Fairey Gannet (oz1362)

 

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Our irrepressible friend, Barry Scollay, from the far north has been at it again [main pic, 003-012]! I sent him a long abandoned Keil Kraft Fairey Gannet kit that had been sitting, dusty, unloved and without any strip wood, in my cupboard for the last twenty-five years. I knew that even with the best of intentions, I was never going to get around to building it. Not only has Barry built it, but he's done an absolutely superb job of it, upgrading the original design and adding masses of scale detail, changing it from the prototype into an AS.4 variant, as well as converting it to micro-RC.
Modifications include but are not limited to: Additional stringers and infill planking on the fuselage and the addition of a third cockpit. A large belly hatch has been added to give access to the RC board. Much improved vacuum formed canopies have been made, the cockpits detailed and a 3D printed crew added. The spinner is also vacuum formed over a buck turned in the lathe. The original wing centre section brace has been removed and substituted with carbon fibre rod to free up internal space for the RC equipment. More 1/16" square stringers have been added to the wing and control surfaces built in and hinged using the material from 3.5" floppy disks. As well as light 1/16" sheet sub fins, lots of lumps and bumps found on the prototype have been faithfully reproduced from soft balsa.
The covering is Barry's usual soft-touch Doculam laminating film, brush painted with acrylic paints, adorned with home-made waterslide decals and sealed with a coat of matt varnish from an aerosol can. The model represents an aircraft of 815 Naval Air Squadron embarked aboard HMS Ark Royal in 1958.
The motor is a 1020 geared coreless motor from Volantex, as is the RC board with 6-axis gyro stabilisation and integral servos for rudder and elevator. A third servo drives the ailerons via a pull-pull setup of thread in plastic tubes. The completed flying weight of the model is 85g.
Barry reports that it's a really fine flying model and videos attest to this. In fact, he's stated that it's become his favourite of all of his micro-RC models, being rock solid in flight, light on the wing, very stable and manoeuvrable and capable of handling the regularly blowy conditions that the local area is famous for. Here are photos of the completed model, as is usual for Barry, photographed to an exceptional standard!
All the best, Pete
Pete Theobald - 15/10/2025
Tres magnifique!
Jan Novick - 16/10/2025
Fantastic
Maurizio - 12/12/2025
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