Supermarine Swift FR Mk 5
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Kit Review
This is a new tooling from Airfix and you can see our preview of it here.
Construction
This starts with the seat and I opted for the one with belts and just painted there. The tub builds up well, bit leave off the GGS (F07) until final assembly. Now at stage 5 I found that if you add the nose wheel section to the built cockpit tub it is too long? Having test-fitted this I was able to correct it by trimming the back of the well until both sub-assembles lined up in the fuselage halves. The exhaust pipe in stage 7 was actually sprayed with Alclad 2 Jet Exhaust instead of the prescribed aluminium. When you do the intake splitter plates in stage 8 and 10, pre-paint D12 and D13 white as the instructions state, but then pre-paint the front sections (C06 and C07) in Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green respectively as this will help you later in the main painting stage. The side glazings in the nose fitted OK, remember to pre-spray the whole of the cockpit and nose area black before doing this though, and that includes the holes for these glazed panels, as it will add depth and stop you have bare (grey) plastic visible. The front camera port (E05) was fiddly to install, but it lined up eventually. The intake trunking in stage 16 builds up well and best to paint it as the grey plastic will be very visible inside otherwise. 2g of nose weight is required, but I did not have my natty new mini scales at this time, so I was worried I had not added enough due to the very limited space (made worse by the clear camera posts on either side), so I also superglued a weight behind the cockpit bulkhead, in between the intakes. Don't forget to open up the holes in the lower wing half in stage 19 for the ventral fuel tank although you don't have to add this until the end. With the tailplanes, rudder and ailerons all installed, it as now time for some paint.
Colour Options
There are two schemes in the kit.
• WK281, flown by Flt Lt N, Warpole, No.79 Squadron, RAF Gütersloh, Germany, April 1956
• XD972, No.II (AC) Squadron, RAF Jever, Germany, 1956
I opted for the second option because I have never been a fan of the PRU Blue undersides. The basic 'aluminium' was an undercoat of Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black, then Alclad 2 White Aluminium at varying intensities. Once this had dried it was masked off and work on the upper colours could start (not forgetting, as I did initially, that the camo wraps around the front of the wing leading edges). As you always start with the lighter colour, this was Dark Sea Grey from the Gunze-Sangyo range. The initial application was a dense application along all the panel lines, then the remainder was 'filled in'. Once this had dried I could highlight certain panels with a lighter mix of the grey. Now the camouflage pattern was masked and the Dark Green applied, again from the Gunze-Sangyo range and again darker along the panel lines, then filling in the remainder. With all the masking off it was time to gloss down the whole airframe, so this was done with Johnson's Klear and left to dry for 48 hours to ensure it had cured fully.
Decals
These are well printed with perfect register and colour, although the images are satin and the carrier film can be seen around some of them. A full set of airframe stencils are included although as I found with the Vampire, the placement digram for these does, in numerous places, not relate to the panel lines on the model? This is something you just have to work round and see where is the most likely position for the stencil if the detail on the kit does not match that shown on the instructions. I found all the decals settled well with the use of Mr Mark Softener and I can't see any silvering, so a thumbs up.
Final Details
All of the parts that easily knock off had been prepared earlier, as the rest of the airframe was painted etc., so now these could be installed. The flaps go on no problem, although the attachment lugs don't seem to firmly meet anything, but they do hold? The oleo legs, wheels and undercarriage doors all assembly without problem. When you come to install them though you will soon discover that to fit them into the well, you have to initially install them at 90º to their final position, then once clear of the lip of the bay, you can rotate them back and they should sit snuggly into the recess in the bay roof. Next come the retraction arms (A08 and A09), what a nightmare, there are no real firm attachments and as the upper edge attaches to the oleo on the outer side, with the other end attached to a lug in the wheel well on the inner side you can see what happens here, attach one end and the other pops off, and vice versa. I nearly lost my temper here, but a bit of Revell Contacta cement makes them sticky enough to hold in place during the whole process. The nose wheel oleo is much the same, as the locating lugs on the base of the leg don't seem to want to make positive contact inside the well, so best to use Contacta again and position the leg, ensure the lug on the back goes into the hole in the rear bulkhead and then, once all is aligned, add a dab of cyanoacrylate with a pin to the lugs in the bay to get it all nice and rigid. I had drilled the hole for the pitot slightly bigger earlier, which was just as well as the kit part is more oval than round and I had to reshape the end before it would fit into the hole in the wing. The tip is painted with the buff-able 'Copper' from Gunze-Sangyo, which works very well, although I think I will go with 'Bronze' in future, as its too bright. Fitting the armoured glass to the inside of the windscreen is tense, but by using tweezers to hold them together, then adding a drop of cyanoacrylate to the inner/lower edge of the tab that projects down into the nose later, you should not have any problems. I had edged my unit in black with a permanent marker, although I don't know if it had a seal? Fitting the upper decking inside the sliding canopy is also a bit testing, I found it best to add a spot of Contacta in the slot in the rear of the canopy (E03), then position the decking. Once it was in situ, run some Gator Glue (thin version) along the edges from the underside, be sparing though, as you do not want capillary action to draw it up into the rest of the canopy. The windscreen could then be attached with cyanoacrylate only on the front tab, because once pressed down there is no need for any more cement and why risk it! The rear section was attached with the thicker version of Gator Glue and that was it, done...
Conclusion
An superb kit, I made a few hash-ups here and there, but that is modelling. I certainly enjoyed making this one and have another in the wings waiting to be built as I learnt a lot from this first one.
Highly recommended to all, without any reservations. Buy it, build it and enjoy it.
This is a new tooling from Airfix and you can see our preview of it here.
Construction
This starts with the seat and I opted for the one with belts and just painted there. The tub builds up well, bit leave off the GGS (F07) until final assembly. Now at stage 5 I found that if you add the nose wheel section to the built cockpit tub it is too long? Having test-fitted this I was able to correct it by trimming the back of the well until both sub-assembles lined up in the fuselage halves. The exhaust pipe in stage 7 was actually sprayed with Alclad 2 Jet Exhaust instead of the prescribed aluminium. When you do the intake splitter plates in stage 8 and 10, pre-paint D12 and D13 white as the instructions state, but then pre-paint the front sections (C06 and C07) in Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green respectively as this will help you later in the main painting stage. The side glazings in the nose fitted OK, remember to pre-spray the whole of the cockpit and nose area black before doing this though, and that includes the holes for these glazed panels, as it will add depth and stop you have bare (grey) plastic visible. The front camera port (E05) was fiddly to install, but it lined up eventually. The intake trunking in stage 16 builds up well and best to paint it as the grey plastic will be very visible inside otherwise. 2g of nose weight is required, but I did not have my natty new mini scales at this time, so I was worried I had not added enough due to the very limited space (made worse by the clear camera posts on either side), so I also superglued a weight behind the cockpit bulkhead, in between the intakes. Don't forget to open up the holes in the lower wing half in stage 19 for the ventral fuel tank although you don't have to add this until the end. With the tailplanes, rudder and ailerons all installed, it as now time for some paint.
Colour Options
There are two schemes in the kit.
• WK281, flown by Flt Lt N, Warpole, No.79 Squadron, RAF Gütersloh, Germany, April 1956
• XD972, No.II (AC) Squadron, RAF Jever, Germany, 1956
I opted for the second option because I have never been a fan of the PRU Blue undersides. The basic 'aluminium' was an undercoat of Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black, then Alclad 2 White Aluminium at varying intensities. Once this had dried it was masked off and work on the upper colours could start (not forgetting, as I did initially, that the camo wraps around the front of the wing leading edges). As you always start with the lighter colour, this was Dark Sea Grey from the Gunze-Sangyo range. The initial application was a dense application along all the panel lines, then the remainder was 'filled in'. Once this had dried I could highlight certain panels with a lighter mix of the grey. Now the camouflage pattern was masked and the Dark Green applied, again from the Gunze-Sangyo range and again darker along the panel lines, then filling in the remainder. With all the masking off it was time to gloss down the whole airframe, so this was done with Johnson's Klear and left to dry for 48 hours to ensure it had cured fully.
Decals
These are well printed with perfect register and colour, although the images are satin and the carrier film can be seen around some of them. A full set of airframe stencils are included although as I found with the Vampire, the placement digram for these does, in numerous places, not relate to the panel lines on the model? This is something you just have to work round and see where is the most likely position for the stencil if the detail on the kit does not match that shown on the instructions. I found all the decals settled well with the use of Mr Mark Softener and I can't see any silvering, so a thumbs up.
Final Details
All of the parts that easily knock off had been prepared earlier, as the rest of the airframe was painted etc., so now these could be installed. The flaps go on no problem, although the attachment lugs don't seem to firmly meet anything, but they do hold? The oleo legs, wheels and undercarriage doors all assembly without problem. When you come to install them though you will soon discover that to fit them into the well, you have to initially install them at 90º to their final position, then once clear of the lip of the bay, you can rotate them back and they should sit snuggly into the recess in the bay roof. Next come the retraction arms (A08 and A09), what a nightmare, there are no real firm attachments and as the upper edge attaches to the oleo on the outer side, with the other end attached to a lug in the wheel well on the inner side you can see what happens here, attach one end and the other pops off, and vice versa. I nearly lost my temper here, but a bit of Revell Contacta cement makes them sticky enough to hold in place during the whole process. The nose wheel oleo is much the same, as the locating lugs on the base of the leg don't seem to want to make positive contact inside the well, so best to use Contacta again and position the leg, ensure the lug on the back goes into the hole in the rear bulkhead and then, once all is aligned, add a dab of cyanoacrylate with a pin to the lugs in the bay to get it all nice and rigid. I had drilled the hole for the pitot slightly bigger earlier, which was just as well as the kit part is more oval than round and I had to reshape the end before it would fit into the hole in the wing. The tip is painted with the buff-able 'Copper' from Gunze-Sangyo, which works very well, although I think I will go with 'Bronze' in future, as its too bright. Fitting the armoured glass to the inside of the windscreen is tense, but by using tweezers to hold them together, then adding a drop of cyanoacrylate to the inner/lower edge of the tab that projects down into the nose later, you should not have any problems. I had edged my unit in black with a permanent marker, although I don't know if it had a seal? Fitting the upper decking inside the sliding canopy is also a bit testing, I found it best to add a spot of Contacta in the slot in the rear of the canopy (E03), then position the decking. Once it was in situ, run some Gator Glue (thin version) along the edges from the underside, be sparing though, as you do not want capillary action to draw it up into the rest of the canopy. The windscreen could then be attached with cyanoacrylate only on the front tab, because once pressed down there is no need for any more cement and why risk it! The rear section was attached with the thicker version of Gator Glue and that was it, done...
Conclusion
An superb kit, I made a few hash-ups here and there, but that is modelling. I certainly enjoyed making this one and have another in the wings waiting to be built as I learnt a lot from this first one.
Highly recommended to all, without any reservations. Buy it, build it and enjoy it.
