Search the Community

All: I met with Milan, Sword's boss, at Moson at the end of April, who told me he is actively researching the Dominie T.1 and HS.125-400 for future projects. Don't throw away your Airfix Classics yet, though! I strongly encouraged him to proceed with both aircraft models, and he cautioned that it depended on the economic situation. I also suggested that he engineer the Dominie with a series of optional parts, including the ventral equipment bay, to allow modelers to build Series 1 or 3 business jets. Side Note: Sword's team was uniformly unenthusiastic about producing a 1/72 C-140 (Lockheed JetStar) due to its size.

Been fancying a Gannet for a while, wasn't sure whether to go for a Revell AS machine or the Sword AEW, have read that both have their issues. Not that I'm likely to notice, mind, as long as the end result looks and smells like a Gannet I'll be happy Due to a birthday list mishap I actually have two of these, which may well be fortuitous! This is my first attempt at a 'short run' kit, as well as my first use of PE and resin for the interior. Its going to be an education! From what I've read the decals can be very thin and awful - we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Have found a couple of YouTube videos covering building this with a few useful hints - if anyone has any others to offer please feel free to do so! The obligatory box and sprue shots: I think I'm going to go with the yellow and black markings for my first attempt.. Those PE seat belts are *tiny* - I can see the carpet monster working up an appetite here.. Also there's a 'film' sheet which goes under the PE - not entirely sure what to do with that? The resin for the operators interior (not the cockpit). Assuming I don't make a complete hash of assembling this, I'll be doing the side hatches open so its at least partially visible And that's about it. Not sure I'll get much done this side of Christmas with the impending chaos, and there's a chance I might be redecorating the modelling spare room in the new year which may cause some disruptions, so no holding of breath please! Apologies to my pair of Lightnings (and the rest!) that have been in the stash for months and were promptly overtaken by the Gannet almost as soon as it arrived Al.

Hello all, here’s the latest from the shed. The Sword kit comes with four schemes so the first job was to decide which to do. I plumped for the French aircraft in Suez crisis colours as it was based in Akrotiri during that time and I liked the squadron emblem on the nose. Being short run there are no locating lugs and holes but that doesn’t matter as the kit goes together very well. I added brass rod to the U/C legs to make them a bit more sturdy, other than that its OOB. The engraved detail is also shallow, but in the end did manage to hold a wash over the paint work so I was happy. The aircraft depicted is an RF-84F of E.R. 4/33 during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Its finished with Humbrol 27002 aluminium and Xtra Colour enamels, Flory wash and Tamiya weathering powders. Hope you like it. Thanks for looking Pete

Konnichi wa shinai naru modeler! I'm going to jump in with this one.. Sword_U-125A_JASDF_Box_top by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Will be OOB, built in the 40 year anniversary scheme. Sword_U-125A_JASDF_Box_rear by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Good luck with your builds. Cheers, Dermot

Sword is to release a 1/72nd Fiat G.55 Centauro kit - ref. SW72104 Model contains 2 complete kits with 2 tails versions Source: http://swordmodels.cz/cs/home/122-sw72104-fiat-g55-centauro.html Box art & schemes V.P.

Hi to all of you.I present you my latest finished model.The Sword 72 scale Skyknight.It is not an easy kit to work with but not the worst.I have to say I had fun building it.I added seatbelts in the cockpti and that is it.The painting was done with hataka lacquers.I also made a youtube build video which you can watch on my DOCTORMIG channel on youtube.

Hello all, Look time lurker and I stand in awe of the quality that I see on here. I make no claims to be a high class modeller but I enjoy myself leaving gluey fingerprints on bits of plastic and crawling around on the floor looking for that the teeny tiny bit of plastic that pinged out of the tweezers. So here goes, Sword 1/72 Spitfire Mk XIVc. Out of the box apart from some Eduard seat belts which are now hidden and the whip aerial (which may or not be right, the painting instructions show it, the box cover doesn't) made from a decorating paintbrush bristle. Painted with Vallejo Model Air. I had a bit of fight with this one, I couldn't get the front cowling right, its been taken apart and put back together with a variety of plasticard tabs and as a result one set of exhausts sits out further than the other. I didn't deal with the flash on the intake properly and ended up filling it with sprue gloop and drilling it out. Oh, and the tail wheel covers hide the bodge where I broke the tail wheel off trying to stick it into a hole that was too small. Apart from that it was a breeze. Learnt quite a lot about building Sword Spitfires doing this which is fortunate as there's another two in the box... Also noticed that I need to touch up one of the prop blades. There's no hiding with the photos, is there? It really doesn't look as rough from the other side of the room. Quite please with it, its a mean looking beastie. Simon

Had this mostly built gathering dust on the shelf for a couple of years. If it wasn't for the fact that this was mostly built up, it was too advanced in build to enter into the Interceptors GB but since as I'd just done the MiG, I thought it was only right that I should complete its western counterpart Finally got it done & at last got to grips with Alclad as opposed to the Vallejo Metal Colour on the MiG. Added another pic of them both side by side for size comparison & comparison between the metal finishes. So this is the Sword kit which is a short run kit & should be treated as such. The seam lines on the underside were a pain to ensure that they didn't show up after priming. There was a lot of filling & priming involved but the underside join still faintly shows through. Sword provides a resin insert for the two Avon exhausts which are quite nice only once in, they're not a perfect fit. Either a fine shim inbetween the fuselage halves is needed, or a little bit of filler around the resin is needed. Talking about the resin exhaust, would have been good if they had produced a resin nose ring. The kit halves around the nose were short shot, so it would have taken some sprue filler to correct that, so I added the Quickboost resin nose ring for the Trumpeter kit which fetted exactly & improved on the overall length of the model. I also find that Sword kits in 1/72 have very shallow fine panel lines, so I usually give them a going over to slightly deepen them. Decals are a mix of the kit decals & used some stencil data from the Airfix F.6, only those that applied, similar to what went on the F.3. Thankfully the Sword tail fin markings actually fit the tail fin which was a bonus as a lot of the time with large dcals, they're not always exact in dimensions. Everything else is just out of the box. First success using Alclad over their gloss black base. Used some Vallejo Metal Colour for picking out some individual panels. Used Ammo Mig red for the spine, custom mix Klear gloss & Ammo PLW. English Electric Lightning F.3 XR719 D Wattisham Summer 1965 And a couple for size comparison. Thanks for looking! Martin

Hi all In the latter part of last year I asked a question in tge Cold War section of the forum re the above aircraft and was very pleased with the results, I have always wanted to model one of these but been wary of all of the differences etc and could not find too much on t'internet etc, so was very thankful to @72modeler @mick b @Our Ned @Junchan @Seahawk @Harry Lime @Troy Smith and a special thanks to @71chally. Thanks guys you helped turn something I was scared I would not be able to do justice to, into a very enjoyable project. So armed with the info I needed I started the build. Thank you also to those who have supported and encouraged me on my build too. I really appreciate it. This is the Sword 1/72 Skyraider AEW kit and it is a really nice kit, it's a short run kit bit the fit is really nice. The Aircraft modelled is WV106 which was attached to HMS Centaur during the first 6 months of 1959, as part of 849 Squadron D flight. My Dad was aboard Centaur during this time and loved the look of these and would often mention them , hence why I wanted to build one really. I was fortunate enough to locate a Model decal sheet which contained the WV106/427 option so was able to complete. Some extras have been added to tge model such as Radome support braces, static Discharge Wicks, tail aerial from stretch plastic cotton bud tube over some .33mm brass rod, the underwing aerials are bristles from SWMBO's toothbrush , just checking she's not looking over my shoulder!!! Otherwise the rest is included with the kit. The model is brushpainted with Colourcoats and Humbrol enamels and chipping with a pencil and staining from tge exhaust is with powders. Anyway enough waffle from me here's some photos. Build thread is here part of a multiple build thread I apologise for the photos I even waited until it was sunny this morning to take them but they still came out this way. I hope you enjoyed them I certainly enjoyed this model. Thanks for looking in Chris

Reggiane Re.2001 CN 1:48 SWORD First finished model this year. Night Italian Reggiane Re 2001 CN fighter in 1:48 scale from the company "Sword" in paint from "234-2", 234a sq. Night Fighter Unit, Rimini, 1943. The model itself is very nice to build, the fit of the parts is very good. I hardly used any putty, in a few places I used it. The decal is very readable, soft responds to liquids and has set up nicely. It's just a pity that the manufacturer didn't give a decal sheet with the stripes and the instrument panel. The biggest challenge was painting the black camouflage, and you can see how it came out in the photos below. Enjoy watching.

Hello everyone! Another Italian has just landed on my workshop, because how could it be otherwise with me. Another model and this is Reggiane Re. 2001 CN from "Sword" SW48013 in night fighter version. This is the second 1:48 scale model of this aircraft released by "Sword", the first being SW48012 Re 2001 Falco II which I recently built here. Today just a photo of the box and tomorrow we'll see what's inside.

Hello and thanks for your interest, here's my 1/72 Sword Supermarine Spitfire IXe in markings of 26. GIAP, Leningrad, April 1945. Photo etch from Brengun, metal gun barrels from Master, decals from AML ("Lend Lease Spitfires Pt.1", #72018). Painted with acrylics from Sangyo/Gunze. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel, IGM Cars & Bikes. To represent the overpainted British Roundels, I tried a new technique: I painted a Black disc the size of the Roundel before applying the main airframe colors. Now there's only a soft shadow line visible. Best wishes from Vienna! Roman

Whoa boy...I started in January and didn't finish until October of 2021. This is built from the Sword kit, and it was a fight from start to finish. Like any short-run kit, the parts were clunky, and imprecise. Fit was mediocre at best, and a lot of details were missing. The clear parts are very thick and fit especially poorly. What really made the whole experience unnecessarily frustrating were the poor instructions. Not only were they vague on where smaller parts should fit, they also had contradictory directions on landing gear doors (they want you to fit both kinds that are in the box, at the same time), and allude to details which are not part of the kit (e.g., drop tank sway braces). Its as if the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, as the kit was being manufactured. Disappointing as the kit and the project were, I'm happy I pushed through, as the final product is hideous and cool, and now I can say I successfully finished a short run kit.

My tenth and final completion for this year, Sword’s 1/72 Harrier T.4, completed as ZD991 V of 233 OCU, built out of the box plus a Master brass pitot, painted with a Hataka acrylics, with decals sourced from various sheets in my spare decal collection. A frustrating and fiddly build with fit issues and small PE antennae that fall off at the slightest provocation, vague and in places incorrect instructions (rear seat windscreen and outrigger fairings that Sword would have you fit upside down, PE part numbers that don’t match the numbers on the fret). Still it looks like a T.4 and fills a gap in my collection. The longest and ugliest member of the Harrier family. Thanks for looking. AW

I really like the austere look of the 1980s-vintage Hawker HS-125 CC.3 in RAF service, painted gloss white overall and a roundel blue cheat line, similar to that shown on the Matchbox cover-art of the CC.2. To do justice to the type requires kit-bashing using two different generations of kit: the 1974-vintage Matchbox of the -600, and last year's Sword model of the -800. Sword's kit offers many details that can be cobbled onto the -600 to turn it into a -700 jet, such as the engines, underwing details, and possibly the landing gear. As others on this board have pointed out, the Matchbox kit isn't bad, but it does have a few problems. I wanted to do a partial interior and pose the finished product with the door posed open invitingly for little VIPs. No crew figures on this one, however.

The second of my Aeronavale Seafires. This is a Sword boxing of an early MkXV. The early MkXV still had the A-frame arrestor hook in the lower fuselage, the later ones had the 'stinger' style arrestor hook under the rudder. One large sprue sprue with most things on it and a second one with the fuselage. A couple of resin parts and a small sprue with the arrestor hook. And an injection moulded canopy. Instruction booklet and transfers. Including stencils.

The Sword 'Lockheed RF-80A over Korea' short-run kit was built more or less out of the box. 6 decoration schemes are offered, but since I always liked the rare camouflaged version, I promptly chose that option. The full build video can be viewed here Thanks for looking! Cheers, Luka

Sword is to release a family of 1/72nd North American FJ-2/3 Fury kits. - ref. SW72107 - North American FJ-2 Fury Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/coming-soon/125-sw72107-fj-2fury.html - ref. SW72108 - North American FJ-3 Fury Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/coming-soon/127-sw72108-fj-3-fury.html - ref.SW72109 - North American FJ-3M Fury Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/coming-soon/127-sw72108-fj-3-fury.html V.P.

In 2019 Sword is to release McDonnell F3H Demon kits. - ref. SW 72122 - MCDonnel F-3H-2/F-3B Demon Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/home/141-sw-72122-f-3h-2f-3b-demon.html - ref. SW72123 - McDonnel F3H-2N/M F-3C/MF-3B Demon Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/home/142-sw72123-f3h-2nm-f-3cmf-3b-demon.html V.P.

Hi all, latest completion. SFTB plus Avalon decals for the markings. Hataka orange line for the gloss sea blue. Thanks for looking 20210530_183532 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210530_183525 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210530_183512 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210530_183505 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210530_183043 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210530_183006 by bryn robinson, on Flickr

F2H-2P, 128863 U.S.Navy, "Look III", VC-61, USS Yorktown, Korea 1953-54 Kit: Sword F2H-2P Photo Banshee (SW72078) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Colour Weathering: Flory Models Wash WIP: Photo reconnaissance version of the early US Navy fighter jet, the Banshee. Not many were made but still an interesting plane with rather sleek looks due to the extended nose. Delightful little kit with some resin & PE extras that came with the kit. Only thing I have added is the tail pitot tube. Cockpit required some extra cutting but other than that it went together better than I expected. Landing gear installation was tricky to put it mildly and the plane ended up in a nose down position which I'm not sure is entirely correct but oh well. Definitely left me hungry for some more Sword kits - luckily I have plenty of other US Navy subjects waiting in the stash. Painted with Vallejo Model Air.

SWORD 1:72 F-2H-2P Photo Banshee One of my more recent purchases. I'm currently working on Hobby Boss's F9F Panther and thought it could use a friend. Colour schemes. This will be a Navy bird, most likely. Decals. By Eduard, as it seems. It's a short run kit, for sure. Not saying that is a bad thing - I mean the details are pretty nice for the most part, but you can also see that there will most likely be a lot of sanding & fitting included. Interestingly the nose section is a clear part - because of all the camera windows. One way of doing it, I guess. Resin parts included - and they look pretty nice. Sadly, one of the intake fence thingies is bent but I guess it will straighten out with some heating. And also comes with Eduard PE sheet. I have not read or done any research about this kit - but I'm expecting (and looking forwards) to do some actual modelling to make it all come together. But definitely has the pieces fora nice looking kit - we will see how I manage it

Hi all! Bear with me, this is my first WIP post. Sword’s 1:48 T4 lightning. All the usual comments about “short-run” kits apply - no locating pins, some flash, occasional fit issues, etc., but overall, I’m impressed. I bought a few goodies to go with it, the best being Danny Coreman’s book, but there were a few diorama bits I couldn’t resist, like tow bar, FOD cover (covers a multitude of sins!), tow-tractor... I took inspiration from #propforward’s build, so all the same comments apply as to fit, filling and finish! Natural metal finish on an earlier one-oh-wonder (KH RF-101c, Sun-Run #2) gave me some practice with Alclad and highlighted a few things I wanted to try with this T4. More on that as I get nearer to colouring the plastic. Anyhow, on with the show. I must confess at this point that I’ve progressed a bit before starting this thread, so the progress may appear a tad faster than it actually was. Intended subject was a September ‘63 dated T4 of the OCU, at RAF Middleton St George. Scratched a few bits for the bulkhead, using “Uncovering the Lightning” book and a cockpit tub from CMK, intended for a T5 in the stash. Used Evergreen rod, some solder for the cabling for the canopy and some wires from a short length of 3-core cable. The holes in the bracket at the top I struggled with - how do you guys get them in such a straight line? The drill bit kept slipping offf-line and I made a bit of a bodge of it. Here’s hoping the canopy/bang seats will cover most of it! Side consoles were busied up a bit, but I apparently have fingers too thick to make separate throttles and Airpass radar controls. No matter, I intended to do a canopy-down scene anyway...! ... and all dry-fitted in... Blast! That bracket isn’t covered by Martin Baker’s finest. I may not be able to live with it. The kit seats are pretty good though, as is the IP. especially when some of Airscales fab decals are added... That’s it for now. Wings next. Luckily, there’s a good stint of a few days uninterrupted plastic destruction coming up!

After some false starts on recent group builds, I thought that I would try to restart in 2021 with this kit, the Sword 1/72: As the kit box clearly states RAAF, it seems ideal for this GB and I have had it for some time. I will be doing the 79 Squadron version which is A58-169 originally ES307 built at Castle Bromwich (kipper tie, no I have just had one thank you). The airframe history is from ADF serials website: 58-169 F.VC ES307 Arrived in Australia on SS Empire Strength 11/04/43.Rec 2AD ex UK 29/03/43. Rec 1AD ex 2AD 23/04/43. Received streamline cowling modification 1AD (sans Trop)23/04/43. Returned to 79Sqn RAAF 06/05/43. Coded UP-X. Rec 1AD ex 79Sqn RAAF 02/06/43. Rec 79Sqn RAAF ex 1AD 06/06/43. Accident 26/06/43 when after having taken off for a one hour gun test flight, could not select undercarriage on landing. Pilot made a wheels up landing at Milne Bay. Pilot; Sgt G A Chomley Serv#418232 was uninjured. (Code name for Kiriwana was Drake Force) Fitted RR Merlin M46 was #93069. Rec 26RSU ex 79Sqn RAAF 22/08/43. Rec 79 Sqn RAAF ex 26RSU 30/10/43. As LZ844 (A58-213) with 79 Sqn RAAF was now also coded as UP-X, ES307(A58-169) also coded as UP-X, was modified with a white overscore below and another above the grey X, with new Volkes Filter in natural metal cowl. RR Merlin M46 #92661. Rec 12RSU ex 79Sqn RAAF 28/10/44. Rec 6AD ex 12RSU 26/11/44. Rec 8OTU ex 6AD 07/01/45. Rec 6AD ex 8OTU 27/11/45. Authorised for write off 22/05/46. Passed to DAP 26/11/47. Struck off 15/11/48. And I think it is this aircraft: From the Australian War Memorial Site. Interestingly there isn't any serial code on the aircraft. The accepted scheme seems to be RAF DE with RAAF Foliage Green painted over the original RAF Midstone with RAF Azure Blue beneath- the repaint for Spitfires originally finished in 'Desert Camouflage'. The Vokes filter from the above text was a refit and in aluminium which is why it light. The underneath appears lighter that Azure blue on the wings and darker almost imperceptible from the upper colours at the rear. Notice also the dark colour of the leg strut. Of course its not a pin sharp photo. I think there are two likely-hoods, the aircraft is painted Azure Blue and the wings are reflecting the sand beneath or the aircraft could have been repainted RAAF Sky Blue in its many trips back to Servicing. I have build the Sword Spitfire Vc before and it goes together quite well, but the cockpit canopy can be a bit iffy possibly.

I think this might be the next project to start. Not an easy kit to get hold of these days - managed to find it on ebay a couple of years back. Heard some comments in the past about some tricky parts fit? I've also bought aftermarket intakes / nozzles which seems to be this big issue with the Sword kit. It's going to have to be a rattle can paint finish too, so let's see how that works out!!! Will try to update some pics through the build.