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Airfix 1/72 Swordfish


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Lovely, neat build despite the rough texture of the kit. I've noticed a slightly rough texture on Airfix kits, along with their use of a softer plastic than that from the old days. 

 

Edge

 

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Beautiful build.

I gave up on one I started because it insisted on a serious anhedral in the lower wings that I couldn't correct; it looked awful.

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Beautiful.

I have two in stash, one landplane and one floatplane, none of the issues above in my kits. However they are both from the earlier boxings.

Edited by Patrik
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I had 2 of these - the first had very bad texture problems on the fuselage. I then got the seaplane version which was a bit better on the fuselage, but worse on the wings.

 

Eventually I combined the best bits of the two kits and cleaned things up to an acceptable level. Both disappointing and surprising as I have built a good number of Airfix kits and have never seen this before.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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That looks gorgeous,  great work,  I like this scheme  too. I have one planned very soon , will have to take a look at the sprue and see what the texture of the kit parts is like.

Thanks for the heads up. 

Chris 

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Those sprues look awful. I've never seen anything as bad on any of my new tool kits. But you've produced a very impressive model. Nice photos too.

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I just checked my two kits, the floatplane and the Taranto raid ones. Both are fairly early releases and both look smooth.

The Taranto kit looks the have a little texture, but it feels smooth. I don't think it's anything that would show through a coat of paint.

 

Your Swordfish looks great. Something to aim for if I ever get to mine.

 

 

 

Chris

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Same here as Chris, mine being the standard kit.  Very slight grain on the fabric parts and smooth on the metal areas.  I wish I'd waited for the Taranto raid one as I had to buy the Xtradecal sheet.  For the sake of other modellers, I hope that you've just got a bad one: but those lumps on the fuselage makes me wonder if the mould surface is breaking up.  

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If I'd had to guess, it's more the handling when getting them out of the moulds.

We've seen short shots in one batch, and none at all in the next - while using the same moulds (no they're not exactly cheap and no there aren't 'a couple of copies lying around')

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14 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Hi all,

 

Just finished my Airfix 1/72 Swordfish 😬

 

Firstly the good stuff - it’s a beauty of a kit. I ended up going off piste and constructed/ painted/ rigged the wings separately to the fuselage. I added them right at the end and - they just clicked into place! Not even any glue required. The decals were sublime, as good as anything I’ve ever used before.
 

Secondly the less good stuff - the surface textures looked, frankly, awful! 🥴 So poor in fact I thought there must have been an issue with the moulding. Everything was gritty. I contacted Airfix with pictures and they very efficiently sent me a complete new set of sprues. However, these weren’t much better! I ended up having to sand down pretty much everything. This seemed slightly odd? Anyone else have that issue? But once that hurdle was crossed, a great fun build 👍 I’ve added a couple of pictures of the offending surfaces.

 

It sits very nicely next to my recent Armstrong Whitworth Siskin and Hawker Demon ☺️

 

Anyway, here she is...

 

 

Thanks 

 

 

Guy

 

 

72-CF46-E3-56-C3-4611-96-C7-C943620-AE7-

 

 

 

69-AEA3-E0-F2-B8-48-C2-9084-FAD4-E859815

 


59453-B11-C65-C-405-F-8-C8-E-DDADDA756-F

 

 

6-D512468-16-D4-4-DD6-9475-C79-A6-AB8-C5

 

 

87-F3-AFB4-6-B05-47-E3-A2-F6-7451-EEDC41

 

8-A8-F35-B5-28-FF-40-D7-907-B-84-A10168-

 

 

BE291-C88-607-C-4-B8-F-B717-E18-A27-CCDD
 

 

DAFD1-A93-E893-4-DB6-B6-FA-743-E73-D4823

 

 

 

AF68-FFB9-AB15-44-F5-AB74-5-E80-D4-F7990

 

E218-C2-B4-0-B9-F-4-DF6-B3-B6-6063-C869-

 

 

E52-DBC86-3-D0-A-41-D4-B051-098-B32-F70-

 

E800-D613-C147-42-BA-BD16-85-FE698-FF249

 

F7-B3-D9-DD-AFCD-4-CD1-A3-BD-C4096132655

 

 


 

...and the not so good....🤨

 


 

2057-D558-4916-4752-9988-95622-B4-F59-BE

 

 

 

 

 

 

6-ADC44-B2-2-A6-E-4137-96-FE-281-C6-A32-

 

 

B6-F5-E7-DD-9-E8-E-447-E-A604-E88-CF4219

Very impressive despite the challenges!

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Thanks!
 

What worried me more was that their ‘technical team’ told me there were no issues with the sprues they had in stock, then sent me a set with exactly the same problem...

 

I did read somewhere that a smooth surface is difficult to achieve as it tends to stick to the moulds - but every other manufacturer manages it. I’ve got a cheap 20+ year old academy kit in my stash with flawlessly smooth mouldings and detail.

 

I'm a huge Airfix fan - I so want their kits to be great, but they do have issues - overscale panel lines (I have their 1/72 Mk I Spit in the stash and it looks like a Lego kit 🥴), surface moulding and the odd problematic fit etc. Maybe I’m just spoilt from building Wingnut Wings and Tamiya.

 

 

Guy

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