CasualModel98 Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Was walking along a night flea market in Pattaya, Thailand when I came across an old man selling this kit. Of all the places to have found a kit. Managed to buy it for about the equivalent of GBP8. It seems to have all the parts but the decals are gone. Some of the parts have been cut from the sprue but it seems all there. Now wondering what to do with it. Should I build it? I mainly do jets. Have to stencil and spray the decals though. Too bad the fella is not selling a 1/48 F-14 or something. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Moon Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Build it! Biplanes aren’t my thing but built the Swordfish I and II and enjoyed the experience. Does the kit include the parts for the wheeled version? If so, there are aftermarket decals available. Howard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Build it! This kit has a reputation as one of the best starter biplanes going. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 14 hours ago, Howard Moon said: Build it! Biplanes aren’t my thing but built the Swordfish I and II and enjoyed the experience. Does the kit include the parts for the wheeled version? If so, there are aftermarket decals available. Howard Yes has parts for both the wheeled and seaplane. Actually I found the decals stuck between some pieces of paper. Not sure if they still work. As I read the instructions I realised that you cannot build it without buying the Tamiya PE set of bracing cables for the Swordfish. It is sold separately. Perhaps this is why the person gave up as it was hard to find in Thailand. Fortunately I can get it here. But it is going to cost double what I paid for the kit, ha ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimea River Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 The kit can be built without the PE parts but if you want to add the rigging, it's best to get the parts made for that purpose. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 I’m quite sure you could rig it with any of the usual materials if you wanted to without springing for the rigging set. Regards, Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimea River Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 True but the PE does well to replicate that flat cross section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fubar57 Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Agree with the learned chap above. Be careful with the PE braces though. Some builders had problems getting them to fit(Me), it seemed like they were just a tad too long. What I ended up doing was cutting off the lower attachment points, gluing the upperattachment points in place and then added a wee drop of CA to the lower end and held it in place until it set. Having said that, yours will probably slot into place quite nicely 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 That kit for eight quid? Build the thing! The Big H has decal sheets for the Swordfish so you won't even have to cut stencils. Pre-war, carriers on the China station often put floats on their aircraft when they were moored at Hong Kong or Wei Ha Wei for any length of time so as to be able to continue flying without having to put to sea every time they wished to do so. Martian 👽 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted December 19, 2018 Author Share Posted December 19, 2018 Thanks for all your encouraging comments. I have gone ahead to spring for the PE set from Tamiya. Cost me about GBP8 same as the kit, ha ha. Sorry I did not post earlier, as I was busy building the cockpit. Here is the completed cockpit without the pilots. With the radio under the gunner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted December 19, 2018 Author Share Posted December 19, 2018 The previous owner cut out the seat belt decal for the tail gunner so I made some from masking tape. I also spent quite a bit of time painting areas that I realised will not be seen once you put it together. Starting work on the instrument panel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted December 19, 2018 Author Share Posted December 19, 2018 Not buying the PE kit for the instrument panel, and that part of the decal is also missing. So I will make do on my own. The instrument panel is well molded in my opinion. One of the better Tamiya molds despite the age. Sprayed the panel black and then overaly with my mix of cockpit green to give it some texture and shadows. Initially I thought I fill in each panel with white and when that dries with black so I can scratch the dial lines. However that did not turn out too well. So I got some old decals from other kits and cut out the dials to put into the panel. Not an easy feat as I had to cut 3mm and 2mm diameter dials. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted December 19, 2018 Author Share Posted December 19, 2018 Here is where I need some advice. The previous owner started to paint the pilot, operator and gunner before he/she gave up and sold the kit off. It was painted in red brown as you can see. I don't recall any fleet air arm uniform in this color. The Tamiya instruction is to paint it in red brown however when I google for FAA pilot it seems their uniform is dark blue? Can anyone direct me to the right color scheme for the FAA pilots? This Tamiya kit comes with two sets of crew figures and some other wing parts. So I have 6 crews! Will only use 3, which is to repaint what you see below, and see if anyone else wants the other three 1/48 FAA crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmovik Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 I found this black and white photo of the uniform represented in the kit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/71/a6647871.shtml Searching for "fleet air arm ww2 uniform" shows men in dressed with a blue uniform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Sherratt Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 Nice work so far - the cockpit looks really good. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 FAA uniforms were blue, but they also issued a brown “Sidcot suit” - a kind of precursor to the familiar, modern flying overalls. I have a photo of my Dad (a Swordfish / Barracuda Observer) wearning one. His flying boots (black, zip at the front, as Tamiya have shown) survived until the 1980s, but alas my feet are a lot bigger than his so I never got to fly in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev The Modeller Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 looking good mate a very interesting aircraft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jet-mech Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 On 12/9/2018 at 12:06 AM, CasualModel98 said: Yes has parts for both the wheeled and seaplane. Actually I found the decals stuck between some pieces of paper. Not sure if they still work. As I read the instructions I realised that you cannot build it without buying the Tamiya PE set of bracing cables for the Swordfish. It is sold separately. Perhaps this is why the person gave up as it was hard to find in Thailand. Fortunately I can get it here. But it is going to cost double what I paid for the kit, ha ha. This photo etch set is available at the North East Model Centre. https://www.northeastmodelcentre.co.uk Give them a call. I saw it on the upgrade racks just yesterday. Good prices too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 Sorry for the long silence. Was busy and had no time to take photos. Well continuing the build journey. As I was building this disaster struck! I dropped the model and broke all the float support! Arrgh! They are not as strong as they looked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 I thought about it long and hard. Part of me wanted to just toss it into the bin, then the stubborn modeller in me took over. I brought a hand drill with bits ranging from 0.1mm to 1.5mm and used that to drill holes into the fuselage and the spars. I then used thin wires to reinforce the spars and glue them together. Here is how they looked after the 'fix". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 Did the woodgrain part for the interior but realised that it is barely visible in the completed model. Ah well, at least I had fun painting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 I assembled the model, nothing to shout about as my skills are not too good. So I won't show the steps here as many others have done a far better job. And yes, the PE set of wing wires were a real pain to fit and glue, often either too long or not holding in place. I also managed to get superglue all over the place. The decals were old and some of them broke apart so I had to paint them and use other decals for the lettering. So here is the finished model for what its worth. I decided to load it full and take some liberty with the weapons load and paint schemes. At this load it is not likely to be able to take off in real life, ha ha. Yes I did not get the roundel quote right but at this point I just wanted to finish and move on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 For a more interesting look I painted with different shades of grey and chrome to the body. Yes the roundel is weird, just take it that the RN ran out of red paint for this onTried to give the engine some contrasting looks instead of just black metal. Front view with the wires a bit out of alignment and curving. It is not easy fixing the cables. I pre-shaded the body, wings and tail to show the undulating surface between the ribs. The blue band is painted on as the decal broke into pieces. I did not know how to weather the floats. Here is the full weapons load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 View of the cockpit, the only part I thought it went well, but when assembled it is not very visible. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasualModel98 Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 I enjoyed the build. It was good but the challenges I faced wore me out. Thanks for watching, time to move on to the next kit. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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