1/48 RCAF Fairey Battle Mk I STF Build

I wouldn't be surprised if Airfix have one planned for some future date, they seem to be doing more and more kits from the long term 'wants lists'.
I've often wondered what a trainee pilot thought, when arriving at an OCU or similar, having seen Hurricanes and Spitfires, and then discovering he'll be lumbered with this big clunker !

Washed all the parts in soapy water and began ruminating. It's a limited-run kit with lots cleanup needed. The philosophy for fitting the resin parts seems to be "It kinda fits here sorta [making circular motions with finger at a 1 meter distance]. Remove some stuff and try fitting. If it seems to sorta work, stop cutting material out. If it doesn't, like, fit, keep going til you're kinda done...."

Whilst still ruminating, I figured I couldn't do wrong by starting with a coat of flat black enamel as a base coat on all the resin cockpit parts.



Positioning of the tubs for the pilot and gunner are rather loosely defined with no positioning tabs. Only a diagram is provided in the instructions with no dimensions. The suggestion is to do a lot of dry fitting so I started by taping together the fuselage parts, no small feat when no locating pins are provided.



The process revealed a small are where the turtleback mould was short-shot. A fairly simple fix.



Both resin tubs hang from styrene shelves that sit on a moulded ledge but where to locate the opening.....? The shelf slides easily back and forth so can go anywhere. The sketch in the instructions is all I will have to go by.



With the black cured, I sprayed on a thin mix of cockpit grey-green. First a lightened coat was applied on a downward angle s that the black shadow areas more or less remained. The a darker mix was sprayed on in patches to represent a worn look. Finally, I highlighted the high points with yet a more light mixture to reveal a 3 tone finish. I think that this technique has enhanced the beautiful resin parts nicely and that no wash will be necessary to define the details.




Here is the start of the gunner's tub assembly. The wireless equipment in the back is flat black with dry-brushed silver highlights. Much of this will be hidden under the shelf so I didn't fret about getting the details right. The instructions say to line up the back of the side walls with the back of the floor so that's what I did. The sidewall at this point is very lightly attached with 2 dots of CA as I want to make sure that I can manipulated these assemblies some more as they come together. Once I'm satisfied, I'll run more CA along the seams.



The nice little 2 part gunner's seat, painted and chipped using a silver pencil:



Here's the start of the pilot's tub assembly. Beautiful resin details enhanced just a but with stretched sprue rods and knobs added to the throttle box. The rugger pedals got straps made of aluminum tape and the straps are only just painted at this point so are a bit glossy.



That's it for now. As I have read reviews on this kit, I'm now aware that the nose is not quite correctly shaped and that there is a correction set available. However, I've decided to leave things be and live with the kit's warts. Tomorrow will be Mossie day so no fther progress is anticipated til Sunday when I hope to post a further update.

Thanks for following.

Nice going, looking good.

I agree, that looks pretty good in my opinion

That's looking really nice.
Just wondering if that shelf in the rear cockpit should be the other way around, with the 'pointed' opening almost matching the aperture at the aft end ?

Agreed, looks pretty darn good to me as well

Thanks everyone.

Airframes said:

Just wondering if that shelf in the rear cockpit should be the other way around, with the 'pointed' opening almost matching the aperture at the aft end ?

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It's consistent with the instructions Terry and wouldn't fit the other way around anyway as the shelf tapers with the fuselage.

OK, sounds right then, surely .................

Looks like that cockpit is going to look real nice. Now to get it to fit.....

Oh it will fit. The question is where!

Lovely work so far Andy!

Nice work on the black-basing Andy. Reckon the pit could still do with a wash though...

Thanks guys

Kirby, not going to bother gloss coating, washing, then flat coating again. Looks better than in the pics and, after all, you can't see most of it.

I've managed to determine the location of the rear pit and glued it into the turtleback. Much dust production ensued as I hacked at the plastic to get the parts to fit. Pics tomorrow.

Crimea_River said:

Nah, not going to bother gloss coating, washing, then flat coating again. Looks better than in the pics and, after all, you can't see most of it.

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I tend not to worry about the varnish coats in the pit. Just apply the wash along structural features and in select other areas and manipulate immediately with a blending brush and thinners if necessary and job done

You do this on Tamiya paint? What thinner would you use that doesn't affect the paint?

I've never like the results I got applying wash on flat paint.

I try to achieve a satin finish using enamel satin for the black base and Gunze paints which have a satin sort of finish. If the base paint is flat I buff it to satin with a soft cloth. The wash is then oils using white spirit as a thinner so won't affect the acrylic base coat. Using a satin base grabs a bit of the wash and just tones down the paint a bit and creates subtle grime and shadows which I think works well for interiors.

Perhaps I can illustrate it a bit with some pics from my current Folgore build. First image is just black-basing and green basecoat and highlights. Second image is wash and drybrushing applied, no varnish coats involved.

Nice selection Andy, cen't remember ever seeing one of these built before, will be an interesting watch.