discussion String Bag A Swordfish

[Guest]

some really beautiful detail in the tamiya model,and you are doing great Laurie awesome infact

mobear

 

[Guest]

More like it apologies.

Progress has been slow with other events not as welcome as model making hindering progress. But now back on track in all ways.

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All the armaments which are slung under the bottom wing show how versatile this aircraft was. The yellow is the result of the Gritcolin process.

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Used Mr Surfacer on the fuselage joins. The joints were goof Tamiya stuff & the Mr Surfacer 500 finished joins which are not visible.

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Decided to more or less finish the fuselage & wings separately as I feel so much damage will be collected connecting them at an early stage.

Laurie

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[Vaughan]

I'm glad your back on the case Laurie all's looking good. Some nice masking to boot.

Vaughan

 

[stona]

Looking good Laurie,also looking a b*gger to mask.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ole Vaughan & Steve.

Tad difficult Steve on the masking but fear putting these wings together will need a lot of resolute concentration.

One thing I am still having difficulty with & any help appreciated.

The divison between the top colour & bottom colour of the wings when they meet on the front & rear. Still not perfected this despite lots of attention to the masking. Had on the Catalina I built no problems on stripes etc on the flat surfaces. In this case the Swordfish had to do a lot of remedial work. Looks relatively OK unless you look close. But frankly not the standard I want. But then is anything. Tut pessimism creeps through the back door.

Laurie

 

[stona]

Do you mean the division along the leading edge?

Steve

 

[Guest]

Yes I did Steve. My 74 year old brain cells deserted my & I could not think of the description. So sad ha ha.

Laurie

There is of course some respite with ageing cells.

The are slow to respond despite the fact they know the answer all the time. Frustrating for the owner of these cells.

They have days off. Sleep I suppose & refuse to work.

Others go for a trip off, they migrate. Then next day they are back bright as a buttons. Little devils. We have a cat like this.

Some of my cells can remember back to about 1940. Some can not remember what happened a week ago.

So I mix them all up & come out all right at the end.

 

[stona]

How I do that depends on the aircraft. Most British aircraft had a fairly hard demarcation,particularly in scale. I mask that with tape. I use a thin strip of tape,about 2-3mm,to mask which means I can accomodate curves at the wing root (within reason). Sometimes I resort to the odd bit of Blu-Tac in tricky "corners". It always takes ages to do. I never get the darned tape as I want it on the first several goes

For softer edges I don't mask at all but just spray the upper surface (I always do the bottoms first) at an appropriate angle to give a soft edge along the leading edge.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

I say old chap, this is coming along nicely ... that masking scares me just looking at it ... i seem to have too little inteligence or patience to get that tidy a job.

Nice to see you posting your progress ... it'll look a corker when its done.

 

[Guest]

Laurie excellent masking techniques going on,really looking sharp!

 

[Guest]

It is the RAF aircraft causing the problems mainly as most of mine are RAF.

Just found Steve that I am getting creep under the tape. Especially on the Swordfish which is white underside dark green/grey on top.

Tried a variety of tapes & some are better than others at certain things but on the leading edges they "foul up" on me. Perhaps the front edges are missed when I wet & dry.

Agree with you recently re discovered blue/white tack for use on difficult bits.

Laurie

 

[Guest]

Finishing the fuselage & wings separetly before assembling. Thought it to very complicated to put the rigging in as a basically complete craft.

Seems an easy task to finally fit the wings. Famous last words. But on my side Tamiya on this model has been very precise.

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Rigging is something else. Would not have looked the same with the rigging in fishing line or elastic cotton.

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Not really rigging as WW1 aircraft. They are on the Swordfish more like stays & supports as they are in flat metal about 1.5” by three quarters of an inch. Tamiya Photo Etched not completely authentic. OK in width but not thickness but that is a bit picky.

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Took about 5 hours to rig just one wing. A bit of trimming here & there. One hour trying to find a piece 4 times. They are stainless steel with a spring without a sense of direction or distance. But, but, think it is worth it. The rigging/stays still have to be painted natural steel probably galvanised I would have thought.

Laurie

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[Vaughan]

Wow that looks great Laurie, that rigging must have sent you boss eyed, the 5 hours you took is worth every minute I'm really impressed. Did you use CA glue to secure it?

Vaughan

 

[Guest]

That rigging .... wow ... how nice and tidy does that look !!!

5 hours to do one wing though ... doubt i would have the patience for that length of time ... I now dub thee .... Saint Laurie.

 

[papa 695]

Looking good Laurie. About the paint creep under the tape, i spray the base colour after putting the tape on so any creep is the same colour, and it seals the tape, then when its dry spray the top colour.

 

[Ian M]

Looking very nice.

I'm reasonably sure the stays where in fact stainless steel, so I would check that before you paint them.

Ian m

 

[Guest]

Thanks all.

Vaughan I use C/A. Not sure that is the best in given perfect circumstances but I had the devils own job in getting the ends into the little holes in the wings. Once positioned any slight shake & the wretches were free & easy again. So a quick spot of C/A followed by a kicker & spot on. Matter of interest I used an old brush for the kicker. Stroked along & removed quick.

Colin. Did not realise I could summon up that much patience especially after crawling around the garage on my decrepit knees.

Ian (papa) thanks for that. Have tried a coat of matt varnish with a brush along the tape edge. Think I must have lapsed here & forgotten it.

Ian (the mod) Interesting point & pondered this. Pictures show different things. Some look Stainless some look painted. The pictures I got from the museum at Yeolvilton (spelling) depicting the Tracker Swordfish which mine is trying to emulate seem definetly to be painted. So paint it will be.

Interesting point as stainless steel has advantages but it is poor in tension & compression in comparison with mild steel. Found this both in the building world & also personally on my boat. Forgot to up turn the dinghy on the davits. It filled with water & the S/S davits just snapped. Mild steel would have bent. As said whereas rigging on WW1 was all tension looks like the Swordfish stuff may have also been use in compression to a degree.

Another point is this is the Swordfish 11 & the bottom wings were metal to carry arms. So it may be that the flat metal was used only on the 11 & not on the MK1. Speculation I would add.

Laurie

 

[Dave W]

Looking good Laurie.Ive got his kit in my stash.Will have to get the Tamiya rigging kit for it.

 

[Guest]

Looking good Laurie.Ive got his kit in my stash.Will have to get the Tamiya rigging kit for it.

Little bit of advice Dave which I now kick myself for not spotting. May well have shortened my time in taking to put together the rigging.

I left all the rigging until I had constructed the wings on the 4 main struts. This in the main is correct & in the main the only way to do it.

But at each end the short cross bracing between the main struts needs to be fixed to the main struts before fixing the wings together. Saves a lot of rude words !

It is a very time consuming model certainly the most intricate I have built.

Laurie

PS I would not bother with the other Eduard Photo Etched stuff available. Most of it is seat belts for the 3 crew. If you use the figures the seat belts are superfluous as the figures have seat belts cast in & the Eduard ones are for vacant seats.

 

[Dave W]

Thanks for the advice.I don't normally use figures in my builds.I use the Eduard preprinted seat belt sets in my cockpits.Dont know when I will get round to this one.Got a big problem to solve on another difficult build first.