Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrier)

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Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrier)

Post by beany »

I DON'T DO SHIPS :evil:

Let's establish that right away. Never have, never will. Got nothing agin thems as do - but just not my cup of tea OK?!

So what I reckon I have here is best described as a nice little collection of 1/400 aircraft that seem to have a free aircraft carrier included in the box.

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The ship only existed as HMS Colossus for just over a year in RN service so really should be considered as the French Navy's Arromanches.

Here is the potted history from the instructions:

Built in haste after the loss of several aircraft carriers at the start of the war, the Colossus class comprised ships of a lower tonnage that the recently commissioned Illustrious class. Built to Merchant Navy rather than Royal Navy standards (not armoured, only medium calibre guns, relatively slow) they were nonetheless capable of carrying one squadron of Chance-Vought Corsair IV fighters and one of Fairey Barracuda II torpedo and dive bombers, some 40 aircraft in total. 10 of the class were built but arrived too late in the Pacific to take an active part in the end of the war.

The Colossus was commissioned in March 1945 but only remained in RN service until 1946 when she was loaned to the French Navy and re-christened Arromanches. Her use as a aircraft carrier was not permitted until 1951 when the French bought her outright. The early 50’s then saw her very active in the waters of Indochina. Her a/c compliment was now Grumman F6F Hellcats and SB2C Helldivers. In Nov. ‘56 she found herself engaged alongside the Royal Navy in the British-French Suez operation (again with Corsairs and now also Grumman TBM-3 Avengers). Having then become obsolete, she was modernised in 1958, with, in particular, the addition of an angled deck and the removal of all her guns.

Propeller a/c also gave way to more modern machines like the Breguet Alize for anti-submarine combat and the Fouga CM 175 Zephyr for pilot training. The commissioning of the new Clemenceau and Foch accelerated the decline and she was given the role of helicopter carrier, carrying Sikorsky/Sud-Aviation HSS-1 machines. She was decommissioned in 1974 and broken up in Toulon in 1978.


I bought the kit about 6 years ago whilst on holiday in Minehead, took a cursory glance at it once I got it home, then put it away - it's a ship, what was I thinking. So now I will try to get this particular monkey off my back and see if I can overcome my aversion to things long and grey (and boring!).

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(The box is large and as such is also home to my vacform Sangar 1/48 Beaufort.)

Sprue shots and other bits.

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Large decal sheet as can be seen - the Airfix TF.X is just there to provide a scale.
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and finally the really interesting bits - Corsairs, Barracudas, Helldivers, and a single HSS-1 helicopter.

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Right then, let's go and sort out which shades of grey I will need... :roll:

Cheers
Al.

P.S. I'm learning stuff already:
The French named the ship after Arromanches-les-Bains (or, simply Arromanches) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in north-western France.

plus

the little helicopter in the picture is an Alouette III, not an HSS-1 - Google is my friend, Google is my friend...
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by PaulBradley »

Nice! I've fancied doing one of these as a British light fleet carrier from the Korean War. I'll enjoy this one.

Are you doing her as Arromanches or Colossus?

If it is an Alouette III, it will not work with this model as Arromanches, as she is depicted pre-refit, while the Alouette III didn't fly until 1959. I think it might be meant to be a Sikorsky H-5 (Dragonfly to you and me), which was operated by the French Navy in the early '50s.
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by fenman »

Very nice. I wouldn't fancy painting all those aircraft though :shock:
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by PaulBradley »

Actually, if he's doing Arromanches, it's really easy - midnight blue overall!
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by beany »

I suspect you are right about the helicopter Paul - academic though as I'll be doing her as HMS Colossus. I may then hacksaw of the whole of the front end for use in a Classic British Box Art diorama with the 1/72 Airfix Aichi Val!

Cheers
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Happy to have you aboard !!
That seems to be the equivalent of the US "Jeep" carriers ?
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by PaulBradley »

See here for details of the Colossus and Majestic classes of Light Fleet Carriers from which these ships were drawn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_c ... ssus_class;

Sadly, none of those that took part in WWII or Korea have survived.
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

A bit of research tells me the Light Fleet carriers were about one-third again bigger than our Escort ("jeep") carriers.
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by Dazzled »

Any progress on this Beany? My LMS has had one for a while now and it keeps looking at me when I go in there so I'm pretty curious as to how good the kit is before I part with any cash (yes I can be a tight sod) ;-)
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Re: Heller 1/400 Fairey Barracuda (with free aircraft carrie

Post by beany »

Dazzled wrote:Any progress on this Beany?
Blasted it with the spray gun at the weekend - just about everything coated with Humbrol Hu123. There is a lot of painting to be done before you start sticking any bits together unfortunately so can't tell you about the fit yet, but I get the gut feeling it will go together very nicely. Progress pics to follow.

cheers
Al.
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