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Trumpeter conversion to a Swordfish Mk III


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A little more progress....

 

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Slats removed, gaping hole in the wing filled with a strip of Evergreen plastic of a suitable size. I've filled the underside of the slats with Sylmasta Magic Sculp Smooth Epoxy Putty, which is delightful to use. I'd rather spend a couple of minutes getting the filler to as close to the right shape while it is soft, than apply loads and then spend time grinding it all off again when it is hard! Call me lazy.... But this stuff is a doddle to smooth out with any clean sculpting tools, and a drop of water. It goes off overnight to rock-hard, is easy to sand and file, it sticks well, provided you rough up the underlaying surface, and it is almost exactly Trumpeter Plastic Grey in colour!

 

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Ailerons sectioned out as well, I will add some material to their leading edges to form the 'nose' of these control surfaces. The slots for the hinges have also been cleaned out. Quite a bit of work yet to do on them...

 

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Finally, the upper wing leading edges have been fully filled and smoothed over with Magic Sculp, then block sanded smooth once the epoxy putty had set hard. Red Acryl filler has been used to wipe into a few small gaps, and I'll sand that smooth tomorrow night. I added a slice of plastic strip on the ends of the slats to make up the material lost in sawwing them out of the wing.

 

More soon,

 

Tim

Edited by wunwinglow
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A bit more work on the wing control surfaces and slats. The more I look at these, the more I think these kit parts are not quite right, probably the wing section is a bit off, but I'm not going to replace both entire wings! The leading edges of the ailerons are built up to their triangular section, the lower ailerons needing a bit of an extension with some 1mm square plastic strip; I must remember to cut away a matching strip on the wings... I used Magic Sculp, roughing up the plastic surfaces to make sure the putty sticks well. The slats looked very flat on the top surface, so I added a strip of 0.5mm square strip a couple of mm back from the leading edges of the slats, to act as a gauge, and skimmed on some more epoxy putty. Smoothed down to a nicer curved contour, this gives the slats a much more aerodynamic look.

 

Once the putty had set, the edges are cleaned up with a sharp blade and sanded smooth.

 

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More soon!

 

Tim

Edited by wunwinglow
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Inspiring! I have a Mk II I'm contemplating (I have all the Eduard PE). I also have the Xtradecal set so I can do one with invasion stripes.

 

Really like how your doing the slats & cet. Some good tips for others to follow!

 

Cheers,

 

Tim W.

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A bit more progress, our typical Bank Holiday weather yesterday meant another afternoon in the shed with a thunderstorm outside! The upper wing ailerons have had the cut ends capped with styrene sheet, trimmed level when the glue had dried thoroughly, and then a bit of trimming to get them into the wing correctly. I have a little bench disc sander which gave up the ghost recently, but it was still useful to get the aileron ends sanded square. I must locate a new motor for it, it is a fantastically useful piece of equipment!

 

I did notice the aileron push rod fairings on the wing don't line up with the hinge apertures in the ailerons, so they will need moving.

 

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More soon

 

Tim

P

Edited by wunwinglow
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I've been trying out a few different methods for making the rib tapes. There are lots on this aircraft, because a) it's a biplane, and B), it's HUGE! So I think the Archers Decal route is out, simply because of the expense. I can't think why they put both 48th and 32nd items on one sheet either. I have some of the HGW sheets, but they look way too big, and there is 10 times more open space on the decal sheet than rib tapes, and I can't quite loose the feeling of not getting best value...

 

Anyway, I'm trying out some other methods, and the best ones so far involve scoring short little 'stabs' in the plastic surface, then overlaying aluminium foil of some sort. So far I've tried some self-adhesive ali tape which is a bit too thick, but easy to cut and handle. I've tried Bare Metal foil, which is a bear to cut and handle, forms over the nicks perfectly, but is so thin when you paint over it, you only see the tape because the paint is a different degree of mattness. Finally, I'm using kitchen ali foil, which seems to cut into thin strips nicely with sharp scissors, and Microscale foil adhesive. It is stiff enough to get onto the model surface without blowing around in the breeze, it forms over the nicks and looks like taped-over stitches, and is just thick enough to look like a tape; which probably means it is really too thick, but I need to see it to believe it!!

 

I'm wondering if there are any other methods you guys might know, before I start taping up these Swordfish wings. Or any experiences of such applications drying out and peeling off at a later date? Or masking problems? Or anything else?

 

I might try doing the rudder with the kitchen foil in the meantime, and see what it looks like.

 

I also ordered some litho plate to try out on some thicker panels. Should be interesting....

 

Tim P

Edited by wunwinglow
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Tim--

 

You're way ahead of me. I'm still tinkering with the cockpit area--managed to get the pilot's seat position mounted (along with Eduard PE seatbelts and the instrumentation that is below the pilot's position).

 

Now I'm trimming the cockpit "cage" to add various PE replacement bits.

 

What's your take on the interior color? Some of the pix I've seen show what looks like two different greens--the standard RAF interior green color and a more bronze green-ish color.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim W.

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Tim, I don't have any period colour pics of the interior, all those I have are restorations, and as you say, they are all sorts of colours!! For war-time machines, I'm inclined to go with RAF Interior Green, with the inside surfaces of the fabric portions of the fuselage a streaky reddish primer colour. The instrument and other panels are probably going to be black, but If I learned anything about aircraft colours, is you can never say never, or never say always, Some of the restorations show the tubular fuselage structure in a pale bluey-turquise colour, and the cockpit 'sills' either side of the pilots seat in black, with seat itself in bare dull aluminium. You also have to be careful of additional fittings such a modern radios, fire extinguishers which were not in the originals, and other things that are now missing, such as bomb and torpedo fusing panels and flares. The cockpits are all VERY busy of course, and a little artistic license will be acceptable, I'm sure. Of course, the moment you close up the cockpit, someone will discover 200 Kodachromes that were taken on one of the production lines in 1942.....

 

Unfortunately the "Main Man" for Fairey questions, Ian D Huntley, passed away a couple of years ago, but he wrote dozens of articles in various modelling magazines on aviation colour and marking issues, and more, Scale Aviation Modelling for example, and I'm sure this was covered. I will have a look through the issues I have, but if anyone knows which issues might be relevent, that would be really helpful!

 

I was lucky enough to get to know Ian a little as he helped my father and I with several PP Models projects, the Fireflies and the MDC Swordfish kit; a true gent.

 

I'm putting the Swordish tail feathers together just now, to see if my rib tape ideas look OK. More pics shortly.

 

Tim P

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Tim, I don't have any period colour pics of the interior, all those I have are restorations, and as you say, they are all sorts of colours!! For war-time machines, I'm inclined to go with RAF Interior Green, with the inside surfaces of the fabric portions of the fuselage a streaky reddish primer colour. The instrument and other panels are probably going to be black, but If I learned anything about aircraft colours, is you can never say never, or never say always, Some of the restorations show the tubular fuselage structure in a pale bluey-turquise colour, and the cockpit 'sills' either side of the pilots seat in black, with seat itself in bare dull aluminium. You also have to be careful of additional fittings such a modern radios, fire extinguishers which were not in the originals, and other things that are now missing, such as bomb and torpedo fusing panels and flares. The cockpits are all VERY busy of course, and a little artistic license will be acceptable, I'm sure. Of course, the moment you close up the cockpit, someone will discover 200 Kodachromes that were taken on one of the production lines in 1942.....

 

Unfortunately the "Main Man" for Fairey questions, Ian D Huntley, passed away a couple of years ago, but he wrote dozens of articles in various modelling magazines on aviation colour and marking issues, and more, Scale Aviation Modelling for example, and I'm sure this was covered. I will have a look through the issues I have, but if anyone knows which issues might be relevent, that would be really helpful!

 

I was lucky enough to get to know Ian a little as he helped my father and I with several PP Models projects, the Fireflies and the MDC Swordfish kit; a true gent.

 

I'm putting the Swordish tail feathers together just now, to see if my rib tape ideas look OK. More pics shortly.

 

Tim P

 

Thanks for the response--I'm going with the basic interior RAF green color, with some wear and tear & a black or dark grey wash to bring out the details...pix coming soon.

 

The Eduard PE instrumentation are pre-colored black and are very nice, especially the replacement radio face with all sorts of multicolored dials and knobs.

 

Looking forward to more of this build!

 

Tim W.

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A bit more progress, the rib tape idea seems to work so far. After marking out in pencil where the ribs were, I used a sharp straight scalpel blade to create lines of little 'stabs' into the surface. I used an old Scale Aircraft Modelling etched scale rule to keep the lines straight and pitched evenly. Then the plastic surface was cleaned with a wipe of isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) to remove any greasy fingerprints. I brushed some Microscale Foil Adhesive onto the matt side of some kitchen aluminium foil (smooth type, not the textured stuff) and allowed to dry; 10 minutes or so. It clears when ready.

 

I found I could cut this up into strips a bit less than 1mm wide quite easily, using some big, sharp scissors, and with some practice it was possible to keep them fairly consistant in width. Now the tricky bit. With the model part held down so it can't move, and using two pairs of tweezers, the strip is positioned over the line of nicks. A slight tap down will tack the strip temporarily in place, then you can realign it by CAREFULLY lifting and re-attaching it. When happy with the position, a quick firm wipe with a soft cloth (I used some spectacle cleaning cloth) burnish the tape down, and bingo, the little nicks show through as stitches, with the foil making the rib tape.

 

It is all a bit delicate at this point, so once I had done one side of the tailplane, I brushed some Future onto each strip to seal it. I'll blow some primer over the whole lot once the Future has dried.

 

Points to watch; leave one end of of the foil patch uncoated with glue, so you can handle it. Make sure the lines of nicks are where you want them, because if they are out of line, pitch or not square/parallel when they should be, it screams at you!! And they will be fiddly to fill and repair if they are in the wrong place. For example, see the 4th tape in from the right. No, I'm not going to fix it, it is on the underside, so only I will know about it. And you, dear reader....

 

Marking out takes the longest time, but once you get stabbing and taping, it happens quite quickly. I did all the stabs, then all the tapes, because I doubt if the tapes would stand having an etched rule pressed onto them when you do the next tape!

 

Only thing to do now, is plough on with the rest of the airframe. Wish me luck!

 

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Tim P

Edited by wunwinglow
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