Warbird Information Exchange

Hi All-

As some of you may know, we have been working for a couple of years now on a ground-up restoration to return the former Sea Fury racer, Critical Mass, to "stock" TMK.20 condition. My 14 year old Son built a website to chronicle the progress and it is updated as of last night.

www.seafury10.com

Ken

Ken--

Yippeeee!! As one of several WIXers with a particular fondness for the Fury series, I couldn't be more pleased about the choice to return this wildest of Fury racers to near-original spec...and the Skyraider mill out front doesn't trouble me either. Hope to get the chance to see your family's T.20 sometime. The WIX Furyphiles will keep an eye out for paintscheme possibilities, too. I'd be suggesting a Canadian scheme, being a Canuck, but not on a T.20, as we had only FB.11s...

Cheers

Steve T

Very nice website Mr Dwelle Thanks for the update and can't wait to see her in the air

Oh just wanna add, Iraq had two seater Furys, how bout that for a paint scheme

...Yep, that'd be neat. The DLB overall gloss red would be nice too, and wholly accurate for that particular machine. Another cool idea would be the livery on the T.20 (VX301) that was on loan to Ferranti in the UK in the late fifties. "Admiral's Barge" type scheme. Overall dark blue (probably a slightly less green shade than USN Glossy Sea Blue), cowling and spinner in Red, serials and stencils in white, D-type roundels.

The Cubans had a Fury-equipped unit too, reportedly including at least one T.20 that operated for a time in bare metal. Hmmm...with all that fresh sheet metal on WE820, how about Cuban markings over mirror-polished alloy...yum!

S.

I always thought Cottonmouth, in its polished form, was the best looking Sea Fury I ever saw. I do think the the stock Royal Navy trainer scheme on a polished airframe instead of the silver would look good, although I may have trouble with the roundel police on that one.

Does anyone have a photo of VX-301?

I picked up a book a few months ago that had some nice pics of silver Australian Sea Furys, sadly single seaters. I guess they were done up that way for a local aerobatic team. Nice looking scheme.

Jim

Hi,

Very nice website with great pics.
In 2003, British Army discover Fury in Irak, 2 or 3 airframes and one of this is the two seat version.

Cheers
SPang

Ken--

Yeah, Jerry Janes' "Cottonmouth" was pretty. (That scheme was a "what-if", incidentally: a handful of RCN, and also RCAF, postwar aircraft flew with the blue/red roundels and the highly-polished aluminum, including some Mustang 4s. No Furies wore the scheme, though. Well, until "Cottonmouth", that is.)

There's a shot of T.20 VX301 in the old Squadron Signal "In Action" series book on the Sea Fury, and I think it's likely turned up in magazine articles too. I liked the scheme enough to build the 1:72 Pegasus2 T.20 kit in those markings; have taken pix of the model and will post them on this thread ASAP to give a rough idea of the scheme's look. Interestingly, though VX301 has not survived, the two either side have--VX300 and VX302 are present-day Warbirds.

I do airplane paintings, too. Wade Meyers I sure ain't, but I do have fun depicting Warbirds in paint anyway. A while back I did one that was a montage of profiles of Fury racers, one of which was N85SF/WE820 in her earlier markings as "Blind Man's Bluff", Race 88. Now I like stock Furies...or at least Fury-shaped ones! Executing a profile image of N85SF prompted me to do another profile...of the same airplane, as taken back to T.20 configuration, but with an R3350 up front (and smoke generators in the dummy underwing droptanks). Since it was slightly nonstock, I chose the unusual, but still RN, livery of VX301 for it, with a couple additions--little Canadian flags below the windscreen, and the RNAS Stretton tailcode "ST" (my initials, natch) on the fin. Serial on the profile is of course WE820 rather than VX301. I still have that little profile and will also post a pic of it. It would be almost spooky to me if you were to choose that scheme for the exact airplane I fantasized it in years ago!

S.

Steve-

I look forward to seeing the pictures, that's quite an interesting story about your painting, what are the odds?

Ken

Someone said Cottonmouth II?





I can post others if you want.

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real airplanes have round engines

Ken--

Here's the 1:72 VX301...



...and here's the profile of WE820, sorry for the duff quality of this pic, the painting's in a spot in my basement where it can't easily be got at! There are a few more markings I'd forgotten about, namely the Royal Navy White Ensign on the rudder and the name "Rule Britannia" on the cowl...


S.

More Cottonmouth photos please.

Steve-

Thanks for the scans. I did find the VX-301 B+W photo in the Squadron Signal book but I have to admit it looks better in your colour renditions. I thought the all red cowling would be all wrong but it's reallly not too bad.

I also found the photos of the target gear being fitted on WE-820 in the Squadron Signal book, it indicates that it was one of two done at Hawker to sort out the mod. I did not know 820 was so early in the batch but it makes sense given the apparent interest in this photo showing its arrrival in Germany.

OK, well I'm not smart enough to post the photo, perhaps later.

Ken

WE 820 (D-FOTE) on arrival in Germany

[img] http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... 2small.jpg [/img]

Still not smart enough

Hi Steve,cool painting!!!May I ask why you picked the FB10 tail without the hook mount,I actually like the lines of this rear end better It would certainly stand out on the airshow circuit,must admit I have never seen pics of the Aussie Furies in silver or NMF either,hope to meet y'all at Osh next year,best regards,Pete

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Give me a Centaurus over a Merlin any day