Airfix 1/72 Fairey Battle

AIRFIX 1:72 FAIREY BATTLE

Reviewer: Richard Stracey (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 22 November 2003

Kit Details:

AIRFIX #02029-7 1/72 -- FAIREY BATTLE

Aircraft History:

Although the Battle was a 1930s design, built to specification P27/32 and first flying on the 10^th March 1936 from, what is now Heathrow Airport, it’s design philosophy dates back to WWI and the success of the Bristol Fighter. As with the Defiant, it proved a total disaster in combat as was proved on the 14^th May 1940 when forty Battles were lost to enemy action! The first two RAF VCs of the war were awarded to Battle crews. Soon withdrawn from front line service, most Battles were used by the Belgian, Irish, Canadian, Australian and RAF as target tugs, trainers and as engine test beds.

The Kit:

This Airfix kit, consisting of over seventy parts including two crew figures, was first produced in the mid 1960s. Its lack of accuracy was due to Fairey giving Airfix the wrong drawings as related by Alan Hall and Ian Huntley in Scale Aircraft Modelling of Oct.’86. One would have thought that Airfix could or would have replaced it by now but the latest re release is via the Czech company Bilek (#16). Airfix supply two decal options packed in a box and Bilek one, packed in a plastic bag with a header card.

Construction:

The Huntley/Hall article explains what is wrong with the kit……just about everything! As it was all I did was replace the rudder and mudguards (39&47) from plascard and cutting down and re shaping the propeller to 52mm dia. The exhausts (18&19) require sanding back as they are too prominent as they come. The gun, if you use it at all, needs replacing with an Aeroclub G005 or G007. All I did to the interior was to add seat belts. The bombs are rather crude and I didn’t use them as I modelled the bomb doors closed. A touch of filler completed the job and the result certainly looks like a Battle and the surface detail is quite good.

Decals:

The Airfix decal option is for a 12 Sqn. machine PH*F in France 1940 in standard green and brown over black and a Belgian 3^rd. Air Regiment aircraft T70 at Aeltre in 1940 in green and brown over light grey. The Bilek decal sheet is for a 218 Sqn. aircraft HA*J in 1940 in brown and green over black. I settled on R3928 of No.1 BGS RAAF at Evans Head NSW Australia in foliage green and earth brown over yellow with black stripes. To make it more interesting another aircraft, without a radio, lost a wheel on take off without the crew realising. Landing in that condition, without knowing, would have resulted in a situation somewhere between embarrassing and lethal! They painted, with whitewash, “Port Wheel Off 2255” down the side of R3928, chased after them and managed to get the message across. This is how I depicted it along with an extended air intake that I found in my scrap box and modified.

Conclusion:

As usual, Profile #34 has useful information, as does Scale Aircraft Modelling “Aircraft in Detail” of Oct.’86 and Scale Models of Dec.’70 and Jan.’71 have very good plans. I haven’t seen them yet but MPM have the confidence that Airfix lacks and have issued two Battles, a TT Mk.X (RAAF) (72097) and a T Mk.I (72096). Knowing MPM, I am sure that they are first rate models.

RHS / 86

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