RAF Coastal Command Fairey Battle

[PR19_Kit]

Battle on top of Wellesley.

Looks like one of those training accident pics. 

[zenrat]

Makes me realise how large the Battle was.  I might put a turboprop on mine.

Test airframe for the Rolls Royce Tweed, perhaps?

Well the ones I have are Resin C130H nacelles.  So Allison T-56.

[The Wooksta!]

I found a part built Battle I'd abandoned - it's a completed fuselage and somehow the mould is twisted, leading to all the tail feathers looking cock eyed.  Anyhoo, I'm going to see if it'll take a Matchbox Tempest front end.  If it doesn't work, well, it was going in the bin anyway.

I did find another box with two unstarted Battles and a pair largely assembled.  I've a feeling one was to end up in the middle east for ASW work, much as the last Wellesleys were doing.

[The Rat]

One of the annoying things about this model is the bomb bays in the wings. If you assemble them open, with the supplied bombs, the bombs actually hang down so far that it would be plainly obvious to any observer that the doors would not be able to close. So I've made it with them closed, but the fit is terrible, the doors are too wonky to look smooth, and there are big gaps. Might rip them out and try making my own. Also might try reworking the bombs to make them fit.

Back story will have 12 Squadron moved to Coastal Command, that way I can just stick with the kit decals. It re-equipped with Battles in 1938, so the timeline for that doesn't need to change.

[The Rat]

Removed the masking. Touched up the fuselage areas where there was a little bit of bleed under the tape, now I'll have to spend about a year or so scraping the edges of all those windows and touching up them. 

Couldn't find the instruction sheet, so I did the camo pattern just any old way. And of course, after it was done I found the instructions.  Not repainting.

[chrisonord]

Removed the masking. Touched up the fuselage areas where there was a little bit of bleed under the tape, now I'll have to spend about a year or so scraping the edges of all those windows and touching up them. 

Couldn't find the instruction sheet, so I did the camo pattern just any old way. And of course, after it was done I found the instructions.  Not repainting.

nice colour scheme, I  am in two minds whether to  paint  my B-47 in that scheme  instead  of the white  over dark  grey that I  did the B-66 in, so it would  have  been in service  during the  1950's early 60's.  But then I  wouldn't be able to  hang my anti ship  missiles off it that I  stole from my viggen  kit.
Chris

[zenrat]

When I was building planes as a kid it never occurred to me to follow the instructions for the camo pattern and I just made them up.
No change there then.

This looks great.

[NARSES2]

I do like that camo scheme 

[The Wooksta!]

Something's been niggling me about it and I've just realised - it's too long at the nose.  It'd have some nasty CoG issues.

[The Rat]

Something's been niggling me about it and I've just realised - it's too long at the nose.  It'd have some nasty CoG issues.

Maybe not. Here's a quick picture I took just now, I've lined up the original nose at about where it was cut off. The Pegasus does extend further, but it also weighed about 500lbs less than the Merlin, which could mitigate any C of G issues.

[The Rat]

Just read a post on the official Airfix forum which said that the nose of the Airfix Battle is inaccurate, and about 4mm too short. That would also make this conversion a little less problematic.

[The Wooksta!]

The whole thing was based on drawings for an early prototype.  The nose and tail are out and the bomb bays are in the wrong place too. 

Someone on Britmodeller has rebuilt it.

[The Rat]

Oops, forgot to add the picture I took. Here it is: