Czech Master Resin 1/72 Supermarine Swift FR5 By Tom Gloeckle

Overview

The Supermarine Swift was one of those elegant designs of the 1950s that unfortunately were doomed to failure. It had limited operational use and a lot of serious problems. The CMR kit of the Swift, however, looks to have very few problems. This will be the fourth CMR kit I have built. I can tell you that the previous kits have all been superb, with the Wyvern being the best so far. The Swift appears to be a continuation of that same high quality.

The Kit

All the parts with the exception of the landing gear legs and camera bay windows are molded in CMRs usual light beige resin. There appears to be a little bit of flash along the leading edge of the wing and my example had a small air bubble divot in the leading edge of the wing. This is the first air bubble issue that I have encountered with CMR. Nothing too terrible that a little Milliput, or in the case of this kit, Tamiya epoxy putty won't solve. The landing gear is molded in the strange, hard black resin CMR used in the Wyvern. I believe this is his way of adding strength to the assembly. Weight should not be a big problem with this kit as the fuselage is hollow molded so finely that it resembles an injection-molded kit. The fuselage will require clean up along the mating edges, as they are a little rough. Nothing a little wet sanding will cure. All the moldings are very finely engraved. The cockpit floor, side consoles, and ejection seat are molded as a single unit with very nice detail and no discernable flaws. The camera windows for the nose are molded as clear resin plugs for the side looking cameras, and an odd, though very workable, clear resin rod for the forward camera. Two nice and clear vacform molded canopies are provided for we of the ham fisted variety. That would be me!

The instructions consist of four double side printed pages. Page 1 consists of several exploded views of the construction process. No drama or confusion here, just straight forward and clear parts location. The only painting instructions provided on this page are for the cockpit. However, the rest of the painting directions are covered on the first paint scheme diagram on page two. Two of the double sided pages provide nice clear detail shots and overall shots of a preserved Swift, very helpful when information is limited on the subject. Though several reference sources are sited with the photos. I would also recommend a website called "Thunder and Lightnings", as this is an excellent source for information for aircraft that are post-war and British.

Three scheme options are provided with this kit. The first is WK293 in a dual transitional scheme between No 79 and No. 4 Squadrons, XD962 of No. 2 Squadron, and XD953 of No. 79 Squadron. All these options are in the standard, 50s scheme of dark green/dark sea gray for the upper surface and silver underside. These schemes are provided for CMR’s usual very thin, glossy decals. Very workable and quite a pleasure to use. Topping off the kit is a very nice rendering of WK293 provided by Chris Banyai-Riepl, a very tasteful and attractive way to present this model in a zip lock bag. Speaking of bags, I would recommend transplanting the loose parts into smaller zip lock bags for safe keeping.

Conclusion

Overall, a lovely and promising model. I always look forward to building CMR kits. As resin kits go, they are reasonably straightforward with little or no drama for the moderately experienced modeler. As a first resin kit, the Swift looks like a good one. I'm looking forward to building it.