History

The Fairey Swordfish, while appearing to be outdated at the beginning of World War II, actually became one of the outstanding airplanes used by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. While most were land- or carrier-based with wheeled undercarriages, a significant number of Swordfish Mk. I’s were operated as twin-float seaplanes, mainly from battleships and cruisers, or from shore bases such as Gibraltar, where they were used for fleet reconnaissance, gunfire spotting, and anti-submarine patrol. Probably the most famous action in which Swordfish floatplanes took part was the April, 1940, Second Battle of Narvik, where they spotted gunfire for HMS Warspite, resulting in the destruction of seven German destroyers, plus the sinking of the submarine U-64 with bombs.

This kit is a combination of the Bronco gun kit and the Dragon 6275 crew kit. The gun can only be presented in the firing position as the travel bogies are not present. The crew can be depicted in either anti-tank mode or anti-aircraft mode. However, the crew instructions included with the Bronco instructions only show them in the anti-tank mode. You can get Dragon 6275 instructions and build the crew in different poses, and even in the anti-aircraft mode, which is what I did.

The basic point to remember when building this kit is that there are numerous small plastic and PE parts. Care should be exercised during the build, and you may even want to delay attaching certain parts until almost the end of the build.

I recently built and reviewed ICM’s 1/144 Tupolev Tu-144 "Charger". When the opportunity came to review the SAC metal landing gear for this plane, I jumped at the chance.

The white metal landing gear is obviously far stronger and better suited to large models than the injection molded parts you get in a kit. I have a number of finished models on the shelf or in storage which could use a new set of gear legs. And I thought I’d save the Tu-144 from this fate. There’s only so much you can do with CA and sprue to fix broken gear, especially with missing parts.

I first took photos of the landing gear on the model as it was. There might be a set of instructions for the kit somewhere in my workroom. Or not. I bet on the latter, and took reference photos to show where the parts went.