Whirly

Glad to be of help! Please note your old model may not have the correct colors for the badge, see here two examples: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61980076@N02/52162610032/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.super-hobby.it/zdjecia/8/2/3/1727_1_tam61077_1.jpg

If I'm not mistaken that badge can be seen on the Thunderbirds F-84Gs because they were originally based at Luke AFB.

Hello! very slow progress due to real life interfering a lot The wings are attached now. Fit is good, just remember to adjust the slots in the fuselage before adding the canopies otherwise there's a risk of much plastic powder floating around.... See also the wingtip lights are missing, so I sawed off a recess to add them later. Fit of the canopies is really good considering the short-run nature of the kit, just a bit of mr.surfacer to fill the joints. Some troubles in the rear because you need tube filler to really fair in the contours, this is one of those cases where a flex-i-file is highly recommended! Thanks for looking!

Hi Nikolay, I built this Italeri boxing a couple of years ago, please note how the seats provided are a bit wide: if you plan to use the kit supplied canopy (which is quite thick), you will have issues because the seat rails clash with the inside. At least in my case, I had to nearly demolish the seat rails to fit the canopy.

Thank you @modelling minion, actually I realized later a minor mistake I did: Sword moulded all the frames in relief to aid masking, even in areas where there are no transparent panels, at least for the japanese version. Now I should fill those areas to obtain a smooth surface, but everything will be visible from inside and anyway this job would have been much easier before mounting the canopies So, a note for myself (I have more Sword Avengers to build) and anybody so fussy: 1) paint at least approximately the canopies from inside with interior green 2) remove the framing details with filler BEFORE installing the canopies 3) proceed as usual: glue, fair in, mask, paint interior green, paint with final colors.

Hello! I finally managed to add the transparent canopies: unfortunately the fit is quite complex and some filling is needed, especially in the rear, anyway nothing terrible and probably much better than fairing in an acetate canopy of this size! I had to apply a bit of gentle force to make all really fit, keeping everything in place with sellotape bands. While waiting for the glue to set I added the mounting holes for the underwing pylons. Not a lot convinced by these parts, I'm trying to find some close-up views of the real ones to check. Thanks for looking!

Both are very nice builds, especially considering they are your first attempts at airliners. I'm really glad to see more and more civil planes being built on BM!

Esci all the way: surface detail is much crisper than Italeri.

I find surprising how a recognissance aircraft, usually not the top sales for modelling companies, was chosen for THREE new tools in the Seventies (Matchbox, Italeri and Airfix) and now again we have TWO new tools, albeit with short run technology. It is an aestethically appealing subject and I often wondered which of the old kits was best from an accuracy and buildability point of view. I guess the new ones are much more accurate but from what I read I'm not sure they are an equally pleasing experience to build.

The Sword kit is certainly "inspired" by the Hasegawa kit, I will try a side by side comparison whenever I can. It's interesting what you say about the cowling: I thought it might be an issue with distortions of the front fuselage brought about by my assembly or poor cooling of the just pressed part with short-run technology.

Hello everybody! this build is progressing slowly but I try to keep a regular pace in updating. I added part 5, the front cowling ring, and the fit is quite disappointing. Don't know if this could be avoided with some actions on the the front fuselage, anyway it's a pity because in fairing the joint you loose most of the delicate details engraved on the cowling (panel lines and fasteners). Will see what can I do to restore them later. Back to the internal details, I found an excellent reference in this build: https://www.hyperscale.com/2008/galleries/tbm3s272aj_1.htm Far from trying to reach the same heights, I could grab some inspiration for the rear seats. Unfortunately I had already installed the rearmost one and could not rotate it backwards without risking major damages, anyway I reckon it should be a swivelling seat since there are instruments both in front and behind it. And finally a blurred close-up of the engine exhausts: they are provided as solid blocks and I drilled out the internals as best as I could. Thanks for looking!

Hello! Fuselage is now closed, no major issues to report. The engine is quite good and needs to be trapped between the halves, I will paint it later. Notice how you are supposed to glue the propeller to that 'pimple' instead of having a proper propeller shaft passing through the engine! I modified this arrangement in order to have a more positive location of the propeller and avoid fixing it to the model. The rear belly window was installed and the fit could be better: we are lucky there are no side windows in this late variant, otherwise it would be really tricky to fill the steps on the side without ruining the transparency. The instructions are quite generic about part C8, differing from the actual shape! Thanks for looking!

Would really like a new Dominie T.1 and HS.125-400, even if they don't go deeper with the early variants (lots of small changes to be honest). I have a lot of Airfix Dominies in my stash because there are so many attractive schemes, but you really need a lot of work to reach a nice result, at least for my tastes. Definitely eager to buy at least one when it will be released!

Here we are with some more progress: The wings and tailplanes went together quite well, nothing serious to report. Just needed enlarging a tiny bit the cutouts in the fuselage to have the mounting tabs fit inside. The cockpit parts are a whole other story.... First you really need to remove these nasty ejecting towers protruding just where the bulkhead and floor should go, otherwise nothing will fit. I forgot to take a photo, please forgive me if I'm using this from another site: I will remove that if needed. I first assembled the whole interior parts as a unit following the instructions guidance but it really didn't work for me, I couldn't have everything fitting as expected. So I broke the joint between cockpit floor and rear bulkhead (causing some damage which I repaired with thin plasticard) and reinstalled only the rear parts. Here is the cockpit painted and nearly complete: there are lots of details for a short-run kit but I'm not really sure it is a faithful representation of the real article, especially in the rear seats. For example you get two oxygen bottles (parts 29) but they really seem to appear only in cockpit images of the prototype. One bottle only for the starboard side seems more correct, but I may be wrong. Anyway little will be visible down there. Before closing the fuselage, keep an eye on the small windows Sword would have you install from both sides.... In my experience they all must be glued from the internal side. Pay attention also to parts 40 and 21: there's no way to fit the quite thick rear canopy with these installed and I had to remove them later, we'll see how much reduction will be needed. A word too about the tailwheel and its mounting bulkhead: this last only was installed to avoid breaking the long tailwheel leg during the build. Not easy to add that later but worth a try. Thanks for looking!

Thank you all for the welcome. Build finally started, here you can see all the components supplied in the box. Decals seems really nice, hope they will behave well. Injected parts are nicely moulded, considering it is short-run technology. Transparent parts are also injection moulded, no vacuform parts to wrestle with, but some issues to consider, more of that later. We start with the wings: some injection towers need removing otherwise you will not be able to close the halves. It's also better to sand a bit all mating surfaces, especially the trailing edges which are a bit thick: The u/c wells are built up of several parts: a bit tricky, but miles apart from the "half relief" rendition of the Hasegawa kit! Please notice how one of the walls is best joined to the opposing wing half instead of following the instructions as I did at first: fit is much better. Before joining the wing halves I reamed out the landing light hole and backed it with kitchen aluminium secured with sellotape. Thanks for looking!