Fairey
Gordon/Seal History
The
Fairey Gordon
was a British light bomber (a 2 seat day bomber) and utility aircraft. It evolved
from the Fairey IIIF.
The
Gordon was a conventional two-bay fabric-covered metal biplane. It was powered
by 525 to 605 hp (390 to 450 kW) variants of the Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIa
engine. Armament was one .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun in the rear cockpit and a
fixed forward-firing 0.303-in (7.7-mm) Vickers machine gun, plus 500 lb (230 kg)
of bombs. The aircraft was somewhat basic; instruments were airspeed indicator,
altimeter, oil pressure gauge, rev counter, turn and back indicator
and compass.
The
Gordon was developed from the Fairey IIIF, primarily by use of the new Armstrong
Siddeley Panther engine. The prototype was first flown on the March 1931. The
first unit to receive the new type
being No40 Squadron at Upper Heyford, UK and the first overseas squadron to
be equipped was No6, a former Bristol Fighter unit. Around 80 earlier IIIFs were
converted to a similar standard, 178 new-build aircraft were made for the RAF, a
handful of IIIFs being converted on the production line. 154 Mark Is were
produced, before production switched to the Mark II with larger fin and rudder;
only 24 of these were completed before production switched to the Fairey
Swordfish. Both the Gordon and the Navy Seal operated from Hal Far, Malta for a
time during the prewar years in the early 30s. In the Middle East aircraft from
No35 and 207 Squadrons formed part of the RAF reinforcement during the
Abbisinyan crisis of 1935. Men with the newly squadron 74 were brought to Malta.
This was equipped with Hawker Demons and also at Hal Far among these were
camouflaged Fairey Gordon which were ready for service. The Abyssanian crisis
lasted until July 1936 and the Squadron
was dismantled for shipment to UK. The type was still serving with first
line squadrons in UK and overseas in 1938 and many were used for target towing
duties on the outbreak of WWII. The type had mostly been retired from RAF and
Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm service prior to World War II. No 6, No14, No29, No35,
No 45, No 47, No207, and No 223 Squadrons of the RAF operated the type.. Six of
these aircraft were transferred to the Egyptian Air Force.
Contemporary
with the Gordon
was the Fleet Air Arm’s Fairey Seal. Some 91 of these aircraft
were ordered. Delivery of the first Seals from the production line began
in 1933. The Seal was basically similar to the Gordon, differing primariloy in
its naval equipment, optional float or wheel landing gear, including tailwheel
and main wheel brakes, arrestor hook, catapult attachment points, floatation
bags and slinging gear. Fairey Seals from 221 Squadron from HMS Coragious
disembarked at Hal Far, Malta in March and December 1935. More Seals and Fairey
IIIFs from 822 FAA squadrons also came into Hal Far and for a time Seals were
flying allover the airspace of Malta. One can only imagine what it was like to
be around the Hal Far airfield perimeter from April 1933 onwards with 810
squadron from HMS Coragious in December 1934 flying Baffins, 811 sq in January
1935 flying Baffins from HMS Furious, 812 sq from HMS Glorious flying Blackburn
Ripons on a number of times since April 1933. until Swordfish of 813 sq from HMS
Eagle started to arrivein March 1937. Seals from 824 sq HMS Hermes arrived in
November 1934. These mingled with Fairey IIIFs from Glorious in the period of
1935-36.
Besides
the batch delivered to Egypt, forty-nine Gordons were dispatched to the Royal
New Zealand Air Force in
April 1939, 41 entering brief service as pilot trainers. The RNZAF found the
aircraft worn out and showing signs of their service in the Middle East —
including at least one scorpion. The last of these — and the last intact
Gordon anywhere — was struck off RNZAF service in 1943.
The
only known survivor is RNZAF Gordon Mark I NZ629, which is under restoration in
New Zealand. On 12th April 1940 two trainee pilots Wilfred Everist
and Walter Raphael of 1 Service Flying Training School were flying NZ629 from
Wigram when they encountered thick cloud and were blown towards th Southern
Alps. The aircraft crash landed in beech forest just beneath the snowline o
Mount White. Everist and Raphael tramped to a shearers hut. The airframe, minus
instruments, guns and engine, was left suspended in trees at the crash site,
(part of a large sheep station). In 1976 it was relocated - still largely
suspended from trees - by Charles Darby, with assistance from Walter Raphael, (Everist
was killed in action over France). NZ629 was recovered by Aerospatiale Lama. It
was stored for over twenty years before restoration commenced. As of 2005 the
restorers were looking for an engine.
- Fairey
Gordon Mk I : Two-seat day bomber and general purpose aircraft.
- Fairey
Gordon Mk II :
Two-seat training version.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Aircraft:
Fairey Gordon/Seal
Make:
Contrail
Scale:
1/72
Cost:
£6
Type:
A vac form kit with injection moulded parts and decals for an RAF Gordon.
The
kit
It
is surprising how the period of Inter War years has been almost totally
neglected by injection moulded kit manufacturers. Thanks to the cottage industry
who with vac form kits market produced biplanes of the mid 20s-30s like the
Blackburn Baffin, Ripon, Blackburn, Fairey IIIF, Gordon, Seal, Wildebeest,
Overstrand, Horsley and so on, these being generally offered by Contrail Models.
One of these kit offerings is the Fairey Gordon. This can equally well be
made as a Fairey Seal used by Fleet Air Arm. This is a good quality kit released
by Contrail with a good detail moulding. It is a fairly straight forward
construction to produce a nice finished a pre war medium bomber biplane.
The
1/72 scale Fairey Gordon comes in white sheet of vac form plastic with some
injection moulded parts in the kit. These are injected in black plastic and the
parts comprise of engine cylinders, exhaust ring, pipes, undercarriage legs,
wing struts of different sizes and propeller. Generally speaking the injected
parts are quite crude but with a little patience can be produced to advantage.
There is also a good quality decal sheet for a RAF Gordon of 35 Squadron so that
there is no need to stock spare roundel and black serial numbers or purchase
extra decals from specialist suppliers.
Construction
The
kit component parts, mainly the fuselage and wing parts, tail fin to produce the
Gordon, cockpit decking, crew seats and instrument panel are scored around with
a sharp modelling knife and are broken away from the carrier backing sheet of
plastic. This is followed by removing the excess plastic by sanding using wet
and dry paper stuck to a board. This is best done inn a circular motion and
gently pressing each kit part to ensure that the waste plastic was removed
evenly. The cockpit area was then shaped using a pointed modelling blade and
files. The fuselage halves were placed flat on a board so that the cabine struts
placement is marked and gently drilled blind holes. The same sequence repeated
at the correct positions in the wings and interplane struts. The cockpit floor,
instrument panel that comes with the kit were cut and assembled and painted.
Crew seats were shaped, painted and assembled inside the cockpit which so far
was all fixed to one side of the fuselage. Plastic pieces were added
intermittently at the inner of the joint to act as guides. Interior was painted
aluminium and black with seats dark leather brown.. Fuselage halves were joined
together using liquid cement. Tail planes and fin also glued in place. The lower
wing halves were then joined to the fuselage by inserting the locating tongues
at the root of wing slots which were cut in the fuselage lower. This assembly
may look a little flimsy at first but when the top wing was added at a later
stage the complete structure became quite rigid. At this stage more detail was
added to the cockpit like control wheel, three crew seats, seat straps, rudder
pedals, front instruments, some side instruments and control wires at the rear
of fuselage.
Leading
edge slots on upper main wings were cut out from plastic card and correctly
curved with a file. These were fixed in place along with actuating jacks. The
two row radial engine was replaced with a white metal one along with a more
accurate metal propeller from the Aeroclub selection. Undercarriage struts were
finally added along with a thin metal rod for the wheel axel.
The
final task was to add the rigging. I did the rigging process when struts were in
place and both wings were set together. For many this may be the principal
reason that could be discouraging to build biplanes but I can assure that this
will be the the case until the very first set of rigging is completed on a
biplane. From then on one can be hooked and forgets all about monoplanes and jet
aircraft for a long while. The method I use is drilling tiny holes at
appropriate places next to the wing struts, and literally sewing the two wings
together. Once sewn using invisible thread, a tiny spot of super glue is added
to the drilled hole. Filler added and area smoothened with excess thread gently
sheared off.
Painting
the model
Besides
the paint work to the interior mentioned earlier the fuselage was basically
painted black at the top decking and the rest was silver or aluminium dope
finish. The mid area was painted before the struts got in the way. The aluminium
had a little white added and a few drops of clear varnish added to the mix. The
radial engine was painted burnt oily metal and same were the exhaust manifold.
Struts could be black or retained aluminium finish. The struts that came with
the kit were insufficiently provided to cater for all of them. I added more
using spare ones by Contrail that I had in stock. Smaller inner struts and tail
plane struts not provided were made from same struts as main ones but reduced in
thickness and size. The top decking area was masked and the kit given an overall
coat of aluminium dope mix.
A
cockpit windshield was cut from clear acetate and folded at two points to form a
three piece screen. This was glued in place with a tiny spot of kristal kleer.
An overall coat of clear varnish was applied to the kit and decals issued with
kit were finally slid in place. This represented a Gordon of 35 Squadron.
Conclusion.
This
was a time consuming build but in the end it turned into another pleasing pre
war model. Same kit could be built into a Fleet Air Arm Fairey Seal in place of
a Gordon, so if you ever see one on e-bay, grab it like I did.
Carmel
J Attard
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images below to see larger images
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