AZ Model Supermarine Seafang F Mk.32 — 1/72 Scale Plastic model kit

Manufacturer: AZ Model

Kit number: AZ7585

Barcode/box identifier supplied: 8592018AZ07585

Aircraft: Supermarine Seafang F Mk.32

Scale: 1/72

Type: Injection-moulded plastic aircraft kit

Subject: British carrier-based piston-engine fighter

Released: 2018

Kit status: Unassembled/unpainted; glue and paint are not included.
AZ Model and the manufacturer

AZ Model is a Czech model-kit company associated with Petr Muzikant and the wider Kovozávody Prostějov/AZ Model operation. The company has become particularly well known for producing subjects that are less frequently covered by the larger mainstream manufacturers, including unusual British, Czech, German and inter-war aircraft.

The history of the modern AZ/KP operation is closely connected with the revival of the historic Kovozávody Prostějov name. The original KP company was founded in 1968 and became one of the major Czechoslovak plastic-model manufacturers. Its kits were particularly important to generations of modellers in Czechoslovakia and throughout the Eastern Bloc. Production eventually ended in 1993, following the company's difficulties competing with newer Japanese and Chinese manufacturers.

Petr Muzikant, already associated with AZ Model, acquired the rights to revive the Kovozávody Prostějov brand around 2012–13. The revived company deliberately developed new tooling rather than simply reproducing the original KP moulds. Contemporary company statements stressed that the new KP kits were to be produced from new metal tooling.

The AZ Model name has consequently occupied a slightly different place in the company's catalogue from the revived KP name. AZ Model releases include numerous specialised 1/72 subjects, and the Seafang is a good example of the company's willingness to cover relatively obscure aircraft.
The AZ7585 kit

The AZ7585 is a 1/72 scale representation of the Supermarine Seafang F Mk.32, the definitive navalised version of the Spiteful/Seafang family.

The contemporary 2018 announcement describes it simply as a plastic, unassembled kit and confirms that glue and paint are not supplied.

The kit's scale is particularly appropriate for the subject because the Seafang is a relatively large single-seat fighter. At 1/72, the finished model is approximately:

Length: 13.6 cm

Wingspan: 14.8 cm with the wings extended

The real F Mk.32 had folding outer wing sections for carrier operation, so a kit representing the aircraft gives the modeller an interesting choice in how to display the aircraft.

I have not found a sufficiently authoritative source giving the exact number of plastic parts in AZ7585, so I would not quote a parts count as fact. Likewise, the surviving retailer records don't provide a reliable full inventory of every sprue component. For valuation purposes, the important identification points are the AZ7585 catalogue number, Seafang F Mk.32 subject and 1/72 scale.
The real aircraft — Supermarine Seafang

The Supermarine Seafang was one of the final attempts to develop a high-performance piston-engined naval fighter from the famous Supermarine fighter lineage.

Its ancestry can be traced through:

Spitfire → Spiteful → Seafang

The Spiteful was Supermarine's attempt to produce a successor to the Spitfire using a new laminar-flow wing and increasingly powerful Rolls-Royce Griffon engines. The Royal Navy was interested in a carrier version, particularly at a time when there was still uncertainty over how quickly jet aircraft would become practical for carrier operations.

The resulting Seafang was developed to Air Ministry Specification N.5/45.

The aircraft incorporated several substantial modifications for carrier use:

strengthened naval undercarriage;

arrester hook;

folding outer wing panels;

increased fuel capacity;

naval equipment;

and, in the F Mk.32, contra-rotating propellers.

The contra-rotating propellers were particularly distinctive. They allowed the enormous power of the Griffon engine to be transmitted without producing the same degree of torque effects associated with a single large propeller.
Seafang F Mk.32

The F Mk.32 was the definitive naval version.

It used a Rolls-Royce Griffon 89, producing approximately 2,350 hp, driving two three-bladed contra-rotating propellers. The aircraft also had hydraulically operated folding outer wing panels, allowing it to occupy less space on an aircraft carrier.

Its planned armament consisted of:

four 20 mm Hispano cannon

provision for bombs

provision for rockets

Published technical sources give a maximum speed in the general region of 450–485 mph, depending upon the particular source and test configuration.

The aircraft was an impressive piece of piston-engine engineering, but it arrived at precisely the wrong moment in aviation history.
Why the Seafang never entered service

The Seafang was effectively overtaken by the technological revolution it had been intended to bridge.

The Royal Navy was already investigating jet-powered carrier aircraft, including the Supermarine Attacker, de Havilland Sea Vampire and other emerging designs. At the same time, the Hawker Sea Fury offered excellent performance as a conventional piston-engined carrier fighter.

Consequently, there was little reason to introduce an expensive new Griffon-powered fighter into production when jet aircraft were rapidly becoming viable.

The original plan was considerably more ambitious than what was actually built. An order was placed for 150 aircraft, but the programme was cancelled before anything approaching that number could be completed.

There is some variation between historical references concerning the exact production count because different sources classify prototypes and partially completed aircraft differently. A commonly quoted total for the complete Seafang family is 18 aircraft, while more detailed accounts distinguish between 10 Mk.31 aircraft and six Mk.32 aircraft, with some never being flown.

The important point is that the Seafang never became an operational Fleet Air Arm fighter.

One of the most significant F Mk.32 aircraft was VB895, which underwent carrier-related trials and demonstrations. It was tested for deck operations, and its performance demonstrated that the aircraft was technically viable. Nevertheless, it offered insufficient advantage over competing piston-engine fighters and was increasingly threatened by jet technology.

The Seafang therefore became one of the fascinating "what if?" aircraft of British aviation history: a highly developed descendant of the Spitfire that never reached operational squadron service.

Its laminar-flow wing technology was not entirely wasted, however. Elements of the design lineage fed into Supermarine's subsequent work, including the Supermarine Attacker, Britain's first Royal Navy jet fighter.
Why AZ7585 is an interesting kit

This is an unusually good subject for a collection because the full-size aircraft was extremely rare.

Unlike a Spitfire, Hurricane or Mustang, where hundreds or thousands of surviving kits and aircraft references exist, the Seafang itself was produced only in tiny numbers. The AZ kit therefore represents an aircraft that would otherwise be almost impossible to model in mainstream 1/72 form.

The F Mk.32's combination of:

Griffon engine,

contra-rotating propellers,

folding wings,

arrestor hook,

and Spitfire-derived ancestry

also makes it visually distinctive from the much more familiar Seafire.