FAIREY BARRACUDA Mk.II - PACIFIC FLEET - 1944

Description

The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber used during the Second World War, the first of its type used by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm to be fabricated entirely from metal. It was introduced as a replacement for the Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore biplanes. It is notable for its role in attacking the German battleship Tirpitz, and known for its ungainly appearance on the ground. The kit offers four scheme options with various types of national markings. These Barracudas saw service fighting the Japanese aggressors, three of the machines were used aboard aircraft carriers, the fourth one flew from a land base located on Ceylon. The most interesting airframe of all these options might be the machine flown by Sub-Lieutenant Robert McCandless (Barracuda from the Cockpit book author). It underwent some in-field modifications to achieve better performance, the ASV radar equipment was removed and the bulged side windows of the observer were replaced by flat ones. Moreover, the colour scheme of the machine was also non-standard. (Scale : 1/72e)