the latter.
TOM
congrats!
I can never get around to ordering AM parts and by the time I’m motivated enough, the project’s hovering around the weathering stage[V]
oh yeah, money plays a big part in that too.
Hi Sharksin,
pls, from which Czech company is that particular Fireball model? Thanks for answer!
Cheers,
Pisis