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Special Hobby Bristol 1:72 Beaufort Mk1a in Malta colours


SimonL

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With the long summer break almost upon us down under I thought it was time to have a go at something a little more challenging.

 

I picked this up at the swap'n'sell at the local model expo awhile ago and set it aside for when I had time to do it justice.

 

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Oh-oh - resin and etch

 

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I intend to build it as a Mk1a, DD959 Q of 217 Squadron in Malta, 1942.  The colours sound attractive - extra dark sea grey/dark slate grey camouflage over azure blue.

 

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My first task will to read carefully this build by @Navy Bird and this one by @CedB for inspiration and hints (I hope they don't mind a little plagiarism).

 

I am also experimenting with using Flickr as Photobucket is getting so frustrating to use - hopefully the photos work out OK. 

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Looking forward to this one Simon and please feel free to plagiarise anything useful you find in my build :)

With no torpedo I think the only warning I would give is to check the canopy / fuselage fit - mine and Bill's clear parts were too wide and Bill overcame this with a piece of plastic in the fuselage top / front join to widen it a little. I missed this and had a devil's job blending it in.

Oh, and the little window in the starboard side of the nose. More plastic required around the 'glass'.

HTH :popcorn: 

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28 minutes ago, CedB said:

Looking forward to this one Simon and please feel free to plagiarise anything useful you find in my build :)

With no torpedo I think the only warning I would give is to check the canopy / fuselage fit - mine and Bill's clear parts were too wide and Bill overcame this with a piece of plastic in the fuselage top / front join to widen it a little. I missed this and had a devil's job blending it in.

Oh, and the little window in the starboard side of the nose. More plastic required around the 'glass'.

HTH :popcorn: 

Thanks - I saw those issues :-)

 

I was thinking of fitting the torpedo as I think the 217 Squadron aircraft them on some missions  - maybe someone can confirm or deny?

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My mistake - I can see the torpedo now :doh: 

Certainly they did! In his great book 'The Last Torpedo Flyers' Arthur Aldridge talks about flying with 217 in Malta and their missions to attack the German and Italian shipping.

"We were delighted to be told we’d have a brand new aircraft to fly east. A few days before we were due to leave for Malta, we picked up a new Mark II Beaufort, serial number DD598, from the factory in Filton near Bristol." They left for Malta in June 1942.

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Thanks for the support, hope I don't disappoint. First task today was to go and pickup some supplies of plastic strip and card for a little bit of detailing.

 

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I also dug around in the spares box and found some spare props from a long deceased old tool Airfix Beaufighter, and the torpedo and spare wing light transparency from the new tool Beaufighter. 

 

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I figure the props can be used if I screw up gluing the separate blades to the resin hubs provided in the Special Hobby kit. I intend to use the transparency for the wing, and had intended to use the torpedo as a spare, however I am having second thoughts about fitting the torpedo. It may be biting off a little more than I can deal with.

 

 

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Simon don't worry about 'disappointing' - I'm here for the sharing and help that I get and not to criticise!

Fitting the torpedo is pretty straightforward if you stick it in the bay. The only hard bit is the PE on the tail air rudder. I would give it a go and see how you get on; you always have the Airfix one if it doesn't work out.

You'll see in my thread that I bought a UMM PropMaster for the blades - a great buy but only if you're doing lots of short-run kits. I like mine, a lot!

 

Have fun with it - that's the main thing!

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Thanks CedB, plenty of time to reconsider the torpedo :-).

 

Made a start today.  I started with the navigator's table in the front of the nose. Forwarded by previous builds, I use daily the kit piece as a template so I could make a replacement from plastic card with a straight edge.

 

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Serious lumps that needed removing inside the fuselage half, nothing that snippers and some sanding couldn't deal with.

 

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Then in with the bench, along with some repurposed sprue as a support.

 

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In the background is the start of the cockpit.

 

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Attention then turned to the wheels, tail and wings. Wheels and tail parts were glued together quickly. Wings though, I first need to remove some plastic for the navigation lights and landing lights.

 

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Dry fit of the spare Airfix Beaufighter transparency looks pretty good, just a little fettling needed when I get to fit it.

 

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1 hour ago, rob85 said:

Lovely to see a Beaufort, AND it's 217.... AND it's from their time on Malta.... doesn't get much better!

 

i'll tag along if I may

 

Rob

 

Please do Rob 😊

 

50 minutes ago, CedB said:

Cunning use of the Beaufighter landing lights Simon, nice solution. Looking good! :) 

 

Thanks! 

 

Being a lazy Sunday afternoon, i have made some more progress today.

 

i has to get to grips with the resin. First off, made a bit of a hash removing the seat from the casting block.

 

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A bit of Mr Surfacer covered up that little transgression.

 

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Then the main instrument panel. Nice from the front, but on the back had some extra material that needed removing to be able to glue the navigator's panel in.

 

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Some swift work with a knife and all was good.

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The tail wheel "base" was easy to deal with, being a little more substantial and simple. Fitted in nicely.

 

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I drilled a little depression with my new pin vice (purchased for dealing with the nose armament later), for the joystick, and somehow managed not to break it removing it from the casting block before gluing it into place.

 

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In the packaging for the drill bit set I purchased with the pin vice was a nice transparent bit of plastic which will do nicely for gluing to the inside of the fuselage to prevent the windows falling through (as per @Navy Bird's build).

 

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Leaving the resin to one side for now I glued the wings and engine nacelles together. I am not used to limited run kits, so it was a bit weird not having any locating pins. However the plastic responded well to Tamiya thin cement and other than the normal amount of seam filling to be done they look pretty good.

 

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I tried a dry fit of one set of the engine cowls. Looks like I can glue them and slide over the engine with no trouble.

 

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Still not made my mind up about the torpedo, so I thought I would give it a go building it up. If it ends up looking ok, then I'll use it. First, glueing the main body together. Needed some convincing to stay together.

 

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1 minute ago, TheBaron said:

Now you need to choose a nice lamp for the nav's table so that we can see the map of Malta you'll doubtless have showing.:D

Tony

 

You guessed correctly Tony :-) have to find a decent map I can shrink to scale as well.

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10 minutes ago, SimonL said:

You guessed correctly Tony :-) have to find a decent map I can shrink to scale as well.

Any good?

http://www.123rf.com/photo_21557685_a-wwii-map-of-malta-used-my-raf-spitfire-pilots-as-means-of-navigation-when-on-their-way-to-the-isla.html

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Well done that man on the lamp - it's a tradition now...

Nice map Tony :) 

 

It looks like you've sorted the engines and cowlings too Simon - good job!

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No likes but...

 

very nice progress Simon, your a whizz at this stuff! I should buy this kit really... I say it every time someone builds it but still haven't.... I even have transfers for it!

 

Tony that's a great find on the map, it's got folds and everything!

 

Rob

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Thanks Rob for the vote of confidence. 😄

 

last thing for today - the propellers and the torpedo. It was a bit of a struggle, and the torpedo isn't up to close observation, but it will be ok hanging beneath the aircraft.

 

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6 hours ago, SimonL said:

d the torpedo. It was a bit of a struggle, and the torpedo isn't up to close observation, but it will be ok hanging beneath the aircraft.

Looks fine from here Simon. You're not hanging about! 

Tony

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a busy couple of weeks with the wind down to Christmas so only had time to do a little bit here and there.

 

Using @Navy Bird's build as a guide I had a go with messing with some plastic card in the cockpit area to give an impression of some internal detail.

 

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Pretty happy with the way it looks after the first coat of paint.

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Thats the only gluing I've done, the rest has been painting.

 

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