Robert Caso

The greatest looking ugly plane ever built!

Hey Guys - Ray, I just emailed Mike and thank you for the comments! I noted that I have upgraded the parts for the folding wing and redid the plans. I just sold a kit to a guy in the UK whose father used to fly the Swordfish, so now my personal connection with this airplane and its history is officially complete! BTW - has anyone seen this book? If you like the Swordfish, you're gonna love this - terrific and a must have http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fairey-Swordfish-Manual-Haynes-Manuals/dp/0857333623 Rob  

JM - was that the kit I sell? The story was that I soon redesigned it on paper with ailerons but my model just sat. I got mad recently one day and fixed it all. Rob

And now for something completely different: Does anyone here know Richard Crapp and perhaps if he has plans available for the magnificent Swordfish he did a few years ago? I have a design going of a larger one in 1/7 (78" but if I could get my hands on Richard's design I would rather build that. Comments/connections appreciated! Rob

BTW - if any of you guys want to buy the stuff that is available only in the US - the cowl, the pants, the dummy engine, it is probably a lot less for me to ship a collective order than it would be for you guys to do it piece by piece. This is the way I would do it: I will gather the prices plus shipping to me from the recommended vendors that I have noted on the plans. I will then give you the price list plus my "to me" shipping cost and add shipping to UK to ship all this stuff to you together in a single box. You guys then send me money - if paypal plus 5% international fee - and then hope that I don't spend it on Porsche car or BMW motorcycle parts. I will then order the stuff per the price list, pack it up and send it to the guy from the UK who sent me the money. I will not mark anything up, I will just do it because I am a modeler first. Rob

Posted by Tomtom39 on 30/10/2015 17:01:46: Robert. That made me laugh (lots of crying also recently following the demise of two costly models !) However all is not lost . I have decided to go ahead with building (or rather at least getting the component parts of the Bulldog cut out .) I have for a number of months been toying with the idea of buying my own Laser cutter and I'm now being lent one for a few weeks to try out and it comes with a man who knows what to do with it (or rather a fellow modeller who is conversant with programming this beast). I have already started a long list of wood that I need. A trip down to Essex (Balsa Cabin) may be called for next week. I have at least a dozen other plans to cut out so will be undertaking a bit of learning! The Springfield Bulldog is a beautiful model and all credit to you for it. I look forward to seeing a few up next year at the RCME fly -in . Tom - thank you for your comments on the model. This is a terribly unforgiving hobby as is flying in general which is why I strive to perfect at least the stuff I have control over - the design, the weight, the components. It just doesn't pay to skimp on anything we have control over and this is the reason that the cost of the BD is rather high. The parts are intricate and there is almost every type and thickness of wood employed and each of these approaches serve a critical purpose either weight-wise or structure-wise. But all this makes it a nightmare to cut economically. When it comes to the componentry, woe unto thee who cheaps out. For me, it's just not worth the risk and I pay for all my stuff just like everybody else. All this is especially important for me since I have the wild card of being a lousy flier - the weak link in the chain! If you can afford a laser, by all means do it. I could have never designed any of my more recent models without the knowledge that I can laser cut it all. I am a decent, old school "by hand" guy but the laser simply enhances those already learned skills. As an editorial comment, if you want to digitize the plans, by all means be my guest, but I would never spend the time "reinventing the wheel" if the parts already exist. The return will be the speed at which the model can be built - use your skills and develop your learning process on another "must have" model! Rob

Couple of pics in my last post - I will be doing an article for RCME on the process here, but not really hard to do

The cost of the kit is soon forgotten after the wheels leave the ground.

John - appears that you have already aligned the wings - was going to post pic but can't figure out how on here. Key is to get the fuselage level and square on a flat surface - I did this with a temporary mount to the firewall that was flat and level on the bottom and firm foam block aft. Then I propped the wings up with some heavyish scrap wood with the verticals as separate pieces supporting the wings. The base of these were clamped to the table and the verticals clamped to that so you could adjust them to set the dihedral. Rob

I designed and built my1/15 scale, 37” Fairey Swordfish about 10 years ago as a building feature for Backyard Flyer magazine. In the interest of simplicity, I left out the ailerons and this wound up being a major mistake as the model just did not do well with only a rudder. I just recently rebuilt the wings with ailerons and decided also to do folding wings. Nothing looks cooler than a topedoed up Swordfish on a carrier deck. The model now flies great.