Special Hobby's 1/48 scale
Blackburn Roc Mk.I

by Roland Sachsenhofer

Blackburn Roc Mk.I

Hobby Boss' 1/48 Fw 190 V18 is available online from Squadron.com for only $36.99!

The Blackburn Roc has been Britain’s second turret fighter actually serving in the armed forces. Not as known as the Boulton Paul Defiant, the Roc emanates in the same conception as the Royal Air Forces turret fighter: The four-gun turret should deliver “broadsides” whilst flying alongside enemy bombers. This concept seemed to have failed, generally speaking. Especially the Defiant, seeing intense action during the Battle of Britain, gained more success on enemy fighters, as long as they did not expect a fighter-like aircraft to have such a deadly sting in their backs.

The Blackburn Roc saw much less action than the Defiant, only a few encounters with the enemy over the channel and during the evacuation of Dunkirk have been reported. One “kill” –a Ju-88- has been confirmed as the Roc´s only prey.

Obviously the Roc is a constructive offspring of the Blackburn Skua. The bent wingtips have been straightened and the belly did not need the shallow recess for the Skuas bomb load any more. Instead, a four gun turret was installed- the same turret which was used in the Boulton Paul Defiant, by the way.

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Being clearly outclassed in combat, the Roc soon was sent into the second row, being used for training or for target tug duties.

My model depicts a Blackburn Roc of No.759 NAS, being flown from RNAS Donibristle in autumn/winter 1939.

The Special Hobby kit of the Blackburn Roc nearly brought me to my limits. Literally every part had to be adapted, sanded, stretched- or had to be scratched finally. But…. After two years of moving the SH Roc from the workbench to the dustbin and back again, I am really happy I got it finally done to a passably end.

If you are interested in the (challenging) building process, please have a look here on Scalemates:

https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=10148&p=albums&album=28539

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2017 by Roland Sachsenhofer
Page Created 9 November, 2017
Last Updated 17 November, 2017

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