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Sword Models is to release a 1/72nd Mitsubishi G4M1 Betty kit - ref. SW72144 Source: https://www.facebook.com/swordmodels/posts/pfbid029crwaaQkzggARsCqjWvxTHYjui3W7Tdxedg8hf12A7fRfR4jGMDuYUAFySdhgnsDl V.P.

Joining you with this US Navy trainer - derived from the T-33, that I'm also building. The first Sword kit that I've built - from several purchases. And I really like the hi-vis options

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.

Hi Everybody, its been a while since my last posting so here is my latest offering. A Harrier T.MK.4N by Sword, the first model I have built by Sword and probably the last! I would have to say this is probably the worst produced model I have ever built, the flash was awful, parts that didn't meet and very little in the way of location tabs, to be fair a more experienced modeller would have enjoyed the challenge but to an amateur like me it was not an enjoyable experience, unfortunately with my OCD I have to carry on until its finished. I would like to say it was a labour of love but I'd be lying . As much as I like a winter camouflage scheme I'd lost the will live with it by then, so this one is pre Winter exercises. Anyway here it is, please be kind and apologies to those who have enjoyed building Sword models. As usual all criticisms and comments are welcome. Thanks for looking

Konnichi wa shinai naru modeler! Here's my latest finish for the 'Turning Japanese' GB here on the forum. The build thread is here but to recap: Kit: Sword U-125A kit number 72127 Scale: 1/72 Build: OOB (5g weight in nose) Paints: Tamiya Acrylics, Klear, panel line wash, Satin varnish Decals: From the kit The lower fuselage paint should be more green/sky than sky and the decals (printed by Technod) had a terrible time accepting any kind of curves...,lots of shattering/splintering on the nacelles followed by touch-ups with blue paint. The u/c gear fit is also a bit iffy. But despite all that, really happy how it turned out and can't wait to build their Sabreliner kit! Thanks for looking, take care and happy modelling Dermot

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

Finally I’ve managed to haul this one through finishing school for your delectation. As you can see, she is a Republic RF-84F Thunderflash of the Elliniki Aeroporia (Greek Air Force). More specifically she is a RF-84F-15-RE, an early block number, serial numbered 51-11294. Credit: Public Domain The Greeks operated at least 36 of these machines, gained through US MDAP deliveries following services with other European or US operators, varying from the USAF through other air arms such as those of France, Germany, the Netherlands. This machine was from US stock and had seen service with the regular air force as well as the 154th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Arkansas ANG, being delivered to Greece in 1958. Throughout her Greek career she was operated by the 348 Mira (or Moira) from Larissa Airbase. Finally, she succumbed to progress and was retired to the Larissa dump in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I wanted to build one of these as a memory jogger for two trips I made to Larissa in 1982 while these aircraft were still active. Also in the same year my mates and I saw 53-7682 fly in to Athens for maintenance. Here is the only photo I ever managed, taken from the flight deck of our 737-200: Edit: I found a photo of “11294” on the Larissa dump in July 2013 For a taste of how they looked in operation here is a short video: The build thread is here: I chose to build this machine simply because I had a good image of her (above). The model is built using the Sword kit which is a reasonable basis for getting an “okay”-looking ‘flash. It is, however, known that the kit is slight short in length – depending what reference source you have and believe – and requires a fair bit of fettling to get something that looks as it should. I am no expert but I have tried a close representation. For those out there who fancies building one of these kits I suggest the following as some of the modifications that you could/should undertake: 1. Use an Airfix nosewheel leg. This would need more detail too but it sits better than the kit parts. What is must have is the compression link ahead of the main strut. 2. Make up a tail skid from plastic rod. 3. Add more detail to the intakes. I used plastic sheet cut into the BL plate and the small vortex generators. 4. The tailplane should be pivoted. I used 0.5mm brass rod. 5. Drill out the wing gun ports 6. Add more detail to the coaming area 7. Add fillers to get the wing tanks to sit proud of the pylon, ensuring there is a small gap. Also add vent pipes. The tanks also need filler caps to the rear. 8. The canopy needs the four latches along the lower edges. I made these from plastic card. 9. The rear of the fin needs the nav light housing and two lights. It also needs the small rudder balance (is that what it is?) on either side. 10. The rudder and ailerons need trim tabs. Again, I used plastic card. 11. Consider the very noticeable putty around the canopy and rear glazing on these aircraft. I painted mine and masked them prior to adding the main masks. 12. If you are very particular, add a clear part for the dorsal nav light housing just ahead of the fin. I got too far and so opted to use silver decal. 13. Add new canopy struts 14. Add a mirror on the canopy 15. Add wingtip Nav lights In terms of what I used otherwise, it was the following: 1. Kit – Sword (SW72116) in 1/72 2. Decals – the Icarus set for F & RF-84Fs (72008) and the serial was printed by Arctic Decals following Giorgio’s drawing @Giorgio N. 3. Paint – Humbrol US SEA colours (two greens, tan, gray). These are numbers 28, 116, 117 and 118. Otherwise she had various greys, reds, blacks, metallics. All of these were Humbrol enamel. She is finish with Humbrol Satincote. I used a Montex mask. 4. Weathering – Flory washes (Dark Dirt and Sand), Tamiya Weathering Powders and a Prismacolor Silver pencil. After the washes I used a brush and Tamiya Weathering Powder - Sand all over to give her a bit more of a dusty look. 5. Aftermarket – none And here are a few shots of her: I hope you like her Martin

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.