iang

I couldn't live with the result and have stripped the parts and repainted white. I need to find a way of getting sharper checks.

The tail has progressed. Looking at photos I am undecided whether the stabilisers and fin checks on S1307 were light blue or red. They clearly were not roundel blue, which is the way they are depicted in some artwork. In quite a few photos the roundels are in also view. The tone of the checks are the same as the red of the roundel - so they are likely either light blue or red. I've found one photo which appears to show very dark checks on ortho film, which would indicate red checks, but the serial is not clear and it is possible that the photo is another IIIF coded 40. I think either light blue or red is viable having reviewed all the photos I could find. It also appears that the fin stripes were blue-white-red on some early IIIFs. I started using these check decals. They disintegrated, so I started again having first coated the decals with decal fix, but still found the decals extremely difficult to manipulate and line up. As an alternative I used tape and cut 9mm squares (this size gives the right number of checks on the fin). Here is the stabilisers marked out with one side already painted. They needs touching up, but the end result is a little disappointing. Close-up the edges are a bit rough, so I might try rubbing down with a very fine sanding stick when the paint is fully cured. However, rough or not, when dry fitted to the fuselage it looks pretty cool! The next step is to touch these up with a fine brush, but any other suggestions for making these neater would be appreciated - especially from those who regularly use masks.

One that might suit Heather, is L4519 on HMS Emerald. I have a photo of Emerald at (I think) Trincomalee in 1942 with her Seafox embarked. I assume this is L4519 in overall aluminium dope and probably Light Aircraft Grey (Cerrux Grey) metal parts, but with disruptive camouflaged floats and a different coloured rudder. The metal engine panels are covered with a tarpaulin, so it is not possible to tell whether they were also camouflaged, but my guess would be they were still in LAG. National markings are A and A1 type with a narrow full height fin flash. So essentially still in pre-war markings with the addition of a fin flash and yellow concentric to the fuselage roundel and one colour applied over the aluminium finished floats to create a disruptive pattern.

Very nice!

So it's been a while since my last confession..... I had continuing problems with the wings sagging. I had hoped that reinforcing the top wing with stainless rod (between the wing and flaps for the full span) would be sufficient, but sadly the bottom wing was like a banana. No amount of resetting in boiling water would cure the problem for more than a day or two. This left me no alternative but to adopt the same procedure as the top wing and remove the span length flaps, file a semi circular rebate into the wing trailing edge, fix stainless rod at the correct dihedral and re-attach the flaps. Of course, even when trying to be careful, this makes a bit of a mess of the ribs, so it's easier to sand smooth and start again once everything is set. Sagging appears to be a limitation of the medium, so I should of reinforced the wings at the construction stage. A lesson learned. So I now have a painted fuselage and painted wings and the wings pre-drilled for rigging. AtI was quite pleased how the fuselage ribbing came out under a coat of paint. I painted the fabric sections High Speed Silver, the metal parts Light Aircraft Grey, the upper decking "Battleship Grey" and the Courageous fuselage band light blue. This still needs the white pin stripe along the edges. I studied a lot of photographs and could not make my mind up about the colour of the metal surfaces. In the end I rejected some form of anodised metal finish for Light Aircraft Grey (as per Swordfish metal surfaces). Many lllFs have their upper decking finished in (in what appears to be) black. My subject S1307 most definitely does not. I went for Battleship Grey in the end as it remains in the 1931 BSC 318C colour palette. Sturtivant refers to Courageous' light blue bands for Flight 445 and 446, which seems to be confirmed in photographs. To my knowledge there was no light blue paint available at the time without mixing. The most obvious way of achieving light blue would be a mix of Roundel Blue and White and both would have been available in the ship's paint locker. I used a mix of 2 parts White to 1 part Roundel Blue - a guess based on the tone evident in photographs. The next section to turn my attention to is the tail empennage. This is going to have red checks, but first I need to rib the fin and rudder with sprue. I feel quite a lot of progress has been made, but there is still the tricky jobs of mounting the top wing and figuring out the engineering of the float struts. As far as the top wing is concerned, I'm not fully convinced that the 3D printed struts will support the weight without bending, so I've been experimenting with shaping struts from wooden skewers. I'd like to think that the most difficult parts are behind me, but experience suggests this is unlikely to be the case. Thanks for looking.

Very nice. One thing I've noticed is that the support structure for the Lewis/ Vickers K gun on Fairey built airframes appears to be aluminium in the few photos where the structure is visible (both the horizontal and vertical parts). The angled rod that has the mount head is indeed black as you depict. The best photo I've found is in Harrison's Swordfish Special p.29. On Blackburn built aircraft the structure may have been black (not sure). Your model, obviously - but a fairly easy fix. HTH

Only one at the Plate action - K8591 (K8582 had a mishap prior to the action). Earlier, both carried black fins with Ajax's badge, but by the time of the battle, K8591 had these markings painted out and had metal surfaces camouflaged in a disruptive pattern (engine cowl and floats only). The colour is unknown, but had to be an aircraft paint carried in the ship's paint locker - or a mix from available paints in the locker. Photos indicate a mid-tone. I'd guess grey, but it's a guess as I've found no written documentation. Photographs are in my book (see tag line). Personally, I think they look prettier with black fins and a large ships' badge. HTH.

Thanks for the likes and kind comments.

Looks great!

I bought this kit when it first came out and started it soon after (probably around 2012). I found it quite demanding and put it back in the box. When the ICM kit came out I decided on a parallel build and progressed on both to around the stage of painting the airframe. The ICM kit is a great kit, but I think that the Silver Wings resin kit captures the fabric surfaces slightly better and has positionable ailerons and rudder . Having said that, there are also a few things that I don't like about the resin kit (the canopy is thick, the 3-bladed prop, and inaccurate decals). It was also a very tricky kit to put together - especially fitting the engine to the multi-part cowling. I finished the kit with modifications to the interior, the ICM prop and decals from the spares box. I used EZ rigging elastic (heavy) as it has a flat profile and gives a better approximation of the steel cables than round elastic. It's finished in Xtracolours High Speed Silver, various metallics for the collector wing and exhausts and liberal use of Tamiya panel line colours (including sprayed thin coats over some of the HSS finish to break it up a bit). The guns are from Master, seat-belts from HGW and details from the AIMS set designed for the ICM kit. I know of only one photo of the subject, taken while over-flying what would become Lt Cdr William Lucy's Skua L2925. From the photo, it is not clear if a dinghy pack was fitted to the Sea Gladiator or if the airframe carried a repeat of the serial under the lower wing. The balance of probabilities is in favour of both, so that is how I modelled it. Thanks for looking.

Beautiful model!

Given that P5026 landed on Victorious (along with 8 others), it may be in this photo showing some of the Pedestal survivors on Victorious Is it possibly the fourth aircraft? @Troy Smith

Yes, that's the Swordfish photo. The photo of J is 880:7J not 800: (6)J There is also a colour photo of 7J on the IWN site. According to the Squadron Line book, 7J was the usual aircraft of "The Boy" who was S/Lt Hugo Leslie Cunliffe-Owen I've just found my notes on the Combat Reports for Pedestal and S/Lt Andrew John Thomson filed a Report for P5206 on 12 August. He was part of Blue Section which was a mixed 800/880 section led by Cork. The section landed on Victorious after Indomitable was bombed. Cork's Z4056 belly landed and was pushed over the side. Lt Hamish Muir-Mackenzie 800: 6P landed on (according to my notes possibly P3036) as did Thomson in P5206 (no code given). So P5206 was probably a 800 Squadron Sea Hurricane.

I always believed that photo was taken at Mombasa, but I may be wrong. All the Sea Hurricanes have Sky codes, so the photo is after operation Ironclad Indomitable movements after Ironclad 1942 Departs Diego Suarez May 19 Arrives Mombasa May 22 Departs Mombasa July 9 Arrives Durban July 13 Departs Durban July 14 Arrives Capetown July 16 Departs Capetown July 18 Arrives Freetown July 28 Departs Freetown for Gibraltar August 1 Rendezvous with Victorious group for "Berserk" August 6

I can't help with anything positive on the identity of P5206. It's not listed in the 880 Squadron Diary. I assume that the identity 7C is derived from Sturtivant et al and probably in turn from a flying log book. However, according to the Squadron Line Book, 880 Squadron 7C was the usual aircraft of Brian Fiddes. I have some uncorroborated evidence that 7C was Z7088 during Operation Ironclad and possibly later. This was the aircraft Judd was killed in on 12/8/42, but I could be wrong on the serial/code tie-up as the serial is not very clear in the poor photograph I have. Nevertheless, If I'm right then P5206 was not 7C during Pedestal. On the subject of 800 Squadron J, all the photos I have show 800 Squadron aircraft with single letters on the fuselage and the code 6x on the wing leading edge. Finally, Indomitable's Swordfish. I think at least one was still present during Pedestal. I have a photograph of 7Z BD771 with a Swordfish on deck along with Martlets and Albacores. Eagle is in the background, so I think this dates the photo to after August 6 1942.