Another Fairey Battle 1/72

My fascination with the Fairey Battle aeroplane continues. I came across another manufacturer (Special Hobby) that did a "Battle of France" Fairey Battle in my loval hobby shop. In conversation with a friend I was informed that the Airfix Fairey Battle was a little inaccurate. Instead of technical design drawings the Airfix model designers apparently were given a Painting guide (based on a modified Hurricane diagram) rather than the true technical drawings, This was a simple admin error, but as a consequence the tail and wing areas are too small (see below, I need to make this kit and do a compare and contract):   

Watch this space!

Post Script: When I see a cheaper copy (than £40 - Kindle could be an option) I will but this book (see below). I managed to flick through a reference library copy. It is a reassessment of the potential of the Fairey Battle. It claims it was more strategically/operationally mishandled rather than being an implicitly bad design.

Note: More successful designs had "two engines" - it seems that it was being asked to perform too much with too little horse power, with too big a crew (three)!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fairey-Battle-Reassessment-its-Career/dp/1781555850

1/144 and 1/200 Aircraft Additions

Recent acquisitions (all from Zvezda) in no particuilar order, The ill-fated RAF (or rather AASFS) Fairey Battle in 1/144 (see below, but seems rather a large bird to my eyes):

The RAF Bristol Blenheim in 1/200 scale (see below, a very nice kit to make, although in scale it looks silly next to the Fairy Battle):

Closer up you can see there is quite a lot of detail in there despite it being 1/200 (see below):

Same manufacturer (Zvezda) but different scales 1/144 to 1/200 but the Fairey Battle (which was in effect an elongated Hurricane with a crew of three) still looks too big IHMO (see below):

Onto the Russian Front. I just had to get this (tiny and beautiful [in a quirky way]) Russian Polikarpoc I-16 "Rata" in 1/144 (see below, optimistically the cover art has it shooting down a Me-109):

Now assembled but who knows when they will be painted and god knows when I will ever use them, All-in-all I have never been disappointed with the Zvezda aircraft and

Painting Tray

A variety of toys on table (see below):

• Fairey Battle (mostly made and with it's base coat of paint)
• Renaissance Crossbowmen (Painted and Based)
• Mounted Renaissance Harquebusiers (slight bit of basing work to be done)
• Chaos Space Marines (Primes, Washed and in the throes of an experimental Gold and Red colour scheme)
• Five Mini Plaster Cast Lego Star Wars Figures (say no more)

They are cluttering up the bathroom shelf at the moment so I need to get a move on ;)

Fairey Battle Progress

Canopy and radio aerial added to the Fairey Battle  (bar the rear gunner's bit) and the brown earth (Airfix 29 and Tamiya 52) given a Satain Gloss Varnish coat to make it look the same as the satin green (Airfix 163). The Humbrol Clearfix worked well getting the see through canopy in place without the annoying smudges associated with plastic cement disasters of the past. Next, I took a deep breath and with a steady hand painted the canopy lines with a strong dark black (Vallejo Game Colour Black). I also stained the exhausts with a Vallejo Burnt Umber Wash (see below):

Quite pleased with how she is coming along. I usually try and shade, base and highlight the colour scheme but I will probably just leave this one basic, get the decals on, then think about weathering ;)

Fairey Battle's Topside

Time to try out the new Airfix Satin Dark Green paint (163) out. It looks much thicker than the normal acrylic mixtures, more paste than paint, even after what I considered a good stir. It was hard work even getting it slightly wetter by mixing in additional water. With some trepidation I tried my first application. The Earth Brown Airfix (29) was more standard paint, in fact I used Tamiya 52 Earth Brown as per the equivalent charts (see below for results):

Mixed feelings as to how good it looks. The Matte Brown means that I will either have to varnish it up to Satin or the green down to Matte (which seems pointless).

To be continued ...

The Fairey Battle's Bottom

Slipping away from my Sci-Fi interlude I picked up the infamous Fairey Battle from its hibernation cave near the Painting Tray. Just a little touch up on the "yellow bombs" and paint the remaining areas of the underside matte black (see below):

I suppose it is the same view the German flak gunners along the Meuse saw when the six Battles of the 'Dirty Dozen' (No. 12 Squadton AASF) attacked those vital Meuse bridges. 

Next step is to see how the interesting NEW "satin green paint" (Airfix 163) comes out on the model.

Dirty Yellow Deadly Eggs: The Fairey Battle's Payload

Slow progress on the Fairey Battle, but some progress is at least is a positive report. I decided to have "my Fairey Battle" in an action 'bomb run' pose with her bomb bay doors open showing her deadly cargo (of 4 x 250lb bombs). In order to authentically do this the ordnance had to be painted yellow with red stripe to wards the tip, sigh (see below):

Yes it was a bit of a pain but I managed it. I even went as far as painting the interior area with a gunmetal dry-brush over a black undercoat. even though inside and 99% out of view. In my defense little bits do legitimately 'peek through' near the wheels. The bombs themselves were painted yellow, but built up from a dark yellow/light brown with two or three successive highlights using whatever was to hand (various Vallejo and Tamiya pots I think), then washed in Vallejo Umber Shade to 'dirty up'. All extreme perhaps, including the silly (but visible red line) I painted on by hand (having chickened out of doing it with the decals provided). The hope is to get the finished Battle looking 'rough and dirty' as befits its chaotic short life span on a French ploughed field runway before it was overrun by the advancing Germans.

Next step is to give it an overall basic paint scheme and then do the canopy!

Fairey Battle Progress: Primer Time and RAF Crew

I applied my new favourite Airfix paint (Primer Gray) all over the Fairey Battle kit. I took time to paint up the crew and interior Cockpit Green. I did a little shade and base colour mixing even though the crew are going to be underneath a canopy (see below):

This is the point where I discovered I cannot find the decals! Yikes, frantic searching continues. Interestingly, the Fairey Battle has a crew of three, but one (the bomb -aimer/navigator) was hidden away in the belly of the beast.

Modelling Tip: The position of the rear gunner's seat is set as if the canopy is closed. If the more attractive 'action pose' is needed (as per my model above) then the eat and gunner has to be moved about a cm (?, if my memory serves me correctly, again see picture above) towards the tail. Otherwise the canopy won't fit correctly and it sits inconveniently on the gunner's lap. In the end I had to move mine twice

Note: I picked this up from an Internet forum/blog (think it could have been the Airfix Tribute Forum [see below])
http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/Airfix_1_72_Fairey_Battle_02029_03032__about37780.html
http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3103&start=60#p666561
http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3103

Next Stage: Putting it all together

WWII Early War Aircraft: The Fairey Battle

This has been a long term France 1940 dream project, the infamous RAF Fairey Battle (AASF - Advanced Air Strike Force), possibly the "worst" [British] bomber of WWII and we had a few to chose from. I never got the kit as a child but when I saw the error of my ways and wanted one they were not around in the 1990's to 2005+. So I snapped one up when it was finally re-released recently (a few years back?). Now it is finally Fairey Battle construction time (see below for the dissected construction WIP):

The parts are assembled into sub-assemblies ready for priming and then inside out paint with Cockpit Green and the RAF Flyers getting their blue uniform and yellow harness treatment. Originally I was thinking of getting three kits and doing an air scenario for the attack on the Sedan Bridgehead, a kind of early war 1940 style 633 Squadron attack (with everybody going down in a hail of light flak), but even light bombers are "big" to store in 1/72 scale. It may be more feasible to do this in Zevezda's 1/144 or metal 1/300, with my German 1/200 Blitzkrieg kit being the land elements/targets.

The latter thoughts must be considered to be in the "future project" category.