This is likely to be my last build for a while due to placing my home on the market soon and, in March, moving to a new build. It may take a while then to get a 'man-cave' sorted but the motivation will be there due to the quality of the stash that I have been saving for after my move. This build means quite a lot to me so it is worth giving some background and telling the story.
Having just built the most advanced and modern looking aircraft in WW2 I am now building one that was obsolete at the start of WW2... A fragile, slow, biplane nicknamed 'The Stringbag'. Obsolete it may have been, but it made a big impact on the war. It was a Stringbag that damaged the Bismark enabling her to be caught and sunk. At the Battle of Taranto they attacked the Italian navy sinking a battleship and seriously damaging another two, plus other ships. These aircraft served right through to VE Day and outlived aircraft designed to replace them.
Operation Cerebus in 1942 involved the battleships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen transiting the English Channel, leaving Brest heading for their home ports in Germany. This was commonly known as 'the Channel Dash' with the British attempt to stop them being known as 'Operation Fuller'. The Germans decided that secrecy was paramount and so started their move from Brest under the cover of darkness. They managed to keep the operation secret for 12 hours but it meant that they had to get through the narrowest and, for them, most dangerous part of the Channel, the Straights of Dover, in broad daylight.
The British defences were wrong-footed and taken totally by surprise. They had to respond in a hurry and did so with coastal artillery, aircraft and what surface units they could scrape together. The German big ships were not alone as they had an escort of destroyers and e-Boats while the air swarmed with their fighters.
Six Swordfish armed with torpedoes, with 18 crew, were sent to attack the German ships. They were meant to have an escort of 84 fighters but only 10 made the rendezvous. Nevertheless they pressed on with the attack knowing they had little chance of success. Every one of those 6 Swordfish was shot down and 13 of the crew were killed. Lt Cmdr Esmonde who led the Swordfish won a posthumous VC for this action. Vice-Admiral Ramsay wrote "In my opinion the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish aircraft constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty the war had ever witnessed", and German Vice-Admiral spoke about "the mothball attack of a handful of ancient planes, piloted by men whose bravery surpasses any other action by either side that day".
It is one of these six Swordfish that I want to represent with this build.
So why does it mean a lot to me?
I am sat typing this in my office. I look out my office door and there, across a slip road, over a dual carriageway, over the top of masts in the marina is a clock tower standing at the western end of Dover Harbour as it did in 1942. It is a short walk away and from there I can see the massive enclosed artificial harbour looking much as it did in 1942. Its shape will be familiar to you all from documentaries and films like the Battle of Britain. Looking past the breakwater I can see the coast of France and on a clear day from that spot you can even see the clock tower in Calais. During the war Dover was known as Hellfire Corner due to it being in range of big German guns on the French coast. Calais is only 21 short miles away and I can stand there and imagine the sights as the German ships made their Channel Dash. Dover Harbour must have been one of the last things seen by those gallant Swordfish crew.
But not only that - my family has long lived in Dover and my grandmother decided not to evacuate her children saying 'if we are going to go then we will all go together'. So my dad was here in the war and had a ringside seat for the Battle of Britain and much else that went on around here. He has a lot of stories. But there is more, for a period of six months my granddad was based in Dover and able to be with his family. He served in the Royal Navy and while in Dover was on one of the 'Grey' class Steam Gun Boats whose job was to tackle the E Boats. The SGB flotilla was commanded by Lt Cmdr Peter (later Sir Peter) Scott, son of Scott on the Antarctic and himself post-war becoming a famous conservationist. My granddad was in Dover in February 1942....
So this is a very personal build.....
On to the kit....
The picture below is the scheme I am using and it will be an out of the box build except for some fabric seatbelts as the kit p.e. ones are very crude. This having an open cockpit means these will be very visible.
I will be using Vallejo and AK paints and for the first time the new unpronounceable Badger primers.
View attachment 116975
Here are the parts, off the sprue for the main interior build ready for clean up.
View attachment 116976
initial sub-assemblies
View attachment 116977
Having just built the most advanced and modern looking aircraft in WW2 I am now building one that was obsolete at the start of WW2... A fragile, slow, biplane nicknamed 'The Stringbag'. Obsolete it may have been, but it made a big impact on the war. It was a Stringbag that damaged the Bismark enabling her to be caught and sunk. At the Battle of Taranto they attacked the Italian navy sinking a battleship and seriously damaging another two, plus other ships. These aircraft served right through to VE Day and outlived aircraft designed to replace them.
Operation Cerebus in 1942 involved the battleships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen transiting the English Channel, leaving Brest heading for their home ports in Germany. This was commonly known as 'the Channel Dash' with the British attempt to stop them being known as 'Operation Fuller'. The Germans decided that secrecy was paramount and so started their move from Brest under the cover of darkness. They managed to keep the operation secret for 12 hours but it meant that they had to get through the narrowest and, for them, most dangerous part of the Channel, the Straights of Dover, in broad daylight.
The British defences were wrong-footed and taken totally by surprise. They had to respond in a hurry and did so with coastal artillery, aircraft and what surface units they could scrape together. The German big ships were not alone as they had an escort of destroyers and e-Boats while the air swarmed with their fighters.
Six Swordfish armed with torpedoes, with 18 crew, were sent to attack the German ships. They were meant to have an escort of 84 fighters but only 10 made the rendezvous. Nevertheless they pressed on with the attack knowing they had little chance of success. Every one of those 6 Swordfish was shot down and 13 of the crew were killed. Lt Cmdr Esmonde who led the Swordfish won a posthumous VC for this action. Vice-Admiral Ramsay wrote "In my opinion the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish aircraft constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty the war had ever witnessed", and German Vice-Admiral spoke about "the mothball attack of a handful of ancient planes, piloted by men whose bravery surpasses any other action by either side that day".
It is one of these six Swordfish that I want to represent with this build.
So why does it mean a lot to me?
I am sat typing this in my office. I look out my office door and there, across a slip road, over a dual carriageway, over the top of masts in the marina is a clock tower standing at the western end of Dover Harbour as it did in 1942. It is a short walk away and from there I can see the massive enclosed artificial harbour looking much as it did in 1942. Its shape will be familiar to you all from documentaries and films like the Battle of Britain. Looking past the breakwater I can see the coast of France and on a clear day from that spot you can even see the clock tower in Calais. During the war Dover was known as Hellfire Corner due to it being in range of big German guns on the French coast. Calais is only 21 short miles away and I can stand there and imagine the sights as the German ships made their Channel Dash. Dover Harbour must have been one of the last things seen by those gallant Swordfish crew.
But not only that - my family has long lived in Dover and my grandmother decided not to evacuate her children saying 'if we are going to go then we will all go together'. So my dad was here in the war and had a ringside seat for the Battle of Britain and much else that went on around here. He has a lot of stories. But there is more, for a period of six months my granddad was based in Dover and able to be with his family. He served in the Royal Navy and while in Dover was on one of the 'Grey' class Steam Gun Boats whose job was to tackle the E Boats. The SGB flotilla was commanded by Lt Cmdr Peter (later Sir Peter) Scott, son of Scott on the Antarctic and himself post-war becoming a famous conservationist. My granddad was in Dover in February 1942....
So this is a very personal build.....
On to the kit....
The picture below is the scheme I am using and it will be an out of the box build except for some fabric seatbelts as the kit p.e. ones are very crude. This having an open cockpit means these will be very visible.
I will be using Vallejo and AK paints and for the first time the new unpronounceable Badger primers.
View attachment 116975
Here are the parts, off the sprue for the main interior build ready for clean up.
View attachment 116976
initial sub-assemblies
View attachment 116977
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:eek: