[Serpiko]

(Box picture as found in the web)

PROS
- Cheap
- Very good fitting
- Easy (for the subject)

CONS
- No 3-seater option
- No cockpit details

THE PLANE

One must admit that the Swordfish isn't exactly the nicest looking among WWII planes. If compared to Mustangs or Spitfires, the "Stringbag" just looks anachronistic.
Yet, once I had collected enough info to build my model, my respect for this biplane had grown very much.
To give just one example, it is well-known that, in the famous war action that culminated in the sinking of the "Bismarck", the single torpedo that critically crippled the German battleship was launched by a Swordfish. Luck? Maybe. But note that the attack run was performed in terrible weather conditions, flying just above the water facing full-strenght AAA fire from the ship, and then landing on a heavily pitching deck due to strong waves. Despite this, ALL of the attacking planes made it back to their carriers. This can't have been just luck.
For this and many other merits (I'm letting you discover them yourself :wink: ), the Swordfish fully deserves its place in a WWII warbirds collection.



THE KIT

While this model is pretty large for a 1/72 one, the box is surprisingly small. When opening it, the impression is that this is one more re-boxing of an old kit. Not necessarily a bad thing, though: the sprues look good, with recessed panels and virtually no flash. The plastic feels more flexible than usual. Optional parts are for either mkI (torpedo) or mkIII (radar pod and rocket racks) version, and so are decals. A small windshield is the only transparent part. No forward-firing MG is present, while the rear one is the type with the round drum (Lewis?).
The detail level is generally average, with a few high (engine) and low (main wheels) peaks. Engraved lines are VERY engraved but, anyway, they are present on control surfaces and forward part of fuselage only.
The cockpit area is the only really disappointing part. The central seat position is closed by a fixed cowling (molded on each fuselage half), and if you want it open you will have to build the whole cockpit from scratch. In fact, the kit provides no internals, but two flat seats and a simple rod as rear MG mount. Oh, yes, there are also two "wannabe-pilot-figure", but they're better left on the sprue!
All in all, the offer looks good, also considering the low price (€7,20 in local shop).



BUILDING

COCKPIT AND FUSELAGE - Well, once in a while, we DON'T start with the cockpit... because there's none! The two seats only have to be glued on two small floor panels. These, together with the rear MG mount, are the only parts that will be enclosed between the two fuselage halves. The interior of the fuselage will be clearly visible so, unless you're adding extra details, you'd better paint it all the same color as the "floor" before joining the two halves. Again, I have to say that IMO the absence of a 3-seater option is a noticeable handicap. If you're building the torpedo version, you should also cut open the two ventral holes, to house torpedo racks.
Fuselage halves fit together pretty good, I only sanded the ventral joint line a bit. There, a thin triangle shows where to attach the arrestor hook. The small windshield in front of pilot seat can be added anytime without problems, and so the rear MG.
Now an unusual thing. You'll notice that, on each side, there's a missing panel: those two panels come separately, as they are molded together with the small struts that are supposed to form a sort of "pyramid" just ahead of the cockpit. This way, by fixing the two panels in their places, those struts get firmly in the correct position too. Nice!
Ah BTW: I have absolutely no idea what that small Y-shaped piece on the nose is!

ENGINE - The whole engine block can be built separately and eventually fixed onto the model. Good thing: this way, you can handle the model more freely while building the wings, and then add the engine as the very last thing.
The engine itself consists in two pieces only (cylinders group and fuel/exhausts ducts); once they are joined, they must be enclosed between front and rear halves of the cowling. The propeller is one-piece with the spinner, and its rear pin must pass through the completed engine and be kept in place by the usual rear cap.
It is probably better to add the main exhaust pipe only after fixing the engine on the model.

LOWER WINGS AND TAIL - Each lower wing comes split in upper and lower half. Once they are joined, they can be fixed in their slots on fuselage sides; the two thick V-shaped struts joining fuselage and wing roots will help you in finding the correct position.
The tail section comes in two main pieces: one including both tailplanes and elevators, and a vertical stabilizer-rudder piece. This one has two pins, which are supposed to pass through the horizontal plan and fit inside two holes on the rear end of the fuselage. The system, though not perfect, works well enough; anyway, horizontal plans will be kept in place also by two little struts each.



GEAR AND LOADOUT - In order to build the main gear, you need the lower wing to be already in place. Once this is done, you can glue main gear legs and their reinforcing struts. The resulting triangular structure will be rather stable, however, pay a little attention while building it: the "holes" that are supposed to receive gear legs are, actually, only slightly engraved, so make sure you build both legs with the same angle. Main wheels tend to have an inward inclination, but you can reduce that a bit. The tailwheel must simply be placed under the end of the fuselage.
As for the external loads, for the mkI version, just join the two halves of the torpedo and add it with its attachments under the fuselage (make sure it doesn't interfere with the engine!). For the mkIII version, you have to add the radar pod under the fuselage and rocket racks under lower wings; rockets have to be attached one by one.

UPPER WING - I dare say that, here, the tough part is just rigging, because the kit does its best to make the building of the upper wing as easy as possible.
First of all, the wing itself. It's divided in right, left, and central section, all of which are split in upper and lower half (just like lower wings, that's because the wing section is quite thick). First, you need to join upper and lower halves, taking particulare care to make all edges match correctly; then, you can attach right and left wings to the central section. If you've done a good job with edges, you'll find that these three parts fit properly in the exact position, giving to the wing its inverted seagull shape with the correct dihedral. Kudos to the kit for that! :mrgreen:
Struts bring more good news. Apart from two bracets (those which link upper and lower ailerons), main struts are molded in pairs, each pair (front-rear) being linked by an upper horizontal "bar". While on the lower wings there are little holes to receive struts, upper bars will "sink" into dedicated slots in the lower surface of the upper wing. I appreciated this system a lot! Try dry fitting: assuming you don't invert inner and outer pairs ( ), the whole structure of the wings will fit incredibly well, and struts will be simply "forced" to stay in the correct position! Alleluja!
Since I wanted to add rigs, I first glued struts on the lower wings only, putting the upper wing on them just to make them fix with the right angle. Once the glue had dried I performed the rigging job, and after that was finished I glued the upper wing. (NOTE: I sliced a bit the slots under the upper wing to make them a little broader; this reduced the stress on struts when fitting into them.)

So much for the building. Then, if you have enough patience for rigging, there's plenty of work to do! Just be warned, the instructions sheet only shows PART of the rigging scheme of the wings, while tail and fuselage section are omitted. In this sense, the artwork on the box provides better reference.



PAINTING AND DECALS
Nothing special here. Decals aren't many, but their quality is not bad. Serials are for either one mkI or one mkIII version, and both of them feature the same paintscheme (standard RAF camouflage pattern) with minor differences. Instructions indicate the exact colors, but I'm not a perfetionist in that, and felt OK with generic light grey, dark grey and a green-grey mixture (in theory, the camo pattern on the lower wings should have lighter colors than the upper wing).



CONCLUSIONS

Don't expect this to be a contest-winning kit: the overall detail, though decent, is hampered by the poor cockpit.
BUT, apart from that, the rest is all good news: low price, fine molds, nice decals, good fitting and, what I appreciated the most, ease of building. Wings and struts, expecially, are almost "error-proof"! Of course, rigging is at own risk. :wink:
In two words, this kit is "user friendly". Although the Swordfish can be a challenging subject, the job here is simpler than you'd expect, suitable for all but (maybe) total beginners.

See you to next model!

[Planemad]

A fantastic kits review

I also love how you paint your models to a high standard

Planemad

[Deutschmark]

Is that the old Airfix kit or is that really a all new kit from Revell.
Nice build and review you did.

Deutschmark

[Serpiko]

Is that the old Airfix kit or is that really a all new kit from Revell.

I think, your first guess... on the sprues, I've found little plates saying "MADE IN XXXXXXX PK-112". The XXX word is hidden by an extra plastic mold, but it looks like "ENGLAND".

[Deutschmark]

PK#### numbers is what Matchbox used for old Airfix kits, so that says it all.

Deutschmark

[KG64_Cnopicilin]

Nice model, but can you sink the bismark with it?

Nah, just joking, great work once again