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My Telford Beaufighter


Kyrre

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I so wanted to build a Beau for the Telford contest and started the Hasegawa kit towards the end of October. After an evening's painting and assembly I realised I was way too busy to finish anything - and put it aside.

Well, last monday I found out I just haaad to bring something new to Telford and picked up the kit again. Got it primed in the morning then in a couple of hours through the day I got the paint on. Mostly Xtracrylic paint in several layers. NV175 was most likely a converted thimble nose Beau and therefore it would have had distinctly darker fin fillet, strike camera fairing and thimble nose. In addition to the various blotches of fresh paint so common on Coastal Command aircraft.

Tuesday evening was spent decaling with some decals from the kits, some from various sheets and the lettering from a 1:48 Phantasy Printshop 30 inch sheet. The letters were too wide so they were pinched by cutting them vertically in two and then I slid the two halves closer to one another once on the model. No measuring, just Eyeball Mk I. The I suffix was used by 489 Sqn to denote thimble nose machines.

Wednesday I only got a few things done while my wife opened a bottle of red wine, so the Thursday evening was spent getting the wheels and various fixtures in place.

Friday I was off for Telford with the model packed up with blue tac in a sallad bowl. Forgot the instructions on the kitchen bench so I had to get an SK-class approval by Martin the Secretary. Pleased to say I got a Commended for my efforts. 10 hours work I'd say. And the third 1:72 Beaufighter finished for the collection.

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Thanks guys,

Did this particular a/c see in action over Norway?

I haven't gone through all my refs on the Beau but I should think that this one saw action along with all of the others. Whether it actually flew with a torpedo in Norway is more uncertain, while many times on the Norwegian coast 489 Sqn would act as escort/flak suppression seeing as they never flew with rockets.

I'll be adding a frangible stabilizing wing for the torpedo now that I'm done with the contest. SK class meant I couldn't add anything but seatbelts and antennae.

K

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Hey hey hey. As you know, we have had several discussions about Dallachy, Kyrre. My sources say that 489 Sqn (and 144 Sqn) was converting from torpedos to rockets at the time of Black Friday. I am not sure when the "thimble and spine" Beaus came into service, but I would think they were pretty late.

Do you have a time period for the model?

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Thanks all

Hey hey hey. As you know, we have had several discussions about Dallachy, Kyrre. My sources say that 489 Sqn (and 144 Sqn) was converting from torpedos to rockets at the time of Black Friday. I am not sure when the "thimble and spine" Beaus came into service, but I would think they were pretty late.

Do you have a time period for the model?

Yup. We're talking late late late war '45, april/may '45. A well known pic (shown under) of 489 Sqn Beaus show these machines with torpedos on May 5 '45. It was only 144 Sqn that converted to rockets. In addition one of my refs, can't remember which, claim that two 489 Sqn Beaus were on a twin ship "rover" with torpedos along the Norwegian coastline in IIRC March or April '45.

To my knowledge 489 and 254 Sqns never converted to rockets. Three pics to prove it, though disregards the captions/pic titles, they're not correct.

489sqnatLangham-june-45.jpg

post-5967-1136528549.jpg

Notice lack of rocket rails on this 254 sqn machine as well

QMF.jpg

Edit: Another thing about thimbles. According to Bevan Davidson, whose father (or was it uncle) served with 489 Sqn, said that the first thimbles arrived in February. This fits in with the one of the 404 Sqn Beaus shot down on Feb 9, marked EO*Q1, serialled RD*** (Don't have refs at hand, have to return to social life)

K

Edited by Kyrre
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Thanks for clearing that up Kyrre. It will be useful for "you know what".... My understanding was that the location of many targets at that stage in the was led to the use of the torpedo being phased out, hence the conversion to rockets. The lack of rails could be that they were simply flak suppression, cannon armed machines. Any thoughts on that?

Did you notice the fin flash style on P6-L1?

I am NO Beaufighter expert but werent the collectors on the cowliings copper or bronze??

Check the pics Mike. Most Beaus has the rings painted dark grey, almost black. I feel it was some form of heat resistant paint, which weathered rather badly.

Edited by Len Thomson
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Check the pics Mike. Most Beaus has the rings painted dark grey, almost black. I feel it was some form of heat resistant paint, which weathered rather badly.

Indeed. And this pic will certainly bug you, Mike.

1beaulz293blackandwhite.jpg

Light grey (?) paint on this one

BeaufighterMustang150dpi.jpg

and on this you see the paint chipping off. It's probably burnt copper underneath.

Beau-X-236-sqn-NT950-MB-Tover.jpg

As for cannon/gun armament I agree wholeheartedly, Len. It seems this was the norm throughout the Dallachy period. 489 (and rocketless 235/248 sqn mossies) would tag along on raids along the coast, but would only be armed with guns for flak suppression. It seems they stopped using bombs after the D-day period at Langham, though I have no definite dates when they removed the bomb rails.

As for the fin flash style it was used on some machine, possibly quite a few, but definitely on all. It seems the white stripe follows the rudder hinge line.

(Edit: Just noticed that the fin flash is not askew on P6-L1. But I wonder if the broad white stripe is simply a typical effect seen in many black and white photographs. The white ring in the C-roundel will very often seem too wide as well.)

beau-PL-T-maybe-NE164-1000p.jpg

Edited by Kyrre
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10 hours work?? What the flippin 'eck do your models look like when you spend some time on them??!! That's a really nice build, well deserving of a commended, if not more! :)

Thanks for a great reference thread too! I wish Hase would re-release the Beaus - I searched high & low in Telford & couldn't find one (& been watching e-bay for months & there hasn't even been one on there!). I bet someone will now say there was a stand at SMW with dozens of them........!! :rolleyes:

Great model Kyrre

Keef

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Beautious Beau Kyrre, after seeing what you can do with a camera; I truly believe you could turn a sow's ear into a bloody silk purse. I guess for you there is no such thing as a bad subject, when it comes to photography that is. Very nice work both model and piccie :D;) .

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Cheers all.

As for Beaufighters at Telford there was apparently one for sale - for a short while. I have a stash of about 7 left so I'm not in a rush to buy any new ones. Having said that they're some of the best kits Hasegawa has released - especially the ones with the white metal exhausts. Having scratchbuilt two sets of exhausts before I know what a pain in the bottom they are to do. These days you can get lovely Quickboost sets as well.

Keef,

If I spend too much time on a model I lose interest. So it's vital for me to have a deadline in the form of an article submission or a contest. Otherwise they normally end up in the hall of shame. And believe me, we're talking a hall here...

Getting close to the date I tend to get very organized in my head and just open tin after tin of paint so I can get it all done with as little effort as possible. Of course doing most paintjobs with acrylics help. It also helps to have gotten rid of most of my AMS when it comes to certain subjects. I'm all for the "if it looks right it is right" way of thinking.

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