MarkSH Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Hello all, Well, I wasn't intending on taking part in this GB but the Swordfish has been somehow making it's way to the front of the cupboard regardless of which way I pack the boxes away! It's obviously trying to tell me something. Anyway here I am with Airfix's 1/72 Swordfish Mk.1. I have been looking forward to building her and her floatplane sister who is patiently waiting for the next floatplane/flying boat GB. I'm not a Swordfish aficionado so I'll hopefully get a few pointers along the way. I have become thoroughly addicted to the group build way of things mainly because taking part has got me to build more in the last few months than I have in a similar number of years, starting with the F104 STGB, then the BM10th, currently the Hawker (Siddeley) also the RAF100th, Airfix golden years, Grumman........ So in for a penny as they say. Here's the gratuitous shot of what is actually a considerable amount of plastic! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Welcome aboard Mark, with the first "string bag", and I feel not the first either! Well I'm glad she made it to the front of the stash, you know she wanted to be built! Well good luck with her, she glad to be out of the cupboard and what's to be in the gallery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 Afternoon all, I finally got around to starting one of the entries for this GB. I was immediately impressed with the content and quality of the kit detail. The downside is that some of the sprue gates are a little heavy for the finely detailed parts they are associated with, and I have already had two casualties occurring during removal, however they were easily fixed and an important lesson learned. The first casualties were the MG mount armatures seen above having been repaired. As usual construction starts with the cockpit and its quite detailed and in places a little fiddly to put together. The nicely detailed cockpit components. the only additions I made were some flattened lead wire seat belts for the Pilot's seat. The colour of the fabric area of the cockpit side wall is supposedly the leaching through and discolouration of the doping I applied the reddish colour wet-in-wet to the sand colour and let it bleed a bit. More to come, cheers, M. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Off to an excellent start there Mark Cheers, Stew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 You've made a really nice start Mark and I love the cockpit. My father build the original Airfix version, no where as detailed that's fore sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted April 17, 2018 Author Share Posted April 17, 2018 Evening all, Same story with the stringbag re: modelling time but this is helped by the fact that the Airfix kit goes together really well. The tail and support have been added to the basic fuselage assembly, unfortunately one of the struts was a short shot and required some plastic rod to extend it. The kit engine and collector ring is neatly represented with some nice detail. Cheers, M. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 gosh she's a well detailed model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey Beema Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 Great work. This kit makes the Revell version I built a few years back look very basic indeed.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Hi Mark. Looking great so far - lovely cockpit work! I've looked at this kit a couple of times in the LMS but now, having seen your build, I may have to aquire it! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 Evening All, Having done a bit of research on how others have tackled the wing assembly / rigging sequence for the Airfix Swordfish it seems that assembly first rigging after is the best way to go, a couple of modellers on the net have regretted reversing the sequence and advise sticking to the instructions, and not having rigged a biplane before I'll do just that. Not withstanding that, the way the kit has been engineered is IMHO quite clever and I checked it out after assembling the wing sub-assemblies this evening. Here are the sub-assemblies and how they fit together, some of the tolerances are quite tight so you need to make sure of ease of fitment all the while as some of the moulding is quite delicate. This shows the spar which locks the upper centre section to the wings and maintains the dihedral. And finally the full test fit, obviously the preceding sequence is not quite as I intend to proceed as there is a fair amount of painting to accomplish first but you get the idea....I'm quite impressed, it almost snap fits, well not quite but its fairly simple ....famous last words Cheers, M. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 now I know why I don't build bi-planes! It does look very well engineered and looks to go together very neatly.......but gee it scares the willy's out of me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Hi Mark Hows the swordfish going ? Have you made any more progress since we last heard from you ? cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 Not on the swordfish, working on the Flycatcher mostly at the moment and the RAF 100th GB as well. The Stringbag will receive some attention shortly. Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 Right chaps, back in the saddle with the Stringbag and basically I have done a lot of brush painting prior to further construction. My sequence now is to finish up painting the struts now that the inner ones are glued to the lower wing stubs and do some touching up of the paint work, then seal the fuselage and upper wing Klear and apply the decals. The rigging will need to be positioned prior to setting the lower wings in place. Cheers, M. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 (edited) That's looking real good. Could you please tell me what you used to paint the exhaust collector and pipe? Chris Edited June 3, 2018 by dogsbody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 11 hours ago, dogsbody said: Could you please tell me what you used to paint the exhaust collector and pipe? Hi Chris, I used an idea I saw in 'mackem01's' Gladiator build in the RAF100 GB he used dark earth lightly dry brushed with silver. I made my own mix of Humbrol dark earth/khaki lightly dry brushed with a few different metallics, I think its quite effective so thanks to @mackem01 Cheers, M. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 Progressing is looking good Mark. KInd regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 9 hours ago, MarkSH said: Hi Chris, I used an idea I saw in 'mackem01's' Gladiator build in the RAF100 GB he used dark earth lightly dry brushed with silver. I made my own mix of Humbrol dark earth/khaki lightly dry brushed with a few different metallics, I think its quite effective so thanks to @mackem01 Cheers, M. Thanks! I'm always interested in how other people get good looking collector rings. Too many bright, shiny copper and bronze ones out there. For me, that just takes away from a good-looking build. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Evening all, Starting to get to grips with the final assemblies of the Stringbag, its a bit of a juggling act in so much as a few concurrent activities having to take place; decaling, touch-up painting and rigging/control cables being installed, but it's getting there. The decals are very fine and settle down nicely over underlying details, except of course for the most prominent one on top of the wing which crinkled badly and eventually had to have the white areas cut away and replaced with white paint. Also I left too much MicroSol on the fuselage band bottom piece and where the last drop pooled it bleached out the decal, so I'll have to disguise that with some thinned, matched paint. I did most of the decaling prior to rigging as some of them sit under the cables such as around the tail; For both rigging and control cables I'm using EZline Fine Black and the odd bit of 0.2mm copper wire, the EZline seems to work well and is elasticated making it fairly useful for doing the inter-strut cross wires which will need a bit of flexibility when the struts are placed into the lower wing fixing points. On the home straight now, Cheers, Mark. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 That is looking superb! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 Afternoon chaps, Here is my second completed project for the Carriers Ahoy! GB and its what I have to say is possibly the best Airfix kit I've built to date. The moulding and detail is excellent, the fit is superb, I can honestly say that on the lower wings to airframe assembly the only glue used is for the rigging attachments points and I think the overall look is every inch a Stringbag. If the proposed Flying boats and float planes 2 GB comes off I'm looking forward to building an even heavier weathered Camo version of the kit. Any way here's a couple of pics more in the gallery soon. Once again a big thankyou to @trickyrich for hosting and again to all for some inspiring builds. Cheers, Mark. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafalbert Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 A thing of beauty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Outstanding work Mark Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Sorry Mark, some how I missed the completion of this build. But well done, she looks fantastic!! I have to give it to you people who do bi-planes. Getting the wing on straight and square is an achievement in its self but rigging as well! I've only tried it once but swear I'll never try it again! I admire your skill and patience. I hope you enjoyed this build as well, it was a real pleasure to have you join us and to watch this build progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 Thanks for the comments guys, with regards to getting the assembly right, most of that is down to Airfix’s brilliant kit. I can’t recommend it highly enough. cheers, Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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