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

[Brandy]

On 11/30/2018 at 11:43 PM, Sosezi said:

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!😍 I guess final result of this Airfix Battle will be way better than MPM kit 

 

 

Thanks! I'm certainly hoping it will be, although that kit might have made a better starting point!

 

On 12/1/2018 at 12:06 AM, Max Headroom said:

You’re motoring through this now. Can’t wait to see the end result 👍🏻

 

Trevor

A long way to go yet, but at least it now looks like a Battle, and it shouldn't be long before the white bits disappear!

 

On 12/1/2018 at 12:52 AM, TheBaron said:

Your work on this aircaft is so exemplary that it's just too trite of me to say 'nice this' or 'nice that'; there's just such a sense of calm knowledge about your approach that it is a pleasure to read and learn from.

That's quite a compliment from such a master of brassiness and all things plastic! Not so sure about the "calm knowledge" bit though, a lot of this is being made up as I go along and it often results in verbal self-abuse when I see how stupid I've been and an easier way of doing things! Having not done such a huge correction project before, (the Muromets is more of a scratch build!), it often happens that I see I should have done things in a different order. But at least I'm learning from my cock-ups! (he says hopefully!)

I'm glad you're enjoying it as much as I am!

 

On 12/1/2018 at 2:53 AM, massimo said:

Good thought about the space to be filled at the center section's sides!

Coming along nicely!!!

Well done Ian!!!

Thanks Massimo! It does look a lot better with the large gap removed.

 

On 12/2/2018 at 7:24 PM, clive_t said:

Gradually catching up on all the threads I was following so avidly when I had the time - this is absolutely mind-blowing now 😮

 

Cheers Clive, many thanks!

 

On to the latest update. As mentioned above, I added some PPP to the edges of the fuselage where the canopy sits and here is what it looks like now it's all been smoothed down. I carefully scraped away the very edge with a scalpel to leave a small ledge for the canopy to locate on. 

 

 

 

Then I got all Baronish, and decided to solder some braces for the canopy. These will fit in small holes I've drilled down the spine of the fuselage between the forward and aft cockpits, (you can just about see a couple of them in the pic above) and attach to the canopy frame. At least I hope they will, I still have to trim them to length! My first attempt was sort of ok, but 3 of the 5 fell apart when I tried to clean them up. I realised that the 2 that stayed together were the last 2 I did, so I made sure I turned the iron on sooner this time to ensure it was good and hot. No problems!

 

 

 

I think I'm getting the hang of this soldering thing!

 

Next job was the nav lights. I removed a small triangle from each wingtip and glued in a piece of clear sprue, after having first drilled a small hole in each piece and filled it with paint for the bulbs.

 

 

This is the first time I've tried this, so we'll see how it goes. If, after sanding down, I can't see the "bulbs" I'll remove them and drill a larger hole.

 

After that it was time to attach the tail surfaces and that means leaving it to dry overnight before any further progress.

 

 

So this is how she looks at the moment.

 

 

Tomorrow's plan of action is to finish off the nav lights and give her a coat of primer so that I can see the areas needing more attention.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by limeypilot
Added pic

[Hamden]

 

Really coming together now, superb workmanship as always

 

  Roger

[AdrianMF]

Just like the one in the RAF Museum at Hendon! I was there yesterday showing round a couple of American friends.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[keefr22]

That looks really good Ian, interesting to see the whole airframe showing your white additions, clearly shows the difference you've made to the old thing!

 

Keith

[Courageous]

Excellent work Ian, looking rather smart.

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Just like the one in the RAF Museum at Hendon!

What...grey, white, green with no wheels or canopy...not a good show. 

 

Stuart

[TheBaron]

3 hours ago, limeypilot said:

So this is how she looks at the moment.

 



 

 

Which is to say, that it gives a fantastic sense of how you've improved the dimensions of the original kit Ian.

 

Nice work on the soldering too!

[AdrianMF]

Actually (shudder) I was reminded of a previous build of mine. Maybe the Battle and the Il-2 can slug it out for the "most misshapen kit" crown:

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Tomoshenko]

Brilliant work Ian. The extra detail and intricacies are really bringing the aircraft to life and giving it depth.

 

On ‎11‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 8:52 PM, TheBaron said:

I love this interior Ian:

On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 5:51 PM, limeypilot said:

 

 

I was thinking the same thing myself. That's rather a classy mancave you've got there...quite an expensive carpet monster on the floor too....

[Brandy]

16 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

Brilliant work Ian. The extra detail and intricacies are really bringing the aircraft to life and giving it depth.

 

I was thinking the same thing myself. That's rather a classy mancave you've got there...quite an expensive carpet monster on the floor too....

I wish... that's part of the display in the Fujairah museum.

 

Ian

[Sosezi]

Just opened my started 10 years ago Battle TT (MPM) well I'd say WRONG CANOPY!! Airfix Pilot's sliding section looks more BATTL'ish to me  

there's no ideal Fairey Battle but we love it anyway   hehe can't wait to put my hands into Classic Airframes's TT box!!!!!!!!! How cute she is!! 

[CedB]

Soldering now? Great stuff Ian - she's starting to look really smart, good job  

[Brandy]

23 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Really coming together now, superb workmanship as always

 

  Roger

Thanks Roger, much appreciated!

23 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Just like the one in the RAF Museum at Hendon! I was there yesterday showing round a couple of American friends.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian! Actually I'm hoping it's a little better than that one, since the nose and rear canopy are definitely a little dubious, but I know what you mean! Thanks for the tip on the Ilyushin, I'll remember to steer clear of it. One of these is enough!

 

22 hours ago, keefr22 said:

That looks really good Ian, interesting to see the whole airframe showing your white additions, clearly shows the difference you've made to the old thing!

 

Keith

Cheers Keith, the white bits are no more.....

 

20 hours ago, Courageous said:

Excellent work Ian, looking rather smart.

What...grey, white, green with no wheels or canopy...not a good show. 

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart! I know the museum one is not perfect, but it's at least the right colours! 😄

 

20 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Which is to say, that it gives a fantastic sense of how you've improved the dimensions of the original kit Ian.

 

Nice work on the soldering too!

Many thanks! It really isn't as difficult as I'd feared, but knowing absolutely nothing about it before I started was a little daunting. My first efforts many moons ago led to an iron covered in solder and no joint! Just a little tip like "don't put the solder on the iron, then try to transfer it" makes a huge difference!

 

5 hours ago, Sosezi said:

Just opened my started 10 years ago Battle TT (MPM) well I'd say WRONG CANOPY!! Airfix Pilot's sliding section looks more BATTL'ish to me  

there's no ideal Fairey Battle but we love it anyway   hehe can't wait to put my hands into Classic Airframes's TT box!!!!!!!!! How cute she is!! 

I'm looking forward to seeing it!

 

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Soldering now? Great stuff Ian - she's starting to look really smart, good job  

Thanks Ced! One more tool I can add to my list, although I doubt I'll ever  have the tool versatility you do!

 

Right then, where were we? Oh yes, nav lights....sanded

 

 

check.

Micromeshed....

 

 

 

check.

I think we can call that passable, I'm pretty pleased with that!

 

Then it was time to mask her up and give her a coat of Tamiya light Grey as a primer to see what needed tweaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I can safely say I'm pretty chuffed at that! I had expected the worst, bearing in mind the shear quantity of alterations that had been done, but apart from the underside of the tail, which is where I had to add CA glue to reinforce it, it's all pretty tidy! There are a few small joins where I added card to the control surfaces which need a wafting of PPP but that's all. The major areas around the wing/fuselage joint and the wing underside centre section are virtually flawless!  (Or at least they look to be so far with a quick check. Hopefully a better inspection once it's properly dry will confirm that).

I never dared to hope that it would have come out this nicely first time. 

 

 The only problem now is, if it really is so close to being done, the next step will be scribing....gulp!

 

Thanks for looking in, I'm off for a pint! 

 

Ian

Edited December 14, 2018 by limeypilot

[bbudde]

That looks very smart so far. Well worth all that work on that for the correct shape. Cheers

[gbondoni]

Utterly fantastic!

[Sosezi]

Again and again!! OUTSTANDING BUILD!!!

[clive_t]

Excellent, that primer coat really shows the thing in all its beauty!

[hacker]

On 2/2/2018 at 10:23 PM, limeypilot said:

I know I have a couple of long term builds on the go, but facing a major relocation and 2 to 3 months without any modeling, I don't want to get the other builds unnecessarily fragile for the trip, or masked for an extended period, so I'm going to start looking at another one I've always wanted to build. 

 

Although my main interest is WWI, I also have a long standing interest in the opening year of WWII and the Battle of Britain. To that end, I have built up a small stash of early WWII types, mainly new Airfix mouldings. However, there is one early type that is not yet represented by the new Airfix mouldings, and it needs to be included in my collection. That aircraft is the Fairey Battle, and the only readily available kit is the old Airfix offering, which, as we all know, is woefully lacking in accuracy!

 

 So, just how bad is it?

 

Let's take a look at it against the plans in Ian Huntley's book on the subject, which seem to be pretty accurate and match the dimensions....

 

Rear fuselage and tail

 

 

I lined up the underside of the fuselage with the plans, which gave the most accurate comparison. Not too bad - the rudder is totally wrong, and the top side of the rear fuselage is a little low, but both fairly easily corrected.

 

Forward fuselage

 

 

Not good! The nose is about 4mm too short. I drew around the fuselage on the underside to see how that matched up.

 

 

OK, so the line is a little below the actual kit fuselage, but it's close....and not close enough to where it should be! So I have quite a bit of work to do on the fuselage to get it even close.

 

How about the wings?

 

 

The wing roots look pretty good! That's a good start..

 

The chord, however, is another issue....

 

 

Some work needed here to correct the chord of the outer wing panels. That, though, is a minor problem compared to what we find underneath......

 

 

The wheel wells, bomb bays, flare bays, and landing lights are all way too far outboard. I ran a pencil around the inside of the apertures in the lower wing part and this is what I found....

 

 

Not pretty! I think the best way around this is going to be to fill them, recut the openings for the wheel wells, and rescribe the rest in the correct positions. The panel detail on the kit wings is pretty awful, especially underneath (the flare bays and access panel for the machine gun are not even represented) so I think I'll sand it all off and rescribe it anyway.

 

Finally, the tail surfaces

 

 

Not bad! Compared to the rest of the kit! Fairly easily corrected.

 

The prop needs the centre hub added. I have resin wheels, which are actually a little too thick, but far better than the kit offerings and easily thinned by cutting them in half vertically and reattaching the halves (minus what gets sawn out when cutting, so thinning them). I will also add a Falcon canopy, exhausts from the new mould Airfix Hurricane Mk1, and a Miniworld Vickers K gun. The undercarriage and wheel wells need some serious detail improvement, as does the cockpit.

 

I'm going to enjoy this one - my type of modelling! But, come on Airfix, how about a new, correct one?

 

let the Battle begin.......

 

Ian

 

A little behind with this but where did you get the drawing? l would be interested in a set 

 

Hacker

[Brandy]

12 minutes ago, hacker said:

A little behind with this but where did you get the drawing? l would be interested in a set 

 

Hacker

It's from Ian Huntley's book on the Battle.

 

Ian

[hacker]

5 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

It's from Ian Huntley's book on the Battle.

 

Ian

And here is a case of old age creeping in , too many books and just plain organized confusion. Upon hearing what book it was l dug in the book case and presto l have it . Ok going to the back room to smack one's head like an Italian

 

Hacker 

[Courageous]

Jolly good work there Ian, you should be chuffed.

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

The only problem now is, if it really is so close to being done, the next step will be scribing....gulp!

Better you than me.

 

Stuart

[AdrianMF]

Looks very nice in pale grey, especially considering all the surgery!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Terry1954]

Just caught up on this, and things a looking really good Ian. The transformation from the original old kit to this is quite amazing! Always loved the Battle.

 

Terry

[TheBaron]

Looking fantabulosa in that grey clothing!

You've earned more than a pint on those appearances Ian.

Reckon that's worth a second pint along with a Ploughman's lunch and a go on the fruit machine. 

Joyful to behold it looking so great after all that hard work.

[CedB]

Very nice Ian - smooth!

Lights turned out well too - good job  

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

She's looking great now, and will look even better after some scribing.  We have every confidence...