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Michael Smith
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1/72 Fairey Battle Mk. 1 - Airfix

February 2, 2025 · in Aviation · · 9 · 162


The Fairey was the RAF's first monoplane light bomber built in the late 1930s. It was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that other British fighters - and later the U.S. P-51 Mustang - used to great success, but the single-engine Battle carried a three-man crew and a bomb load. While it was a great improvement over the biplane Hawker Hart it replaced, by the time war came it was unacceptably slow and underarmed, which rendered it highly vulnerable to both anti-aircraft fire and fighters. During the Battle of France in May and June of 1940 the Battle suffered losses often exceeding 50% on each combat mission. It was withdrawn from active service later that year, and assigned training duties.

The Subject



The model represents Battle P2332 PH/F of 12 Squadron, which was based at Amfontaine during the Battle of France in May 1940. On May 10, the squadron was ordered to destroy several bridges allowing German forces to cross the Meuse (in Dutch, the Maas) at Maastricht. P2332 PH/F, piloted by Flying Officer Norman Mairice Thomas with Sgt Thomsa Pierce Carey, and Cpl Thomas Spead Campion led the attack on the concrete bridge spanning the Albert Kanaal at Vroenhoven, and was shot down by flak. It crashed near the bridge. All three survived, and were taken prisoner.

Better known is the attack on the Veldwezelt bridge that day led by PH/K crewed by Flying Officer Garland, with Pilot Officer McIntosh flying as observer and Sgt Morland. Garland and his observer were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the first awarded to an RAF crew in World War II. Following another attack two days later which saw similar heavy losses, the remaining Battles were withdrawn.

The Kit

The Battle dates to 1968, and this kit was a 1986 boxing. Unfortunately, it was apparently based on preliminary drawings of the aircraft, and it fair from an accurate model of the actual aircraft. It is as crude as one would expect of a kit this vintage, but was an interesting build. I used it as an opportunity to try out my new airbrush for freehand camouflage.
I got a set of Print Scale 72-489 decals for it, intending to model L5415 PH/O of 12 Squadron, but the decals disintegrated when I tried to apply the underwing roundels, so I fell back on the 39 year old kit decals for PH/F. The only change I made was reversing the order of the squadron/aircraft lettering on the right side of the fuselage - the kit provides identical markings for both sides, which photos of the wreck show isn't correct. I ended up with a lot of silvering, but given the kit's deficiencies, I didn't mind.


Unfortunately, the kit's wing roundels were not just undersized - they wouldn't adhere at all, so I fell back on the Print Scale decals and let the roundels from it soak until they separated from the backing completely. One still broke, but it was fixable - so the wing roundels are correctly sized.
Paints are Vallejo Dark Earth/Dark Green/NATO Black. As noted above, I airbrushed the camo scheme without masking, using the Print Scale sheet and online references for guidance.
Overall, I enjoyed the build of this aircraft I knew little about previously. But I enjoyed learning about the aircraft more, and am always glad to add another RAF aircraft to the shelves!

Reader reactions:
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1 additional image. Click to enlarge.


9 responses

  1. Nice job on this old Airfix kit. I am a big fan of seeing old kits made in today's model world.

  2. Really nice looking Battle, Michael @mcsmith1964
    This is still one of those aircraft that I want to have on display as well.

    • I thought the same thing. It's a good looking plane. But here's the deal. Put it next to a Spitfire and you immediately see why it was such a failure. It is "huge" - with that one little engine pulling it along. But you have to build the model to see it.

  3. Excellent Battle from the old Airfix kit, Michael!

  4. Nice job, Michael

  5. This turned out very nice, it looks great. Fortunately the kit decals were useable. I’ve tried print scale decals on two different models, and both times they turned to confetti in the water.

  6. It looks like you won your battle with this old Airfix kit Michael!

  7. Nice work, Michael.

  8. Don't see many of these built - nice to see! Looks good.

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