Sturmbock

Thank you for your kind comment Fab! I hope to get her across the finish line.

Thanks Kagemusha! Only little progress at the moment, the cockades and markings are painted on using Tamiya's acrylics.... ...and sealed with a light coat of Alclad's Gloss Cote to prepare the next phase.. ..the washing! A dark brown wash is given to all nooks and crannies.... ....and after a little drying time cleaned everything up with White Spirit. I'm actually not a big fan of the pre-mixed washings and filters and what's all out there. I prefer oil colors because of the better handling and processing when applying the colors. The Mig Dark Wash is the only exception for me. The ready-to-use washes dry faster and are perhaps quicker and more convenient to use, but unfortunately they spoil very quickly and become useless after a while. Especially if, like me, you don't have a particularly high output of models per year... At last painted the black walk-ways on... Next will be some paint chipping...hopefully Cheers guy's Lutz

This will be very interesting for shure. I hope they make it to the finish line

We all have those moments Kev....just carry on... Lutz

Hi everybody! After not doing anything on the Swordfish for a long time, I continued with the masking of the ribs on the upper sides of the wings. At the same time, the fuselage is masked and prepared for painting the national insignia and the identification! To create some contrast between the ribs and the recesses in between, I painted very thinned "Smoke" in a thin coat over the entire surface. Then followed by another thin and irregular application between the ribs. Always careful not to overdo it or get too dark in intensity. Looks a little bit patchy but that's what I'm looking for! The contrast looks a little stark under the light conditions in my room but under normal daylight it looks fine. I also masked the black walk way stripes. Trumpeter want's you to use PE Parts for this but this would be wrong. Next is painting the markings and then it's time for the weathering! Thank you guys Cheers!

Like it a lot! It looks like a huge progress to me, really good work! Especially the wiring on the wheel wells. Everything looks fine! Cheers Lutz

Thank you Tim, glad you like it! Lutz

Thanks Troy! I hope I get her trough the finish line!

Thanks Mike!

Hi everybody! Haven't done much lately! Only painted the roundels on the upper wings and filled and sanded the struts on the lower wings. So no big progress at all..... I used Alclad's Mil Spec Colours because I think they are a close match to the original ones and they are airbrush ready... And taking care of the struts on the lower wing... Cheers Guy's

That's just fantastic! Great build and pictures! Cherrs! Lutz

Superb build! Really nice. Lutz

Hi everybody! The painting work continues with the fuselage. First I start with the lighter shade of the two camouflage colors, the RAF Dark Slate Gray to which I added a bit of dark green to show a slight color change as a first step in the weathering phase. Then I lightened it up with a little OFF White given to the base colour. After letting the paint dry I masked of the areas for the next colour. Then masking again and apply the next colour RAF Dark Sea Grey lightened up with white. Also on the wings... It's a good feeling beeing at this point now but there is a lot of work more still to do... Bye! Lutz

Hi Tolga! Your Thunderbolt looks absolutely great! I love the way you paint and the way you weather it, looks fantastic! No WiP? Did we miss something?? Cheers! Lutz

Hi everybody! Time for paint has come! The wings on this machine were originally painted black on the undersides. To keep the black from being too monotonous and to make it a little more interesting to the eye, I prepainted the wings in a very dark gray. To be precise its Nato black by Tamiya. Looks black at first glance, but much lighter compared to pure black. Then I masked the rib structure of the wings with 1 mm wide strips of tamiya tape. A really tedious thing but with your favorite music and a lot of patience it's no problem! The fuselage will be painted black and then lightened up with brown and some lighter shade of Grey. After this therapeutic work, I then painted heavily diluted pure black over the entire surface. On the next picture you can hopefully see the contrast, still masked on the left, unmasked on the right. Under direct light it looks a bit high in contrast, but that changes with a different angle or light or moving away from it. I'm happy with it anyway and I can always repaint with black if needed. That's all for now! Cheers! Lutz

Good evening everybody! Now It's time to move to the wings and this is going to be a tough nut to crack for me I'm afraid! This is my second biplane after almost thirty years so this will be the most dreadful part of the build! Starting with the uper wings and the middle section and the outer struts using Eduards PE and the kits own PE's which are very stiff and thick in terms of material thickness, but that's not for bad because it will give the needed strength to the construction. After I put the wing halves together, filled and sanded everything I had my thougths.. Trumpeter wants us to assemble the wings completely with the struts and braces as one part for each side and join it with the fuselage. Imho I am shure this is the best way for heading into desaster, at least for me.. So I desided to go another way. I joined the top wings to the middle section. The outer struts are glued and filled to the upper wings. I will paint the upper wingsection first and then move to the lower ones and join them together and painting.... My plan is to build up the whole wingsection as on single unit and connect it with the fuselage. But first some dry fitting... This doesn't look too bad! I hope I didn't fool myself with that stragety! Last step masking everything... ....and primer on... Ready for the paint booth... Cheers! Lutz

Hi Pete! I'll definitely check that out again! I'm not shure if this Swordfish was carrying a torpedo anyway or maybe the torpedo and only two bombs or one under each wing! 815 Sqn. was deployed in North Africa against Rommel's Afrika Corps flying night attacks, so no torpedos for shure! But they were also stationed on Malta if I didn't get it wrong! Thanks for the hint! Cheers Lutz

Thank you guy's! Let's wait how it looks under paint!

The same thing here, but then I've wondered about the tissue paper covered underwings!

Beautiful paint job on a not often seen a/c! Fantastic! Lutz

Hello fellow modellers! Working on more payload for the Stringbag! I would like to structure the surface of the bombs a bit. I apply Mr. Surfacer and let it dry briefly. Then I dab on the surface with a bristle brush and create a porous structure. After letting everything dry overnight, I carefully sanded the rough surface with steel wool, only very finely! This is the result, not perfect but I can live with that! Cheer's and Happy Easter everybody! Lutz

Thank you Gentleman for your comments, very appreciate them! Today I took care of the torpedo. Upgraded with a few photo etched parts from Eduard, no big deal. And a bit of detailing on the Oilcooler and the compass! Thats all for now! Have a great Weekend guys! Lutz

Hello everybody! If you ask me, I think the Swordfish must have been engineered by their "A-Team " because of the general very good fit. The construction of the cockpit area was real fun and it fits perfectly into the fuselage. No problems here: After closing the fuselage, I had to puty and sand the usual problem zones. Some details had been lost over that and I had to restore them by punching out some Plastik sheet. Adding some details using Eduard's PE's and masking of the windshield Looks more and more like a swordfish! I wonder why Trumpeter missed to portrait the compass holder on the starboard side!?? Well, I take care about that later... Bye! Lutz

Yeessss!

I really love your neat paintwork, love how the preshding pops up! Very inspiring. I got the Bf110E from Hobby 2000 here waiting, guess I will do the ZG 26 in dessert camo. RLM79 just looks to good on a Bf 110! Lutz