<> **** DONE: 1/48 Fairey Swordfish MkII - WW1 / WW2 over Water.

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Geo, got your stuff thanks.

I don't believe that there was any other weapons fitted underwing when the RP's were used.

Chris, I agree, though there are definitely pics of rockets with these apparent flare canisters used concurrently.

 

[dogsbody]

Thanks guys. Geo, got your stuff thanks.



Chris, I agree, though there are definitely pics of rockets with these apparent flare canisters used concurrently.

Well, there you go! I never noticed that before. You never stop learning.

Home

Home

Home

Home

Home

Home

Home


Chris

 

[Crimea_River]

Yep, those are all reference shots I've used. The last one is the subject of my model, same plane as the one in the pic taken from the rear quarter where the crew are folding the wings. Also this one:

 

[Wurger]

And one more ...

Home

IMHO if there was racked more than these rockets only it depended on the task the crew was going to run. The two enlarged shots may indicate that...

 

[fubar57]

Yep, I've seen several pics with small bombs attached, similar to Andy's last shot

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone for the info. Still need to get the correct colours for those cylinders as I'm not convinced of Tamiya's red/yellow scheme.

 

[Wurger]

In all pic we seen here the colour seems to be the same these rockets were painted. It is very dark so the black or dark green could have been used.

Not sure if these in the pic below are the flares ( however these might have been different charges ) but are dark and of one colour.

Edit... finaly I've found. According to the origin caption the shot below was taken in the FAA museum. Also it is said to be a smoke & flame float also called a Marine Marker. Dropped is floating and lighting for about 2 hours on the see.

The info, pic and file source : Swordfish Weapons

Marine Marker: body and nose: red, tail and tailcap: yellow, length: 30", body diameter: 5.8", weight 19lb.

More info can be found in the PDF file.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff, and in line with what I mentioned earlier re smoke floats. The Black cylinder also shown is a flare, similar to those used by Bomber Command, but shorter, and slightly smaller diameter.

 

[Crimea_River]

Perfect! Thanks very much Wojtek. I just received a similar reference from Geo. I thought I had one of these filed somewhere but I could no longer locate it so am glad I got another copy.

Tamiya supplies those finned flares as well so I'll now need to decide what my loadout will be.

 

[Wurger]

My pleasure.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

So, with all that resolved more or less, I got on with finishing off these pyrotechnic devices. I decided against a full load out but wanted to do at least one marker (the yellow and red cylinder) and one flare, though the latter does not appear to show up much in period pics. The load out I replicated is basically the one shown in the museum pic posted by Wojtek above, right or wrong. (Logically, it would not seem to make sense to carry a marker which creates smoke on the sea surface seen during the daylight hours and a flare which would be used for illuminating targets at night, though the markers might presumably have been carried on every mission as a default to mark where pilots went down)

Anyway, let's start with some finishing touches on the R/P carriers. Close examination of photos shows an arrangement of the sockets for the R/P trailing cables to be mounted on some sort of conduit on the back of the carrier plate but unfortunately I could not find a clear picture so I used a bit of logic and artistic license. Here's what they ended up looking like. I also drilled holes in the back of the motors to receive the trailing cables that will be added later.

With that done, I got on with painting the marker cylinders with the yellow coat seen being applied here.

The light bomb carriers provided with the kit were modified slightly as I waited for the yellow paint to cure. The right one in the pic below is how the unmodified kit part looks. On the left one, I added a strip of plastic card to represent a part that shows up in actual pics of this unit. Also, I elected to not mount any ordnance on the center carriers so I filed some crescents into these to make them look more realistic.

Virtually all pics of the R/P carrying Swordfish Mk II's that I've seen show that they also carried the Universal Bomb Carrier (UBC), though it always seems to be empty. The kit part seen on the sprue below is designed to look correct with ordnance glued to it so the stabilizers won't look quite right for an empty carrier.

To make these look a bit better, I used a round file to create the proper crescent shape in the stabilizers, though they remain a bit on the thick side.

Skipping a few steps, I did not take any further progress shots on the flare and marker prep but include the below pic of the finished units mounted into the light bomb carriers. Note that on the black flare, I modified the fins a bit by making some very small saw cuts at the trailing edge and cutting away the portions of the fins that extended toward the center of the device. The black strip on the marker and the red one on the flare were sliced from old decals. It took some doing to get these to sit down as the radius is so small and the decals were relatively thick, as they had to be to survive the cut.

Here's the finished UBC painted black and lightly drybrushed in silver to pick out the details.

That's it for today.Getting very close to finishing this project now and will post again when I get some more of the finishing touches done. Thanks again for looking in.

 

[turbo]

Looks terrific Andy, nice detail work

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

Excellent Andy.

 

[fubar57]

Very nice

 

[Robert Porter]

Very nice! Love the little touches they make such a difference!

 

[rochie]

Very nice Andy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone. A little more done today.

Here's how I make the Niphan cables and plugs for the back of the R/P's. The materials are 0.2mm lead wire and 0.5mm plastic rod. (I know the pic shows 0.8mm rod - I actually changed my mind when I saw these as being a bit too big.)

Eight lengths of wire were cut and a corresponding number of tiny discs were sliced off the rod. The end of the wire was then dipped into thick CA and then the discs were picked up with the wire. A little more CA was then applied to create a cone shape to resemble the plug. (Yeah, I know they look like sperm under the microscope!)

The wires were then glued into the previously drilled holes and draped appropriately.

And finally, the wires were painted black and the plugs white.

With that all done, I threaded a length of nylon invisible mending thread through the tube atop the antenna post, glued the other end to the post on the wing center section, pulled it tight, and then dabbed some thin CA at the end of the tube. Small dabs of CA were then applied to simulate the insulators and the wire was then painted with Alclad Magnesium.

I then began going over some areas with a silver pencil and black pastel to weather the model.

Tomorrow, I'll give the model a once over, touch up as needed and then post up the finished pics. Thanks again everyone.

 

[turbo]

Top work Andy