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Selwyns Sword NF 14


Selwyn

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought it was about time I posted something in this build, I have been busy over the last week, real life getting in the way and all that, but I have managed to get some modelling in of an evening and make some progress.

 

The Sword NF 14 is an obvious short run kit without many positive locating pegs around the main parts, but saying that the detail is very acceptable and I have found that as long as you are meticulous in your cleaning up of parts, and test fit everything before using any gluey substances on the plastic everything goes together really well (so far)! Dimensionally its really good and does not have the 17” double nose extension error prevalent in lots of Meteor NF14 references.

 

I started as per the instructions with the cockpit. The assembly goes together well. Unusually the side panels sit just inside the cockpit base and locate positively against the rear bulkhead, so the assembly when glued up is quite strong. The top of the side panels sit proud of the cockpit sides when fitted, and form the canopy rails. Detail is OK for me but does lend itself as a basis to the super detailer if you are so inclined. I looked at the cockpit pictures in the Meteor pilots notes I have, and the kit rear cockpit arrangement and the radar display units are really accurate, so some good research here.

 

 

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The predominant colour of the cockpit is black, as are all RAF aircraft of this period, and I contented myself in dry brushing the detail and added a few dots of red and yellow to break up the monotony. The radar displays were painted white and coated with tamiya clear green. A set of aftermarket seat belts were added to finish off. The cockpit assembly also incorporates the nose wheel mounting and wheel well. A quick dry test fit seems to indicate a good fit within the fuselage. I have included a picture of the completed cockpit, but my camera doesn’t show the detail very well unfortunately.

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The cockpit assembly lines the fuselage so not a lot of paint is needed on the side panels. There is the forward wheel bulkhead fitted just in front of the wheel bay. I painted the bulkhead and wheel bay silver. An initial dry test fitting the fuselage halves indicated that the front part might be a bit flimsy, but with the bulkhead and cockpit fitted it will probably be a lot more robust.

 

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The wings are simple enough,  The undercarriage bays are a box made up of four walls, but look OK. The kit does not feature any engines, just a front panel /intake and oil tank assembly that will be visible through the intake. This front panel looked unfinished and a funny shape at first inspection, so the short shot alarm bells went off, however when test fitting it was apparent this was intentional and perfectly matched the internal profile of the engine nacelle. The rear is filled with a small bulkhead and jet pipe. The bulkhead has a depiction of the rear turbine on it, I painted it but its completely invisible when the jet pipe is fitted. They also suggest that you paint the inner walls of the rear nacelle silver, but this is a waste of time as the jet pipe completely fills the rear orifice.

 

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I limited myself to just painting the front intake area. The intakes are the larger deep breather type and they looked a little small at first inspection but once the sprue in the intakes is removed and the intake given a good sanding they look great. A quick dry fit indicates they fit well so looking good!

 

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I'm enjoying this build a lot and I am looking forward to the next stage.

Watch this space!

 

Selwyn

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Finally got time to post again, been progressing over the week, managed to get the fuselage together. This kit looked like the original tail sitter so I put 10g of weights in the nose section, plenty of room in there and as the nose is really long I figured that that should do the trick. Fit was good, the cockpit assembly fitted well and the seams went together with a bit of filler here and there to tidy it up.

The intakes were fitted to the wings, again with a bit of filler to tidy up the joints. One thing to take away if you ever intend to build this kit, constantly test fit and sand to get an acceptable fit before committing to gluing!

The next job was attaching wing to fuselage. After a bit of fettling the wing clicked neatly into place. At this point I double checked for balance to rule out the dreaded tail sit, shock horror! The 10g in the nose wasn't enough! Fortunately there was a lovely cavity below the cockpit floor that was made to fit one of my 10g tyre weights. Slid in no probs, and secured with a drop of superglue. Moral of the story; lots and of nose weight if you build one of these, I recommend at least 15g and going to 20g wouldn't go amiss.

Wing attached, tailplane next. You can’t go wrong with this. Both tailplanes are secured with two substantial locating pins, but each side has different pin spacing so no way of cocking this up.

 

Now looking like a Meteor at last.

 

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Just a few annoying things in the build so far, The rear cockpit has a small elevated instrument cluster on a frame above the instrument panel (you can see it in grey plastic in the pictures) The instructions really need a really good close up picture of how it fits, sadly missing. I think mine is correct but……….!

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The underwing drop tanks have no marks or location points on the lower wing surface to position them. I ended up examining the wing of my as yet unbuilt 1/48 Meteor F8 to get the correct tank position.

The other annoyance is the wing tip lights. Sword provide them as clear parts. They are so small as to be impossible to clean up, and as Meteor lights are coloured lenses you are usually going to end up painting them anyway, so what's the point? If you are going to use coloured plastic inserts why not just mark their position so you could cut out the plastic as required. As it is, its just another unnecessary fiddly bit.

Another thing that will need attending to in due course is the gun barrels, these are not present on the inner 20mm and te outer cannons are just cones on the front of the wing.

 

So now just a bit of touching up on the cockpit and fitting the canopy and it will be time for a primer coat!

 

Selwyn

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally got time for a quick in progress!

 

After  sanding and priming managed to get the top coat on and things are looking OK. 

 

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This Weekend job is to get the decals on and a varnish topcoat. The finishing line  is looming!

 

 

 

Selwyn

 

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Great to see this one progressingt Selwyn, years ago I had an Aeroclub 1/48 Mixed Media kit of the NF.14, it was a lovely kit and like most Aeroclub kits once you cleaned up the vacform parts they fitted as well as your average short run injection kit, unfortunately somewhere along the way it got disposed of (as a part built project rather than in the bin) during the great stash sale.

 

A few years later my interest in all things Meteor has been rekindled by building Airfix's F.8 kit and now I find myself eyeing up getting one of the Sword kits, seeing your build has certainly made the hankering to get one stronger. 

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