Classic Airframes 1/48 Fairey Battle

By Michael Benolkin

History

The Fairey Battle was designed as a light bomber for the RAF in the mid-1930s. First flown in 1936, the RAF realized that the design was already obsolete, but given the clouds of war on the horizon, production of the Battle ensued to reinforce the RAF until a suitable replacement could be developed.

With a top speed of only 233 MPH, the Battle was easy prey for the daylight Luftwaffe. As such, the RAF pressed the Battle into nighttime operations, which enhanced its operational survivability somewhat. You'll see that the majority of the Battle camouflage schemes incorporate the black undersides for night ops.

Considering that the Battle was a two-place, single-engined light bomber, the aircraft (and model) are quite large ñ a 54 foot wingspan lofting a 52 foot fuselage. The seating arrangement is also interesting ñ the pilot is seated just above the leading edge of the wing, facilitating great forward visibility. The gunner, on the otherhand, was located in the next county ñ aft of the trailing edge of that wide wing.

Despite its performance limitations, the Battle did see extensive service during the Second World War, serving with the RAF, Coastal Command, and the air forces of Greece, Turkey, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Ireland.

The Kit

Classic Airframes has given us our first injection-molded 1/48 scale Fairey Battle! It was certainly worth the wait! As with CA's previous releases, the Battle is made up injection-molded plastic airframe parts, cast resin (flawless) interior details, vacuform canopies and a nicely executed decal sheet.

The plastic parts are cleanly molded, with scribed panel lines and a nice representation of the fabric-covered flight control surfaces. The airframe, propeller, and landing gear details are all plastic.

As is typical of limited-run injection molded kits, there are no locating pins/holes on the wing or fuselage halves. This is not a criticism, as such additional engineering on limited-run kits would make the price go beyond reason. You'll just need to be aware that you'll need to use your modeling skills to build this kit up right.

The resin parts are included to build up the cockpit and gunner's tubs, complete with sidewall details, and crew seats that have seatbelt/harness details nicely molded!

CA also provides optional landing lights. These are done beautifully in resin, with the wing leading edge box (complete with lightening holes), and large lamp. You'll need to cut a small section out of the wing to install these, but the detail here makes the effort worthwhile. The leading edge transparencies over the landing lights are provided with vac parts.

As is traditional with CA kits, you are provided with two sets of vac canopies and landing light covers. This is an excellent touch, as that gives you one to goof up and a spare! Works for me!

Markings are provided for three examples of the Battle Mk.I. These include:

– PH-K/P2204 of 12 Sqn flown by F/O D.E. Garland and Sgt T. Gray, who became the first RAF recipients of the Victoria Cross in WW2 (posthumously).
– GR-F/L5597 of 301 Sqn (Polish), 1940
– B282 of 33 Mira, Royal Hellenic Air Force, 1940

As with all CA kits, these are not intended for beginning modelers. However, if you have the tools and skills to work with resin detail parts, you'll enjoy this one. This kit fills the void of the Battle of Britain era RAF flightlines. If you have Spitfires and Hurricanes on your shelf, this will be right at home. Later this year, you'll also have the opportunity to add another quarter scale rarity to your flightline – Classic Airframes is releasing the Blenheim!

I highly recommend this kit to all skilled modelers. My sincere thanks to Classic Airframes for this review sample!