By 1940, the Fairey Battle was outclassed and outgunned as a day bomber, but it was what the World War II Allies had to work with. The newly tooled Azur-Frrom 1/72 scale Fairey Battle Mk.I “In Belgium” plastic model kit contains excellently molded gray parts with super-fine engraved panel lines, to-scale components including a multi-piece interior, landing gear, wheels, and struts, plus optional parts; and markings for three aircraft, one each from the RAF, the Hellenic air force, and the Belgian air force.
I modeled the Belgian version for its color scheme and its configuration. Powered by a Merlin III engine, it had a longer coolant radiator, and the aircraft looked slightly more streamlined than the Battles produced for British use.
Most of the kit parts fit together nicely, but the instruction sheet is vague in several spots. Also, there are several surface joins for small parts with almost no surface for glue making them extremely fragile. I had difficulty while assembling the interior securing parts C54 and C55, the longerons forming the aft cockpit sills. After unsuccessful tries, I assembled and installed the aft bulkhead, which gave me a good anchor point for these two parts and better guidance on how they were to be oriented.
The landing gear, including the delicate tailwheel fork, must be installed prior to closing the wings and fuselage. This makes construction, masking, and painting a little tricky to avoid breaking them off as assembly progresses.
The wing-to-fuselage fit is so precise no filler was needed. Separate parts ahead of the bomb aimer’s belly window and inside the landing-light housings supply visible interior wing/fuselage structure. The kit centers the landing lights behind clear lenses.
The clear canopy parts look good with plenty of framing for your masking enjoyment. To pose the canopy for the rear gunner open, you’ll have to fit it inside the fixed “greenhouse” portion, and that means trimming its hinges. The pilot’s sliding canopy fit well in the closed position, but when posed open, it sat too high to “nest” snugly while straddling the main greenhouse. I posed it open anyway because I prefer my models open, and it’d be a shame to hide all the cockpit detail.
The instructions provide color callouts for Mr. Hobby acrylic and lacquers. The glossy decals were in register, opaque, and worked great.
When checking the dimensions, the wingspan was right on. However, I was surprised to find that the fuselage was 10 feet too short. That just didn’t seem — or look — right. I checked another reference, and it listed the same measurements. I scaled up the three-view drawings in those books and discovered the books’ numbers were wrong! Maybe someone made a typo when one of the first books on the Battle was published, nobody caught it and later works just repeated what they saw. I finally got good dimensions from the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum (42 feet 1 3⁄4 inches long; 54-foot wingspan) and the kit is totally correct.
I spent about 25 hours completing the kit and other than a few tiny parts, some puzzling over how parts fit together, and the standard work with the canopy, it’s a fine, state-of-the-art offering that I’d recommend to experienced modelers.