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An Airfix classic - The Fairey Battle receives some TLC plus 3d printed main gear, bomb racks, and bomb doors.


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15 hours ago, Courageous said:

More super work there Ian :yes:. I would like to think that one day I'll tackle this type of build.

Go for it!

 

14 hours ago, Admiral Puff said:

Just fallen over this thread - brilliant stuff! You'll end up with a model of a Battle eventually!

 

I have two Airfix kits in the stash; one is in the process of being converted to a Twin Battle whiffer, the other's set aside to build a RAAF trainer. The Twin has been languishing for want of inspiration to take things further; this thread has certainly provided that! I'll be tagging along and taking copious notes!

Thanks, and welcome aboard!

 

2 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

That rudder looks good. I hope you realise that the rudder stops at the botom of the trim tab and that everything below that is part of the rear fuselage.

 

Gondor

Thanks! I do indeed, the bottom edge will be removed with a micro saw and attached to the fuselage, in the same fashion as the elevators, to form the tail fairing. It's just much easier to make it as one part then separate it.

 

1 hour ago, hendie said:

 

lets be honest... I'll bet you're having more fun with this Battle than you would with any modern shake and bake kit.

 

There's some really nice scratch building taking place here with some novel approaches.  I particularly like the 'how to move ailerons back a tad' method. Simple yet effective.

I am indeed Hendie, and thanks - I do try to keep things simple, mainly so I don't confuse myself!

 

Ian

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I'm marking this down as THE reference thread as regards the fixing the A-fix Battle. A great survey of corrections Ian and some ingenious technical solutions.

 

Nothing more pleasing than seeing a vintage kit getting the kiss of life!

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35 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I'm marking this down as THE reference thread as regards the fixing the A-fix Battle. A great survey of corrections Ian and some ingenious technical solutions.

 

Nothing more pleasing than seeing a vintage kit getting the kiss of life!

What he said!

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On 2/18/2018 at 10:47 AM, Martian Hale said:

I am so loving this build Ian, you are doing a great job here!

 

Martian

Many thanks Martian, much appreciated!

 

On 2/18/2018 at 11:24 AM, AdrianMF said:

Ter-riffic! Nice going with the wings. I guess you can get away with extending the trailing edge in this case to extend the chord because of the thickness of Airfix trailing edges.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian! I also sanded the trailing edges to bring them forward slightly and give a decent surface to attach the strip to.

 

On 2/18/2018 at 12:42 PM, TheBaron said:

I'm marking this down as THE reference thread as regards the fixing the A-fix Battle. A great survey of corrections Ian and some ingenious technical solutions.

 

Nothing more pleasing than seeing a vintage kit getting the kiss of life!

Wow, thanks Tony, praise indeed! Nearly done with the major stuff now.

 

and thanks TonyH too

 

This afternoon was spent covering myself, the floor, the bench, and a few other things, with fine plastic dust as I sanded down the wings. I added a smear of PPP to all the seams, especially the trailing edge additions, to make sure the transition from kit wing to styrene addition was a smooth one. Job now done and I'm very pleased with the result.

 

40344429391_2960441dc5_k.jpg

 

Then of course, I couldn't help myself....I needed to see how it all looked!

 

39632613264_c3a95323cb_k.jpg

 

38534212520_02b101cafd_k.jpg

 

More than happy with that, and more importantly, it now fits the plans!

 

39632611494_601f038395_k.jpg

 

:yahoo:

 

Final job for today was to stick some styrene onto the ailerons to get them ready for resizing and reshaping. They are the last of the major parts to require modification, so not far to go now!

 

At some point in the not-so-distant future I will need to rescribe it all. That's something I've never tried and I'd be grateful for any tips. I've heard mention of Dymo tape - is that the plastic tape that was used for labelling and had the letters stamped in it with the little hand held machine?

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

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Plastic, rather than paper, Dymo works well as a scribing template. I tend to use a number of old etched brass frets held still with tape plus some templates.

Marking the line in pencil first helps I find.

 

Excellent stuff on the Battle, I love the look of a heavily modified kit with the styrene-meets-model-parts look.

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1 hour ago, limeypilot said:

I've heard mention of Dymo tape - is that the plastic tape that was used for labelling and had the letters stamped in it with the little hand held machine?

It is. Adhesion is a problem with it, you'll want to secure it with something else. Also, I found the edges to be not quite rigid enough. I am a bit on the ham-fisted side though.

 

John.

 

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On 2/11/2018 at 3:08 PM, hendie said:

Wow!   I've been following this while on my northern treks. What a project!  

This is the type of project that makes me drool at the mouth - lots of cutting and shutting - loads of problems to solve and issues to deal with. What more could you ask for!

Tamiya !! Hasegawa !! There, I've said it, I'm a lazy modeller & proud of it. Bring on the easy models. Long live the L0LM!         (LOLM - League Of Lazy Modellers)

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29 minutes ago, Courageous said:

I'm amazed that Airfix produced a kit that was so far out from the plans.

 

The only thing that worries me, having seen who drew the ones Ian is using, is are those plans themselves accurate? Having said that, as I just tend to nail kits together I never have need of plans & what I know of that draughtsman's work is just garnered from hearsay....

 

1 hour ago, johnd said:

Adhesion is a problem with it

 

I stick it to Tamiya tape when I use it, the Tamy stuff sticks better & the adhesive on it lasts longer too.

 

I also cut it at least in half lengthways Ian, oftentimes into strips a third of the original width. I find that also helps it stick better to curves such as panel lines around the fuselage. When you buy it make sure it's the plastic type you get and not the newer paper type which is completely useless for scribing. There are lots of 'Dymo compatible' plastic tapes in e-bay land, I've bought many of these & they work just as well & are often much cheaper than genuine Dymo.

 

Keith

 

PS lovely work on the wings, ingenious solution to increasing the chord!

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18 minutes ago, spaddad said:

Wow, talk about lurking! Shouldn't you be working on the Pullman or are you just lurking in the backgound, sort of secondary lurking, whilst working on the aforesaid Pullman?

 

guess !

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17 hours ago, woody37 said:

You don’t hang around, this is how you build a 72 Battle :)

 

Thanks Woody!

 

17 hours ago, Vicarage Vee said:

Plastic, rather than paper, Dymo works well as a scribing template. I tend to use a number of old etched brass frets held still with tape plus some templates.

Marking the line in pencil first helps I find.

 

Excellent stuff on the Battle, I love the look of a heavily modified kit with the styrene-meets-model-parts look.

Thanks for the confirmation VV. I also have some old PE and a scribing template, but that doesn't bend very well and is difficult to keep in place on curves.

 

17 hours ago, 06/24 said:

From abomination to Battle in "making-it-look" easy stages. Splendid progress.

Thanks Jon! Getting there, and it really isn't difficult. All I'm doing is gluing on bits of styrene and sanding them to shape!

 

16 hours ago, bbudde said:

Oh, that looks great and tells me, that I never should built this one out of the box for a reasonable replica. Very good job!!

But I guess I would only be decoyed by Mr. Cross'es box art to buy one. Cheers

Very true Benedikt! Thanks!

 

16 hours ago, johnd said:

It is. Adhesion is a problem with it, you'll want to secure it with something else. Also, I found the edges to be not quite rigid enough. I am a bit on the ham-fisted side though.

 

John.

 

Thanks for the tip John.

 

15 hours ago, Courageous said:

Excellent work Ian.

 

I'm amazed that Airfix produced a kit that was so far out from the plans. Wonder what they used as a donor...

I've heard say that Fairey sent them the "wrong plans", but to me that smacks of "oops, we screwed that up, this excuse sounds good"

 

15 hours ago, spaddad said:

Tamiya !! Hasegawa !! There, I've said it, I'm a lazy modeller & proud of it. Bring on the easy models. Long live the L0LM!         (LOLM - League Of Lazy Modellers)

 

 

Sorry, couldn't resist!

 

15 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

The only thing that worries me, having seen who drew the ones Ian is using, is are those plans themselves accurate? Having said that, as I just tend to nail kits together I never have need of plans & what I know of that draughtsman's work is just garnered from hearsay....

 

 

I stick it to Tamiya tape when I use it, the Tamy stuff sticks better & the adhesive on it lasts longer too.

 

I also cut it at least in half lengthways Ian, oftentimes into strips a third of the original width. I find that also helps it stick better to curves such as panel lines around the fuselage. When you buy it make sure it's the plastic type you get and not the newer paper type which is completely useless for scribing. There are lots of 'Dymo compatible' plastic tapes in e-bay land, I've bought many of these & they work just as well & are often much cheaper than genuine Dymo.

 

Keith

 

PS lovely work on the wings, ingenious solution to increasing the chord!

 

The plans match the overall dimensions, and also other plans that I have by others, except in that these are correct at the wing trailing edge root, and don't show the same error there as others do - a "kink", with the trailing edge turning in straight, perpendicular to the fuselage centreline.

Thanks for the tips!

8 hours ago, CedB said:

Very late to this one Ian but caught up now, with apologies for the teenager 'like, like, like' :D

Great work and a joy to watch.

Welcome aboard Ced!

 

 It would appear that one of my solutions is not as good as I first thought. Namely the correction to the wing spar in front of the ailerons. Being used to thin winged WWI aircraft I totally forgot about the curved front edge to the ailerons, and the corresponding recess behind the spar to allow a snug fit. I will need to remove the "spar" and replace it with a thinner one, with a piece of thin strip glued to top and bottom edges to make the recess. I can then add a piece to the front of the ailerons and sand it to a curve to fit in the gap. Not a major problem, but a little more thought beforehand could have eliminated it. The same will probably need to be done for the other control surfaces too.

 

Thanks all, have a great day.

 

Ian

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I had wondered where you had gone to..... not your usual period! This is another of your master-classes in how to turn a pig's ear into a bejewelled purse. Your ingenious methods are a joy to follow: reading through this has been a real pleasure. Just waiting now toy read on to see the project finished. Perhaps one day you will see the light and just scratch build the thing instead of starting with a kit!

 

P

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On 18/02/2018 at 10:49 PM, Courageous said:

Excellent work Ian.

 

I'm amazed that Airfix produced a kit that was so far out from the plans. Wonder what they used as a donor...

The story was recounted by Ian Huntley in SAM many years ago.  Airfix had approached Fairey for documentation for their intended new kit.  Unfortunately the request was passed to the PR department who happily rummaged in the drawers and came up with a set of drawings with the appropriate Type Number on them; these were duly bundled up and sent off to Haldane Place.  Airfix then used these to design the moulds..  

 

An example of the new kit was sent back to Fairey’s, where it fell into Mr Huntley’s hands.  He then had something approximating to a catastrophic amusement outage: any resemblance between Airfix’s shiny new plastic and the Battle he knew was purely accidental.  A quick check showed that the PR department had sent Airfix a set of initial drawings, effectively a proposal of what the then-new bomber would look like, without bothering (or perhaps even knowing about) later revisions.  Airfix had accepted the drawings as gospel and had cut metal without checking the relationship of the drawings to the production aeroplane.  By this time Airfix had invested too much in the moulds and they were committed to production “as was”.  

 

Ian Huntley apparently wrote a strongly-worded note to all concerned at Fairey’s that any similar requests received in future should be dealt with by the Technical Publications department but, as far as I know, Airfix have never kitted another Fairey aeroplane (I think the Firefly pre-dates the Battle and has its own issues, and the Fulmar was another manufacturer’s tooling).

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8 hours ago, stever219 said:

...as far as I know, Airfix have never kitted another Fairey aeroplane (I think the Firefly pre-dates the Battle and has its own issues, and the Fulmar was another manufacturer’s tooling)...

...and they have yet to attempt either of the twin pinnacles of Sir John Fairey’s art, Gannet or Barracuda.

 

[But they have retooled the Swordfish, so maybe any old wounds are healed?]

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On 2/19/2018 at 11:15 AM, TheBaron said:

You should feel incredibly chuffed at the way this is springing into being Ian.

:thumbsup:

Tony

Thanks Tony. I must admit it's coming along better than I'd first hoped, and with a methodical bit-by-bit approach it's nowhere near as daunting as I thought it would be.

 

On 2/20/2018 at 1:59 PM, pheonix said:

I had wondered where you had gone to..... not your usual period! This is another of your master-classes in how to turn a pig's ear into a bejewelled purse. Your ingenious methods are a joy to follow: reading through this has been a real pleasure. Just waiting now toy read on to see the project finished. Perhaps one day you will see the light and just scratch build the thing instead of starting with a kit!

 

P

You found me - welcome aboard P! It's much more fun starting of with a piece of :poop: and turning into what it should have been in the first place!

 

On 2/20/2018 at 4:59 PM, stever219 said:

The story was recounted by Ian Huntley in SAM many years ago.  Airfix had approached Fairey for documentation for their intended new kit.  Unfortunately the request was passed to the PR department who happily rummaged in the drawers and came up with a set of drawings with the appropriate Type Number on them; these were duly bundled up and sent off to Haldane Place.  Airfix then used these to design the moulds..  

 

An example of the new kit was sent back to Fairey’s, where it fell into Mr Huntley’s hands.  He then had something approximating to a catastrophic amusement outage: any resemblance between Airfix’s shiny new plastic and the Battle he knew was purely accidental.  A quick check showed that the PR department had sent Airfix a set of initial drawings, effectively a proposal of what the then-new bomber would look like, without bothering (or perhaps even knowing about) later revisions.  Airfix had accepted the drawings as gospel and had cut metal without checking the relationship of the drawings to the production aeroplane.  By this time Airfix had invested too much in the moulds and they were committed to production “as was”.  

 

Ian Huntley apparently wrote a strongly-worded note to all concerned at Fairey’s that any similar requests received in future should be dealt with by the Technical Publications department but, as far as I know, Airfix have never kitted another Fairey aeroplane (I think the Firefly pre-dates the Battle and has its own issues, and the Fulmar was another manufacturer’s tooling).

Thanks for the background Steve, that makes a little more sense now!

 

On 2/20/2018 at 6:36 PM, DJJunis said:

Wow this is some excellent modelling.

Thanks for sharing Ian.

You're welcome DJ, glad you're enjoying it!

 

On 2/21/2018 at 1:52 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

...and they have yet to attempt either of the twin pinnacles of Sir John Fairey’s art, Gannet or Barracuda.

 

[But they have retooled the Swordfish, so maybe any old wounds are healed?]

Either of those being done to their new standards would be wonderful kits. An Albacore would be more than welcome too!

 

On 2/21/2018 at 3:49 AM, massimo said:

Are you sure the plans are accurate......???

....joking!!!!:rofl:

You're making us think it's so easy.....Well done!!!

I'm as sure as I can be! Thanks Massimo!

 

As mentioned above, the ailerons were next on the list, and once all the extra styrene had been secured they were duly attacked with various grades of sanding stick until they gave up and took on the desired shape.

 

39659971554_4c50f37a60_k.jpg

 

I then made 3 saw cuts in each for the hinges and glued strips .020 x .030 onto the wings to match those cuts. I decided not to redo the spar areas and have merely sanded a slight curve to the edges of the ailerons to give a little more emphasis.

 

 40378097282_11ed02fc82_k.jpg

 

Once dry they too were sanded down and given a little curve to the top and bottom edges so they're not square to the wings.

 

38611340440_20ef48cb58_k.jpg

 

The last jobs I did this morning were to add strips of .020 x .030 to the opening for the Vickers K gun to reduce that slightly, and prepare some of Auntie Deb's finest goop to fill the holes in the landing lights and reinforce the undersides where the plastic was very thin.

 

38611337120_b2bc0e4a89_k.jpg

 

26550990188_0d7639f2b3_k.jpg

 

Thanks for looking in, have a great day all!

 

Ian

 

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