Special Hobby 1/72 Fairey Barracuda Mk. III By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

Fairey has a long history of building Fleet Air Arm torpedo bombers. The most famous is probably the Swordfish, a biplane design that, despite its obsolescence, was used throughout World War Two. Fairey then designed its successor, the Albacore, but rather than taking over the duties of the Swordfish, the Albacore served alongside it. Fairey didn't stop there, though. Determined to come up with a replacement for both the Swordfish and the Albacore, the Barracuda was designed from the ground up as a torpedo bomber and a reconnaissance plane. Originally designed to take the Rolls Royce Exe engine, this was quickly changed to the Merlin and the Barracuda took to the air in 1940. The design incorporated several unique design features. The wing was a shoulder-mounted wing with Fairey-Youngman flaps that were actually separate wing shapes mounted below the wing. These added lift when in the "retracted" position, while lowering them greatly decreased the landing run. The landing gear was the other unique design aspect of the Barracuda, with an odd L-shaped strut arrangement being used to provide as wide a track as possible without using up much wing space for the retraction mechanism.

The Barracuda didn't replace the Swordfish and Albacore as originally planned, but it did have a very long service life. First entering service in 1942, the Barracuda got off to a rocky start, as several parliamentary figures pushed to cancel the production. The performance of the Barracuda quickly ended that argument, and over 2800 Barracuda Mk.IIs were produced. Although designed as a torpedo bomber, the Barracuda's main armament during the war was bombs. The first mission that brought attention to the Barracuda was an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz, when several squadrons made a surprise attack on the ship in a Norwegian fjord. The Tirpitz received 15 direct hits from 500 and 1000lb bombs, proving the accuracy of the Barracuda in combat. Unfortunately, the Tirpitz was not sunk in this attack and it wasn't until Lancasters dropped REALLY big bombs on the ship that it actually went down.

The Barracuda continued to make a good show of itself during the war and post-war soldiered on until 1953, when the Grumman Avenger eventually replaced it. The Barracuda was an excellent design that did its job well and will be known for its great successes in battle.

The Kit

If the above sounded somewhat familiar, well, I borrowed it verbatim from my review of the MPM Barracuda from way back in 1999. It seems appropriate, considering that this kit, too, borrows heavily from that kit. In fact, it is the same kit, with just a few extras to make it into a proper Mk. III Barracuda. As a quick overview, this kit has great recessed panel lines, a clear injection-molded canopy, and a handful of resin parts, plus a decal sheet with three options.

Nothing changed with the interior in this release, with the majority of the cockpit being made up of plastic, with just a resin fire extinguisher, guns, and instrument panel being the only non-plastic parts. With the very clear canopy and window pieces, there is plenty of room for added details, as everything will be quite visible.

As I noted in my earlier review, the odd landing gear is nicely done on this kit as well and accurately captures the unique look to the Barracuda on the ground. Inserts for the fuselage provide the well for the landing gear, but nothing is provided in the wings. Some plastic card will be needed here to blank off the bays in the wing. The Fairey-Youngman flaps are nicely molded and while they're set to be level in the kit, lowering them should be a snap.

The rest of the kit is pretty straightforward, with the only other potential problem spot being the propeller. It's molded in resin, with separate blades and hub. While it looks like the actual attachment points are well done, there is no positive key to get the blades at the proper pitch, so some care will be needed here. The resin exhaust stubs are very nicely molded, and an option is included for the long pipe exhaust as well. I believe that the Mk. III only had the separate stubs, though, so consign those to the spares box. To make this a proper Mk. III, a radome has to be added to the lower rear fuselage, which is provided in resin.

The decals offer three different schemes for the Barracuda Mk. III, marking the change in camouflage patterns over the years. The first, dating from 1945, is dark slate gray and extra dark sea gray over sky, and is from No. 810 Squadron. The next option is from 1948 and is finished in overall dark blue. This plane was part of HMS Illustrious' "Ship's Flight," a VIP transport used in Oslo. The final plane is a Tr.3 from No. 750 Squadron at St Merryn in 1951. This plane is finished in dark slate gray over sky, as the boxtop shows. The decals are nicely printed, with the roundels in perfect register.

Conclusion

This is a great follow-on to MPM's earlier Barracuda release, allowing the modeler to build any mark of the Barracuda with these two kits. For me, the Mk. III is the the more interesting of the two, and I'm looking forward to building this one up.