Swordfish floatplanes in three scales triple build.

[iang]

There have been a lot of Swordfish builds on BM recently, which has prompted me to reactivate an old endeavour of building Swordfish in three scales that I started in 2016: 1/72 new mold Airfix, 1/48 Tamiya and 1/32 Trumpeter.  I decided to build all of them as floatplanes, which in the case of the Trumpeter kit required scratch-building the floats /struts/float wheels. Previously I have built 4 Tamiya Mk I Swordfish, 1 Model Design Construction Mk ll and a couple of Trumpeter Mk 1, but never in float plane configuration.

 

I finished the 1/32 Trumpeter floatplane conversion, but the Tamiya floatplane fell off the shelf of doom in a fairly early stage of construction and smashed the floatplane struts. The Airfix kit hasn't progressed past fuselage construction. It's my intention to salvage the Tamiya kit and complete the Airfix float plane. 

 

To start off with here is a comparison of the three cockpits. I've used the available Eduard photo-etch sets on all three:

 

1/72 Airfix

 

I/48 Tamiya

 

I/32 Trumpeter

 

 

 

And side by side:

 

 

 

And zipped up in their fuselages:

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oh wow, this looks great , very interesting to see the size comparison between all three.

Great work on the offices.

Chris

[mark.au]

It’s like we’re playing a village cricket match and Ian Botham joins in.

[iang]

9 hours ago, mark.au said:

It’s like we’re playing a village cricket match and Ian Botham joins in.

Hardly, but thanks. I've built a lot of Swordfish, but I've not completed one I'm 100% happy with.

[mark.au]

12 minutes ago, iang said:

Hardly, but thanks. I've built a lot of Swordfish, but I've not completed one I'm 100% happy with.

That’s one of the joys of this craft of ours, the never ending pursuit of the never to be achieved perfect model.

[iang]

So here are some in progress photos of the 1/48 floatfish before falling from the shelf of doom. By this stage I'd sprayed the fuselage Mr Hobby aluminium, and masked ready to spray the Light Aircraft Grey (Cerrux Grey) to the metal surfaces. I use WEM enamel for this and I find that the resulting contrast between the metal and aluminium surfaces after varnishing is minimal, which matches period photos.

 

 

 

 

I went further than spraying the Light Aircraft Grey before disaster struck - adding the black decking and yellow fuselage band of Glorious. I then mounted the fuselage on its floats.  The resultant fall smashed off the floats and both front struts, which broke into 6 pieces. The rear struts were ripped out but remained whole.  I'm really not sure whether this will go back together. I gave it a partial Light Aircraft Grey respray after reattaching the repaired front strut assembly only to knock it off the table with the airbrush airline. So what you see below is my third attempt, which now needs re-spraying. This is the most cursed (and cursed at) model I've built. This is where I am with it at the moment:

 

 

 

There is now quite a build up of paint around the front strut assembly and I'm concerned about re-attaching the floats square given the way the struts sheared off from the floats mounts.  Pretty much all of it needs respraying and I'm undecided whether to attach the floats and respray or vice-versa.

[Jeff G]

Really sorry to hear of all these difficulties, what was it Churchill said? "Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it's the courage to continue building your model that counts.", Yes, that sounds right to me.

[bigbadbadge]

What a shame, looks lovely too,glad you are chosing to continue with it.

 

[Robin-42]

Brass pins are in your future, I had a shelf collapse damage my most treasured and fragile models-my Wingnut kits plus one that was actually built by a friend. The Junkers J1. Take it slow and all the joints can be pinned with brass. If you have a long thin strut that is broken in several places, tape it firmly to a piece of glass with double sided tape. Cut a slot with a razor saw that is longer than the strut. Embed the brass rod with gel cyanocrylate. Clean it up and you have mounting pins again and it is stronger than the original. It won’t just click together like it originally did, but you get credit for the save.!

 

 

[Fred piket]

6 hours ago, iang said:

So here are some in progress photos of the 1/48 floatfish before falling from the shelf of doom. By this stage I'd sprayed the fuselage Mr Hobby aluminium, and masked ready to spray the Light Aircraft Grey (Cerrux Grey) to the metal surfaces. I use WEM enamel for this and I find that the resulting contrast between the metal and aluminium surfaces after varnishing is minimal, which matches period photos.

 

 

 

 

I went further than spraying the Light Aircraft Grey before disaster struck - adding the black decking and yellow fuselage band of Glorious. I then mounted the fuselage on its floats.  The resultant fall smashed off the floats and both front struts, which broke into 6 pieces. The rear struts were ripped out but remained whole.  I'm really not sure whether this will go back together. I gave it a partial Light Aircraft Grey respray after reattaching the repaired front strut assembly only to knock it off the table with the airbrush airline. So what you see below is my third attempt, which now needs re-spraying. This is the most cursed (and cursed at) model I've built. This is where I am with it at the moment:

 

 

 

There is now quite a build up of paint around the front strut assembly and I'm concerned about re-attaching the floats square given the way the struts sheared off from the floats mounts.  Pretty much all of it needs respraying and I'm undecided whether to attach the floats and respray or vice-versa.

Keep going,  you can do it!

[Fred piket]

2 hours ago, Robin-42 said:

Brass pins are in your future, I had a shelf collapse damage my most treasured and fragile models-my Wingnut kits plus one that was actually built by a friend. The Junkers J1. Take it slow and all the joints can be pinned with brass. If you have a long thin strut that is broken in several places, tape it firmly to a piece of glass with double sided tape. Cut a slot with a razor saw that is longer than the strut. Embed the brass rod with gel cyanocrylate. Clean it up and you have mounting pins again and it is stronger than the original. It won’t just click together like it originally did, but you get credit for the save.!

 

 

Great tutorial,  learned a lot, great tips

[iang]

I'm looking for a photo of floatplane  K5959/809 of 823 Squadron HMS Glorious.  I've searched secondary sources without success. There is no digitised image in the IWM collection and I don't think it is at the FAAM. It's a common artwork image (with minor variations between artists), so I'm surprised I can't locate a photo of the aircraft. Can anyone help?

Cheers,

Ian

[Jeff G]

Sorry Ian, none that I can find. I also checked all the books on my shelves and I only found images of two other floatplane Swordfishes. Best of luck.

[bigbadbadge]

Nothing in any of my books on my shelves Ian, I have only turned up the side profiles in an online search which you are no doubt already aware of.

Chris

[mark.au]

I trawled through an internet search this afternoon with no success, sorry.  I feel your frustration, there has to be a photo to have created that profile from!

[iang]

1 hour ago, mark.au said:

I trawled through an internet search this afternoon with no success, sorry.  I feel your frustration, there has to be a photo to have created that profile from!

That is my feeling too.  In the early 2000s, when David Hobbs was in charge, I was allowed to make photocopies of much of the FAAM archive when researching material for my book. I think I have rough copies of pretty much their entire Swordfish collection, so I'm confident it is not there. I suspect that the profile was originally  based on a private photo that was owned by one of the 1970s aviation historians and, with their passing, it has not yet come back into the public domain. The original artwork has just been reproduced over the years and utilised by decal manufacturers without sight of the original image.

 

I don't want to build this aircraft without a photo so I'll pivot to another Glorious Swordfish floatplane (since I have already resprayed the yellow carrier ID band) and  create a fleet number and serial from generic decal sheets. I just need to find a suitable candidate. One that might work is 825 Squadron  974.  However, Sturtivant lists two aircraft K5944 and K8381 on charge with that fleet number 1938-39, so I need to try and pin down the serial of the aircraft in the photo.

 

 

 

[iang]

 

This is from an album I own compiled by an unknown airman on Glorious in the late 1930s.  Under magnification it is  is  974: K8381 (the serial is readable on my high res scan). Not as colourful as 823 Squadron with their black decking and black cowls and forward sloping yellow carrier band, 825 Squadron just had a forward sloping yellow carrier band in front of the roundel with the fleet number in black. Most other photos I have of 825 Squadron Swordfish  show the unit badge on the fin, but the fin is obscured in this photo.  So assuming I can find some black lettering for the repeat of the fleet number under the upper mainplane, this is going to be the one I think.

[iang]

I'm struggling to find suitable decals for the fleet numbers. The fuselage number I can get close to in size, but the underwing numerals seem to be impossible to match for size, let alone style. I think they are  60 inch codes, so 1.25 inch (roughly 31.8mm) in 1/48 scale. The style is also an issue, as the 9 is squared off and the numbers elongated. I had though about home printing onto clear decal paper, but cannot find a font that matches. Any suggestions gratefully received. 

 

Here's a close up of the fleet number:

 

[Troy Smith]

52 minutes ago, iang said:

but cannot find a font that matches. Any suggestions gratefully received.

You likely won't find a font that matches, unless you look for a long time and are lucky.  

 

Given the hand painted nature of these, those distinctive quirks tend to be lacking.   One reason why WW2 generic British code decfals tend to give just not quite the right result.

 

This is the sort of thing to do in a vector based graphics program like Coreldraw, which will allow you modify existing fonts, but it's a right pain to do for a one off, especially if you are not familiar with this. (it's been ages sionce I played with Coreldraw as the version I havew only run on older windows...)

 

One posible way,  get a print print out of a Swordfish wing, ideally overscale, and then sketch on the digits,  then neaten them up,  scan that,  when printed smaller this should become crisper  or just use it to make a masking template.  (this si where one of those mask cutters come in handy)

Most of it is straight lines, which make it easier.

 

If the letters/digits are consistent, then you could make up your own font from them, you can do this in Coreldraw,  you can find free fonts sites where peoepl do just this.     WHich is what I menat by lucky, you might somethin on one of those, but in the time it takes to do all that,  a sketch, neaten  up and and scan might just be quicker.....

1 hour ago, iang said:

I think they are  60 inch codes, so 1.25 inch (roughly 31.8mm) in 1/48 scale.

60 inch = 5 foot.  or one and a quarter inch exactly in 1/48th.    While imperial meseauremenst are a pain, in this case it's just easier than converting into metric.  

 

HTH

 

[mark.au]

If you send me the details/images I’m happy to create masks for you to paint them.

[iang]

2 hours ago, mark.au said:

If you send me the details/images I’m happy to create masks for you to paint them.

That is an extremely generous offer! PM sent

[mark.au]

7 hours ago, iang said:

That is an extremely generous offer! PM sent

Email inbound.  It’s the least I can do Ian after the assistance you gave me with my swordfish.

 

Cheers.