25 December 2021 Update: Ralph asked me to add the following to his review below:
"The build wasn't all doom and gloom. The resin parts were excellent, as were the decals, which are supremely thin, and include many of the fine stencils."
My detail notes after fondling the Sword 1/72 AD-4W kit sprues and trial fitting some of the parts are HERE (a subsequent post with that and two other links that might be of interest for understanding the various AD-4W configurations and detailing a model are HERE.
However, at that point I got distracted and haven't finish it yet. I was therefore very pleased to recently see a build by Ralph Koziarski (aka SoftScience) on Britmodeller. He wrote:
Whoa boy...I started in January and didn't finish until October of 2021.
This is built from the Sword kit, and it was a fight from start to
finish.
Like any short-run kit, the parts were clunky, and imprecise. Fit was
mediocre at best, and a lot of details were missing. The clear parts
are very thick and fit especially poorly. What really made the whole
experience unnecessarily frustrating were the poor instructions. Not
only were they vague on where smaller parts should fit, they also had
contradictory directions on landing gear doors (they want you to fit
both kinds that are in the box, at the same time), and allude to details
which are not part of the kit (e.g., drop tank sway braces). Its as if
the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, as the kit was
being manufactured.
Disappointing as the kit and the project were, I'm happy I pushed
through, as the final product is hideous and cool, and now I can say I
successfully finished a short run kit.
While not very complimentary (and I'm sure that Sword will take the comments on the instructions to heart), the result clearly indicates that, in the right hands, an excellent model can result!
