I have been ignoring this plane on my shops shelves for two years. Then I did some reading. I had no idea of the history of this thing. Helping to sink the Bismarck? Unbelievable. Anyway, anyone out there build the Tamiya version? How is it? Is the rigging included, is it easy to do? The pictures on the Tamiya site look great of the final product.
As I do recall there was a review of this kit in a previous FSM, I can’t rmember which one
I believe there is a photo-etch set that has all the rigging, but it is not included afaik…
ns,
I’m just finishing up the 1/72 scale Revell version of the Swordfish. There were several reviews of the Tamiya kitS on the Modelling Madness website that I found when I was looking for reference material. There is a wheeled version and a float version.
http://modelingmadness.com/kitindex/kitindexs.htm
I saw a finished kit at a local show about a year ago. It absolutely knocked my socks off ! The Tamiya kit was a little too spendy for me, but when I saw the 1/72 kit I grabbed it without a moments hesitation.
ns et al:
Since you’re into history, let me relate the story of how many stringbags ended up surviving …
Several were purchased as war surplus from the RCAF by a gentleman named Ernie Simmons, who lived near Tillsonburg, Ontario. He had a back 40 full of old cars, motorcycles, aircraft, you name it. His aim was to sell the aircraft back to the government at a profit, but he picked the wrong types to save (Yales Lysanders and Swordfish being VERY obsolete by then …).
Ernie used to welcome visitors but over the years became more and more reclusive and eccentric, to the point where no-one was welcome on his property. One evening in 1969 he was shot while chasing away vandals, died early in 1970, and his collection went to the auctioneer.
The Swordfish went to several museums including the National collection in Ottawa.
Bruce
If it where not for the Swordfish the Bismark would have made it back home to safety. I’ve always beleived it should get 90% of the credit for the sinking.
I too thave had the Tam Kit sitting on my shelf for about 2 years, waiting for my skills to improve before I tackle it. But I seem to have hit a wall so ready or not I’m going to build it, well start it before Christmas along with the Snowberry that I’ve had for 3 years now.
Everyone remembers the Bismark, but forgets the sinking of the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940, also by Swordfish, an event so successful it inspired a certain Japanese admiral to emulate the feat on a much larger scale the following year.
Found a few sites which might be useful:
http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/wwii/books/cockpit/Fairey%20Swordfish%20Mk%20II.jpg
http://www.naval-museum.mb.ca/navalair/fairey_swordfish.jpg
http://www.nsm.pl/~ppetertill/angielskie/swordfish.htm
http://www.beehivehockey.com/photo_10swordfish.htm
http://www.warbirdalley.com/sword.htm
http://www.bibl.u-szeged.hu/bibl/mil/ww2/kepek/planes/swordfish.html
http://fleetairarmarchive.net/aircraft/Preserved/Swordfish_summaries.html
Nsclcctl,
The Tamiya 1/48 Stringbag is an awesome kit - typical of the brand - everything fits perfectly, it’s rather easy to build, the PE parts (an optional extra) fit like a glove. You have to do something seriously wrong for any of the bits to fit poorly. Just take care with the build and paint, and you’ll end up with an eye popper of a model.
I had no problems at all with mine (actually, a clients) and the model turned out looking fantastic.
I know it may be a little expensive, but for not much less money you can get another kit of a different subject from any number of manufacturers and you’ll end up with fit problems or worse. If it was any other model company, I might think twics about spending that much money on a 1/48 kit, but if it’s from Tamiya, you can’t go wrong.