Fairey Swordfish Colours?

[takeslousyphotos]

Hi All,

I'm just coming toward the end on my 1/72 Fairey Swordfish and I have a couple of questions.??? and tell me if I'm being stupid here.

WWII Aircraft Tyres ...... What colour were they generally???? I mean were they black, grey or some other indeterminate colour ???? I figure they'd be produced on the "quick" and materials were in short supply. So what was the result.

The other question I have. The support struts between the upper and lower wing. I figured they'd be made of wood. So Brown ??? or would they be painted. Also does this apply to the support struts for the tail as well???

Any help here is appreciated.

Peter

[BarryW]

Hi Peter.

I use black paint mixed with a spot of brown for tyres.

Sorry cannot help you regarding the struts. If no-one else comes up with an answer I will do some checking tonight as I have the Trumpy Swordfish in my stash and I should be able to find it from that. I suspect though it may vary depending on what aircraft you are modelling.

[Ian M]

Tyres: Black....with a drop of red/green/blue....anything really, just to take the corners off the black. Pure black is just to nasty on models. I often use blackgrey with a splodge of dark green.

The struts: 99% of the time they are painted the same colour as the top surface of the lower wing. It the wing is white, so are the struts. With a camouflage the strut is the same colour as the colour on the lower wing where the strut is attached.

So if its Dark slate on that bit of the wing the strut will also be Dark Slate.

Rigging was stainless steel and should normally not be painted: Took to long, added weight and made it very hard to examine them for cracks and stress marks.

Hope this is helpful.

Ian M

[takeslousyphotos]

Many thanks fellas ......... Just what I need.

Peter

[Guest]

Peter. Just to add that the struts must be metal. The ends have moulded feet to bolt to the wings & wooden struts would not have the capability for the fine moulded feet. What metal not sure but would guess at galvanised steel. But as above painted in my case white to match the wing colour.

Matter of interest the rigging looks & you would assume round twisted wires. But when building I got in touch with the Fleet Arm museum in Somerset(forgotten the name) & they took dimensions of their display Swordfish & I was suprised to find that the rigging was infact flat metal. One inch by half an inch approx

Laurie

[takeslousyphotos]

Peter. Just to add that the struts must be metal. The ends have moulded feet to bolt to the wings & wooden struts would not have the capability for the fine moulded feet. What metal not sure but would guess at galvanised steel. But as above painted in my case white to match the wing colour.Matter of interest the rigging looks & you would assume round twisted wires. But when building I got in touch with the Fleet Arm museum in Somerset(forgotten the name) & they took dimensions of their display Swordfish & I was suprised to find that the rigging was infact flat metal. One inch by half an inch approx

Laurie

Laurie, If the rigging is flat metal the that is ideal. I have some whipping twine which is actually a flat weave and as such is also fairly rigid. Dimensionally I haven't measured it but I guess it's somewhere 2mm x 0.9 - 1 mm (I'll try getting a vernier on it at work tomorrow......... It is waxed, and so a smooth finish, but I've tried it and it holds paint Well. The 1" dimension??? Do you know if that is fitted horizontally or vertically. I have loads of this stuff so if anyone wants some to try then I can put some in an envelope and post it off.

Peter

[Guest]

Peter if you look straight on it is the thin part of the metal rigging. The 1" dimension is on the horizontal.

Your dimensions at 1/72 will be .33 by.16 mm so I do not think you will notice. Think that at that scale thread will be OK while at 48 scale, as I found, you can you can. But got to say you have to look very close to appreciate the shape.

Nice aircraft. Read some where it had accounted for more enemy capital ships than the rest of British aircraft. Quite remarkable. Apparently the Bismark could not lower her guns enough when the Swordfish was skimming the waves.

Laurie

[stona]

Yeovilton is where the Fleet Air Arm Museum (and the Royal Navy Historical Flight) are based Laurie.

Are you sure that the struts (cabane and inter-plane) are metal and not wood with a metal fitting? I honestly can't remember, but a lot of wood was used for these parts of the airframe in the 1930s. I can't look it up as I'm in Bucharest at the moment!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Yes been there twice Steve & a very interesting place especially the simulated carrier deck (if still there) with take off including audio & trembling effect on the simulated dack. Unfortunately visits came before I became a model making freak.

On struts not sure wood or metal. What I suppose made me think they were metal is that the aircraft is basically metal framed plus the intricate work on these struts especially those where the wing is hinged & the thinness of the struts at the point of the hinge. Also the later versions had a metal lower wing to take all the armaments slung on which must have been a bit of a weight/structural problem.

But speculation & any one with the real answer please own up & spill the beans.

Laurie

[Guest]

Just for interest sake the interplane struts on the Dehaviland Biplanes were from wood shaped with metal endcaps that bolt to the metal fittings in the wing structure.

Wood was widely used (and still is) because of it's very good vibratrion dampning and it also does not expand or contract as much as steel struts, witch could lead to the tention in the rigging wires being to much or to little.

The sizes for something like a PT-17 Stearman or TigreMoth is roughly 20mm wide and about 6mm thick. They have a left and a right hand thread at each end of the wire that inserts into the corospnading coupling. Rotating the wires will increace or decreace the tention on them.

They are installed withe the wide side in the direction of airflow to reduce drag.

I wil be involved in the construction of full size Bristol F2B fighters starting the next few months and will post pix of the struts and rigging when we get to that part.

Theuns