Fuselage

Removed moulded kit exhaust stubs, made and fitted new exhausts, as well as various minor intakes and vents to the sides of the cowling.

Removed carb intakes from lower cowling, made and fitted new ones with guards made from wire .Added cores and divider to radiator housing, made and fitted flap to radiator outlet.

I had originally moulded a canopy as there was none in the bagged kit. However, sometime after completion, a club member gave me a Falcon canopy, so all I had to mould was a separate sliding hood in order to have an open cockpit.  Also moulded new bulged observer's side windows. The photos with the home moulded canopy don't show the hood open.  

Modified kit tailwheel and strut, made and fitted new arrestor hook, added catapult spools.

Made instrument panel ,control column and consoles, and added small windows either side of the  cockpit.

 Fitted bulkhead with headrest, moulded new seat and added seat belts.

Constructed an interior in the rear fuselage ,including decking, added structure behind pilot's bulkhead .

Moulded and fitted seats for nav and observer in rear fuselage .

Added details to rear fuselage ,handles, trailing aerial, dinghy release lanyard and clear tail nav light.  

Made and fitted torpedo crutches under fuselage.

As this model was to have folded wings, the root sections were cut from the wings and added to the fuselage sides. The fold section was detailed as per Manual diagrams ,and intakes added in the wing roots.

Measurements revealed that the folded wing pylons would not have reached the tailplanes, so the fuselage length was reduced  by about 3mm, rather than change the position of the prominent locking pylons.  

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Wings

Photos show that there is a slight bulge above the u/c housings in the wings, so these were added with Feviseal  ( A Milliput type product at a fraction of the price) and smoothed in by judicious wet sanding until it looked about right .

The outer wing panels were cut off at their fold lines.  The join surfaces were detailed as per the Manual diagrams and detailing was added in the wheel wells. Fuel tanks were moulded and fitted in the ends of the outer wings prior to the adding of the detailing. The pylons which secure the wings in the folded position were replaced with scratchbuilt items with a wire insert to give adequate strength.

Ailerons were deflected as per photos of folded aircraft.

The folding wings were to be attached to the fuselage by short lengths of copper wire to give some strength to the attachment.  Wire pins were inserted in the wing upper surface to lock down the trailing edge sections  

Folding trailing edge sections detailed as per Manual diagrams, new flap brackets made and fitted with actuator.  Radio altimeter antennae and pitot tube added  to the bottom surface .

Nav lights added to wing tips.

Added detail to landing light in port wing leading edge.

Made and fitted ASV antennae to upper wing surfaces.

Made and fitted deck handling arms beneath wings.  

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	Photo by Pieter Stroethoff	Photo by Shane Jenkins

Propeller

Widened, reshaped  and thinned the  blades of the kit prop.

Undercarriage

Made new u/c legs and fuselage hinge section,referring to photographs, adding torque links and brake lines

Made and fitted new breaker struts.

Moulded new u/c leg fairing doors, as well as  the outer well doors which attach to the wing.

Obtained  wheels from the scrap box, made and fitted new 5 hole wheel centres.

Torpedo

Made and added new fins and propeller blades to kit torpedo and fitted under the fuselage with a simulated wire strop.

Finish

Painted to represent an FAA aircraft of 815 Sqdn in Dark Sea Grey/ Dark Slate Grey/Sky.  Added mild weathering to try and simulate a worn look, as all wartime Barracudas seemed to be.  Decals were  obtained from scrap box .

Final  Assembly

The folded trailing edge sections were attached by short lengths of thin copper wire and fixed with superglue to the pins previously provided.

The main wings were attached by the short wires provided and the pylons fixed to small holes drilled in the underside of the tailplanes with superglue.  

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Photos by Pieter Stroethoff

Conclusion

Found this project interesting, if at times frustrating, but was relatively satisfied  with the result, especially as the basis  is THAT  Frog kit.

Personally, I find the Barracuda somewhat appealing, but not too sure why, as it's probably just short of downright ugly. While researching, I prepared drawings in 1/48 and intend  to scratchbuild a  1/48 Barra  to make use of all the info, as I've never seen one in 1/48 ,- - -  but folded ???     Not so sure about that one!                 

Allan  

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Photo by Pieter Stroethoff