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Question for the WNW builders


dmthamade

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11 hours ago, dmthamade said:

...PE and me have an agreement, I won't try and use it, and it won't make my life a miserable soul sucking exsistence. ...

 

 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

11 hours ago, DeanKB said:

Sit down.

 

1944. Late 1944.

 

British Navy aircraft were not exactly world class. Unless we bought some American aircraft.

It wasn't modern but it did the job, and it outlasted its intended successor, the Albacore.

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19 hours ago, DeanKB said:

Sit down.

 

1944. Late 1944.

 

British Navy aircraft were not exactly world class. Unless we bought some American aircraft.

Indeed, though arguably world class in the late 1930s (Nimrod, Osprey, Swordfish). The interesting aspect of Swordfish history is that by mid-war it was entirely obsolete as a carrier torpedo bomber (and relegated to a training role only), but world class in its new anti-submarine role (and superior to American aircraft in bad weather). An anti-submarine rocket/depth charge equipped Swordfish could get off the short decks of Royal Navy US built escort carriers in the most appalling Atlantic weather, when US build F4Fs or TBFs were hangar queens. Not so the Swordfish. It was a forgiving aircraft to fly,  a stable rocket platform and in it's new role its slowness was not a crippling handicap. 

 

 

Edited by iang
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I have some flat nylon fishing line intended for my Swordfish, but life has been getting in the way of modelmaking recently.... Not being a fisherman I have no idea what it is designed for, and I had to get it from a USA supplier, but it looks promising. If I can get it straight, glued, and painted aluminium! And in this scale, it really needs shaving slightly at each end to simulate the reduction down to the theaded ends. Swordfish is a big aircraft, and the larger wires are about an inch wide, pretty substantial!! 

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Rigging comes after painting.

 

If you did the rigging first, you'd be trying to airbrush wing surfaces and what not with rigging running all over and in the way.  They would collect a lot of overspray and end up a lot thicker than you want them to be.

 

I drill all the pilot holes for rigging before painting.  I see some others do it differently.

 

Then paint.  Then glue in turnbuckles/eyelets.  Then rig.  Then paint the rigging/eyelets/turnbuckles.

 

 

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Just thinking aloud, I wonder if flattened carbon fibre rod make a good rigging medium on something as big as a Swordfish?

It's far stiffer than steel ribbon and so would provide structural strength as well as resist sagging or bending.

On an ID Models vac Swordfish I built for a Bismarck attack TAG vet, I used Contrail airfoil strut, but I Don't have enough left for another aircraft.

 

During the course of that build, I read up on various aspects of Swordfish ops., including the attack and the consensus of aircrew and battle analysts seems to be that the aitcraft's low speed and low altitude together with the weather conditions combined to produce a successful attack on a  major capital ship with state-of-the-art anti-aircraft defences. So perversely, the Swordfish obtained a more positive result for the Royal Navy than, say, an Avenger attack might have. Although it should be remembered the Swordfish didn't deliver a killer blow, but did cripple the German ship sufficiently to prevent her escaping and so be pounded to death by surface vessels.

Edited by Chek
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Trumpeter's Swordfish is also a very good kit, clearly inspired by Tamiya's 1/48th offering, but with a slightly cruder depiction of the canvas fabric. One mistake Trumpeter make is with their rigging instructions, where they confuse the wing walkways with rigging (providing horizontal steel wires where walkway makings should go). One to watch for.

 

As for the service history of the aircraft, of all the engagements it was involved in,  the night attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto by 21 Swordfish in November 1940, which severely damaged three battleships, was surely its greatest feat.

Edited by iang
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I find that using turnbuckles is a royal pain, and seeing planes without them compared to those with turnbuckles is not so different. A little silver paint on the end of the rigging works fine to me. As far as Pacific Swordfish, they were mostly on carriers. By the time British carriers entered the Pacific, Swordfish had been replaced. Although I suppose a few had made it to Australia.

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