1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk.II trop., RAF 208 Sq.; Palestine, late 1941

Dizzyfugu · March 03, 2023, 12:32:47 AM

In the meantime, pictures from another finished project that had been waiting in the photography queue! And it's the 3rd of its kind, now all "generations" of the Avro Swallow have been built.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

The result was Avro's project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft was a very modern and lightweight all-metal construction, its profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane but its overall dimensions were smaller, the Swallow appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire's famous oval wings. Unlike the Spitfire, though, the Swallow's main landing gear had a wide track and retracted inwards. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.
The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops in the summer of 1940.
In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the frontline units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though. A redesigned, more streamlined radiator bath was mounted, too, and altogether these measures boosted the Swallow's top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement; as a benchmark, the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

However, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow's thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks. Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, who described the Swallow as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less as a direct competitor to the Hurricane.

Being a very agile aircraft, the Swallow Mk. II became the basis for a photo reconnaissance version, too, the PR Mk. II. This was not a true production variant of the Swallow, though, but rather the result of field modifications in the MTO where fast recce aircraft were direly needed. The RAF Service Depot at Heliopolis in Egypt had already converted several Hurricanes Is for photo reconnaissance duties in January 1941, and a similar equipment update was developed for the nimble Swallow, too, despite its limited range.
The first five Swallow Mk. IIs were modified in March 1941 and the machines were outfitted with a pair of F24 cameras with 8-inch focal length lenses in the lower rear fuselage, outwardly recognizable through a shallow ventral fairing behind the cooler. Some PR Mk. IIs (but not all of them) were also outfitted with dust filters, esp. those machines that were slated to operate in Palestine and Northern Africa. For night operations some PR Mk. IIs also received flame dampers (which markedly reduced the engine's performance and were quickly removed again) or simpler glare shields above the exhaust stacks.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The machines quickly proved their worth in both day and night reconnaissance missions in the Eastern Mediterranean theatre of operations, and more field conversions followed. Alternative camera arrangements were developed, too, including one vertical and two oblique F24s with 14-inch focal length lenses. More Swallow Mk. IIs were converted in this manner in Malta during April (six) and in Egypt in October 1941 (four). A final batch, thought to be of 12 aircraft, was converted in late 1941.

Even though the Swallow PR Mk. IIs were initially left armed with the wing-mounted light machine guns, many aircraft lost their guns partly or even fully to lighten them further. Most had their wing tips clipped for better maneuverability at low altitudes, a feature of the Swallow Mk. III fighter that had been introduced in August 1941. Some machines furthermore received light makeshift underwing shackles for photoflash bombs, enabling night photography. These were not standardized, though, a typical field workshop donor were the light bomb shackles from the Westland Lysander army co-operation and liaison aircraft, which the Swallow PR Mk. IIs partly replaced. These allowed a total of four 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs or flash bombs for night photography to be carried and released individually through retrofitted manual cable pulls. The mechanisms were simply mounted into the former machine gun bays and the pilot could release the flash bombs sequentially through the former gun trigger.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

For duties closer to the front lines a small number of Swallow PR Mk. IIs were further converted to Tactical Reconnaissance (Tac R) aircraft. An additional radio was fitted for liaison with ground forces who were better placed to direct the aircraft, and the number of cameras was reduced to compensate for the gain of weight.

However, by 1942, the Swallow had already reached its limited development potential and became quickly outdated in almost any aspect. Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime been successfully introduced and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallows were quickly phased out from front-line service, too. Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 28 ft 1 in (8.57 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 7 in (10.25 m)
Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.60 m)
Wing area: 153 ft² (16.40 m²)
Empty weight: 3,722 lb (1,720 kg)
Gross weight: 5,100 lb (2,315 kg)

Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

Performance:
Maximum speed: 381 mph (614 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)
Range: 360 miles (580 km)
Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)
Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)
Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

Armament:
No internal guns
2x underwing hardpoints for a pair of 19-pound (8.6 kg) photoflash bombs each

The kit and its assembly:
This is the third incarnation of a whif that I have built some time ago for a Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodellers.com. This fictional machine – or better: its model – is based on a profile drawing conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and with RAF markings. It was IIRC a nameless design, so that I created my own for it: the Avro 675 Swallow, inspired by the bird's slender wing and body that somehow resonates in the clean B.35 lines (at least for me).

I've already built two of these fictional aircraft as early WWII RAF fighters, but there was still potential in the basic concept – primarily as a canvas for the unusual livery (see below). The basis became, once again, the vintage KP Models B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It's a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit's quality is rather so-so (the molds date back to 1974). Details are quite good, though, especially on the exterior, you get a mix of engraved and raised surface details. But the kit's fit is mediocre at best, there is lots of flash and the interior is quite bleak. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

Many donation parts for the Swallow, beyond the Merlin engine, propeller and (underwing) radiator, and pitot, were taken in this case from a Revell 1:72 Spitfire Mk. V. Inside of the cockpit I used more Spitfire donor material, namely the floor, dashboard, seat and rear bulkhead/headrest with a radio set. The blurry, single-piece canopy was cut into three pieces for optional open display on the ground, but this was not a smart move since the material turned out to be very thin and, even worse, brittle – cracks were the unfortunate result.

New landing gear wells had to be carved out of the massive lower wing halves. Since the original drawn Swallow profile did not indicate the intended landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from the Spitfire and just mounted them these "the other way around". Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide, but it's acceptable and I stuck to this solution as I already used it on former Swallow builds, too. But now I know why the real-world B.135 prototype had its landing gear retract outwards – it makes more sense from an engineering point of view.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

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:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, diameter and shape are a very good match, even though there's a small gap to bridge – but that's nothing that could not be mended with a bit of 2C putty and PSR. A styrene tube inside of the donor engine holds a styrene pipe for a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely. The large chin fairing for a dust filter is a transplant from an AZ Models Spitfire, it helps hide the ventral engine/fuselage intersection and adds another small twist to this fictional aircraft. From the same source came the exhaust stacks, Revell's OOB parts are less detailed and featured sinkholes, even though the latter would later hardly be recognizable.
With the dust filter the Swallow now looks really ugly in a side view, it has something P-40E-ish about it, and the additional bulge behind the radiator for the cameras (certainly not the best place, but the PR Hurricanes had a similar arrangement) does not make the profile any better!

Further small mods include anti-glare panels above and behind the exhaust stacks (simple 0.5 mm styrene sheet), and the small underwing flash bombs were scratched from styrene profile material.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Painting and markings:
The livery was the true motivation to build this model, as a canvas to try it out: Long ago I came across a very interesting Hawker Hurricane camouflage in a dedicated book about this type, a simple all-over scheme in black blue, also known as "Bosun Blue", together with very limited and toned-down markings. As far as I could find out this livery was used in the Middle East and later in India, too, for nighttime photo reconnaissance missions.

However, defining this color turned out to be very difficult, as I could not find any color picture of such an aircraft. I guess that it was not a defined color, but rather an individual field mix with whatever was at hand – probably roundel blue and black? Therefore, I mixed the obscure Bosun Blue myself, even though this took some sorting out and experiments. I initially considered pure Humbrol 104 (Oxford Blue) but found it to have a rather reddish hue. FS 35042 (USN Sea Blue) was rejected, too, because it was too greenish, even with some black added. I eventually settled on a mix of Humbrol 15 (Midnight Blue) and 33 (Flat Black), which appeared as a good compromise and also as a very dark variant of a cyan-heavy blue tone.
The cockpit interior and the inside of the landing gear wells were painted with RAF cockpit green (Humbrol 78), while the landing gear struts became aluminum (Humbrol 56) – pretty standard.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The decals/markings were puzzled together from various sources. Using a real-world RAF 208 Squadron MTO night photography Hurricane as benchmark I gave the aircraft a light blue individual code letter (decals taken from the Revell Spitfire Mk. V's OOB sheet, which has the letters' Sky tone totally misprinted!). The spinner was painted in the same tone, mixed individually to match the letter.
Markings were apparently generally very limited on these machines, e. g. they did not carry any unit letter code) and the Type B roundels only on fuselage and upper wings. The latter were improvised, with wacky Type B-esque roundels from a Falkland era Sea Harrier placed on top of RAF roundels with yellow edges. The sources I consulted were uncertain whether these rings were yellow, white, or maybe even some other light color, but I went for yellow as it was the RAF's markings standard. Looks odd, but also pretty cool, esp. with the Type B roundels' slightly off proportions.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The subdued two-color fin flash on the dark aircraft was/is unusual, too, and following real world practice on some PR Hurricanes I added a thin white edge for better contrast. The small black serial on a white background, as if it was left over from an overpainted former fuselage band, came from a Latvian Sopwith Camel (PrintScale sheet); in RAF service N8187 would have been used during the pre-WWII period and therefore a plausible match for the Swallow, even though it belongs to a batch of RN aircraft (It would probably have been a Fairey Fulmar)..

No black ink washing was applied to the model due to its dark overall color, just the cockpit and the landing gear were treated this way. Some light weathering and panel shading was done all over, and soot stains as well as light grey "heat-bleached" areas due to lean combustion around the exhausts were painted onto the fuselage. Finally, everything was sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and wire antennae (stretched sprue material) were added.

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Avro 675 'Swallow' PR Mk. II trop.; '(GA-)E/N8187' of the Royal Air Force No. 208 Squadron; RAF Gaza air base (Palestine), late 1941 (Whif/KP Models Avia B.35 conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A simple project, realized in a couple of days – thanks to the experience gathered during former builds of this fictional aircraft. However, the Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's original profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire. The result looks very convincing, and the all-blue livery suits the aircraft well! . At first glance, the Swallow looks like an early Spitfire, but then you notice the different wings, the low canopy and the shorter but deeper tail. You might also think that it was a travestied Yak-3 or LaGG aircraft, but again the details don't match, it's a quite subtle creation.
I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, slender wings and the sleek fuselage lines – even though the dust filter and the camera fairing strongly ruin the side profile. Maybe another one will join my RAF Swallow collection someday, this time in Irish Air Corps colors.

zenrat · March 03, 2023, 03:20:13 AM

PR19_Kit · March 03, 2023, 05:27:17 AM

That's wonderful Thomas, and it'll fool a whole lot of people I'm sure.

That camera pod is very redolent of the pod used on the PR Hurricanes in the Middle East, and maybe used the same sheet metal, who can say?

NARSES2 · March 03, 2023, 06:02:16 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on March 03, 2023, 05:27:17 AMThat's wonderful Thomas, and it'll fool a whole lot of people I'm sure.

Totally agree

Vulcan7 · March 03, 2023, 10:32:40 AM

cool looking build, very believable

Rick Lowe · March 03, 2023, 01:11:13 PM

Well done.

loupgarou · March 03, 2023, 02:51:40 PM

Very neat build of an obscure donor, and (as usual) interesting and plausible story.
I see the flaps are down in the ground photos, butup in flight,did you manage to build moving ones?

Wardukw · March 03, 2023, 08:52:38 PM

Very cool Dizzy mate..very cool indeed

Dizzyfugu · March 04, 2023, 01:27:34 AM

Quote from: loupgarou on March 03, 2023, 02:51:40 PMVery neat build of an obscure donor, and (as usual) interesting and plausible story.
I see the flaps are down in the ground photos, butup in flight,did you manage to build moving ones?

No, they are fixed. IIRC I just edited them away in one or two flight scenes; depending on the perspective they are not visible, though.

Hotte · March 05, 2023, 05:24:23 AM

Nice bird

Hotte

Tophe · March 05, 2023, 07:18:06 AM

great mix!

Dizzyfugu · March 05, 2023, 11:28:12 PM

Again, thanks a lot!

DogfighterZen · March 06, 2023, 12:10:03 AM

McColm · March 06, 2023, 12:32:54 AM

Great build and backstory

SPINNERS · March 08, 2023, 03:15:57 AM

Lovely work and a good read too!