Airfix 1/72 Beaufighter

[mike romeo]

Hi folks,

I thought I'd start a build thread for the new Airfix Beaufighter. As I have 5 of 'em, this is an oob trailblazer to see how it goes together and where, if anywhere, the pitfalls are. So, let battle commence . . .

On the first night, I merely assembled a series of sub-assemblies (is it just me that sometimes likes just gluing big bits of plastic together without painting them?). Anyway, it's quite possible to do that on this kit. For instance, wing halves can be joined straight away without pre-painting - although remember to open up the requisite holes in the lower wing section for rocket blast plates if you're using 'em; inserts in the 'horizontal' tailplane fit like a glove and can be popped straight in, then fin halves can be added; the cabin floor / wing spar assemblies can also be joined together straight away. Great! Looks like progress.

As usual with new Airfix, the plastic is somewhat soft, so be careful removing parts from the sprues and cleaning them up. Most of the parts have visible mould seams. These aren't bad, but are a bit surprising on a new kit. Also, be careful to check fit before gluing parts. Tight tolerances are the norm, and sometimes some minor fettling is required to ensure a good fit. Obviously, this is good modelling practice anyway, and it makes the kit feel like it requires some skill, and isn't just a "shake and bake" build - which is a good thing for me anyway.

One thing: it's a good idea to paint the cockpit side consoles before adding them to the fuse halves. OK, I know it's obvious, but I couldn't be bothered and it was mildly fiddly to paint them up after they had been joined. Oh - and make sure you get the side consoles in the right place. It is obvious, but I managed to screw up the placement of one of them, which entailed some surgery to the IP when it came to add it.

On the second night, I did some painting of the fuselage interior, undercarriage legs, wheels / tyres and engine / nacelle parts. I also added the IP decal.

The photo below shows where I began the following night:

Next step was to add the IP (after aforementioned butchery) and tailwheel, then join the fuselage halves. This was a really good fit and Tamiya X-thin was used once paint had been scraped from the mating surfaces.

I then added the tail assembly and, while this was drying, assembled the main wheels and engine cylinders. (The latter had one coat of Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black. Without a primer, this only provided partial coverage, but as this nicely accentuated the detail on the cylinders - subsequently enhanced with a dry-brush of Humbrol polished Aluminium - I left it as is). Some more detail parts were also added to the interior, again after some detail painting, leaving me here:

Once the tail feathers had had a chance to set up a bit, I added the cockpit floor / interior / wing spars. Again, a small amount of mould seam removal / fettling was required, but the result was a really good fit. The underfuselage 'tray' was also then added. Another good fit:

Finally, for the evening, the wing assemblies were added. Yet another good fit:

So, this was where I ended things for my third evening of work on the Beau. More soon.

regards,

Martin

[Steve Coombs]

I've got two of these awaiting my tender mercies, Xtradecal X72227 to hand as well.

I'm debating whether to add the heater pipe, but as it probably won't be visible without the use of an endoscope I may well not. Then again, I might like the nice warm feeling (ha!) of knowing that it is there, even if nobody else does. How do people cope with Zoukei-Mura kits with all the beautiful internals that never see the light of day?

This kit is a radical step up on the Beaufighter I built 40 years ago!

[Paul Alan Bardell]

Martin,

Thats looking very good! - seems to be going together without too much of a fight.

does anyone know if a Mk1 is in the pipe line from Airfix?

[mike romeo]

I've got two of these awaiting my tender mercies, Xtradecal X72227 to hand as well.

I'm debating whether to add the heater pipe, but as it probably won't be visible without the use of an endoscope I may well not. Then again, I might like the nice warm feeling (ha!) of knowing that it is there, even if nobody else does. How do people cope with Zoukei-Mura kits with all the beautiful internals that never see the light of day?

This kit is a radical step up on the Beaufighter I built 40 years ago!

Steve,

Yep, thought of adding the heater pipe myself (I have on all my 'classic' Beau builds), but am determined to stick to oob as this is a trial run. On subsequent builds, as well as the heater, I will add a fuselage bulkhead near to the rear spar, perhaps with the armoured doorway open. Looked at straight on, the Beau fuselage leaks light from the observer's opening and it just looks a bit 'open' from this angle.

regards,

Martin

Martin,

Thats looking very good! - seems to be going together without too much of a fight.

does anyone know if a Mk1 is in the pipe line from Airfix?

Thank you! Has to be on the cards, surely?

Edited October 3, 2015 by mike romeo

[mike romeo]

Some more progress has been made on the Beau. Following on from my first post, I assembled the cowlings around the engines, as per the instructions. I wouldn't do it this way again, as I ended up with some poor joints between the cowling parts. The build in Airfix Model World showed the way: assemble the cowling parts separately then, when dry, add the engine. Thankfully, the air intakes on the top of the cowling cover one join, and the exhaust pipes another, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Cowling front and engine stays were then added, and these went on OK. Be careful when you remove the cowling fronts from the sprues, though, as I wasn't, and had to fill in the gouges with tipp-ex. I tidied up the other joints with Tipp-ex, wiped off with a cotton bud soaked in enamel thinners (be sparing, as it will melt the plastic!), then primed with Halfords white and rubbed down with micromesh, leaving me here:

I then added the main undercarriage legs and overcoated the areas of the white SEAC bands with a couple of coats of Revell Aqua White. The undercarriage leg assemblies were quite fiddly to assemble, and tolerance for the locating holes was quite tight. The rear leg of the upper undercarriage support stays also had no positive location, so it was a case of try it and see. Once finished, it looks great, but I will approach this area with more care on my next build. Here's a shot of the Beau on its knees:

And here's one of the underside, showing the main gear leg assemblies:

Finally, I masked off the SEAC bands, as here:

. . . and then I started painting. 4 coats of thinned Xtracrylics Medium Sea Grey left us here, where work has stopped for the evening

regards,

Martin

Edited October 5, 2015 by mike romeo

[stevej60]

Looks a great build so far Martin.

[PhantomBigStu]

Is a great kit, finished mine today, only faults I can point are my appalling painting and varnishing

[Beard]

Is a great kit, finished mine today, only faults I can point are my appalling painting and varnishing

Add 'terrible assembly' to that and it sounds like one of my builds!

[Stew Dapple]

Nice work so far Martin, looking forward to seeing how it turns out... you have five of them, you say?

Cheers,

Stew

[mike romeo]

Nice work so far Martin, looking forward to seeing how it turns out... you have five of them, you say?

Cheers,

Stew

Yes, I couldn't afford the number I actually wanted.

[thepureness]

great build, finished mine last month, it is really a great kit.

I also built mine in SEAC, but watch out for the errors in Airfix's painting guide, see black arrows below

[PhantomBigStu]

Add 'terrible assembly' to that and it sounds like one of my builds!

Can add that bit , ommitted it as didn't want to put the poster off the kit, all my fit issues were entirely self inflected

[The wooksta V2.0]

Great work so far. My TF.X is at the primer stage and I'll be spraying yellow trainer bands on soon. Hopefully, she'll be ready for Telford.

I didn't take the advice from AMW and assembled the engines as per the destructions. What a pain in the backside!

[mike romeo]

Thanks, chaps!

I did some basic masking along the leading edges and at the sides of the fuselage and then proceeded to daub Xtracrylics dark earth on the upper surfaces. I use it thinned down about 15-20% with water, and this means that even over the primer, it takes a few coats to cover. The picture shows it after 4 coats, applied with a wide flat brush.

I then marked out the demarcation between the dark earth and dark green with a soft pencil and followed this carefully with a thin flat brush. The daubs here and there show which side of the lines I should be filling in with dark green (sounds stupid, but try not doing it . . .). The rear fuselage / tailplane demarcations are speculative, designed to get over the inconsistency in the paint drawing pointed out earlier. They look plausible to me, anyway!

And then a wider brush was used to fill in the green areas:

After about half an hour drying, the second coat went on. Already the colour is building up nicely:

And after another half hour, the last coat went on. Any imperfections in the finish will be put down to weathering!

I'll remove the masking tomorrow and touch up as required. I'll then let the paintwork cure for a couple of days and rub down any ridges with micromesh. Plenty of detail work I can do while the paint is curing . . .

regards,

Martin

Edited October 7, 2015 by mike romeo

[Stew Dapple]

That's looking great Martin

Cheers,

Stew

[Beard]

Nice brush-work, it's looking good.

[CurrantBunbury]

This looks very neat. Nice to see another brush-painter, too!

[jean]

Brilliant work so far! To see the quality of your brush painting gives me hope that I can improve my poor excuse of a paint job!

Have fun!!!

JR

[mike romeo]

Thanks, all!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good afternoon Mike

Very nice painting job you have done

Patrice

[AdrianMF]

Looks good! The SEAC scheme looks very nice.

Regards,

Adrian

[T8247741]

Nice Mike, here's my effort so far. Could be sometime before I finish it as I have lost the decal sheet !!!

Waiting for Airfix to get decals back in stock so I can get it finished

[FZ6]

Looking good so far. Really need to crack on with mine.

Nice Mike, here's my effort so far. Could be sometime before I finish it as I have lost the decal sheet !!!

Waiting for Airfix to get decals back in stock so I can get it finished

As I have After market decals I can help you out with the decals if you need them.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited October 10, 2015 by FZ6

[Beard]

Nice Mike, here's my effort so far. Could be sometime before I finish it as I have lost the decal sheet !!!

Waiting for Airfix to get decals back in stock so I can get it finished.

I've got two Beaufighters so have a spare set of the SEAC markings.

PM me, if you want them.

[mike romeo]

Evening, folks. Thanks for all the nice comments and T82, nice Beau; hope you get your decals before too long.

Having let the paint dry for a day, I removed the masking and gently rubbed down any high spots. I then touched up any greeblies that required it, and toned down any paint wear due to the rubbing down. In-between times I was working on the prop blades. Having applied a spray coat of Halford's white primer, I painted then masked the tips and applied a number of careful coats of Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black. While the props were drying, I applied a couple of brush coats of klear to the airframe, then assembled the engine fronts and the now dry props. To assemble these so the props will turn requires a very light touch on the glue. Despite being somewhat fragile, the whole assembly forms a solid fit to the engines and gives the possibility of leaving these unglued and then being able to remove the props if the kit is to be moved. I then popped on the wheels / tyres without glue. After all this, the model looked like:

Since the above were taken, I have started applying the decals. The basic ID markings and codes are on, but I need to decide how many of the stencils I will apply. Like other recent Airfix decals I have used, they are easy to apply, are accurate in colour and have good colour density. In short, marvellous kit-supplied decals.

Anyway, the Beau currently looks like this. The white bloom on the camo in places is due to the setting solution reacting with the Klear. Once the decals are all on, another coat of klear will kill this:

regards,

Martin