Darthspuds 1WGB - Supermarine Swordfighter

[darthspud]

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These are the only surviving pictures of Douglas Baders test Prototype VG688/G, later reduced to scrap in a forced landing following a mass bird strike over Poole Harbour, when operating out of RAF Boscombe Down in early 1947

The First Supermarine Swordfighter, developed for the RAF & Royal Navy from a directive issued in late 1946.
With the Second World War now in its 7th year and following the capitulation of German Forces in western Europe, the abject failure of Operation Overlord and the successful assassination of Der Fuhrer, the Air Ministry felt it time to take a giant leap and procure a new fangled Jet watchermakalit thingamybob.

Supermarine at Woolston were eventual winners with a prototype developed between themselves and a young North American Aviation Co. Engineer called Heinemann, on secondment in the U.K.
Taking great use of the freely available German Flight data, the joint NA/Supermarine team came up with a light weight aircraft packing a heavy punch, unrivalled maneuverability and using a Rolls Royce jet engine.

Some might say it looks a lot like the later Skyhawk, and truly this aircraft is one of that aircrafts main antecedents, but it is a wholly different aircraft.
Primitive ejector seat was fitted, but most fatalities happened when relatively inexperienced new pilots 'banged-out' and usually ended up decapitated.
Weapons were the same as fitted to most ground attack Typhoons and Tempest aircraft.
Arrestor hook trials , such as fitted to this early Prototype, had to be hastily beefed up, with a fixed down hook, as many collapsed due to hard landings.


and here's everything used
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it's a cheap (less than a fiver) A4 Skyhawk kit
and some excess and spare decal sheets from old builds.

Can I just say, I hate this kit.
I must be a glutton for punishment, almost nothing is numbered correctly, with allsorts of parts numbered as a mirror part i.e. left should be right etc.
no room for weight to hold the nose down.
The decals fogged so badly they needed 5 coats of fast drying varnish and i'm still not happy.

[KiwiZac]

What a little sweetheart! It looks great in that scheme and with that loadout, I'm sorry to hear about your decal issues but the end result looks great to my eye.

[Librarian]

One of those camo schemes that seems to go with just about everything; love it on the Skyhawk/Swordfighter. Apart from the rakish tail she could very well be an early jet.

[Captain Canada]

Does look really good in those colours !

[darthspud]

might have another of these in my stash, if so, it'll get a contra prop grafted to the front end a la Pfeil.
sort of halfway house , dual powered/ development option

[Captain Canada]

Now that will be interesting !



PS-did you change the tail ? Or is just the camo making it look different ? Reminds me of a Harrier T. bird tail.