Channel dash- 1/72 Swordfish & Spit V

[Peter s]

Post#1

This is the 2nd build thread I've "diaried". Hope its helpful.

I buy an awful lot of my models from "the well known auction website". In among all the big sellers every now and then you find something a bit different at a good price. I recently bought the "channel dash" gift set..... not fully appreciating that my stash already contains 2 Airfix Spit Vs and another "Op Torch" club Swordfish and Sea Hurricane set....... DOH! 

TBH I've built 2 previous airfix new tool swordfish and both were learning experiences. Both came out OK but not well enough that I'd like to share them. #3 has gone a lot better.

The Channel Dash was not one of our finer moments. During the 11-13th Feb 1942 the German battleships, Scharnhorst Gneisenau & the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen slipped their moorings in Brest, joined up with nearly 60 smaller ships and with 250 single seat fighters charged up the English channel. Due to a serious of mistakes we ended up attempting to stop them with SIX Swordfish escorted by just 10 Spit Vs. The swordfish were led by a veteran of the Bismarck attack, Lieutenant-Commander Esmonde who was posthumously awarded the VC. All other swordfish crew were mentioned in despatches for their courage.

The airfix gift pack comes with decals for Esmondes aircraft plus one of the 10 72 squadron spits that provided close escort.

I should point at at this point that if you google colour schemes for Esmondes aircraft you will find a serious debate. There's a rumour the 6 swordfish were painted black for the strike (the British forces believing the Germans would try and pass Dover at night). There's few sources for this idea and I personally don't believe it. Airfix wisely hedge their bets. The box art depicts a black airfcraft but painting instructions are provided for both all black and standard FAA colours as worn "before the 11th Feb". 

Personally I doubt the "painted black" story. The south of England was blanketed in snow at the start of Feb 1942 so even at night black aircraft would stand out horribly from above over snow. Over sea the extra dark grey and dark slate grey is an ideal camo. Its possible the undersides were hastily painted black (like Taranto aircraft) but I don't see any huge advantage to this. If the swordfish had attacked any lower the crews would have been classified as submariners! 

Partially with this logic in mind and partially because it will make a more complex build I'm doing the swordfish in the standard colours of a Blackburn built Swordfish and the Spit in regular Green/Ocean gray over med Sea grey colours. 

More and pics to follow.

[Peter s]

#Post 2.

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Both kits were built very easily straight out of the box. Spit first. I've a second Spit V part painted and that has 1974 on the inside of the fuselage. Its not the most advanced Spit I've built but it costs pocket money (I actually spent pocket money on these in the early 80s) but it looks like a Spit V and goes together really nicely. I needed a little plastic filler at the wing roots but apart from that no issues at all. It must have taken a whole 30 mins to build.

The swordfish is a much more sophisticated beast. 6 hours build time, including some rudimentary painting of the cockpit as I went along. There's two small windows at the pilots feet which are irritating. They have to be fitted from inside but once the lower wings are fitted access to them is very awkward. A neater builder than me would be advised to try and paint and assemble in sub-units as it gets awfully cramped above the lower wing when everything is in place.

I recently sacrified a defensless gladiator working out how best (ie the least scream inducing way) to rig biplanes. I've settled on 0.2mm albion alloy brass rod held in place with superglue gel. Its easily cut with scissors and easily held in place by forceps. The superglue can leave white marks so I chose to rig before painting. Whether thats the smartest thing to do is highly debatable but I got away with it this time.

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I primed both kits in Tamiya colours similar to those I intended to use for the final underside colour. Sky for the swordfish, med Sea grey for the Spit. This ensures a decent coat of Sky ends up on the underside of the upper wing above the fuselage. You don't want to be touching that area up by brush. Its all strut and no space!

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Finally for this post I put two coats of Vallejo model air onto the uppersides. The swordfish got 71.309 dark slate grey straight out of the bottle. The standard vallejo RAF green (71.324) looks OK with dark earth but is far too green when used with grey. I mixed it 50/50 with US Dk Olive Drab (71.316) and got a perfect shade.

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More to follow...........

[Peter s]

Post #3

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Swordfish masked off and extra dark ocean grey applied to the upper wing and fuselage. Spit masked off and the ocean grey applied. The same Ocean grey was used to paint the lower wing of the swordfish. Early British biplanes tended to use a counter shading trick on the lower wing where lighter colours were used. This countered the shadow cast by the upper wing and aided the camo effect. In an attempt to speed up aircraft production from 1941 onwards this was officially discontinued but was used on Walruses right up to the end of the war. Not all swordfishes used it but most sources say Blackburn did.

At this stage I also painted the torpedo. God knows what colours they really were. I've seen modellers use every shade imaginable but I went off this pic

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which seems to be a dark blue or gray rear and pale grey warhead. I used a luftwaffe grey and a USN extra dark blue. 

Post #4 to follow

[Peter s]

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Sky type S used to paint the lower fuselage. I added a little pale grey to the dark slate grey and brush painted a paler shade on the lower wing. Spit underside painted in medium sea grey then 5mm flexible tape applied to the wing edges. These were sprayed in flat white (Tamiya) with plenty of alcohol for an instant dry then oversprayed with XF-3 flat yellow. Without the white base bright yellow goes on muddy. 

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The Spit got type B cammo.... I don't know what mix of A or B 72 squadron was using in 1942 but I normally do type A so this was a mild change from the norm. Some models looks like a mess until close to the end but from start to finish Spits always look gorgeous! Where the left wing on the swordfish catches the light you can appreciate the counter shading a little. Its a subtle effect really. I wouldn't bother on a small plane.

I've airbrushed all I can at this point so its brush and pencil work from now on.

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I started on the engine and cowling. Vallejo have a new range of metallics which spray well (over a matt acrylic base) and although very thin brush paint well. For the cowling I hand painted with the AK True Metal copper stuff. This is basically a coloured wax not a paint but dries in mins, goes on really well and doesn't react badly with vallejo acrylic varnishes unlike some other metal products.

I had a busy bank holiday and actually finished both models.... I need to take the final pics ASAP so thats it for a few days.

[T2B]

I'll look forward to seeing your build of the Swordfish. I completed a Swordfish from the Taranto Operation about 2 years ago (and it's the first I've heard of the black camo so was done in standard with Sky undersides). I used PE and was my first attempt at rigging and wasn't too bad, but overall the Swordfish is a superb kit! I have another 1 waiting in my stash in the Operation Torch box set.

[T2B]

Your builds are looking good. I built and sprayed my Stringbag in sub-assemblies as I didn't want to over paint my rigging and thought it would be impossible to spray/mask the inner wing surfaces, especially with rigging applied! 

 

If you look at my build thread it went off course a little at the end with a 'discussion' on torpedo colours but basically I think your choice is near the mark?

[Ratch]

The Type B camouflage scheme was discontinued 26-4-41 when Ocean Grey replaced the Dark Earth.

[DavidJC]

Beautiful builds so far. It's amazing in looking at that photo the Swordfish is not 1/48. I know both types of aircraft of course but I had never appreciated the size differences.

[Peter s]

Beautiful builds so far. It's amazing in looking at that photo the Swordfish is not 1/48. I know both types of aircraft of course but I had never appreciated the size differences.

Thanks! It's a big plane. Similar to a twin engine in size. It's warload was more than a Blenheim could carry. All that wing gave it a lot of carrying power. 

[Peter s]

Here's the pics. A slight delay getting some taken as I had another winter project to snap at the same time. These were taken on my rather elderly phone camera so nothing special tech wise. I've tried to get the light to look a bit like Winter. Not easy when the sun is blazing through the back door.

I maybe chickened out of some final weathering touches with these guys.... at one point I was going to use a rather excellent artificial snow on the Spit (one reason I used the type B mask was that originally the camo pattern wasn't going to be as obvious) but despite the fact its a cheap ancient kit my wife persuaded me its too pretty to cover in white stuff.

With the exception of the radio wires and stub aerial on the swordfish this is straight out of the box. The pilot is from the Spit plus two twins from the spares box. One thing the Swordfish would benefit from is a crew.

I've copied the instructions for the swordfish. There's some online debate the H should be on the tail.

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[John Symmons]

Hi Peter.

An excelent pair of models, well done and thanks for showing them. Keep them comimg.

 

Remember we do this for fun                              John the Pom

[Tweezers]

Choosing to depict Swordfish attack on Bismark to avoid this dilema

 

As for rigging, kind words to local BT engineer working on box provided scrap wire containing thin strands.

[Peter s]

Choosing to depict Swordfish attack on Bismark to avoid this dilema

 

As for rigging, kind words to local BT engineer working on box provided scrap wire containing thin strands.

I'm not sure that's without controvesy! From what I've read online you've a mix of fairey new builds with sky grey undersides, Blackburn ones like mine and pre war silver dope ones repainted on board. I've even see a claim the second wave had bombs and torpedo. My attitude is that lifes too short. If it can't be proved right it can't be proved wrong either.