Dumbo's Back

Special Hobby Fairey Barracuda Mk II Home Fleet

- Colin Flying Pickett

Firstly I must apologise for the title, as being a product of the seventies I simply cannot hear the word Barracuda without being thrown back to the beginning of the classic song by the Barracudas, Summer Fun, when the car salesman is being taught to say the word Barracuda, and I am even humming it as I type this.

Back to the subject of the article, the much maligned Fairey Barracuda, an aircraft which it seem has become the epitome of poor aircraft design and function. However the Barracuda was a very capable aircraft when operated and handled in the correct manner, even finding favour with some crews and being responsible for the Tirpitz being put out of action during World War II, enabling its final destruction by the RAF. In fact its chief critics seem to have based their comments on the early reports of the aircraft’s career before all of the issues and operating procedures were ironed out, and in retrospect it can actually be considered one of the Fleet Air Arm’s most successful aircraft when its operational history is studied in context.

Special Hobby produced a similarly much maligned 1/72 kit many years ago, and have seen fit to replace it with a completely new and much improved kit, which is something that modellers of Fleet Air Arm aircraft such as myself are very pleased to add to our line-up of torpedo and bomber aircraft.

As with any build, my first stop is to go to my bookshelves and find some references to anchor my build to and in this case I used the ever faithful Warpaint number thirty five on the Fairey Barracuda, alongside Mushroom Models Orange Number 8117 on the same subject by Matthew Willis.

I often find it pays to make the choice of the aircraft you plan to build early on in the project as this will often dictate which parts you will use during construction, and rather than forcing a snap decision I do prefer to take my time.