Tamiya 1/48 Fairey Swordfish Mk II. "Stringbag".

[Willem]

My Stringbag flies over the ocean,
My Stringbag flies over the sea,
If it weren't for King George's Swordfish,
Then where would the Royal Navy be?

The Fairey Swordfish was a fabric-covered, fixed undercarriage biplane with a maximum speed of 120 knots. It was obsolete well before 1939 yet served throughout the war in all theatres outlasting it's intended replacement the Albacore. During the first half of the war it sank more Axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft, famously crippled the Italian fleet at Taranto, critically damaged the Bismarck thereby allowing the home fleet to finish her off as well as serving in Malta and desert airstrips in North Africa. After the disastrous loss of an entire squadron of Swordfish in the channel dash of February 1942 the Swordfish was redeployed as an anti submarine patrol aircraft often flying from the small decks of mac ships and auxiliary carriers in all weathers and sea conditions.

The Swordfish's flying characteristics proved ideal as a carrier borne aircraft and the crews loved it for it's robust design, reliability, versatility and tolerance of pilot error. The nickname "Stringbag" came about as a reference to a typical housewife's shopping bag and the aircraft's ability the lift varied and large loads including torpedoes, mines, depth charges, rocket projectiles, bombs, extra fuel tanks, flares and the occasional motorcycle. The Mk II featured a metal skinned lower wing surface to enable rockets to be fired and the addition of an early surface radar when in the anti submarine role.

The kit was released in 2007 and comprises a large box (for a 1/48 kit) packed full of plastic.

















Very detailed instructions and a small decal sheet.



A full size painting guide.



Some extras that I seem to have acquired over the years (this has been in the stash for a while). Not sure how much will be used and I think I have a resin Pegasus engine somewhere too but I'll include picks if I find it and if I decide to use it.









I'm not going to use the kit decals as I got this booklet some time ago.



There are decals included for all marks and I'm undecided between the following Mk IIs both in mac ship schemes.

[sthornton]

looks like it will be af un build will watch your progress

[Joesdad]

Yummy

[Willem]

Thanks lads. I hope not to disappoint.

Had a day off today so managed to get some of the cockpit together. The kit is very detailed out of the box and the cockpit composes of two deck pieces that will be mated up to framework sides.





The frames are attached to the sprue at the bottom only so it's handy to prime and spray while still attached.





The cockpit halves were detached from the sprue and cleaned up . Unfortunately there are a number of ejection pin marks evident and I hope that they won't be too obvious when closed up.





Sub assemblies were primed with Alclad black primer and then sprayed with Mr Hobby cockpit green. The lower half of the cockpit interior is fabric and I've represented that using a Vallejo brown. Detail painting was carried out with various shades of Vallejo.







These will get a coat of clear varnish ready for some oil washes and further weathering.

Thanks for looking.

[privatepete]

You certainly have been a busy boy young Will, as you say it's pack with some very nice details,good luck with the rest of the build, I'm hoping some of your aircraft skill filters back to me.

[Willem]

Cheers, Pete. It's not very often that I get described as young anymore so you made my day.

Continuing on with the cockpit assembly, the two decks were joined with the side frames after the pilot's harness was added. Several bits of detail were added from the Eduard Zoom set at this stage. The only real problems I encountered were the seat harnesses for the observer and the telegraphist/rear gunner. The photo etch harnesses are meant to be attached to the upper cockpit deck and then anchored to the lower deck. I managed to fit the observer's harness but the telegraphist position received some painted masking tape as I just didn't have the dexterity for the etched parts.













I opted not to use the etched instrument panel as it would have meant removing positive attachment points used to fit the piece to the sidewall. The kit decals were added and blasted with Tamiya thinner to get them to conform.



This means that the forward firing machine gun is now fitted although it was mostly deleted from anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

The fuselage halves and the cockpit assembly were given an oil wash followed by a coat of flat varnish. Those ejection pin marks are going to haunt me.





Two clear parts were added to the forward end of the fuselage sides and three holes were drilled out on each side to accept the rigging wires.



Then the whole assembly was sandwiched together after careful dry-fitting and shaving off several layers of paint and varnish. Even so it was a tight fit and the fuselage was cemented in stages and taped up as tight as possible. This will be left to cure for a day or two.

[privatepete]

Hi Will, stupid question time is this how you attach the rigging wires then out to he wings and do you just glue the wire straight to the wing or drill very small hole to put the end of the wire in and then glue ?

Two clear parts were added to the forward end of the fuselage sides and three holes were drilled out on each side to accept the rigging wires.

[Willem]

Hey mate. This kit has a rigging set and I'm a wee bit nervous as never rigged a biplane before but it has an after market set.

From what I've gathered people use different things. Some guys use stretched sprue and some use EZ line. I think drilling holes and positioning your rigging material is the way forward. Is there a rigging diagram with your Walrus kit?

I'm going to build another biplane soon so will have a ref search in the next few days. If I turn up anything good I'll send you a link mate.

[privatepete]

Hey mate. This kit has a rigging set and I'm a wee bit nervous as never rigged a biplane before but it has an after market set.

From what I've gathered people use different things. Some guys use stretched sprue and some use EZ line. I think drilling holes and positioning your rigging material is the way forward. Is there a rigging diagram with your Walrus kit?

I'm going to build another biplane soon so will have a ref search in the next few days. If I turn up anything good I'll send you a link mate.

Yes there is a rigging diagram for the Walrus, any help gratefully received, never done any of this before thank you

[privatepete]

You may or may not find these pic handy hope so

Fairey Swordfish III Walk Around

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_ ... php?Page=1

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_ ... php?Page=2

[Willem]

Cool pics, mate. Thanks.

Try this link.



And this one. Starts about 4 mins in.



Hope this helps you out mate but possibly a case of the blind leading the blind.

[Willem]

A little bit of progress has been made on the Swordfish.

After the fuselage had fully cured I added the tail empennage and the support struts. The support struts still need a bit of tidying up.



I've left the arrestor hook and tail wheel off for now so the I can paint and weather them separately.

The support struts on the top of the nose have been added.



The two small nubs are for connecting the torpedo sights.

The lower wing stubs have been added.



There has been a little bit of filler added to the seams but all through my own numptiness as the kit fits together so well that sub assemblies, for example, need a little bit of manipulation before they almost snap fit. The only real problem I've had so far is the lower fuselage seam that will need a bit more reworking.



There are three pieces of clear parts that need to be fitted before joining pieces together. I've abandoned the canopy glue and used extra thin carefully run around the edges so that they don't get pushed in through careless handling.





Got a smear of cement on this lower one but I'll have to live with it.



I'm currently thinking about masking these with fluid rather than tape although I've not used Maskol before.

So this is where I am with this build so far. I must say that I'm full of admiration for biplane builders. Even though this is a Tamiya kit with superb engineering, the rest of the build will require building and painting in sub assemblies and I'm hoping that my levels of patience are up to it.



Thanks for dropping by.

[RossiM1]

Wow great kit and a brilliant start the cockpit looks awesome Willem look forward to seeing more

[Willem]

Thanks for looking in, Gary.

On to the mighty Bristol Pegasus. The construction calls for a couple of etched pieces that I was slightly anxious about but I needn't have been too worried as everything fits together and the etched pieces are easy to bend to shape and are sandwiched between styrene parts so no need to break out the superglue and stick everything to the mat.









I know that I have a resin engine somewhere but a) I can't find it. b) I can't see it being a massive improvement.

Added the back end and a cheeky dry fit to see that everything lines up.









The engine and cooler ring were primed and sprayed in Alclads. I'm not convinced with the shade on the cooler ring which was a mix of engine manifold and dark aluminium but I'm in Birmingham tomorrow so I'll pop into a shop in Bearwood that carries Alclads and see if he has a bronze.





I gave the engine a black oil wash and painted the ignition coil black.



That's all for now.

[Avgas]

Top job so far Will. Wouldn't worry about the glue on the panel, only God is perfect. Well, that's what I keep telling myself...

[demarcation]

A very nice kit. Cockpit looks superb, keep up the good work!

[RossiM1]

Really cracking on at a pace there Will, have you tried the Vallejo metallizers? Mr Models sells them and they are a lot more durable than the Alclads, and don't smell so bad either.

[privatepete]

Nice work, keep it up Will

[TommyKillander]

Excellent work, mate!


Tommy

[dogsbody]

By " cooler ring " do you mean cowling ring or collector ring? As it is the exhaust collector, I'm not sure what you were trying to say.


Chris

[martin57]

Just a great build so far will ,
I will be interested to see how that after market rigging works.

[Joesdad]

Top jobbie Will

[pourquoi61]

Bloody brilliant work, I take my hat off to you.