In July 1939, while the Fulmar was still under construction, the FAA put out another requirement for a modern carrier-based fighter to be powered by the then new and untried Rolls-Royce Griffon. Specification N8/39 calling for a two-seater powered by this engine and armed with 4 20mm cannon or eight .30-cal machine guns.  Fairey responded with a somewhat smaller, Fulmar-type aircraft, to be armed with 20mm cannon, with an empty weight barely less than the Fulmar's loaded weight.  By June 6, 1940, the mock-up had been inspected and approved, and specification N5/40 was written around the design.  Thirteen months later, the first Firefly I, Z1826, flew on December 22, 1941. 

      The airplane was the first to make use of the Fairey-patented area-increasing Youngman flaps, which provided the necessary maneuverability in combat, and lowered the landing speed of this heavy aircraft to a speed compatible with carrier operation.  The first production aircraft was turned over to the FAA on March 4, 1943, a very respectable timetable for wartime aircraft development.  The FAA was fortunate with this, because every other British-designed carrier aircraft that was ordered in the same timeframe as the Firefly ran into development difficulties and failed to fly before the end of the war.  Thus, the Fulmar would be the only really modern, high-performance carrier aircraft of British design to fly off British carriers in the war it was designed for.

      Unfortunately, even with the 1,735 horsepower of the Griffon IIB, the Firefly lacked performance, with a top speed of only 319 mph and a climb rate under 2,000 fpm, though it had a useful range of 774 miles on internal fuel.  The Firely was destined to become a strike and tactical reconnaissance aircraft, rather than the fleet defense fighter originally called for.  Fortunately, it was more than capable of the mission, and the aircraft in its developed versions would form the backbone of the Royal Navy's aerial strike force through the end of the Korean War.

          Interestingly, on all points save speed, a Firefly I sent to the US Navy test center at Patuxent River in 1944 more than held its own in air combat against the standard U.S. Navy carrier fighter, the F6F Hellcat - those Youngman flaps worked.

      1770 Squadron formed on Fireflies on October 1, 1943, followed by 1771 Squadron in February 1944.  1770 participated in Operation Mascot, the failed attack against the German battleship "Tirpitz" on July 17, 1944, operating from HMS "Indefatigable."  1771 Squadron, aboard HMS "Implacable," flew strikes in Norwegian waters that October, by which time "Indefatigable" and her Fireflies had moved on to join the British Far Eastern Fleet.

      From January 1-7, 1945, 1770 Squadron's Fireflies flew rocket strikes against the Pangkalan Brandon refinery on Sumatra, during which Lieutenant D. Levitt shot down a Ki.43 Hayabusa while Sub Lieutenants Redding and Stot shared another in air combat on January 4. 1770 scored two more Ki.43s on January 24, during strikes on the Palembang refineries at Pladjoe and Songei Gerong that required the aircraft to attack through balloon barrages and heavy AAA fire.  On January 29, the Fireflies added three more Ki-43s to their score before departing Southeast Asia for service with Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet, during the coming invasion of Okinawa.

      Five days before D-Day, TF 57 launched strikes on Miyako-jima, southwest of Okinawa, following up during the next 25 days with 13 days of strikes against Japanese forces on Okinawa and Taiwan, with the Fireflies participating in all these actions.

      When the BPF retired to Sydney for replenishment in late May, they were joined by  HMS "Implacable" and the Fireflies of 1771 Squadron.  After strikes against Truk, 1771's Fireflies gained the distinction of being the first British aircraft to fly over Japan on July 10, 1945; on July 24, Fireflies from 1771 and 1772 Squadrons - the latter having relieved 1770 aboard "Indefatigable" - became the first British aircraft over Tokyo.  By VJ-Day, another Firefly squadron - 1790 - was operating with the BPF in the night fighter role.  A year of successful combat had only begun to show what the airplane was capable of.

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     Construction begins with cleaning up the resin detail parts.  I had the good fortune of having Ian Hartup's information on the kit, which he had built for Scale Aircraft Modeler a few weeks earlier.  Thus, I knew that the key to this kit is to remove all of the resin blocks on the main gear wells and the cockpit tubs, and to insure that the tops of the wheel wells and the side panels of the cockpits are sanded paper-thin so you can see light through them.  This insures that everything will fit and that the rest of the construction phase is easy.       It also helped to have access to a page of walk-around photographs of the Firefly I on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.  Follow this link: http://faamodels.netfirms.com/firefly_mk1.htm to see these photos. 

     After I had cleaned up the resin parts, I painted the cockpit parts in British Interior Green, for which I used Gunze-Sanyo H-312 "Light Green."  I painted the pilot's and observer's seats with Tamiya XF-64 "Flat Red Brown" since these were made of Bakelite, with the leather padding painted with Gunze-Sanyo H-17 "Cocoa Brown."  The instrument panel and other details were painted with Tamiya X-18 "Semi-gloss Black," and then picked out with other colors from study of the cockpit photos at the walk-around.  The radiator interior, wheel wells, landing gear and interior of the main gear doors were also painted British Interior Green per the photos in the walk-around.

      Once all this was accomplished, I glued the wheel wells in position on the lower wing part, and then attached the upper wing halves.  If you are certain to cut off all the mold-release pins inside these injection-molded parts, the fit will be very easy.

      I then turned to the pilot's and observer's cockpits.  I attached the photo-etch seatbelts and other photo-etch detail, then assembled the cockpits and glued them in position inside the fuselage.  I also glued the radiator in position.

      Gluing the fuselage halves together was the one place I encountered any difficulty; the injection parts would not come together immediately forward of the pilot's cockpit and immediately aft of the observer's cockpit without the use of cyanoacrylate glue and accelerator - once I did that, everything closed up without trouble.  I then glued the wing subassembly to the fuselage sub assembly, and assembled and attached the horizontal stabilizers. 

      I found I needed Mr. Surfacer 500 on the leading edges of the wings, the upper wing-fuselage joint, the horizontal stabilizer-fuselage joints, and the centerline seam of the fuselage.  When that was sanded down, the seams disappeared; I rescribed panel lines where necessary and the model was ready to paint.

  Painting:

      I first "preshaded" all the panel lines with Tamiya Semi-gloss black, then painted the camouflage.  I used Tamiya XF-21 "Sky" on the lower surfaces.  The upper camouflage of Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey were done with Tamiya XF-54 "Flat Dark Sea Grey" and Tamiya XF-22 "RLN Grey" for Slate Grey.  I freehanded all of these, fading each color before proceeding to the next.  The propeller was painted with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black.  Do note that the camouflage pattern shown in the decal profiles that accompany the kit is wrong - I used the pattern shown in a profile in an article on the Firefly published in the November 1971 issue of "Air Enthusiast."