Bluesteel's Coastal Swordfish ***FINISHED***

[Martin R]

Hey almost impossible means there is a slight chance!

Or, to paraphrase Hitchhikers' Guide, "Practically impossible = finite improbability" or something . . . .

Nice interior painting by the way . . .

regards,

Martin

[JohnRatzenberger]

If you want to tone down that red, dry-brush some tan or linen over it. The red dope was applied on the outside of the fabric and bled back through.

[bluesteel]

As I have a day off from work today, I'm back onto the Swordfish. Lower wings installed, and the tailplane,fin and rudder with small offset. The fuselage has been primed to sort out any seams. Now working on the top wings and engine:

[bluesteel]

Top wings together and now in position. Once they have set I'll give it a first undercoat of black and start the rigging:

[bluesteel]

They don't take long to put together once you set your mind to it, do they?

When I get a block of time I can allocate to modelling I can be quite quick, the only limiting time factor is waiting for the paint to dry

[bluesteel]

Main rigging done, engine assembled and painted, and first black coat:

[bluesteel]

More progress. Tail rigging done, u/c on as well as the radar. Needs some touching up and the fiddly bits attaching:

[jssel]

Julian, that looks fantastic.

[Dirkpitt289]

SWEET!!!

[MerlinJones]

Is that just black black, or a fancy Julian black?

Regards,
Bruce

[bluesteel]

Is that just black black, or a fancy Julian black?

Regards,
Bruce

This one is most definitely 'Johnnie Painter Black', black, blaack, blaaack!

[bluesteel]

Crew, rockets, machine gun and inter rigging rods painted.

I was also going to add the R/F aerials as shown on the back of the Matchbox box but... The photos of the Duxford black Swordfish don't show any. Now I though this might be just the restoration and the restorers not bothering or leaving until later. Then I found a photo at the foot of page 122 of Chris Ashworths 'RAF Coastal Command', of a 119 Sqn black Swordfish that doesn't show the above fuselage R/F aerials either. So I'm going with that and omitting them at the moment. Maybe Radar equipped Swordfish have something different.

[bluesteel]

Crew, gun and wind shield installed. A little touching up and then the decals to go:

[Martin R]

Julian,

It looks fantastic. Great job!

regards,

Martin

[bluesteel]

Now I have hit the only real problem with this build - some of the decals.

The roundels and tail flashes from the Revell Matchbox re-pop are fine. But the squadron codes from the original Matchbox are silvered to death. Using all the usual de-silvering techniques have only reduced them from earth-shatteringly badly silvered to tragically silvered. I could take them off and print new ones, but they would have to be on white decal paper to show up on black and I'd end up painting around them. So I may as well paint around these once they have dried.