Tom's Floatfish

[TomW]

Got a bit of a shift on with this one over the weekend, sprayed the fuselage and upper wings silver and started the decalling process for these sub-assemblies:






I'll let everything set up properly before carrying on and attaching some of the little bits.

Regards

Tom

[JohnRatzenberger]

Yes, plenty of time ... Looks very good so far.

[MDT]

Wow, looks very sharp!

[TomW]

Thanks guys


Spent my day off today making some good progress on the Swordfish. I've finished off attaching the tailplanes and rudder plus rigged the tail. The engine is on (again ) and I've fitted the floats:









I'll be rigging the mainplanes tomorrow and getting them attached so fingers crossed I'll make the finish.

Regards

Tom

[Saxon]

coming along really well.

[jssel]

Hey, Tom. Looks very nice indeed.Test fitting my cowling/engine assembly, it seems a weak link. More test fitting for me I think.

[TomW]

Thanks guys , I'm still chipping away at the Swordfish when I get to snatch a moment here and there.

This is where I am right now:









The upper wings are on and so far no strut problems apart from the two piece fuselage to centre wing struts, I found the top locating 'square' is too large to fit in the hole in the upper wing and stopped the rest of the struts reaching their respective locating holes, so I trimmed it quite a bit and everything lined up squarely . I've also rigged as far as I'm comfortable with, this is only my second rigged biplane after all! Most of the small bits are ready to attach and the lower wings are prepped and ready for attachment.

I'm very confident that'll I'll finish on time now.

Regards

Tom

[splash]

It's coming on great Tom keep up the good work.

Regards Splash

[MDT]

Just watch the fit of the main struts on through the locating holes as mine were tight! Look great though.

[TomW]

And the lower wings are on .....





.........And I finally hit a bloomin' massive snag, although I could get the outer struts to fit fairly nicely after some gentle 'persuasion' I can't get a tight fit at the wing roots, I also can't work out why. In fairness I'm pretty certain its a fault of the builder rather than the kit but still its d*mn annoying to happen right at the end!







Mind the Gaps







Just need to attach the prop, arrestor hook and beaching gear tonight then I can call her finished. Wings folded next time though to see if I can get a better fit.

Regards

Tom

[JohnRatzenberger]

Oh, darn, that's a shame !

Looks very good !

[splash]

That is looking sweet Tom.

I found the folded version was easier to build.

Regards Splash

[TomW]

Thanks guys , with hindsight it might have been better to have this as a 6 week GB as the kit turned out to be more complicated than any of us were expecting.

Still I'm calling this Finished Enough for Now, I have snapped one of the aileron struts so will need to make a replacement from plastic rod and the beaching gear isn't yet finished but I'm happy enough to have completed my second ever Biplane. More pictures in the completions gallery but here's a taster:







Regards

Tom

[jssel]

Well done Tom. Great work.

[PaulBradley]

Great stuff, Tom! Looks great.