Bristol Beaufort by AJohnson - FINISHED - Airfix - 1:72

[AJohnson]

Evening All,

 

I have had this little project sat to one side for ages now, so in a mood of "lets finish a few projects off"  I have picked it up again and made good progress so far.  I'll post up a few posts to catch up with where I have got to, then we will be going along in 'real time' from then on.

 

Firstly a little introduction. for what I am assuming, even to the well versed members of MSW is still an obscure object; although some of our Australian friends may be more familiar with the type.

 

The Bristol Beaufort was a twin-engine torpedo bomber from the same stable as the Blenheim and the later developed Beaufighter.  From the outset designed as a torpedo bomber, but it mostly saw service as a medium bomber and trainer, nearly half the production run was built in Australia where it was apparently well liked by Aussie aircrew.  Enough waffle, those interested can look further here: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufort

 

I'm going to build the box top version in the markings of a 22 Squadron Beaufort flown by FO. Kenneth Campbell VC who gallantly torpedoed the Gneisenau whilst docked at Brest. (The nautical connection to keep the MSW gods happy! 😇)

 

The kit comprises of 159 parts in Airfix's usual slightly soft light grey plastic.  Fit so far has been very good, almost too tight and the part need scraping back if any glue or paint gets in the way of joints.  I assembled much of the interior first before painting, as it was all aircraft green inside and avoided the problems of mixing glue and paints.  A few shots this post of the kit contents and the cockpit section, complete with toilet/bucket near the rear gunners position - I bet he was pleased!

Edited August 25, 2022 by AJohnson

[AJohnson]

Follow up post showing the painting details I did for the interior.  I don't know why; as most of this lot will be hidden inside the fuselage, but I weathered and applied some washes to grubby things up a bit.  I added one or two details not provided in the kit, the most visible being tape seatbelts etc.  I like the more recent Airfix kits as they provide 'stub' wing spars to connect and make more rigid the fuselage and wing root connection, but as mentioned in the first post, these needed scraping back to fit nicely.

 

Next up fuselage and wing construction.

[Dave_E]

Nice detail painting Andrew! 👍😀

[AJohnson]

36 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

Nice detail painting Andrew! 👍😀

Thanks Dave, shame most of it hidden once the fuselage closed up!

 

Speaking of which here it is all covered up. There were some niggling alignment issues with the body and either the top or underneath had a slight step along the seem that needed attention.  I decided to "zip it up" from the tail to the nose using liquid cement and tried to align as best I could to avoid too much sanding/filling.  But in the end nothing a dollop of Squadron putty and a sanding stick couldn't fix! 

 

The wings in contrast were a dream to fit and just fell together, once the glue had hardened only a light sand was needed along the seems. 😀

 

The torpedo/bomb bay was another nicely detailed section, but once again this will largely covered up by the Torpedo and bomb bay doors when I get around to those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by AJohnson

[Egilman]

I'm in Brother...

 

The Beaufort was one tough aircraft, I can imagine the hell that was visited upon it to bring one down...

Edited August 17, 2022 by Egilman

[Old Collingwood]

Thats a neat looking kit  - nice work.

 

OC.

[AJohnson]

11 minutes ago, Egilman said:

I'm in Brother...

 

The Beaufort was one tough aircraft, I can imagine the hell that was visited upon it to bring one down...

Yes, the Aussies liked the rugged Beaufort, but it was quickly relegated to training and the Mediterranean theatre with the RAF.  FO. Kenneth Campbell and his crew were not recognised until later, once the French resistance informed the British what they had achieved that night, as they were shot down within moments.

Edited August 17, 2022 by AJohnson

[Canute]

I'm following, too. Interesting subject.

 

These newer Airfix kits are much nicer than the early ones.

[AJohnson]

8 hours ago, Canute said:

These newer Airfix kits are much nicer than the early ones.

They are a world away from the ones I used to build as a kid back in the 70's-early 80's. 😆  I have since bought a few of the old mould kits from fleabay for old times sake and they aren't worth building, but I just get them for the lovely box top artwork by the likes of Roy Cross.  Something I think the box tops of US-Airfix kits lacked in the 1980's I have seen, because the box top 'had' to show the kit contents, not sure if this is still the case?  Must be something to do with customer protection/rights?

 

The new artwork on the current catalogue is more in the old style, but obviously digital/cgi. 🤖

[AJohnson]

Engine update!  I really enjoyed these mini kits, I painted the parts on the sprue first and assembled, I think adequate detail for the scale and so far the spindles the props go on still turn, so you can blow the props around - always an sense of achievement as a kid if you could build an Airfix and the props turned! There was always 'degrees' in judging this as a kid, the crème de la crème were the props that easily/freely turned if you blew on them, then there were the ones that moved a bit when you blew on them, then the ones you had to push with a finger as they were stiff, followed by the really tight ones that might just snap off if you tried it too much and then finally (the majority) the solid ones that would not budge because you managed to glue the whole lot together! 😂 - Happy days! 😁

[AJohnson]

Some small detail parts bringing the build up to date.  The "R2D2" looking rear gunner's turret and the "Tin fish" that spoiled Gneisenau's day.  Interestingly the two machine guns in the rear turret are mounted with their axis at 90deg. to each other, I assume so they could be mounted closer together to save space.  The ammo drums are flat disc types.

 

I'm currently on with filling/sanding the final assembly and priming ready for painting, I will update more when I get chance to download the pictures.

 

Thanks for looking in and the comments/likes. 😄

Edited August 18, 2022 by AJohnson

[Egilman]

Yep twin Lewis Guns, very effective and the last of the drum fed medium machine guns...

 

And they represented the wooden guide vanes for the torpedo very well, they stabilized the torpedo while it was dropping from the aircraft and broke off when it entered the water....

 

Excellent work my friend.... Impressive...

[king derelict]

3 hours ago, AJohnson said:

always an sense of achievement as a kid if you could build an Airfix and the props turned!

Especially if you used that little bulb of glue that came with the kit! My great achievement was getting the floats to swing down from the wings on the PBY catalina.

 

Beautiful work so far. its going to look excellent.

 

Alan

 

[Egilman]

31 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Especially if you used that little bulb of glue that came with the kit! My great achievement was getting the floats to swing down from the wings on the PBY catalina.

I remember that one, was a bear not getting glue on the hinges...  Mine was the retractable landing gear on the monogram F3F, geared to the prop, pull it out and the gear engages and when turned it raised/lowered the landing gear...

 

There a lot of memorable kits from back then.... 

 

I agree with Alan, beautiful work....

Edited August 18, 2022 by Egilman

[king derelict]

22 minutes ago, Egilman said:

There a lot of memorable kits from back then.... 

And the Short Sunderland had bombs that were supposed to slide out of the fuselage on rails under the wings - that didn't happen on mine. Great memories though

Alan

[AJohnson]

8 hours ago, king derelict said:

And the Short Sunderland had bombs that were supposed to slide out of the fuselage on rails under the wings - that didn't happen on mine. Great memories though

Alan

You mean these!? - And no mine don't move either! 😂

 

This is probably one of the oldest kits in my collection, you can tell as the white has yellowed somewhat.  I built it for my late father in law decades ago before the admiral and me were married.  There is a little Black Cat I painted on the nose takes a little explaining... Ron was from Sunderland and was a fanatical Sunderland AFC supporter (Football) Their mascot/nickname is the "Black Cats" and their colours are Red, white & Black, so that's why they are on the nose when I gifted him it.  When I presented it to him I said "Here Ron, here's a kit that reminds me of you, its a SHORT(s) Sunderland!" - He was about 5'3" - fortunately he took that in good spirits and even mentioned in in his speech at our wedding. 😆

 

I have now been given it back to be the custodian of, like you say Alan these little bits of wood and plastic we build contain many great memories... 😁

[tkay11]

Great topic! I used to love the kits as a 10-year old, and agree about the poor quality -- but only in retrospect when I see the quality of the newer Beaufort which I  also put together at that time. I'm tempted to do another kit now, just as a way of reminiscing. There was a time when the regular model exhibition at the Olympia in Kensington had an Airfix stand where kids were given a model to make as long as they put it together at the stand. I would go every day as Olympia was just at the end of the road where we lived, and kids' entry was cheap.

 

Tony

[king derelict]

A lovely Sunderland Andrew. Yes, those were the bomb racks. I have to get the Airfix Lancaster and Sunderland for old times sake.

Sorry to disrupt your log.

Alan

[AJohnson]

Alan, absolutely no apologies needed, your mention of Sunderland bomb racks was an excuse to launch into more reminiscing! 🤣. The new Airfix Lancaster’s are good, I have built a merlin one and want to build a Mk. II (radial Hercules version) to honour the Canadians who flew from a local airbase at Linton-on-Ouse. 
Please all dive in with the stories, I think the “non-ship” sub-culture of MSW is one of the more relaxed sections. 😀

 

[Canute]

I always wanted to build a Sutherland, but it wasn't too available n my yoot here in the States (mid 60s). Did do  a Lanc, Halifax and Sterling, All Airfix and I do remember the little glue bulb. Fun times.

[king derelict]

I am definitely going to have to build a Lancaster. I was out on the hills in the Peak district when the Lancaster did one of the Dambuster memorial flights over the reservoirs there. Emotive stuff

 

This guy is really crazy with his build - in a good way.

1:72 Avro Lancaster- Remembering the crew of ED412 - Work in Progress - Aircraft - Britmodeller.com

Alan

[AJohnson]

Oh , that must have been epic!  I am lucky that Knaresborough is on the flight path for the BBMF Lancaster when she goes north each flying display season. Seen her twice this year, once almost overhead!  😀

[Old Collingwood]

50 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

Oh , that must have been epic!  I am lucky that Knaresborough is on the flight path for the BBMF Lancaster when she goes north each flying display season. Seen her twice this year, once almost overhead!  😀

I got a nice close shot of her office  when she was landing after displaying at RIAT 2017, I chat to her main pilot  sometimes.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Had the pleasure of attending the air show at RAF Leuchars, back in 1996. Got to talk to the Spit pilot, since he and the Hurricane landed. The Lanc went elsewhere, I think. They're pretty cautious flying the museum pieces, but happy to talk about the aircraft.👍

[AJohnson]

Bulk of the building side of thing about done now.  I did buy a set of canopy paint masks for this model.  If I'm doing an aircraft with a simple canopy, then I will make my own masks to save a few pennies, but with these "Glasshouse" type canopies with loads a frames it seems a bit of a false economy and usually the results are better also.

 

There was a bit of sanding and filling to do once the first undercoat went on, mostly around the cockpit windows and the rear turret fairing, which I needed to be careful with.

 

Then I pre-shaded the panel lines prior to painting proper.

[AJohnson]

Next batch of pictures are on the airbrushed painting done this weekend.

 

I used "Colourcoats" by Sovereign Paints from here in the UK, I particularly like their Dark Earth / Dark Green, that to my eyes looks pretty close to the RAF camouflage colours.  They are enamels, but I have learned to use lower pressures when painting and not blast high pressure aerosols all over the place and into my lungs,  so it not that unpleasant and I have plenty of ventilation.  

 

A note on the masking, I tend to use paper cut outs that emulates how many (but not all) British aircraft were painted (using large fibre reinforced rubber mats).  I have tried to use rolled blu-tack "snakes" to demark the camouflage patterns, but I found it hard to follow the patterns properly and the "feathering" too pronounced, particularly for 1/72 & 1/48 scale aircraft.  Sources I have come across state that the ministry standard for even "freehand" spray painted aircraft was a 0.5 inch wide demarcations, so that at 1/72 that would look pretty much a hard line, not fuzzy.  My paper masks are held down with little dots of blu-tack to stop the paper flapping about when using the airbrush; the trick with these little dots is patience and let the paint harden before plucking them off with a larger ball of blu-tack, they tend to leave no marks if clean.

 

Thanks for looking in and the likes and stories/memories! 😁

Edited August 22, 2022 by AJohnson

[Egilman]

Looks to me like you got it down pat... The secret is to not spray directly at the edge, let the masking do it's thing... (and spray at low pressure)

 

Excellent job! nothing like duplicating the actual way they did it in real life....

 

Well Done...

[Canute]

Nicely done Andrew. Waiting on the reveal. 

[AJohnson]

Small update probably the last before the "reveal" - Added the undercarriage, which was a pig to get in and also added the Torpedo/bomb bay door and the Torpedo itself.

 

I've also started a little bit of weathering, but not going mad as 1/72 scale models can look pretty "scruffy" if overdone.

 

Remaining tasks are adding the small glazed nose turret, three little aerials, finish the matt varnish, props and lastly the nerve wracking job of peeling back all the glazing masks to hopefully find a clear cockpit! 

 

Thanks for the likes and comments guys! 😁

[AJohnson]

Here we go folks. the final pictures of my Bristol Beaufort.

 

Final notes, the matt coat varnish is from Mig Ammo, I like the flat coat, but it is very fragile, just look at it and it scuffs.  Managed to avoid 'silvering' under the fuselage letter codes, which is big 'Win' for me.  Some 'losses' as with every build; the canopy is mostly clear, with the odd mark here and there and a mysterious line/crack on the lower starboard side?  But overall for a "glasshouse" not too shabby.

 

But most importantly on the prop scale of movability they are a "2" - not blow round ones, but they do freely move by finger prods. 😆

 

A couple more posts to finish before I mark this one FINISHED.  A fun little build and thank you all for following and hope you liked the trip down memory lane, courtesy of good old Airfix!