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Swordfish Colours


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Hi There,

Just in the process of starting the Revell 1/72 Swordfish as my first experiment with rigging a biplane (been putting it off for a while but now decided to take the plunge!) I'll maybe post some pics if it comes out OK!

One thing I'm a little unsure of is the colours for it. Revell give you some wierd mixes of colours to use, but I'm ignoring them. The version I'm doing is the Mk.1 from 810sqn May '41 and as far as I can tell, the colours should be :- Sky undersides, with Ex Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey camo up top. All's well there I think, but I've just noticed that the upper surface of the lower wings is listed as lighter colours? is this correct, and what should they be? would it be a case of using Dark Sea Grey/Light Slate Grey or what?

Any help would be appreciated...

Karl.

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Hi There,

Just in the process of starting the Revell 1/72 Swordfish as my first experiment with rigging a biplane (been putting it off for a while but now decided to take the plunge!) I'll maybe post some pics if it comes out OK!

One thing I'm a little unsure of is the colours for it. Revell give you some wierd mixes of colours to use, but I'm ignoring them. The version I'm doing is the Mk.1 from 810sqn May '41 and as far as I can tell, the colours should be :- Sky undersides, with Ex Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey camo up top. All's well there I think, but I've just noticed that the upper surface of the lower wings is listed as lighter colours? is this correct, and what should they be? would it be a case of using Dark Sea Grey/Light Slate Grey or what?

Any help would be appreciated...

Karl.

Lighter colours on the lower wings of RAF and RN biplanes is correct, although in this case I don't know exactly what colours they would be. However I suspect that your assumptions are right. Good luck with the rigging :worship:

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Lighter colours on the lower wings of RAF and RN biplanes is correct, although in this case I don't know exactly what colours they would be. However I suspect that your assumptions are right. Good luck with the rigging :worship:

Standard finish on camouflaged Swordfish was, indeed, Sky undersurfaces with Extra Dark Sea Grey/ Dark Slate Grey uppersurfaces. However, the uppersurfaces of the lower wings were painted Dark Sea Grey/ Light Slate Grey to counterbalance the shadow created by the upper wings. This was standard procedure on camouflaged RN biplanes, such as Sea Gladiators and Albermarles, in WW2.

This picture:

http://www.percongrp.com/pelikan/aircraft/...s/feb06_010.jpg

shows the difference in shades. As you can see, it's quite subtle.

Light Slate Grey is available in the Xtracolor/ Xtracrylix and White Ensign Colourcoats ranges.

HTH,

Cheers,

Chris.

Edited by pingu1
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This was standard procedure on camouflaged RN biplanes, such as Sea Gladiators and Albermarles, in WW2.

You mean Albacores methinks!

Whilst it was standard practice in the early war period, it fell out of use towards the end of the War - I can't lay my hands on the refs just now, but it was listed in Admiralty Orders rather than the more commonly quoted Air Ministry Orders (Same orders made them paint FAA Communications aircraft in EDSG/DSG rather tha DG/DE, regardless of what the AMOs said)

But 1941 would be the lghter lower wings

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Concur with Dave, I remember Ian Huntley discussing this topic in SAM some years back. IIRC he advanced a theory that even when the lighter lower surfaces were supposed to be 'official' in practice they might not have been painted these colours. Much the same debate with light earth/light green on RAF biplanes.

peebeep

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for all the answers given. I've finished it now so I thought I'd pop a couple of pics here to show how it came out.

I was amazed as I managed to not have any disasters when doing the rigging, and it all went 100 times smoother than I expected, just needed a little thought... Put a bit of detail on the radiator as well. Overall I was quite pleased with it as a first attempt at rigging...

Anyway, a few shots...

Swordfish4.jpg

Swordfish6.jpg

Swordfish5.jpg

Swordfish3.jpg

Swordfish1.jpg

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For a first attempt at rigging that looks pretty good - what did you use for the rigging wires?
Please, please tell us about the rigging - it looks great! How did you do it? Is it stretched sprue?

OK then, here goes... I used some old fishing line that seemed pretty good for the task. I drilled out all of the holes with a 0.3mm drill and fixed the line with regular superglue. Once dried, it could be pulled tight and glued at the other end. With the holes being so small it was a bit of a pain getting the line right through them, but also allowed the glue to fill the holes.... Once it was all fixed, I used some matt black to carefully go over the line.

Karl. :worship:

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OK then, here goes... I used some old fishing line that seemed pretty good for the task. I drilled out all of the holes with a 0.3mm drill and fixed the line with regular superglue. Once dried, it could be pulled tight and glued at the other end. With the holes being so small it was a bit of a pain getting the line right through them, but also allowed the glue to fill the holes.... Once it was all fixed, I used some matt black to carefully go over the line.

Karl. ;)

very good - is your Swordfish 1/48 or 1/72?

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very good - is your Swordfish 1/48 or 1/72?

Thanks :cheers:

It's the Revell (Old Matchbox reboxing) 1/72 one. Could have done a bit more with it, but I only built it up to try the rigging out before I did a serious kit (one day, not yet, but one day!)...

Karl.

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