Trumpeter Swordfish 1:32

[dmthamade]

You're making great progress on the fish!! Good to see the rigging wasn't a problem. The exhaust ring looks much better toned down and dull, closer to the truth than a bright copper shade.

 

Don

[SCRATCH BUILDER]

Ah, finally some color, looks great Ferry!  

[themongoose]

Super looking build. Serious attention to detail rigging it during dryfitting and getting it all together smoothly!

[Chek]

I happened across some photos of a model I made from the old ID vacform about 25 years ago, for a presentation to a chap who was the TAG and a Bismarck attacker on Swordfish 2B, of 810 Sqn. I turned the torpedo from wooden dowel chucked in a hand drill, and used phone wire for the 'whiskers'. I thought you might be interested in the appearance details confirmed by an eyewitness who was on an Ark Royal attack squadron.

 

The torpedo bodies were bare steel as were the warheads, although the warheads were painted with bitumen as a preservative in the marine environment. I imagine that was OK in the cold of the North Atlantic, but wish I'd known more at the time and thought to ask how messy they got in the heat of the Mediterranean where Ark Royal had been previous to the hunt for the Bismarck. When the torpedoes were being armed for combat, the bitumen covering the port in the nose that the detonator pistol was screwed into was roughly wiped over with a petrol soaked rag to clean it. FAA detonators at the time had six whiskers. I'm told the overall effect passed muster with its recipient.

 

Unless you're after the spot of colour a training round can give, the photo below should give a good approximation of a live combat round.

 

[Fvdm]

Thanks for the great pics Chek. I will try to make a torpedo on the lathe. 

 

But first the paintjob. After the duck egg green i masked everything ans sprayed the dark green.

 

 

 

 

 

I sprayed this fridaymorning and this morning i wanted to spray the dark seagrey. For masking I used a method wich i saw here on the forum and that was masking with wet paper.

The only thing about  this is that the paper must stay wet or it wil move around. There was no time to detup the photoboot so a quick pic was taken.

 

 

 

Then I sprayed the dark seagrey and this afternoon I unpacked the whole thing. I must say that I'm happy with the result. There is some touching up to do but that is ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next thing to do is the touching up and then some clear gloss for the decals. After the decals another clear Gloss and than some shadowing. But first I let this paint dry.

 

Thanks for watching and until the next time

 

Ferry

 

 

 

 

 

[Wegener]

V good.  I also like the wet paper idea - could be useful when masking a surface whose paint adhesion might be suspect.

[GMK]

Ferry,

 

Lovely work. Quick one, were the lower surfaces of the Swordfish counter-shades/shadow-shaded in a lighter colour like the RAF did?

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Greg

[Chek]

Actually they were. The Dark Sea Grey/Slate Grey is correct for the lower wings, but the upper wings and fuselage should be Extra Dark Sea Grey, which is a darker and bluer shade, and the greenish Dark Slate Grey should also be similarly slightly darkened Slate Grey.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Chek

[Fvdm]

5 hours ago, Chek said:

Actually they were. The Dark Sea Grey/Slate Grey is correct for the lower wings, but the upper wings and fuselage should be Extra Dark Sea Grey, which is a darker and bluer shade, and the greenish Dark Slate Grey should also be similarly slightly darkened Slate Grey.

 

Oops, I didn't know that but I think I'm not going to change it.  Do you know why the colors are different?

[MikeC]

It was called "Shadow shading", although whether that was the official name for it or one it's acquired since I'm not sure.  Basically, the areas in shadow, ie the top of the lower wings, were a lighter colour so when seen as a whole, in the shadow of the upper wings, they looked the same as the rest of the aircraft.  That was the theory, anyway.

[Chek]

1 hour ago, Fvdm said:

 

Oops, I didn't know that but I think I'm not going to change it.  Do you know why the colors are different?

 

Yeah, that's why I didn't like to say so before. But then I thought well, that doesn't affect the rigged parts.

 

I was just watching some video of Phantoms and Buccaneers being catapulted off the Ark, and it's amazing how quickly the Extra Dark Sea Grey topsides blend into the ocean background very quickly after launch.

[nmayhew]

Very interesting about the colours on the wings and also about the use of sky

 

I had always thought they were white - the pictures of B-24s in the Azores etc are certainly white and not sky, as were Wellingtons and B-17s in Coastal Command no?

Edited February 27, 2019 by nmayhew

[MikeC]

Some were indeed white: I'm not well versed in FAA colour schemes, but sky and white were both used at different times. 

 

RAF Coastal Command aircraft schemes certainly did include white - indeed, that was the predominant colour.  The US Atlantic scheme also featured white.

[Chek]

2 hours ago, nmayhew said:

I had always thought they were white - the pictures of B-24s in the Azores etc are certainly white and not sky, as were Wellingtons and B-17s in Coastal Command no?

 

Very early in the war, Sky Grey was in use aand is often the recommended colour for Skuas and Rocs. Certainly around the 1941 period of the Bismarck hunt it had become Sky (the greenish colour as also in use by the RAF).

 

The white undersides were applied as a lo-level scheme when the Swordfish was used more in the anti-submarine role rather than sinking capital ships. I'd guess about 1943, but don't have a reference to hand, nor how long the changeover took.

[Fvdm]

Decalling is done and they are setteling right now so pics probably sunday.

 

I also had to make the torpedo. I've nothing heard of the LHS or Trumpeter so I went on making my one. I started with a piece of PVC roughly cut to lenght.

 

 

Then I took this to the lathe , rounded the front and tapered the end. After that was done I had to make the fins. Looking at the instructions and various pics I made the following.

 

 

 

This must be refined but at least it's a start. 

 

See you next time.

 

Ferry