Recon Spitfire Pair

[Foxbat]

I had the Airfix PR.XIX in the stash already, and could have just gone for the Swedish scheme straight from the box but I was browsing the big H and saw some interesting decals that had a story attached. They were a big investment for one kit, so to justify them, I got another one - modelling logic, got to love it  

 

First up, the Sword FR.XIVe box:

 

And the Airfix PR.XIX:  

 

The decals. I'll be doing the Indian FR.XIV on the right and the Thai PR.XIX on the left.

 

And a bit of background. It appears that as RAF India units disbanded or came home, they left their aircraft to the fledgling RIAF, who also kept the aircraft they'd been loaned towards the end of WW2 meaning they had quite a fleet of mixed marks of late war Spitfires:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Aircraft/History/919-Spitfire.html

 

The Thai one is PS888. Yes, that PS888, the same airframe as in the Airfix box and this article:

PS888 in Singapore

 

Sprue shots will follow when I start building.

 

Andy

[philp]

These will be fun to watch.

[Wez]

Interesting choice of colour schemes.  I have a couple of the Sword kits so I'm keen to see how it works out compared to the Airfix kit.

[Giorgio N]

Welcome to the GB !

Love your choices, the Griffon engined variants, and the XIX in particular, are IMHO the pinnacle of the Spitfire elegant design, will be interesting to see them in some less usual markings.

[Foxbat]

I haven't forgotten these, but life and other GBs have made a habit of jumping to the front of the queue. However, there has been progress.

 

This is what is inside the Sword box:

 

A complete kit on a single sprue.

 

plus a second sprue with alternative fuselage halves and lower wing to allow both high and low back versions to be built with either C or E wings.

 

 

Instructions are in a booklet (more on that later) withe painting guide in full colour. There's an extra page in the instructions just for the stenciling, so a good package so far. Four options are on the decal sheet, covering the four buildable options (as far as I can tell, I'm not using them so didn't pay that much attention  )

 

 

There's some nice detail in the cockpit, but this is where the dry fitting and double checking become essential as the instructions are quite vague and there are no positive locating pins, tabs &c to be found. Previous experience is a must from here on in. I managed to get it looking like this. I'm sure others could make it so much nicer:

 

 

That sub assembly the kind of squeezes into the fuselage somewhere. There are no locating pins on that either, so I started gluing from the tail and the dropped the cockpit into about the right place, applied glue and pinched everything up. That got me to here:

 

 

More fun to follow tomorrow. I'm having the rest of the night off.

 

Andy

Banjaxed.

[Beard]

The Sword XIV is a nice kit but it repay careful builders.

[Giorgio N]

Don't worry if you couldn't start earlier, there's still time to complete one or two models !

 

Good start here, from what you say this is a typical Sword kit, I can see a lot of things I like in the sprue shots and I recognise other kits I've beuilt before in yours and Beardìs words.. they are nice kits but sure require care when building.

[Foxbat]

14 hours ago, Beard said:

The Sword XIV is a nice kit but it repay careful builders.

 

3 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Don't worry if you couldn't start earlier, there's still time to complete one or two models !

 

Good start here, from what you say this is a typical Sword kit, I can see a lot of things I like in the sprue shots and I recognise other kits I've beuilt before in yours and Beardìs words.. they are nice kits but sure require care when building.

There's my problem - I've  been up to my eyes in classic Airfix plus Zvezda wargames kits where you can just throw them together so my proper modelling has got rusty. This is a lovely kit though, so I will make something of it. 

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

I wrangled the rest of the nose together (the upper cowl and exhausts was in 6 pieces, that's at least 3 more than absolutely necessary). Then I thought I'd try dry fitting the wings just to see... My glue slipped and all of a sudden I was here:

 

 

I've added a bit more white round the roots and joints so I can see where and howmuch filler will be needed. The good news is almost none. More pics once that is done.

 

 

 

Andy

Moving along now.

[Giorgio N]

On 9/13/2018 at 12:29 PM, Foxbat said:

 

There's my problem - I've  been up to my eyes in classic Airfix plus Zvezda wargames kits where you can just throw them together so my proper modelling has got rusty. This is a lovely kit though, so I will make something of it. 

 

Andy

 

The Zvezda kits are fantastic, I build their FW.190 and was amazed at well this goes together. Still, if this is your first attempt at a Sword kit I'd say that you have nothing to worry about ! The model as it stands now looks pretty good and I can see how you'll only need a little filler here and there. I've built mainstream kits that were worse than this