1/48 Classic Airframes Fairey Battle I

by Suleyman Girit

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  Victory Day in Turkey 2005 

 

This will be my first entry to ARC.

This is one of Classic Airframes unusual releases of WWII RAF Aircraft in 1/48 - the Fairey Battle I.  I was looking for a CA Fairey Battle I as the Turkish Air Force operated the Fairey Battle, but I could not able to get one instead I found a Fairey Battle TT. After some short research, I decided to use that kit to make a Turkish Air Force Fairey Battle I. There were a few obstacles to overcome i.e. canopy , rear gun and rear gunner bay.

Solution : my friend let me have his spare canopy and I scratch built machine gun and modified the rear gunner bay.

 I will not talk about the kit- you may already have read somewhere else about it- but in short ,the kit comprised of injection molded fuselage and wing parts with finely engraved detail.  The cockpit interior and wheel bays were cast in resin.  Box contains two vac-formed canopies and optional headlight glasses– one for spare or mistake. 
I washed all parts and fan dry with mid heat setting. Never let air dry unless you use soft water- to avoid thin lime scale on plastic.  Then I cleaned all plastic, sanded and dry fit all major parts- highly recommended for limited run kits.  Before starting the assembly I painted all internal parts and the inside of the fuselage halves and wings with Testors MMII RAF Interior Green (2062)

First I finished highly the detailed front and rear resin cockpits- painted first than built them. Result was impressive. Than I tried to fit them into the fuselage and found out that rear cockpit was too wide (almost 2 mm-3/32” ) for the fuselage.  After a lot of sanding and trial and error, I was able to assemble the fuselage halves.  Wings assembly was straightforward.  After the final assembly of plane than filling, sanding and cleaning, I sprayed Testors MMII RAF Interior Green (2062) to the canopy area. Then I fit the canopy and internal support, masked the canopy for overall priming. I primed with Humbrol Aluminum which makes life much easier and more realistic for weathering the plane. Let it dry for two days.

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The aircraft represented was in the standard Turkish Air Force dark green / dark brown camouflage and black under surfaces. 

I painted the entire upper side with Testors MMII RAF Dark Green (2060).  For camouflage masking, I used thin cardboard to make the demarcation line soft to scale than sprayed Testors MMII Dark Earth (2054).  To avoid paint runs, I painted the left side first, let it dry for two days than painted the right side.  After a full cure of the top side, I painted the underside overall Black using mixture of Gunze Acrylics - 75% Flat (H12) and 25% Gloss (H2).

For numbers, roundels and star/crescent I used Bare-Metal foils for masking purposes to get sharp corners.  No decals used on this plane.  All Whites were a mixture of Gunze Acrylics - 75% Flat (H11) and 25% Gloss (H1) and Reds was Gunze Acrylic Flat Red (H13)

Classic Airframes could be more helpful with their instructions, to avoid late recognition of pit-falls.  Despite the kit was rated for experienced modeler still some hints would make life easier for us.  For me, the most difficult fit aspects of the kit were rear cockpit and rear top fuselage part, but it's worth it to make a model of such an unusual plane in 1/48 scale.  Next subject for me will be Turkish Air Force Blenheim V , another Classic Airframes beauty . 

I personally would like to thank Mr. Mehmet Sekercioglu of PM Model for all reference materials and Tamer Ozkan for the canopy- without their support, it would be very difficult to finish this model. 

Suleyman Girit

Aviation Museum Modellers Club- Istanbul,Turkiye

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Photos and text © by Suleyman Girit