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100 Years #2 - Fairey Swordfish


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Hi All

 

Had a go at the windows and windscreen.

 

Unfortunately, had to buy a large chocolate cake that was wrapped in the right kind of acetate to make them :whistle:

DSCF5670.jpg

 

That's the third screen. The Carpet Monster was feeling left out and ate the first one, and I stepped on the second one while looking for it.

 

Anyhoo, turning to the tail, there is no indication of any control horns on them.

 

To get an approximation, I cut the corners off the tabs that have the part numbers on them

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They don't look too bad from a distance, and are only there to hold the end of the rigging

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DSCF5678.jpg

 

 

I'm going to get the decals on next and give it some sealing Pledge before the main assembly.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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1 hour ago, ProfSparks said:

They don't look too bad from a distance...

... or from close up either! Good job Steve, more nice scratch building.

 

Buying chocolate for the wrapper... now that's a good excuse :) They certainly made some nice clear parts.

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Hi All

 

On 11/1/2017 at 5:51 PM, iang said:

All you need then is a dark red code for the fin (probably measuring about a 1/3rd of the height of the fin). These were single letter only.

I couldn't find any red H, so thought these might do.

DSCF5679.jpg

 

A couple of cut up Es and Is and I ended up with this

DSCF5680.jpg

 

Close enough considering the rest of the build!

 

Added the front machine gun from a cut down panel pin

DSCF5681.jpg

 

And had a look at the interior.

Looks a bit bare.

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A rear gun support was fashioned from a collection of scrap bits (and the compulsory resistor leg)

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A couple of other bits

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Not bad for hidden away

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Next a big step, the lower wing upper surface on.

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Starting to look like an aeroplane at last!

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Hi All

 

So this is the plan...

 

DSCF5694.jpg

 

Lower surface of top wing on and setting now.

 

I'll spring in the remaining struts and whatnots in too, hopefully without springing everything apart.

 

I'll leave out the centre four struts that sit on the forward cowling as they look like this

DSCF5695.jpg

 

And will replace them with individual pieces fed in through the locating hole in the top once everything's square.

 

I'm hoping to straighten it out with the rigging, and if I leave off the outer skins from the wings I can get good anchorage internally.

 

Then I can close the wings with all the mess hidden.

 

 

What could possibly go wrong :poo:?

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome before it's too late

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Looking good Steve.

Looking forward to the rigging ( :shutup: ) and I hope you're able to straighten things as planned - I use rigging thread which is 'elastic' and doesn't help with alignment.

I guess you're using something rigid?

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Hi All

 

Most of the remaining struts fitted without incident, but the last one (obvs) made a bid for freedom and vanished for about half an hour, only to be found when I was looking for a suitable replacement.

I understand that's par for the course round these parts, as plastic has it's own interpretation of Newtonian physics.

 

Anyhoo, bizarre as it seems, the rigging has been the most relaxing and straight forward part of this build so far!

 

On 11/15/2017 at 9:08 AM, CedB said:

Looking good Steve.

Looking forward to the rigging ( :shutup: ) and I hope you're able to straighten things as planned - I use rigging thread which is 'elastic' and doesn't help with alignment.

I guess you're using something rigid?

 

I'm using 4Lbs fishing line coloured with a permanent marker, 0.3mm holes, secured with CA.

 

Two long loops fed across from one side, crossing when needed.

DSCF5698.jpg

 

A couple of short pieces for the mid-way and forward cowling braces

DSCF5700.jpg

 

Then it's on with the lower wing lower surface to hide the workings

DSCF5701.jpg

 

So far, a complete catastrophe has been avoided, but probably only through luck.

 

The landing gear fitted quite well, considering, but is a shadow of it's 1:1 counterpart.

DSCF5703.jpg

 

It is now I understand Martian

On 9/4/2017 at 12:56 AM, Martian Hale said:

Work cut out? Its more like a "Jack up the aircrew, insert new aeroplane and lower aircrew" sort of job! Seriously, a good model can be made from this kit but as others have already said, it involves an awful lot of work.

 

Martian

 

I'm afraid I have neither the ability nor inclination to invest lots more work in this kit, but it has been a useful learning process so far.

 

Anyone tempted to build this Swordfish would be better advised to whittle one out of a block of cheese.

 

 

But onward!

 

Next up is learning about torpedo release gadgets, what to do with that piece that's meant to be the engine, and then there's some sort of machine gun too...

 

 

 

Comments, suggestions and more cheese Gromit welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Nice work on the rigging Prof.

22 hours ago, ProfSparks said:

the rigging has been the most relaxing and straight forward part of this build so far

Bizarre indeed! Glad you enjoyed it.

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Hi All

 

Got myself back in the Lab for an hour or so.

 

Had to convince myself that I could do something useful to the Stringbag, other than just glue the tail on and call it done.

 

Let's have a look at that Vickers K then

DSCF5704.jpg

 

*sigh*

 

Well, at least whatever I do, it will make me feel I've done something.

 

Off with it's extremities!

 

Some rod and scrap, eye of newt, and I might be onto something

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And before you know it, there it was

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That handle is a bit gnarley this close up, but I couldn't bring myself to attack it further lest I demolish it entirely.

 

I'll see how it is painted when it's and tucked inside.

 

Hmm, that's a thought, how am i going to paint the bugger when I can hardly even pick it up :unsure:

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Great stuff Steve :)

4 minutes ago, ProfSparks said:

how am i going to paint the bugger when I can hardly even pick it up

Jaime gave me a good tip - stick it to a cocktail stick with CA where you'll mount it on the model. The CA will hold it firm, the stick let's you handle it while painting and then, 'cos CA is brittle, you can (carefully) snap it off the stick and just trim any excess off with a blade. HTH

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Hi All

 

On 11/23/2017 at 10:46 PM, CedB said:

Great stuff Steve :)

Jaime gave me a good tip - stick it to a cocktail stick with CA where you'll mount it on the model. The CA will hold it firm, the stick let's you handle it while painting and then, 'cos CA is brittle, you can (carefully) snap it off the stick and just trim any excess off with a blade. HTH

Thanks CedB, I'll let you know how it works later...

 

In the mean time, got the tail assembly fitted

DSCF5712.jpg

(I know, the bottom lower wing part is slightly smaller than the lower top part. I should have painted the mating surfaces black before glueing them. I'll try to paint the edges later if I can gird my loins.)

 

And also, the supporting struts going from the fuselage to the tail plane are all the same length, but as the fuselage tapers towards the rear, this means that the rear ones are too short to reach the locating holes and the forward ones are too long. Coincidently by the same amount.

DSCF5713.jpg

 

Hey ho.

 

DSCF5714.jpg

See what I've done there?

 

An aeroplane!

 

The tail fin is nearly a good fit

DSCF5715.jpg

Just a little bit of reshaping.

 

It's just the light that makes those ROYAL NAVY W5984 codes look silvered more than they are.

I'm assuming they should be red too, but I had nothing that was even close.

 

Never mind, on to some stringing

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That's better :bear:

 

 

Feel like I'm on the home straight now, so had a bash at some metalwork.

 

Made two rings by wrapping a couple of you know whats round the torpedo body

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A bit of artistic licence with the geometry

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A lick of paint, and here they are with some folded wing securing bracket thingies, and that arrestor hook from way back when

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The lower part of the ring will be cut off to allow the torpedo to be fitted.

 

 

And as for that Vickers On A Stick...

DSCF5726.jpg

 

I'm going to call that a WIN :lalala::party:

 

At least now the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Hi All

 

Home straight!

 

Tail end ironwork all stowed Bristol fashion

DSCF5806.jpg

 

Now to have a go at that "engine"

 

Bent some things lying around

DSCF5807.jpg

 

And they become a bit of inlet detail

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Most of it won't be seen behind the forward cowling, but meh.

 

For the front a similar story, more wire

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On with the top of the upper wing

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And things are starting to come together

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An aerial, a step, and that Vickers

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Those wing joins are less than exemplary, but I'm not going to fret over them.

 

Bingo bongo

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And here with the Pup for scale

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I'll get some RFI photos when there's some daylight, but I'm calling this one done.

 

Thanks for all your advice and encouragement, I'm going for a lie down now.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

Edited by ProfSparks
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