Another Golden Age Classic. The Fairey Flycatcher, built and operated by the Fleet Air Arm between 1924-33, was the first designed-for-the-purposed carrier-based fighter. It was said to have "the performance of the Camel and the handling of the Pup," a good combination for the early days of putting airplanes on ships.
This is the first kit of the Fairey Flycatcher since Merit brought out theirs nearly 60 years ago (later re-released by Pyro, Lifelike and Lindberg over the years). While that is an excellent kit, it is "long in the tooth." This new kit, by Armory Models in Ukraine, is very obviously someone's "labor of love." Far more detailed than the earlier kit, everything is more petite than it was possible to mold way back then. All control surfaces are separate, the cockpit is fully detailed, and the fabric surface detail is excellent - even the area of the "turtleback" and the lower rear fuselage that I though was overdone is in fact not overdone when period photos are consulted.
It's not a project for the biplane-phobic or the inexperienced. It's another of those "high level limited run kits" that Ukrainian model companies are doing these days. As with a lot of first-edition limited-run projects, it has a lot of photoetch for small detail, but with care it's not a problem. I've substituted an Eduard photoetch Sutton harness for the p-e harness in the kit just because it's already painted and detailed.
The kit provides markings for all the carrier flights that operated the early-version Flycatcher. There is also a "late production version" and one fitted with floats as other kits in the series. The floatplane is interesting - they were used to fight Chinese pirates around Hong Kong in the 20s and 30s. The period action movie writes itself as I think of it.
If you aren't biplane-phobic and you have experience with limited-run kits, this isn't difficult if you take your time.
Painting is next - aluminum doped fabric and polished aluminum around the forward fuselage.
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.
