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'The Flare Bird' - 1:72 Fairey Swordfish Mk.I *FINISHED*


Dunny

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22 hours ago, AliGauld said:

That all looks excellent. 

You've cracked on with it.

Really looking forward to it all going together.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks very much Alistair - much smaller than yours!

21 hours ago, mark.au said:

Nice work Roger.  Closing in on the finish, our little squadron’s coming together.

Thanks Mark - I must admit I'm not relishing the prospect of painting flares in 1:72!

15 hours ago, dogsbody said:

That Swordfish is looking great!

Not meaning to urinate on your parade, but the Airfix instructions have you put those wee red stripes on the front of the prop blades, not the rear, as in

this IWM photo:

 

52350446758_def6a8f3cf_b.jpg

 

 

 

 

Chris

Well noted Chris - I don't know why on earth I convinced myself that they were on the rear face! I'm going to be throwing red paint around for the flares so will fix it then,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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  • 1 month later...

Hi All,

 

With the anniversary of the Taranto raid fast approaching (the self-imposed deadline for our informal Stringbag GB), I thought I'd better extract digit and get on with this thang! First job was to correct my error with the propeller red stripes as kindly pointed out by @dogsbody (thanks Chris - do feel free to urinate on my parade at any point if I make further errors! 🤣). Having previously oversprayed the red decals on the rear face, I simply brush painted them on the front face:

 

https://i.postimg.cc/DwVFd3RX/20221106-141701.jpg

 

No-one will ever know! Next I applied a flat coat to the whole airframe (jumping down a scale uses a LOT less Vallejo matt varnish than the Blenheim I was just working on!)

 

https://i.postimg.cc/3NVhcsRz/20221106-142309.jpg

 

Not looking too bad? Next the engine was assembled and glued in position:

 

https://i.postimg.cc/ZqSbZzcS/20221106-144800.jpg

 

I managed to push both side windows in whilst trying to unmask them, so used Krystal Kleer to make replacements:

 

20221106-151440.jpg

 

20221106-151451.jpg

 

Next job was the machine gun. Just as @bigbadbadge found there is clearly a moulding weakness in the gun, and the barrel was missing:

 

20221106-142742.jpg

 

Unlike the hairy-stick demigod I did not have the cojones to attempt the same level of detail, so I contented myself with adding a replacement barrel from brass tube, telling myself that it won't really be seen anyway:

 

20221106-153406.jpg

 

That'll do for me! I did, however, paint the wing locking handles red to mollify the modelling gods for my lack of skill:

 

20221106-154016.jpg

 

Here's a final shot showing the lot dry-fitted:

 

https://i.postimg.cc/J72R0kqK/20221106-154715.jpg

 

I really can't avoid the rigging any longer, can I?!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

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Great catch up and superb effort Roger, the Flare Fish looks absolutely awesome.  The Gun is a real pain either removing the sprue gate or being short shot, is not good.  The replacement barrel looks the part Roger. 

Great work and thanks for the compliments. I am sure you will sort the rigging out easily. 

 

Chris

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14 hours ago, mark.au said:

All coming together nicely.  Rigging is a piece of cake.

 

 

 

 

 

Says the guy who built his Swordfish in 1/48 scale an$ used the PE…

I also have the PE so bring on the gateau!

13 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great catch up and superb effort Roger, the Flare Fish looks absolutely awesome.  The Gun is a real pain either removing the sprue gate or being short shot, is not good.  The replacement barrel looks the part Roger. 

Great work and thanks for the compliments. I am sure you will sort the rigging out easily. 

 

Chris

Thanks very much Chris - I hope I did not offend! I'm hoping rigging will be as simple as you and Mr.au suggest...

7 hours ago, AliGauld said:

Nicely done and she looks superb.

Good luck with the rigging.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair - I hope it will not be too bad!

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7 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Thanks very much Chris - I hope I did not offend! I'm hoping rigging will be as simple as you and Mr.au suggest...

No worries fella, of course not.  The rigging is not too bad at all.  It's one of those things you start and think I will just do a bit and end up doing a load of it.

Good luck

Chris

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3 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking good Roger, lovely paintwork.

 

Isn’t there an Albacore that needs rigging as well, while you’ve got the string out? 
 

:wicked:
Adrian

Thanks very much Adrian - sadly the Albacore did not make the cut and was irretrievably binned!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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  • Dunny changed the title to 'The Flare Bird' - 1:72 Fairey Swordfish Mk.I *FINISHED*

Hi All,

 

With Informal Taranto GB Deadline Anxiety (ITGBDA) looming I decided a final push was required to get the Stringbag over the line. I don't know why rigging scares me so, as particularly with a PE set it is actually not that difficult. Here we are part way through the process:

 

20221107-100127.jpg

 

And here's the lot complete - with quick drying CA it was a doddle!

 

20221107-101017.jpg

 

I was mulling what to do about the external fuel tank, and was just about to start hacking up the torpedo to scratch one, when I noticed this on one of the sprues:

 

20221107-103359.jpg

 

Doh - it was there all the time! :banghead:. With that primed and painted along with the ordnance, it was a simple case of mounting it all. Here's the fuel tank:

 

20221107-132509.jpg

 

And the ordnance:

 

20221107-133422.jpg

 

The stripes are far from my proudest moment but at least they add a splash of colour (they were hand-painted). With the final fiddly bits attached, the wings were attached to the fuselage, the antenna wire added, and that was that! Here's a few teaser shots:

 

20221107-141405.jpg

 

20221107-141416.jpg

 

20221107_141431.jpg

 

20221107_141439.jpg

 

I have to admit I've thoroughly enjoyed this build. Having built Tamiya's superb Mk.II in 1:48, whilst not up to that stellar standard the Airfix offering is nicely engineered in its own way. It's also been fun working towards the deadline of the Taranto raid with some esteemed modelling company in @mark.au, @bigbadbadge and @AliGauld, so thanks very much to Mark for planting the seed! Thanks also to everybody who has offered kind wors and encouragement along the way - it has been much appreciated! RFI photos will be posted in a couple of days,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

 

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49 minutes ago, mark.au said:

What a fine job you made of it, both the rigging in particular and the model in general.  Great work, two stellar completions this week.

Thanks very much Mark! Nice to get it over the line in time - are you sweating on your P38 yet?! Thanks again for starting the idea of the build...

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

 

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3 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looks absolutely stunning Roger.  Great work on all, the rigging looks great too.  

A really enjoyable thread and GB too have loved watching these Swordfish builds unfold.

Chris

Thanks very much Chris - it has been a blast!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Just now, AliGauld said:

What a fantastic finish.

You got the rigging done beautifully in record time and she's a beauty.

I have loved watching this unfold.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks very much Alistair, and for your support along the way! Look forward to seeing your much bigger beastie over the line soon,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Another great result Roger!
I’ve enjoyed following this one and all the other outbreaks of Swordfishery, so much so that I took the plunge and have added the Airfix 1/72 kit to the stash…. Though I may go the pre-war all silver route (whenever I get to it)

 

Dave

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9 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

Another great result Roger!
I’ve enjoyed following this one and all the other outbreaks of Swordfishery, so much so that I took the plunge and have added the Airfix 1/72 kit to the stash…. Though I may go the pre-war all silver route (whenever I get to it)

 

Dave

Thanks very much Dave - will look forward to seeing that one. It really is the best of 'old' Airfix! (see also below comment!)

8 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Smashing rigging too! Lovely.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks very much Adrian - the PE rigging set does make it a whole lot easier..

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