Scale Model Shop

**Guest** · 03 January 2010, 22:11

Hi folks,

Cheers for the comments, it feels good to know that you guys are here to help me along the way. Hey Stona - thanks for the advice on the Fleet Air Arm camouflage and markings book. It's a bit pricey but may be very necessary as there are contentious paint schemes out there and I want to get this right. I shall also trawl the bay of fleas to see if there are any seconds out there. Thanks again Steve.

Well, today I managed to wash and dry the sprues in soapy warm water and have applied the Humbrol Acrylic Primer 1. The paint dried really quickly and gave an even covering. I sprayed outside having no spray booth as yet, but that's to come soon. Luckily the finish was very good with no splotches from the can nor dust particles or insect invasions, due to a crisp winters day! The finish seems to be finer than the usual Halfords primer, not as grainy though one thing to mention was my surprise when the first canister emptied with two sprues to go! Okay, it's a 1:32 scale plane and the canister is only 150mm but I thought it would have lasted for one model. Oh well, luckily I had another spare for just these sorts of situations and finished the entire kit.

In addition to the priming, I was unfortunately dragged along to help with the weekly Asda shop though the silver lining to this dirge was the purchase of a deep plastic container in the sales for £7. Bargain spray booth! As you probably noticed I have relagated myself to the dining room as my usual modelling workshop is closed due to adverse weather; well it's the garage and I refuse to work in -2deg conditions. You simply cannot glue two pieces of plastic together unless you heat up the garage and the earth...! So following on from the recent posts on DIY spraybooths, I need to look in B&Q for more goodies and get this finished. Once complete this will allow indoor painting cos the SWMBO wants zero mess and fumes in the dining room...and quite rightly too! (she reads the forum to) I think the container maybe large enough to fit two extractors, budget pending though, we shall see.

Next steps with the model, it's got to be the interior. Refering again to the SAM review they used a cream and Humrol Brick Red to simulate dope to seep through the sections of fabric on the interior fuselage. Have a look and please give your thoughts to this - Steve? Thanks again guys.

Chris

Addendum - have tried the blog but it's just not the same as the forum. No way of chronologicaly posting new blogs so have agreed with John to continue here. Sorry your kind words may be lost but all taken note of. Thanks again.

[ATTACH]20726.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]20727.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]20728.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]20729.IPB[/ATTACH]

**Guest** · 03 January 2010, 22:26

(Previous Comments)

dubster72

This all looks really good Chris, and you have the honour of being the first blogger! Ok, I know John did his one first but this is a real modelling one! I doubt that I'll be able to offer much help but that doesn't mean my interest in how this project goes won't be any the less! btw, they're a good bunch at MDC, sent me my stuff very quick. Bon voyage! Patrick

Richy C

I`m looking forward to this Chris , Like Patrick I wont be able to help having no experience with aircraft ( well to be honest having no experience really with any aspect of model making ) but will be watching with great interest and praising you all the way mate.

Richy

yak face

cant wait to see this one rolling,chris. with the extra bits i think youve got the makings of a beautiful kit , its going to look awesome , cheers tony

stona

Well Chris it certainly looks like you've got all the bits...and so well organised as well. I would recommend one reference book,if you can find it at a decent price. Stuart LLoyd's "Fleet Air Arm camouflage and markings 1937(?)-41". I used to have it but,can you believe it,gave it away to a better home when I started getting confused by the intricacies of Luftwaffe camouflage (also many expensive references available)!

Looking forward to this one.

Best of luck with the build.

Steve

Fenlander

Good luck with this. You have started the blog off very well giving the background details and your ambitions on this project. Have to say, I think you are very brave in so publicly and in such detail going through the build, well done you, it deserves respect and I know it will get it on here. I will certainly be tuning in.

Graham

**stona** · 04 January 2010, 10:24

5 or 7 coats of red dope (depending on material) were applied to outside of airframe.The first 2 coats half strength. These were usually covered with 2 coats of silver.This was considered the minimum number of coats required. Apparently the red only partially soaked into the fabric so your formula from SAM sounds about correct. The original material on a Swordfish would probably be Irish linen,so a creamy basic colour also sounds right. I have read this resulted in a "streaky cream pink interior colour". I've got a note of that but don't know where from!

By the way I feel your pain spraying. I do mine in the bit that joins the kitchen to the outhouse,no heating and a slate floor,bloody freezing! All such operations are currently suspended.

Cheers

Steve

**yak face** · 04 January 2010, 10:34

hi chris, brilliant to see were up and running,ill be watching intently.Like yourself and steve (stona) i do my modelling in an unheated outbuilding,ive got a little halogen heater but when its -2c its useless, needless to say my modelling ops are suspended like steves. I went in there this morn and the jar of water for cleaning the brushes was frozen solid! I imagine youll be fondling the sprues of the stringbag eager to get cracking (i know i would be!!) roll on the warmer weather ! cheers tony

**Guest** · 05 January 2010, 08:52

:shocking: WOW this is going to look stunning, i,ll be following this one.

BB.

**Guest** · 05 January 2010, 21:34

Hi Folks

Thanks for your comments. Sorry not had chance to comment sooner or add to the model build due to mad snow conditions. Took me an hour and a half to drive home, and I only live 3 miles from work! Yeah, the garage is def off limits as you can imagine it would almost be impossible to glue two peices of plastic together without shaking them to bits with the cold!

In the meantime I continue to research the history as to which plane and markings to go for. Still working on it though but apparantly, 4C V4298 is on the cards.

It seems that Bismarck’s gunners took a few pot shots of this Stringbag and holed the aircraft 175 times! Both the pilot, Sub-Lieutenant Swanton and his TAG, Leading Airman J. R. Seager were wounded, though their observer, Sub-Lieutenant G. A. Woods was unscathed. Swanton managed to land on the Ark Royal safely but the aircraft was beyond repair and was jettisoned from the aircraft carrier. Now, if I can get the colours right (if the xtradecal set is spot on) I might just go with this one with a few bullet holes to add? What do you think?

Steve, your comments on the dope pretty much confirm the mag review as said and will use that as the interior fuselage colour - thanks for the process breakdown. I really must try and find further documentation on the aircraft build and look for further walk around pics for the Stringbag.

Also, hope to finish the spray booth as well this week.

Thanks again for your comments. Please, if you have any further links or book titles for reference, let me know. Cheers.

Chris

**Guest** · 06 January 2010, 08:26

Yeah go for the bullet-riddled one Chris! How about a nice little base representing the Ark Royal's flight deck & the Stringbag just about to touch down? That would look really good, especially in light of recent posts about not too many plane models being shown 'in flight'.

Patrick

**stona** · 06 January 2010, 18:53

Hi Chris,found this on my computer. The only info I have is what is on the photo.....Swordfish exhaust ring. Thought you'd like to see it.

Steve

**yak face** · 06 January 2010, 19:30

great pic steve, all too often you see models of beaufighters,wellingtons,swordfishes etc with bright copper exhaust collector rings,whereas in reality these were very dark as per the pic,somehow i doubt the ground crews would have got the brasso out during maintenance! tony

**Guest** · 08 January 2010, 13:50

Oh now that is a really nice pic Steve! Thank you so much. Lovely shiny copper exhaust ring, obviously a photo of a show plane but is the first real photo of a Stringbag with the correct colour scheme with unpainted ring. All I've managed to find decent online, and in colour is the http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_hayward/fairey_swordfish_iii/images/fairey_swordfish_iii_27_of_36.jpg walk around of a Mk3 where the ring has been painted silver with a night colour scheme.

In respect to a dio Patrick, I first considered a scene where I was going to build a 1:700th scale Bismarck at sea, with the aircraft circling, however trying to find 3 1:32 pilots, in correct attire, has proven very difficult. So your excellent idea of it coming into land would also require the little people. However, following on from your idea of it at the Ark Royal, would be it's imminant jettison of the carrier...? What do you think? Thanks again for your input chaps, though as an update, nothing has been done due to the minus ten conditions and I havn't managed to build the spray booth as yet but will keep you all posted.

Chris

**Guest** · 08 January 2010, 14:14

All this talk of shiny rings & naval aircraft?? I dunno! Anyway my thought would get round the need for small men Chris, coz I was imagining the plane just passing the leading edge of the flightdeck, moments before touchdown. So not a whole section of the carrier (lol that would be a contender for biggest diorama since Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind!) just the planking really. I was gonna draw you a picture of what I meant but then I realised that I've got the artistic equivalent of 2 left hands so I googled this one instead!

Or maybe you could do it like this, using the same picture sans airplane as a backdrop?

**Guest** · 08 January 2010, 21:22

Sorry Patrick, your last attachments won't work for some reason but I'm all for your ideas for the dio. However, the biggest problem was if the aircraft was in flight, I would need the pilots and I can't they're not available so I would have to find some ground crews in the act of pushing it off the flightdeck. I think I shall build the aircraft in perfect condition and then, once completed, I'll get a hot poker and create some Blitzkrieg damage.

I'm hoping to get some spraying done tommorow, if the booth is done. Still researching colour schemes... http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Navy/Fairey-Swordfish-Mk2/1555241/L/&sid=dd0e8d5e157ef25375fb4d69be3fe4ea Will keep you posted.

Thanks,

Chris

**Guest** · 16 January 2010, 21:22

First Airbrushing of the Stringbag... help needed.

Well Chaps,

This afternoon, I managed to get the first spot of painting done for the interior structure with sky green. Then whilst cleaning the airbrush, disaster occurs! (wow, that was melodramatic eh??) Well I've been using Badgers Airbrush cleaner for a while now, it's been great - no problems. However today, when I sprayed the cleaner into the paint cup, that included residual vallejo paint and thinners (50/50) the mixture curdled into a rubber like gloop, clogging both airbrush, paint cup and pipe. It's as if it accelorated the dry time and expanded it somehow. Never seen this before and took an hour to clean out. Well, I've used these products before without any reaction. So what's going on? Dodgy paint? That's the only theory that I can think of as all the other products are relatively new and the paint is a recent purchase. Have you experienced anything like this before and what has been your solution? Thanks in advance.

Chris

**stona** · 17 January 2010, 12:12

I have heard of this sort of thing happening. I believe IPA turns Xtracrylix into a curdled yoghurt. If you've used the same paints/thinners/cleaner together before I can only suggest that the formulation of one of them has changed.

Steve

Scale Model Shop

Building the Trumpeter 1:32 Swordfish Mk1

Building the Trumpeter 1:32 Swordfish Mk1

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment