The Supermarine Defender F3

[The Wooksta!]

The reason you're having problems with the Attacker nose on the Swift is that with the latter, the intakes are moved forward..  It would have been much easier putting the Swift wings and tail surfaces onto the Attacker, although you need to build up the wing roots and sort out the undercarriage placement.

I had similar issues when I tried cross kitting the Frog Attacker and Testors Swift, finding it was easier to use the Attacker fuselage, and everything else from a Magna Swift, once the bits were cloned.

[PR19_Kit]

I wanted to use the fatter fuselage of the Swift, for reasons which will become obvious from the backstory. 

I'm sorting out the undercarriage anyway, and it's straightforward, albeit a little heavy on the knifework so far. 

[The Wooksta!]

Looking at the various plans in the Barrie Hygate British X Planes book, the fuselage cross section aft of the cockpit remains constant across all of them, from the Attacker, through 510/517/528/535 to Type 541 Swift.  It was the 545 that really changed in shape.

Someone opined that as the fuselage of the Swift had been designed for the more corpulent Nene as opposed to the slimmer Avon, it was too big for it's engine and that added to it's problems.  Supermarine really should have started with a clean sheet much earlier than they did.

[PR19_Kit]

But the kits are different, and this is Whiffworld. 

[The Wooksta!]

Yes, the Xtrakit Swift is decidedly corpulent.

[PR19_Kit]

And it fits my backstory a treat. 

[PR19_Kit]

Multiple PSR sessions on the Defender's forward fuselage, and a little bit along the spine and underside too. It'll need a primer coat before I'm sure it's AOK around the intakes, and that meant I had to glue the canopy in place to prevent the cockpit becoming a fetching shade of Halford's Grey.

I mentioned that I'm using the Swift canopy as it's large enough to accept the ejector seat at the correct height, and it's in two halves, canopy and windscreen, unlike the smaller Attacker canopy which is all in one piece. I painted the whole surround black and then glued the main canopy in place, having to use minute quantities of Revell Contactor as I hadn't brought my PVC style canopy glue with me.

BIG mistake......

The canopy went on OK, but the windscreen misted over its entire inner surface so the poor pilot would have been flying blind ALL the time! I tried a coat of Klear to see if it improved things, but no. So now I've sawed off the Attacker's windscreen, very scary as clear styrene is always so brittle, and filed it to suit the front canopy angle of the Swift bit. It looks OK just placed in position, not perfect, but good enough for Government work anyway. I'll wait till the glue on the main canopy is 100% set before I add the windscreen.

I've chopped out the main gear wells on the port wing now, and I did chain drill the hole. It worked a whole lot better than the knife cut method I used on the other side and was a LOT faster. It's a more accurate hole too, so the Attacker wheel well fits a lot easier.

Progress is being made, but maybe not quite as fast as I'd hoped. But there's six days to go yet...... 

[PR19_Kit]

I can see even more now why the Xtrakit Swift has such a bad reputation.........

With the upper wings fitted the gaps between their inboard ends and the fuselage are measured in whole millimetres, and that's not to mention the amount of filing needed at the front of the lower wing to enable it to fit into its slot in the fuselage.

In addition the characteristic dihedral tailplanes of the Swift end up at a HUGE angle if you glue them into the holes in the rear fuselage. That's after you've re-drilled the holes to accept the pegs anyway. The Supermarine 508 had a dihedral V tail, but less than half the angle that the Xtrakit Swift would end up with. 

It took some serious filing to get them to look even vaguely correct, and there'll be copious PSR needed there as well.

The canopy and windscreen are on now and masked up, and it'll be getting a primer coat on later. Then no doubt some MORE PSR....

[kitbasher]

And there's me with a grand plan to convert my Xtrakit Swift into Mike Lithgow's Mk 4.  May not bother now and just sell the kit on.

[PR19_Kit]

The Airfix FR5 is head and shoulders above the Xtrakit Swift, it'd be easier to convert that one I reckon. At least it'd be less work.

[kitbasher]

I've two in the stash already!  One as an OOB FR5, 't other as an F7 using the Freightdog conversion.

There are F4 conversion kits around that fit the Airfix kit, so that's an option.  More expensive than hacking at the Xtrakit FR5, though.  And being a registered tightwad....

[PR19_Kit]

But the Xtrakit is HARD work, really.............

[Knightflyer]

The Airfix FR5 is head and shoulders above the Xtrakit Swift, it'd be easier to convert that one I reckon. At least it'd be less work.

Might just build my Xtrakit one OOB as the Supermarine Stwatt then! 

[PR19_Kit]

And now it's starting to look like an aeroplane.

The wings, such as they are, are in position and various parts of the airframe have had their 1st and 2nd PSR sessions, and the canopy is now fully masked up and Kleared in preparation for the first primer coat.

But that may be a distance away yet.....

The wing to fuselage joints could best be termed as 'cavernous', and will need some serious styrene packing before I even think of PSRing the joint, they're HUGE! You can only see the port one in the pic, but the starboard one is even worse!   



I'm not at all sure that the overall shape is balanced enough as the mainwheels seem a long way back compared to the tailwheel, but they can't go any further forward as the wheel struts are almost on the LE of the wings. That means the wings may have to be moved forward a tad.

Oooer....

[kitnut617]

That means the wings may have to be moved forward a tad.

Or ---- you slant the legs forward at the bottom like on a MB5