The Little World

Redirect your mind from the old religious movie – this is serious. What version of this plane do I make?

There are always a number of questions about any new build. What are my criteria for choosing a kit and then choosing a scheme?

a. It is a kit. I have enough money to buy it. I am unsupervised and the hobby shop is open. In this case it is a gift kit, which elevates rather than lowers it.

b. It is a type I have never built.

c. It has a Canadian connection. Used by the RCAF, RCN, one of the airlines, or bush lines. This is nostalgia and misplaced patriotism and a good excuse to buy more kits.

d. It is a real plane. One verifiable in a book or on the net – one with an actual picture. I might go off at a tangent, but I want a steady runway for my flight of fancy.

All this having been said, I need to decide what this Swordfish kit becomes. I have researched the Skaarup files and discovered no Swordfish floatplanes in RCAF use. Blackburn Sharks, yes…but that is another build for another time. There were Swordfish flying off the east coast with wheels and various A/S loads in various liveries.

There is also a Swordfish Mk IV preserved in Canada that came out of a farmer’s storage that has a very simple and easy paint job – one that can be done after the plane is nearly completely assembled. It is my new favourite – silver.

But, this floater is an opportunity to do something that has disappeared off the hobby shop shelves – while wheeled Swordfish are still there. And the RN version that flew off ARK ROYAL in 1938 had the sort of silver and bright colour markings that characterise my other two new models – a Hawker Demon and a Bristol Bulldog. There is a definite charm about inter-war decoration.

It will be a few weeks of building at my Saturday fortnight club before I have to make a definite decision. I have time to be indecisive and painful – I’ll try to keep it to myself.