The release of the Swordfish demonstrates some of the changes in modeling over the past several years. Upon opening the box, seven gray sprues and one transparent sprue reveal many highly detailed parts. Two of the runners are duplicates, forming a weapons complement which include bombs, rockets and a torpedo.
The second surprise concerns the cord of the upper wing, which is immense. The B sprue contains these parts, plus the tail. A lot of design work is evident in the sprues.
The cockpit features framework, like the real plane. The fabric floor of the plane is recreated with careful, subtle texturing, suitable for drybrushing. The simple instrument panel is accurately formed.
Biplane struts are difficult to align properly, but the kit was designed with plugs and recesses to simplify the process. Furthermore, the skin of the fuselage and wings recreates the taut, doped covering revealing the frame underneath.
The aforementioned skin texture contrasts with the smooth metal cowling which features fasteners and recessed panel lines. Two cowling rings are present, and exhaust collector pipes mate perfectly with the exhaust ports on the engine cylinder heads.
We believe that the second variation of the Swordfish will be the floatplane. This kit is an accomplished work from Shizuoka, and we can't wait to build it.
TMMI's publishers are planning to produce a guide book on the Swordfish. TMMI will also cover the Swordfish in the coming issue (#77).