MPM 1/72 Fairey Battle Mk.I

MPM 1:72 FAIREY BATTLE MK.I

Reviewer: Peter Hobbins (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 12 September 2002

Aircraft:

Perhaps one of the most sleek and graceful aircraft of the late inter-war period, the Fairey Battle looked every bit a war-winner. Yet hanging bombs and three crew off the same engine that powered the Spitfire, Hurricane and Defiant should have suggested to the Air Ministry that perhaps its performance would not be stellar. This was certainly the case, as in 1940 Battles were hacked from the sky by flak and fighters and rapidly removed from daylight raids, despite the heroism of the crews. The Battle was then shifted to night duties – of which very little has been reported – and perhaps a much more useful role as a trainer. In fact, over 1,000 Battles were distributed around the British Empire to train aircrews, and they performed admirably in this unsung role.

Kit:

This limited-run injection kit comes in MPM’s light grey plastic, with rather deeply engraved panel lines. Its dimensions scale out accurately against the original aircraft, with only some reshaping of the wingtips required, as they are too rounded otherwise. The standard flimsy box contains a nice-looking selection of highly detailed resin pieces for the cockpit interior, engine exhausts and propeller spinner, plus a tree of clear injection-moulded parts (of which more anon). The instructions are 8 pages of A5 comprising assembly and painting diagrams; these are generally adequate but as detailed below they lack some crucial advice, especially for positioning the resin pieces inside the fuselage. Decals for two machines are included.

Construction:

The airframe generally fits together well, although I would suggest inserting some plastic or metal ‘spars’ into the tailplane-to-fuselage join as this butt joint would otherwise be very weak. The wheel-well arrangement is also badly thought-out and needs a lot of test fitting and sanding/scraping to create a decent cavity. Interestingly, the underwing bomb cells are moulded shut, although one could open them out without too much effort if desired.

The main problems with the kit – which are time-consuming but not insurmountable – centre on the cockpit area. The resin cockpit detail – although nicely done – seems all a bit too large to fit inside the fuselage, and the parts all have to be sanded and trimmed quite a lot to allow the fuselage halves to join. Additionally, the location of the various sections is rather vague, especially the bomb-aimer’s floor panel which should join the forward and aft cockpit sections. In order to produce several versions of the Battle (kitted separately as target tug and twin-cockpit trainers), MPM has engineered the top fuselage decking as a separate piece. This can’t be attached until the cockpit is in place, but it would be much easier to position the cockpit if the fuselage decking was already installed!

A few additional steps can be undertaken to enhance the accuracy of the kit. The aileron score marks don’t quite match up on the upper and lower wing surfaces, so it may be more work than usual to reposition them (I didn’t). However, the elevators and rudder can be readily repositioned, although both require the addition of hinge blocks to appear more like the real thing. I believe the vertical fin should be offset slightly to the starboard of the centreline, but I decided that the difference would be too small to justify the hassle of cutting it off, reattaching and making good.

I cut out the radiator flap and replaced it with one from card, and also opened out the bomb-aimer’s window and inserted a piece of clear acetate (there is some debate about the shape of this window, but it looked convincing to me). Similarly, I cut out the wingtips and added navigation lights from clear sprue (after drilling out ‘bulbs’ and painting them in the correct colours). The nose also needs to be drilled out to create a recess from which the propeller emerges, as per the box-top art, and a small scallop needs to be sanded into the fuselage behind the tailwheel.

The complex undercarriage is rather poorly represented and overscale; I spent some fiddly time with stretched sprue trying to make it all look a bit more like the real thing (perfect opportunity for a photoetch ‘upgrade’ here!). The area under the canopy also benefits from a bit of work, including adding four rectangular light holes on the top of the fuselage decking, and the v-shaped under-canopy rollover bars. Although the Battle is not a particularly well documented aircraft, there are a few walk-around sites of restored aircraft in Britain and Belgium that help with the cockpit and undercarriage detail.

While MPM are obviously proud that they have added an injection-moulded canopy to the kit, the plastic is very thick and splays too far out at the gunner’s station, requiring surgical correction. I happened to have a Falcon vacform canopy for the ancient Airfix kit, and with a bit of slicing this fitted just as well and looked much better. A word of warning about the transparent parts in this kit: ordinary modelling glue will cause the plastic to craze and turn brown, as I found out when I attached the landing light covers; I’d suggest using white glue instead, or superglue after first dipping the parts in Future/Shine Magic.

Versions and decals:

There are two decal options presented, both for RAF machines of 1940. My impression was that the red in the roundels was too dark, so I didn’t use the kit decals. I chose instead to make a RAAF trainer, including black-and-yellow striped undersides, which involved a full evening’s work to mask off the stripes and the large serial numbers beneath the wings (which had to be painted in sliced-up sections of contrasting black and yellow). As the camouflage on Battles continued over the fuselage under the canopy glazing, I painted the kit first and then attached the canopy sections with white glue.

Overall:

This kit probably represents MPM at their height, with nicely moulded injection parts and a lovingly crafted resin interior that has been lacking in some of their more recent kits. While the airframe generally goes together quite nicely, be prepared for a lot of sanding and test-fitting to get the cockpit to sit where it actually belongs – inside the fuselage! All in all, though, a relatively straightforward kit for modellers with some experience, and one which really captures the elegant shape of this neglected aircraft.

Related Reviews:-

Bilek (Airfix) 1/72 Fairey Battle (with reference images)

Related INBOX Reviews:-

MPM 1/72 Fairey Battle

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