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Hi, I’m
Graham Tarran, living in very dark & cold (at the moment) southern England.
I’ve been modelling on & off since I was a kid.
Started with the usual Airfix models, then discovered girls & let the
hobby go for a few years but came back with a vengeance after getting married.
During the Gulf War, my interest wavered away from modern jets as it had
been & towards modern armour & I built up quite a collection of kits on
this subject from the likes of Tamiya, Dragon & Accurate Armour.
However, about 6 years ago I returned to normality & started to
concentrate on “tail-draggers”
of WW2.
By some
standards I believe I am something of a quick builder; specialising in 1/48, I
can normally get an average kit together & finished in around 2 weeks.
Not in this case. Although
it was an enjoyable build, I was very glad to get it off my workbench after
about 6/7 weeks. Here’s how.
As per usual
for Tamiya, the kit parts (& there are a lot of them!) are beautifully
moulded with absolutely no flash whatsoever.
The modeller
is offered the option of open or folded wings & also the use of a separately
available etched steel bracing wire set. I
opted for the former & got hold of the etched just as I had on a previous
landplane Swordfish (that for the floatplane includes the float strut braces).
This fret contains a cowl support ring, pilots gunsight & torpedo
sights in addition to the rigging (seat belts would have been nice at the
price!).
First task
was to open up a multitude of holes for the bracing wires.
A small “tool” is included on the etched fret for this purpose.
It is however rather small & flimsy so I took a small flat head
screwdriver & filed it to the correct size & profile for the purpose.
Now I joined all the wing upper & lower halves together & set
them aside.
Next stage
was to assemble the multi-part cockpit, all of which was painted in accordance
with the instructions, as were the fuselage insides.
There are three clear windows that I fixed carefully with CA glue to
ensure that none disappeared inside later on (benefits of experience here!).
When all was dry, the fuselage sides were cemented together & the
tail planes, lower wing centre section & upper wing support a-frame struts
in front of the cockpit were added. As
they are painted the same colour as the fuselage sides, I also added the float
struts.
Painting
& Decals.
Two schemes
are provided. A cerrux/NMF machine
with colourful markings (possibly pre-war but I believe that some units
operating away from home waters retained this scheme for a while after the
outbreak of the war) & a camouflaged machine.
Firstly, the fuselage sides & lower surfaces along with the bottom of
the floats, the lower surfaces of the upper & lower wings & the two V
struts between the lower wings & fuselage sides were painted in HUMBROL 40,
this being my interpretation of FAA Sky Grey.
A word of advise: From my
previous build of the Swordfish, I knew that the outer interplane struts were a
very good but tight fit into the locations provided on the underside of the
upper wings & upper side of the lower wings.
If paint is allowed to interfere with these joints it will have to be
removed later or a good fit will not result.
Therefore, the struts were pushed into their locations on the underside
of the top wings. The small
walkways on each of the lower “stub” wings were painted matt black &
masked. Once dry, a combination of
blue-tac, maskol & tape was used to mask the fuselage & the demarcation
for the upper Extra Dark Sea Grey/Dark Slate Grey colours (those interplane
struts now being inserted into their locations in the UPPER surfaces of the
LOWER wings). The top end of the
“V struts” were also painted in the upper fuselage colours for some reason.
Xtracolour paints used here.
All parts were now set aside to cure followed by application of the
decals. Surprisingly, there
aren’t that many for an aircraft of this size & complexity & an hour
or so saw this task completed. Next
task was to brush paint all the other small details as per the instructions.
Rigging
For me, this
was the only real trouble area with the entire model & despite it being my
second attempt & being armed with a little for-knowledge, I am not sure I
did any better a job of it this second time.
Firstly, the “cross” wires that run between the corners of the outer
interplane struts are a great fit when attached, but once the upper & lower
wings are joined for some unknown reason, they took on a distinctly “slack”
appearance. The only remedy I could
find was, once the wings were assembled & rigged, to snip them at their
upper ends – not ideal but it seemed to do the trick.
The main
diagonal wires are designed to be glued into their locations in the upper wings
& then simply pushed into the locations in the lower wings.
The cross wires for the INNER interplane struts seemed to me to be a few
mm too short, or maybe it was me? Anyway,
not perfect & mine do not stand up to close examination. Once assembled & dry however, you are rewarded with a
pretty sturdy assembly. This comes
in handy when attempting to join the wing assemblies to the fuselage & upper
wing centre section.
Now the
wings were attached as were the floats (along with their own rigging wires -
quite simple here) & tailplane rigging. A coat of flat varnish was applied
over all.
Final Details
The engine
was assembled & painted as per the instructions.
The front ring of the cowling is called out in steel with a narrow
“gold” band at it’s rear edge.
Humbrol
metalcoat used here. Final details such as the observer’s gun (the curved
piece is not I am told a magazine “a la” AK47 but supposed to be a cartridge
collection bag!), compasses & torpedo rack, oil breather, arrestor hook
& the two braces beneath the tailplanes that hold the wings when folded were
added.
Mistake No.
1. The upper surface of each lower wing has a cutout for a
landing lamp. The instructions show
small inserts to fill these flush & I assumed that these would be
transparencies & left them off for attaching after painting. However, it seems the floatplane didn’t possess these &
the inserts are solid. Out with the
paint again.
Mistake No.
2. After completion, I found a colour photo of this exact
machine & it appears that the entire floats are painted sky grey (as opposed
to topside upper camouflage colours). Beginning
to despair of ever finishing, I left well alone.
The Swordfish
possesses three outlets on each side of the rear fuselage, which Tamiya
faithfully provide. These are for the control cables to the elevators (above
& below) & either side of the rudder.
I drilled them out & inserted lengths of monofilament line with a
drop of CA. Once dry, the other
ends were pushed through tiny holes that I had drilled in the control horns
& again secured with CA (see photo). The
same line was used for the radio antenna from the mast on the upper wing to a
smaller one on the fin (Tamiya mould this in place but it’s so delicate that I
defy anyone not to break it off during the construction, painting & decaling
processes. I had to fabricate a
replacement from sprue).
Stores
There are
six 250lb (?) bombs with separate racks, four (smoke?) floats & four what I
believe are flares. The racks for
the flares & floats each comprise five parts; all were assembled & along
with the bomb racks painted flat aluminium.
The sway braces on the bomb racks are hopelessly wrong in that they’re
moulded solid but my patience was wearing a little thin now so once again I left
them as they were. All were now
glued into their locations.
With no
undercarriage on this floatplane, Tamiya provide the four small, single-wheeled
beaching “trolleys”, & locating holes are provided in the floats
themselves. In addition, a “trestle, made up from 5 parts is provided.
Phew!
Basically
that’s it. This model cries out for a diorama but that’s not my bag.
I have however a hankering to try my hand at a water diorama using the
techniques that appear in the ARC “Tips & Tools” section.
Graham
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