Restoring A Pair of Airfix 1/72 Fairey Battles

[Brigbeale]

Taken from my restoration stash - my pair of Airfix 1/72 Fairey Battles.

The first was purchased from my usual source on EBay ‘requiring tlc’.

 

The second one was listed by the same seller. I purchased it for £0.50p along with a Monogram Phantom and a unknown brand Sea Hawk which are for restoration at a later date.

 

The intention was to use the second one as spare parts for the first one - but being a softy, I didn’t have the heart to break it up for parts. As I’ve got a 3D printer, I figured I’d just replicate the parts.

 

First thing was to strip them into their pieces and by use of the freezer -which worked up to a point. The fuselage of the first one came apart easily. The wings were a bit more stubborn so I used a saw to remove them. In hindsight, I wish I’d left them attached but hey-ho, spilt milk and all that.......

Once the first one was done I started stripping the second one. That one didn’t go as well. I decided to leave the main wings on this one. The fuselage split apart up to the tail fin where it refused to come apart. So I assisted it with a sharp knife or at least I tried to....

That’s where the knife slipped and slice into my left fore-finger knuckle which raised a certain expletive. After administering first aid to the deep cut (something about better a sharp blade than a blunt one didn’t make me feel any better at the time!).  It’s been two weeks now and it’s just about healed over but still sore when I touch something with it. Next time I’ll wear a thick glove - or stop,playing with sharp blades in such a haphazard manor.

The second one stripped.

 

The first one was painted inside along with its pilot/gunner.

The fuselage on no.2 was repaired near the gunners opening.

 

The next thing was the propellers. After contacting Airfix, I learned that there are no parts available due to the age of the kit(s). I found a suitable propeller on Thingiverse, imported it into Tinkercad and added the Battle’s hub. Then I 3D printed it. Blade pitch was the wrong way round to I simply reversed the item in the slicer and reprinted it. A bit of a clean up with some fine wet and dry and two propellers. 
Propeller print before addition of hub.

The wings were re-attached to no.1 along with a 3D printed replacement tail wing.

I also printed the bosses to fit the propellers to the fuselages. 

 

I replaced the wing bomb bay doors on no.1 as they were in a right mess. The original intention was to have these bomb bay doors open, but I doubt if they’d be open with the crew in and on the ground (as these are going to be once I’ve replicated the landing gear).

Tonight I gave the bottom surfaces a coat of Tamiya NATO Black on the under surfaces.

 

Over the weekend, if I’ve finished working on my wife’s car ironing out a few MOT wrinkles, I’m going to attempt to make a vac-forming box to copy the one canopy to replace the missing one from no.2. Should be fun.....

 

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice work, Brian. Can I assume these kits had been put together with tube glue?

I recently dismantled a 'glue bomb'and I found that Tamiya extra thin will usually soften the joint enough to make it easier to prise apart.

It can damage the plastic surface if left too long, but that's normally on the inside so no problem.

Best to practice on something past it's best first though.

[Brigbeale]

Yes it looked like poly cement. Tried TET on the joint, but it wouldn't penetrate the wing joint enough to release the joint.

[Brigbeale]

Right then.....

Been busy with other things which meant i was either too knackered to do modelling or not in the mood. So, rather than ruin the progress so far, I left them alone.

The attempt at vac-forming the replacement canopy was a bust. More homework needed me thinks.....

So I  just ordered a Falcon set of canopies off Hannants - which gives me a few other canopies as well - one being the Frog Whitley (it’s got it’s original canopies but I’ve read somewhere it needs 3mm adding to the width of the tail end for the rear turret to fit). I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

I did, however, copy the original landing gear and 3D print 2 sets - only one gear was complete ( other one broken on one battle and both missing off the other one). 
Both tail-wheels were missing so they were designed and also 3D printed.

All the landing gear is glued in position and has had the best part of a week to set. Should be solid by now....

 

I also bought two jars of Mr Hobby Aqueous - Dark Green and Dark Earth for the camouflage. I’ve previously used Revell square pot paints. They were ok but I sometimes feel the Dark Green was too rich in colour compared with the Tamiya RAF dark green. Time will tell....

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

I do like the way you restore kits , the freezer tip is interesting and duly noted should I need to take one apart, does SWMBO  mind at all?

And did you get the car sorted, think of all the brownie points you have earned!!!

Great work

Chris

[Brigbeale]

SWMBO did ask what they were doing in the freezer. 
Initially I told her that I was running out of storage space. Then I got one of those looks and had to tell her it was to aid disassembly.

The car got it’s mot but a couple of advisories are still outstanding due to the weather we’ve had recently. I plan to do it tomorrow as it’s supposed to be sunny..

[HOUSTON]

SUPERB  workmanship. 

 

[Brigbeale]

After the complete failure to vac form mould a second canopy from the first, I just bought a set of Falcon Canopies from Hannants. Postage was quick and they arrived two days after I ordered them.

Should come in handy as I’ve got a Blenheim IV and a Whitley in the stash.....

Edited November 9, 2020 by Brigbeale

[HOUSTON]

Brian.

 

Nice purchase..

 

[Brigbeale]

I cut the replacement canopy off the Falcon set of Vac Formed Canopies, trimmed and sanded it to fit. It’s secured in place with Humbrol Clearfix (which I have only got because I was after Humbrol Decalfix and picked up a jar which had the label front facing away assuming it was the same🤨). Oh well, I figured  I’d use it somewhere.... The canopy fits but it’s not my best work.
The frame lines are visible but I knew I was going to have a problem making my own masks for it. However the original canopy on the other Battle had lovely raised framing lines, so I masked that and then moved the masks to the vac formed one, and then re-masked the original. 

I decided I’d have one Battle with the gun exposed and the other covered, so I 3D printed a simple cover using 1/2 a cone.

Once that was done, I masked the underside on both Battles.

I thought I’d give the Mr Hobby Dark Earth a try. It’s a good colour paint. Also it’s a Semi-Gloss paint so a Matt coat my need to be applied near the end. I’ll give that a day to dry and then mask up for the Dark Green.......

Edited November 11, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Brigbeale]

Last night, I masked up the two Battles for the Dark Green paint, - Mr Hobby H73 Aqueous - using the white tack and masking tape method.
The paint, again went on very well.

I peeled the masking off after an hour and only had three very small pin-pricks of lifting of the Dark Earth on a wing root on one model. which I touched in with a fine brush. 
Here’s the results

 

I missed a small blemish on the tail wing.🙄 I’ll just add small drops of paint to fill it as time goes on.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Brigbeale

[Lewis95]

Lovely restoration there bud! I picked up a metric ton of scrap kits earlier in the year but this is really motivating the rescue op! 

[Brigbeale]

Two nights ago, I painted the propellers and the tail-wheels. The paint dried pretty quick so I decided I’d decal Battle no.1 with a set I purchased off eBay which gave me a choice of 5 aircraft from 12 Sqn. PH*F, G, J, K and N. 
I decided to use Humbrol Decalfix. I started with the upper wing roundels. Decalfix was applied to the wing while the 1st roundel was soaking. I noticed the Dark Earth had gone a lot lighter and assumed it would return to normal once it was dry. I applied the decal, moved it into position and used a cotton bud to remove excess liquid. That’s when I noticed something was wrong. The paint was dissolving and I got a bare patch of plastic next to the decal. Not much I could do about it apart from touch it in after the setting solution had dried. 
I tried the other wing roundel got a similar result but not as bad. I wrongly assumed the semi gloss paint would be suitable for decal setting solution. 
I let it dry overnight and touched in the bare patch. Once the repair was dry it looked fine.

I then brushed my usual floor polish (Astonish as I couldn’t find Kleer anywhere near me) over the entire models. I find it works well but it does have a Tangerine & Cinnamon smell to it. Once that had two coats and they had dried I tackled the fuselage decals.

This time I used Micro Set and Sol. These had no reaction to the clear coat of floor polish so I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

 

Next up was Battle no.2.

I took a photo of the decal sheet, messed around with it in photo editing and resized it in the “Print To Size’ app. I printed two sets - one on clear decal paper and one on white. The printed ones came out slightly darker but useable. The roundels were applied with no problems. Now the lettering.....

The white paper ones would give me the right colour but would require cutting out. The ‘P” would be more difficult due the closed loop. I gave it a go anyway and just managed to get the ‘H” on. The ‘P’ was a nightmare so I scrapped it along with the previously applied ‘H’. I tried the clear ‘PH’ but that was too dark without the white behind it to highlight it. That left me with the remaining F, J, K and N.  (I should really invest in some RAF lettering decals).
i looked on the internet for images of Battles using a combination of these letters as squadron codes. The only ones I found were of JN*C which had been shot down and another of JN*G which had been abandoned.

 

That’s when I rued using PH*G on the first Battle for a change of seeing another PH*F. So I figured there might have been a JN*K and opted for that. I need to find a serial number for it and print the full height tail marking.

 

This last photo for today is of the 2 Battles with my restored Wellington. It wasn’t until I put them together I could see the difference between Revell and Mr Hobby Dark Earth and Dark Green.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Brigbeale

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo they look great,  what cracking work. 

Glad the car passed  I always get slightly nervous at MOT time especially with the old one, but she is good and goes through. 

Chris

[Brigbeale]

4 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oooooo they look great,  what cracking work. 

Glad the car passed  I always get slightly nervous at MOT time especially with the old one, but she is good and goes through. 

Chris

Yes, thanks.

I had to put my Renault Scenic in for its test as well. I always feel that I’m awaiting bad news. Thankfully it passed with two advisories.

[bigbadbadge]

A phew moment!!!

 

[Brigbeale]

I have finished one Battle. The other just needs the serial number and tail fin stripes. I’ll do that when I next print some decals. I also cut off the ‘Lego’ wing mounted machine gun and put something more realistic in its place. Aerials were added as well as landing lights and their covers (2 are original and the other two are made out of clear curved packaging.

Thank you all for your kind comments during these restorations.

The RFI thread is here.