Building the Trumpeter 1:32 Swordfish Mk1

[Gladiator111]

Hi Folks,

Well, like all blogs, I shall try and keep the posts brief and to the point however as this is the intro entry, so a little bit about myself for those who don’t already know me from the forum...



I’m a 38 year old married Civil Engineer, with three young kids and live near Chester UK with little spare time but hope to use this time to do some modelling! I am guessing statistically, I’m smack bang in the middle of that demographic populace of modellers who have returned back to modelling since their teenage / childhood. I am finding that modelling has become something more than just gluing plastic together and slapping a bit of enamel paint on a 1:72 spit. I believe that modelling, if so chosen to be, can evolve into something astoundingly more than this, with super detailing with resins, photo etching, airbrushing, scratch building, additional decals – the list can be endless and somewhat daunting. Though I’ve seen it done by fellow members of this forum and competition entries at Telford so I’m willing to give this a go and hope to achieve something that's on the way to being good but something I can truly be proud of. However, being a complete newbie, and knowing there’s a fantastic bunch of modellers here on this forum, I’ve decided to start this blog so that along the way I can invite you all to discuss, advise and correct my future steps with this Swordfish build from start to finish.



So let’s Begin ...and go shopping!



Since having bought the kit at the IPMS Telford I’ve gone ahead, strangely enough with SWMBO’s approval, I have bought most of the aftermarket goodies that I have deemed necessary. Well, actually based on some of December’s Scale Aircraft Modelling mag review with their extra’s for the “Stellar Stringbag”. This includes:



· Adler’s Nest Brass 30cal machine gun barrel with steel blue finish (all the way from Japan);

· MDC’s photo-etch WWII British Q type Harnesses;



I have not opted for additional resin tyres from Mastercasters as I pretty much like the vinyl rubber tyres supplied by trumpeter (which I believe is a bone of contention for some) though I will sand and weather accordingly unless you think otherwise.



In addition to these extra’s, I have followed another recent review from the December’s Scale Aviation Modeller’s mag and have purchased some evergreen rods to recreate the missing attachment points for the under wing bomb racks and light stores. Another purchase has been the xtradecal X32-015 set which apparently includes the L2826 coded 2P of 810 NAS who flew from HMS Ark Royal during 1941. P4221 5L is also a good option, though has conflicting magazine and online statements stating that this was aboard either HMS Illustrious or Ark Royal that helped disable the Bismarck. ...And it’s this link that I wish to get right, to represent an aircraft that fought against the Bismarck. So further research and advice is needed I thinks.



So today’s purchases were based on some good advice from Dubster, Gern and Stona and have bought some epoxy glue in readiness for future photo-etching but have also splashed out on some mini drill bits as there are some skinned over holes to open up and gun barrels to fit and finally a set of 1:32 Instrument dials from MDC.



Well I hope to commence tomorrow, family commitments considered as this inevitably takes priority, though hope to wash the sprues in soapy water and prime them later. Talking of primer, I have also bought some Humbrol Acrylic Primer 1 which on test seems pretty good. Other than that, I guess starting on the interior and yes, Stona, the interior dope fabric colour questions and exterior colour scheme questions shall be asked very shortly! Your comments are most welcome and gratefully appreciated!



Chris







View attachment 20720

View attachment 20721

View attachment 20722

View attachment 20723

View attachment 20724

View attachment 20725

 

[Gladiator111]

Hi folks,

Cheers for the comments, it feels good to know that you guys are here to help me along the way. Hey Stona - thanks for the advice on the Fleet Air Arm camouflage and markings book. It's a bit pricey but may be very necessary as there are contentious paint schemes out there and I want to get this right. I shall also trawl the bay of fleas to see if there are any seconds out there. Thanks again Steve.

Well, today I managed to wash and dry the sprues in soapy warm water and have applied the Humbrol Acrylic Primer 1. The paint dried really quickly and gave an even covering. I sprayed outside having no spray booth as yet, but that's to come soon. Luckily the finish was very good with no splotches from the can nor dust particles or insect invasions, due to a crisp winters day! The finish seems to be finer than the usual Halfords primer, not as grainy though one thing to mention was my surprise when the first canister emptied with two sprues to go! Okay, it's a 1:32 scale plane and the canister is only 150mm but I thought it would have lasted for one model. Oh well, luckily I had another spare for just these sorts of situations and finished the entire kit.

In addition to the priming, I was unfortunately dragged along to help with the weekly Asda shop though the silver lining to this dirge was the purchase of a deep plastic container in the sales for £7. Bargain spray booth! As you probably noticed I have relagated myself to the dining room as my usual modelling workshop is closed due to adverse weather; well it's the garage and I refuse to work in -2deg conditions. You simply cannot glue two pieces of plastic together unless you heat up the garage and the earth...! So following on from the recent posts on DIY spraybooths, I need to look in B&Q for more goodies and get this finished. Once complete this will allow indoor painting cos the SWMBO wants zero mess and fumes in the dining room...and quite rightly too! (she reads the forum to) I think the container maybe large enough to fit two extractors, budget pending though, we shall see.

Next steps with the model, it's got to be the interior. Refering again to the SAM review they used a cream and Humrol Brick Red to simulate dope to seep through the sections of fabric on the interior fuselage. Have a look and please give your thoughts to this - Steve? Thanks again guys.

Chris

Addendum - have tried the blog but it's just not the same as the forum. No way of chronologicaly posting new blogs so have agreed with John to continue here. Sorry your kind words may be lost but all taken note of. Thanks again.

View attachment 20726

View attachment 20727

View attachment 20728

View attachment 20729

 

[Gladiator111]

(Previous Comments)

dubster72

This all looks really good Chris, and you have the honour of being the first blogger! Ok, I know John did his one first but this is a real modelling one! I doubt that I'll be able to offer much help but that doesn't mean my interest in how this project goes won't be any the less! btw, they're a good bunch at MDC, sent me my stuff very quick. Bon voyage! Patrick

Richy C

I`m looking forward to this Chris , Like Patrick I wont be able to help having no experience with aircraft ( well to be honest having no experience really with any aspect of model making ) but will be watching with great interest and praising you all the way mate.

Richy

yak face

cant wait to see this one rolling,chris. with the extra bits i think youve got the makings of a beautiful kit , its going to look awesome , cheers tony

stona

Well Chris it certainly looks like you've got all the bits...and so well organised as well. I would recommend one reference book,if you can find it at a decent price. Stuart LLoyd's "Fleet Air Arm camouflage and markings 1937(?)-41". I used to have it but,can you believe it,gave it away to a better home when I started getting confused by the intricacies of Luftwaffe camouflage (also many expensive references available)!

Looking forward to this one.

Best of luck with the build.

Steve

Fenlander

Good luck with this. You have started the blog off very well giving the background details and your ambitions on this project. Have to say, I think you are very brave in so publicly and in such detail going through the build, well done you, it deserves respect and I know it will get it on here. I will certainly be tuning in.

Graham

 

[stona]

5 or 7 coats of red dope (depending on material) were applied to outside of airframe.The first 2 coats half strength. These were usually covered with 2 coats of silver.This was considered the minimum number of coats required. Apparently the red only partially soaked into the fabric so your formula from SAM sounds about correct. The original material on a Swordfish would probably be Irish linen,so a creamy basic colour also sounds right. I have read this resulted in a "streaky cream pink interior colour". I've got a note of that but don't know where from!

By the way I feel your pain spraying. I do mine in the bit that joins the kitchen to the outhouse,no heating and a slate floor,bloody freezing! All such operations are currently suspended.

Cheers

Steve

 

[yak face]

hi chris, brilliant to see were up and running,ill be watching intently.Like yourself and steve (stona) i do my modelling in an unheated outbuilding,ive got a little halogen heater but when its -2c its useless, needless to say my modelling ops are suspended like steves. I went in there this morn and the jar of water for cleaning the brushes was frozen solid! I imagine youll be fondling the sprues of the stringbag eager to get cracking (i know i would be!!) roll on the warmer weather ! cheers tony

 

[Backbreaker]

:shocking: WOW this is going to look stunning, i,ll be following this one.

BB.

 

[Gladiator111]

Hi Folks

Thanks for your comments. Sorry not had chance to comment sooner or add to the model build due to mad snow conditions. Took me an hour and a half to drive home, and I only live 3 miles from work! Yeah, the garage is def off limits as you can imagine it would almost be impossible to glue two peices of plastic together without shaking them to bits with the cold!

In the meantime I continue to research the history as to which plane and markings to go for. Still working on it though but apparantly, 4C V4298 is on the cards.

It seems that Bismarck’s gunners took a few pot shots of this Stringbag and holed the aircraft 175 times! Both the pilot, Sub-Lieutenant Swanton and his TAG, Leading Airman J. R. Seager were wounded, though their observer, Sub-Lieutenant G. A. Woods was unscathed. Swanton managed to land on the Ark Royal safely but the aircraft was beyond repair and was jettisoned from the aircraft carrier. Now, if I can get the colours right (if the xtradecal set is spot on) I might just go with this one with a few bullet holes to add? What do you think?

Steve, your comments on the dope pretty much confirm the mag review as said and will use that as the interior fuselage colour - thanks for the process breakdown. I really must try and find further documentation on the aircraft build and look for further walk around pics for the Stringbag.

Also, hope to finish the spray booth as well this week.

Thanks again for your comments. Please, if you have any further links or book titles for reference, let me know. Cheers.

Chris

 

[dubster72]

Yeah go for the bullet-riddled one Chris! How about a nice little base representing the Ark Royal's flight deck & the Stringbag just about to touch down? That would look really good, especially in light of recent posts about not too many plane models being shown 'in flight'.

Patrick

 

[stona]

Hi Chris,found this on my computer. The only info I have is what is on the photo.....Swordfish exhaust ring. Thought you'd like to see it.

Steve

 

[yak face]

great pic steve, all too often you see models of beaufighters,wellingtons,swordfishes etc with bright copper exhaust collector rings,whereas in reality these were very dark as per the pic,somehow i doubt the ground crews would have got the brasso out during maintenance! tony

 

[Gladiator111]

Oh now that is a really nice pic Steve! Thank you so much. Lovely shiny copper exhaust ring, obviously a photo of a show plane but is the first real photo of a Stringbag with the correct colour scheme with unpainted ring. All I've managed to find decent online, and in colour is the http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_hayward/fairey_swordfish_iii/images/fairey_swordfish_iii_27_of_36.jpg walk around of a Mk3 where the ring has been painted silver with a night colour scheme.

In respect to a dio Patrick, I first considered a scene where I was going to build a 1:700th scale Bismarck at sea, with the aircraft circling, however trying to find 3 1:32 pilots, in correct attire, has proven very difficult. So your excellent idea of it coming into land would also require the little people. However, following on from your idea of it at the Ark Royal, would be it's imminant jettison of the carrier...? What do you think? Thanks again for your input chaps, though as an update, nothing has been done due to the minus ten conditions and I havn't managed to build the spray booth as yet but will keep you all posted.

Chris

 

[dubster72]

All this talk of shiny rings & naval aircraft?? I dunno! Anyway my thought would get round the need for small men Chris, coz I was imagining the plane just passing the leading edge of the flightdeck, moments before touchdown. So not a whole section of the carrier (lol that would be a contender for biggest diorama since Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind!) just the planking really. I was gonna draw you a picture of what I meant but then I realised that I've got the artistic equivalent of 2 left hands so I googled this one instead!

View attachment 10817

Or maybe you could do it like this, using the same picture sans airplane as a backdrop?

View attachment 10818

 

[Gladiator111]

Sorry Patrick, your last attachments won't work for some reason but I'm all for your ideas for the dio. However, the biggest problem was if the aircraft was in flight, I would need the pilots and I can't they're not available so I would have to find some ground crews in the act of pushing it off the flightdeck. I think I shall build the aircraft in perfect condition and then, once completed, I'll get a hot poker and create some Blitzkrieg damage.

I'm hoping to get some spraying done tommorow, if the booth is done. Still researching colour schemes... http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Navy/Fairey-Swordfish-Mk2/1555241/L/&sid=dd0e8d5e157ef25375fb4d69be3fe4ea Will keep you posted.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Gladiator111]

First Airbrushing of the Stringbag... help needed.

Well Chaps,

This afternoon, I managed to get the first spot of painting done for the interior structure with sky green. Then whilst cleaning the airbrush, disaster occurs! (wow, that was melodramatic eh??) Well I've been using Badgers Airbrush cleaner for a while now, it's been great - no problems. However today, when I sprayed the cleaner into the paint cup, that included residual vallejo paint and thinners (50/50) the mixture curdled into a rubber like gloop, clogging both airbrush, paint cup and pipe. It's as if it accelorated the dry time and expanded it somehow. Never seen this before and took an hour to clean out. Well, I've used these products before without any reaction. So what's going on? Dodgy paint? That's the only theory that I can think of as all the other products are relatively new and the paint is a recent purchase. Have you experienced anything like this before and what has been your solution? Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[stona]

I have heard of this sort of thing happening. I believe IPA turns Xtracrylix into a curdled yoghurt. If you've used the same paints/thinners/cleaner together before I can only suggest that the formulation of one of them has changed.

Steve

 

[ugly 6]

Hi Gladiator

Nice choice of aeroplane:cool2:

If you havnt seen it already ,thats big up for the advice of the master detail pilot which is on its way .:biggthumpup::biggthumpup:

I see you have the same modeling terrain as i have the dining room table much warmer than the men in sheds, only thing is you have to clear up before an ear ache ensues.LOL:bigmistake:

I be watching from the wings pun intended

ugly 6 out

 

[Gladiator111]

What a weekend... can you turn back time?

Hi folks,

No worries Ugly6 - hope you get your man soon, hey, he'll be in flight in a few days eh? How ironic! Good luck on the Typhie - lucky sod, I wanted one of those at the IPMS show however, Revel hadn't issued it at that time. I shall be watching your build very closely mate!

Cheers Steve for the advice, but I think there may have been a forth element that we must now consider. Take a look at the close up pick of the airbrush... Looks like the insides have disolved away somehow (airbrush cleaning fluid????) and when tightening the paint cup to the tea bar, the T sheared from the airbrush revealing a hole. Note the anodised silver has peeled away though I know I didn't use much force, it just moved with the screw.

Well so far, I've given the thumbs up for these cheap chinese imports, but now I'm not too sure... Luckily, I know I can get spares, though I may try soldering the T back in place before I do that, but I may just go for a decent airbrush now. I've used this airbrush as a test to see if airbrushing is worth the fuss, and I think it is - so it has served a purpose. I'll start surfing t'internet for a badger me thinks.

Anyhows, thanks for the support and time for a pint!

Chris

View attachment 20967

View attachment 20968

View attachment 20969

View attachment 20970

 

[dubster72]

Worrying news there Chris as your AB looks identical to mine though I don't think I've used the cleaner stuff with it yet. Having trawled the net, it seems that these cheapo airbrushes can often have their seals & o-rings corroded by strong solvents. I think you're right to look around for a better alternative. Thanks for the warning, though sorry it cost you to find out. Patrick

 

[Gladiator111]

Hi Patrick, Just a quick update to our AB's.

By the looks of it, the T piece on AB is glued into position, not soldered. So there must have been a slow reaction with the solvent over time. Take a look at the pics and the green ring on the small piece shows you how the paint and solvent has mixed onto the glued edge. Well I cleaned both edges up and applied epoxy resin, but this time placed the glue on the outer edge of the T and inserted back into the airbrush to get a really good seal. After all, this part of the airbrush only needs to be sealed for a gravity pressure. But it's the turning action by the user to place the cup to a correct angle. From now on, when screwing the gravity cup in place, I shall also apply some plumbers tape to the thread as well, that way I won't overtighten and wrench it again. Heh, SWMBO kept repeating, "Buy cheap, buy twice". I then showed her the prices of the Harder & Steenbeck range and she quickly shut up!

Well, hope this helps out anyone who uses Chinese AB range.

Chris

View attachment 20971

View attachment 20972

View attachment 20973

 

[dubster72]

That's a good job fixing it Chris, maybe now I'll dare to try the Mr Color paints & thinner I've got coz that's lacquer based so I thought best not to after your unfortunate accident. though to be honest, at these prices, I wasn't expecting miracles!