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BILEK (AIRFIX) 1:72 FAIREY BATTLE
Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
- Addendum supplied by Jason Sou at end
Kit Built
+ Review
submitted:
December
1998
Aircraft:
The Fairey Battle was designed to meet a 1932 requirement for a two-seat
light day bomber able to carry a 1,000-lb bombload over 1,000 miles at around 200 mph.
This aircraft first flew in 1936 and its successful transition into production by
1937 saw more than 1800 Battles built, operational in 16 Squadrons by commencement of WW2.
The RAF sent 10 Battle Squadrons to France and though it was modern by late 30's
standards it was obsolete by 1940 and was easy prey for German fighters and anti-aircraft
gunners. In fact, they suffered such disastrous losses after the German invasion of
1940, that the surviving aircraft were withdrawn. Some of the type were then
employed for a short time as a night bomber against German seaborne invasion preparations
but most were converted to target tugs and carried the designation TT.Mk 1. They
were initially fitted with Merlin engines and their designation number matched the Merlin
engine design - ie: Battle Mk.1 had the Merlin I engine fitted, Mk.II had the Merlin II
engine fitted and so forth til Mk.V.
The Kit:
Until this point I had basically no knowledge whatsoever of Bilek kits and
had (wrongly) assumed them to be another challenging but decent mold out of the Czech
Republic with vac form canopies etc - something along the lines of MPM, CMK, Czechmaster,
Pavla and so forth. Bilek have in fact purchased many old molds shot from
brand name manufacturers, most notably Airfix and Italeri, although they do have
some of their own original molds too. This Fairey
Battle kit is actually a reboxing of the aged Airfix kit and has plenty of
inaccuracies as pointed out in Jason Sou's addendum below.
Now back to opening the box (when I had no idea what to expect), I was pleasantly surprised by the quality not unlike, Heller, Revell or Airfix kits (duh!!), since I was expecting vacform canopies and limited run kit qualities. All parts were injection mold and I was rather eager to get stuck into this kit.
Parts in the box were olive green in colour with plenty of external detail covered by raised lines and rivets - probably excessive. A couple of interesting things are noticed, the flaps on the main wings are moveable after construction and the undercarriage is molded in a way to allow the wheels to turn once completed. I should have had at this point realised it was an Airfix reboxing as this was there trademark of the 60's-70's manufacturing era.
The rudder doesn't look to be correctly molded and there is no 'dimple' effect as evident in photos. Canopy section is split into four quite inaccurate pieces, and I had some questions over whether the three small windows beside the rear gunner were portrayed correctly (see sideview below). It turns out that most Battles had a singular window but three windows were known to be included on some aircraft. There are two clear parts provided for what appears will be wing mounted landing lights - nice. Two pilot figures are also provided to include in the cockpit and rear gunner stations.
Instructions:
The instructions are somewhat of a let down, set out on a single A4 sized
sheet of paper in small but adequate diagrams. There are no colour call outs for
individual items and the sketches are inaccurate in parts that make it difficult which way
a piece should go or exactly where on a part a connecting piece should be positioned.
This caused much annoyance later in the construction process and one would be best
advised to dry fit some possible problem components in all sorts of ways before ultimately
deciding final placement. There are other vague symbols outlined in the instructions
that are not clarified but from having a good look it appears that shaded squares indicate
'Do Not Cement', non-shaded squares indicate 'optional' component choices and shaded
circles denote clear parts. This is useful for the flaps and undercarriage
construction to allow them to be moveable.
Scanned and Contributed by Mario Albea: This is a cutaway drawing of the Fairey Battle as it appeared in "Flight" in 1937. The drawing provides some excellent information for the modeller on the cockpit layout and interior of the Battle.
Construction:
Construction starts with the cockpit and this is very nicely detailed.
You are provided with rear bulkhead where the seat is attached to, authentic
control column, front armour wall with instrument panel attached containing raised detail.
Be careful in positioning the pilot's seat - make sure it is right in the middle
otherwise you will have problems with the canopy. The rear gunner station is not quite
brimming with similar detail, you simply get a seat (although very nicely done) and base
to stick your figure onto. This is one part where the instructions are not good as
far as the sketch is concerned. This indicates the seat is put about halfway down
the base where in fact its placed in the hole up one end. This end is actually
closest to the front of the aircraft but placing the rear gunner in that position will
result in the inability of having gun exposed and canopy folded back (ie: he will need to
be closed in). For an open rear-cockpit you will need to fill in the hole for the
seat and later in the assembly process carefully place the gunner in the right position
about halfway down the base. Both cockpit areas were painted overall in interior
green with black panelling - grey cockpit seat, navy blue rear gunner seat.
The next step in the process is gluing the fuselage halves together and encasing cockpit, undernose intake and propeller. Be wary if choosing to make a moveable propeller because simply following the lines for attachment on the parts will result in a very loose propeller assembly up a little. The intake also needs to be given a bit of attention when trapping between the fuselage as not enough gap has been allowed for a good sit. The fuselage halves themselves were a bit resistant when put together, especially the nose area, and the back area was prone to slipping.
The wings go on nicely but a bit of filler and sanding off all that raised detail :( was required in the wing roots and nose join lines. One of the tailplanes was imperfectly molded on the outer edges and this is noticeable on general scrutiny. Small bombs are placed (two each wing) in small bays inside the main wings and the doors all carried a nasty looking ejector pin mark. Mold imperfections and ejector pin marks were quite noticeable on many of the smaller parts. The bombs are just a tad big for the bays (but fit okay) and they are best placed inside before fixing on the doors. I painted the bombs in olive green and the rest of the bay interior (and wheel well interior) in matt black. The bay doors are curved and are very difficult to sit to display the open doors - the bays are rectangle in shape! The solution was to sit and hold the doors in position with very fast setting super glue - it worked but was a bit time consuming (and difficult to keep the glue off the skin!). In the end I achieved a good sit and these look very nice under the aircraft.
Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum
Picture Contributed by Mario Albea, caption taken from Profile Publications: Battles K9353 HA-J, K9324 'B' and K9325 'D' of No. 218 Squadron over French territory during the "phoney" war. When the Battle of France began on lOth May 1940 there were more than lOO Battles serviceable in the Advanced Air Striking Force. By the close of 14th May, after a series of gallant and bloody actions, the wrecks of a great many of them lay strewn about the valleys of the Ardennes
The undercarriage is nicely done and as stated is engineered to be moveable. The tyre and rim is basically separate and is not cemented to the connector pins or strut. I wanted a wheels up plane (about half the wheel extends out of the well - see sideview below) and the instructions again are a little vague. Solution: assemble the undercarriage as normal as if you were having it lowered, then cut off just the bit of strut that would be exposed between the wing and front guard/bracket. The guard/bracket act as the wheel well cover that exposes half the wheel and you will need to refer to the instructions to ensure you place the correct wheel assembly in the correct wheel well. It's easy to get it wrong. The rear wheel is placed underneath the rear of the fuselage and the hole is too big. I dabbed a touch of putty in the hole, waited for it to harden just a little and carefully placed the rear wheel in this, with super glue to strengthen it.
The landing lights on the wings were a nice touch and I painted the insides with aluminium. A small attachment mimicking the globe is also put inside and I painted this silver and once the clear cover was placed this looks really good. A part (cannon?) is attached on the wing next to the starboard landing light and is noted as Part 55 on the (Bilek) instructions - there is no Part 55 on the sprue that I could find but a part matching its description that appears not to be numbered was found and assumed was the correct piece.
Now comes the real down-point of the kit - the canopy set - nicely injection molded but annoyingly out of alignment and accuracy. They all go in line very nicely but don't sit properly on the fuselage. The distinctive main canopy (covering the pilot) is larger in size than the canopy pieces behind it leaving a gap no matter how you try and sit it. The windscreen is too steep in the only way it will sit properly - otherwise looks okay if the pilot canopy was a touch smaller. As pointed out early in this review, the small windows either side of the rear gunner are not evident but the rear canopy does go down and mimics a "one and a half" set of windows. A bit of filler was needed to plug up some gaps.
Versions & Decals:
Only one example is produced by the kit, a night bomber from an
unspecified regiment (J-HA side fuselage lettering and serial K-9353 on fin and rear
fuselage side) depicted in upper dark green/military brown camouflage and matt black
undersides - quoted references are Humbrol (116/186/33 respectively) and Model Master
(1710/1701/1749 resp.). I agreed with the green and black denotations for Humbrol but
chose Matt 30 for the Earth Brown colouring. The decals were thin and needed a lot
of care when applying. The small serial lettering was prone to curl and disintegrate
and I needed to call upon my spares to add digits in stages when one of my serials was
ruined in spite of every care given. The red & blue upper wing roundels had to be
applied carefully to the ribbing texture and were a little resistant in conforming but
once squeezed of air bubbles settled nicely. Once they are in place they are actually
quite nice.
Overall:
Well, what started out as an eagerly anticipated project turned
out to be a bit of a disappointment. Most of the construction was quite
straightforward and easy, only the areas highlighted (such as canopy and gaps
left in wing joins etc) proved to be problematic. While the moveable flaps
and wheels were nice, sticklers for accuracy will not be pleased because they
tend to detract from clean lines and panelling. If there is an aftermarket
source for the canopy set then I'd suggest you get it in favour of using the
kit's parts as it is quite inaccurate. Discounting the fundamental
accuracy flaws as pointed out by Jason below, this kit wasn't too bad and could
be seen as a recommended "Kitbash". Recommended for all but the
real novice and those who want accuracy over anything else.
(ADDENDUM: supplied by Jason Sou): I would suggest that the Bilek Fairey Battle and the old Airfix Fairey Battle are one and the same – with the only difference being the decal sheet, box art and (probably) parts of the instruction sheet. I have built the Airfix kit, some ten years ago, and the decals allowed one to complete either an RAF or a Belgian Battle.
Bilek leased many Airfix moulds including the Dornier Do 17 E/F, Blohm und Voss Bv 141, Petlyakov Pe-2, Focke-Wulf Fw 189, Westland Whirlwind fighter, and Handley-Page Hampden. Airfix has since re-issued some of the above kits, in line with their policy of rotating their moulds.
Accuracy/Reference Notes:
The Airfix kit is actually quite inaccurate in basic shape and outline as the mould was created using the wrong set of plans supplied by FAIREY front-office staff. Basically, the shape of the wings is out-of-true and the forward fuselage and position of the canopy is incorrect, so if a totally accurate Battle is desired from this kit, a lot of work will have to be done. The best reference to the work needed is the article
"How to build a better Battle" by Alan W. Hall and Ian Huntley, which appeared on pages 20-22 of Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine Vol 9 No 1 (October
1986). This issue also features the Fairey Battle as the ‘aircraft of the month’ and includes 16 pages of photos, text and 27 side profiles of RAAF, RAF, RCAF, Belgian, and Irish Battles.
(ADDENDUM 2: written by Martin Waligorski): Life has not been easy for those modellers who want to add a Battle to their model collections. As far as I know, there has been only one kit, issued some years ago by Airfix in 1/72nd scale (Ed-now reboxed by Bilek). Reasonably good as a kit, it has a major problem - it represents a shape of a prototype, which was markedly different from the production machines. It just happened by accident, as the Airfix toolmakers simply obtained a wrong set of drawings from Faireys. When the mistake was discovered, it was already too late, and this only Battle kit was issued with the built-in fault. (further 'walkaround' pics and info available via IPMS Stockholm http://www.hotel.wineasy.se/ipms/stuff_eng_detail_battle.htm)
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Profile Credit: Pilot Press
Contributor: Mario Albea
Fairey Battle I, RAF 218 Squadron, A.A.S.F., May 1940. Squadron
base was normally Boscombe Down. In September 1939 moved to Auberive-sur-Suippes
and suffered heavy losses during the early days of the campaign. Pictures of
other aircraft, like Westland Lysanders, show that serial numbers have been
deleted ( overpainting them with red primer ) by the time they were deployed to
France.
A point to notice are the lower windows. The profile is correct showing only one
lower window, under the third upper panel from the rear. This is barely visible
in the photograph.
