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Special Hobby 1:72 DAP Beaufort Mk.VIII


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Gear doors are on. Too much fun they were, I gotta tell ya! :)

 

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I think I'll try to add the bomb racks next. It seems prudent to finish up the bottom, then move to the antennae on the fuselage sides, and finish up with the top side fiddly bits. Or something like that anyway.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Thanks, mates! I appreciate your nice comments.

 

So, you remember these guys I presume, all these crazy little ASV aerials on the fuselage sides:

 

Bristol_Beaufort_production_DAP_Melbourne

 

Well, I have to face this sooner or later, so it might as well be now. Let's put 'em on! First, though, I have a choice of photoetch - the fret that came with the Special Hobby kit, or the fret that came with an aftermarket set from HPM (which I bought primarily to get the underwing YAGI aerials which did not come with the S-H kit). Here is a comparison:

 

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The S-H version, on the bottom, are a much better rendition of the actual antenna (clear distinction between the standoff and the dipoles) but as you can see they are much more fiddly. They have an advantage over the HPM parts, as when removed from the fret one can leave on a little extra "nub" that might find its way into a hole that one might drill in the fuselage, should one be so looney as to attempt that.

 

Did someone say looney? Here I is!

 

Here we have the antennae, a 0.015" wood drill in a pin vise, and a Euro buck.

 

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The drill bit is somewhat oversize (the nub is only about 0.008"), but that will give me an area where the superglue can pool, hopefully making a stronger bond. I started by making some rough measurements in order to figure out where I should be drilling the holes, then I made a template from card stock. I should have done this before the fuselage was painted and all that, but that would have required planning. Oops.

 

After drilling the holes, all I could do was cringe when I saw these insanely magnified photos!

 

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Well, what's done is done. If this doesn't work out, memsahib emptied the trash bin in my studio yesterday so there is plenty of room for a new arrival! But let's hope it doesn't come to that.

 

I used a 20/0 brush to paint the standoffs with Gunze H302. Once that was dry, I removed all the antennae from the fret, hoping that Special Hobby might have provided an extra one or two. No such luck, there is just the exact number required (16) so methinks I better be on my best behaviour.

 

One thing I noticed from studying photos of these crazy things is that the standoff is always perpendicular to the surface where it attaches. This is true of most things like this that stick out of airplane fuselages, and it's what I meant by my earlier comment that some of them (the rear row on the top) look to have "dihedral" to them. I have to be careful when gluing these on to make sure that this kind of alignment is preserved.

 

Attaching the antennae was quite a bit simpler than I thought it would be. I held them by the standoff with some sharp, pointy tweezers, dabbed a bit of superglue on the nub, and placed the nub in the corresponding hole. Each antenna is so light that I had no problems having to hold it while it set, and it naturally seemed to assume the perpendicular alignment without any help from me. It took about half an hour to put them all on. Once the superglue had set, I sprayed some Alcald Clear Flat over the dipole jungle to tone down any reflections from the superglue.

 

And here they are!

 

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Needless to say, I can never, repeat never, pick this model up by the rear fuselage again. In fact, once the model is completely finished I'm not so sure I can pick it up at all! Maybe by the wingtips...

 

OK, now I'm going to do the bomb racks. :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Ah, I almost forgot. I also attached the remaining two portholes into the sides of the cabin. They were a pretty snug fit, so I did not have the opportunity to test my porthole retention device. You buy an insurance policy, and ye never needs it...

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On 12/21/2014 at 20:33, martin hale said:

Those antennae rock!

Martin

 

So did Sunday dinner at the Old Toad today!

 

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Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. My kids tell me that I'm supposed to take pictures of my food with my phone. I don't know why, but they all do it!

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A number of years ago, I bought an Encore re-pop of the old FROG Beaufort. In with it was this True Details radar antenna set. It's the two wing aerials, the one for under the nose and a Lorenz aerial under the rear fuselage.

Radar.jpg

Chris

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Hi Bill,

You're a true master of the fine art of modeling craftsmanship. Like always I enjoy following another build from you.

Those antennas is really awesome. Incredible that such level of detail can be produced.

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That Yorshire Pud looks awesome! The Beaufighter looks even better!!

I keep reminding myself this is 1/72 for goodness sake. Your attention to detail and patience are very inspiring.

Keep fighting the C word mate you're doing a great job.

Trevor

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Beaufighter? Where's the Beaufighter...??!! You've been spending too much time writing your Airfix wishlist to Santa again, haven't you...??!! :lol:

Guilty m'lud

I did of course mean Beaugeste

Trevor

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On 12/21/2014 at 23:26, dogsbody said:

A number of years ago, I bought an Encore re-pop of the old FROG Beaufort. In with it was this True Details radar antenna set. It's the two wing aerials, the one for under the nose and a Lorenz aerial under the rear fuselage.

 

Thanks, Chris. I've not seen that True Details PE fret before. I wonder if they ever sold it separately, or if it was just included with the Encore kit. The HPM aftermarket set that I bought has the resin supports for the underwing aerials, but the PE doesn't include the aerials themselves. Since they did include the fuselage aerials I thought that was kind of odd. Luckily, the PE included with the Special Hobby kit includes the underwing aerials. (But they don't include the supports - go figure!)

 

On 12/22/2014 at 01:54, hgbn said:

Those antennas is really awesome. Incredible that such level of detail can be produced.

 

Thanks! It's even more incredible that I haven't broke any of them off yet. :)

 

On 12/22/2014 at 02:43, Fritag said:

Masterclass in working with PE Bill.

 

Thanks! You do some nice work yourself. :):):)

 

On 12/22/2014 at 02:46, keefr22 said:

Bill, I said it elsewhere, I'll say it again -

Bloody marvellous!!

 

Thanks, Keith! I'm kind of pleased with how the aerials came out myself. The alignment is not perfect, so there's room for improvement! :)

 

On 12/22/2014 at 05:08, stevehnz said:

I like your aerials very much Bill, but they do kind of limit the places you can use to pick it up & whizz it around while making aeroplane noises.... ;)

Steve.

 

That's a fact, for sure! But I think my thumb and forefinger will fit nicely right underneath the wing root. :)

 

On 12/22/2014 at 05:43, Max Headroom said:

I keep reminding myself this is 1/72 for goodness sake. Your attention to detail and patience are very inspiring.

Keep fighting the C word mate you're doing a great job.

Trevor

 

Thanks, Trevor. So, this is 1:72 scale? That explains why the parts are so small!! :):)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Bomb racks almost done!

 

PPS. Merry Christmas to everyone, and a happy new year in 2015! With those new Airfix releases, it's going to be an amazing year. Hopefully by the end of my treatments in April it will also be a great cancer-free new year!!

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Merry Christmas Bill and a Happy, prosperous and, more importantly, healthy New Year!

Hope you and yours are having a good, relaxing Christmas.

Kind regards,

Stix

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