MattG

Please sign me up - any excuse to build a Hurricane! Matt

I've just picked up the ubiquitous Revell 1/72 "Memphis Belle" boxing and would love to join in if I may! Matt

Thanks Jeff! I totally agree, I'm also a big fan of the twins and have built quite a few relatively recently. I've been inspired by some of the ships on here though and may well give one a go soon!

My entry: an early Bristol Beaufighter TF.X from the 1/72 Airfix kit, featuring resin CMK cockpit and tailplanes, Eduard PE and paint masks, and generic RAF squadron codes and serials from Xtradecal and Kits World. More historical info and build thread here. Thanks so much to the hosts and fellow modellers who make this group build so much fun!

I've spent a bit more time getting this finished than expected this week, hence fewer posts, but I'm calling this one done. Firstly, I added the decals. Markings are from Xtradecals generic RAF Bomber Red codes and Kits World's generic RAF serials sheets - it was a character building experience cutting out the tiny serial numbers and individually and getting them in place but I managed to get them in a straight line! The specific aircraft I chose to represent was from the attack on the "Fortuna" in a German shipping convoy on 2nd August 1943 as I previously mentioned, led by Wg Cdr Neil Wheeler (later AVM Sir Neil Wheeler) flying LX865/MB-A. As I'm representing this aircraft as it was on its first operation, I've chosen to leave it in a "factory fresh" finish (a bit unusual for Beaufighters I know!). Interestingly I watched a fascinating presentation on WW2TV recently about RAF minelaying ops which showed that these were just as effective as the Beaufighter attacks but far less costly - but that's another story (and future build idea!). The undercarriage was a bit fiddly to get the various parts lined up properly but went together fine in the end. The fiddliest parts were probably the rockets, which seemed determined to lean at various precarious angles, but these now look like they are pointing vaguely straight ahead! The remaining parts mostly fell together. There were some issues getting the propeller assembly to slot into the engines, but with a bit of sanding these were persuaded to fit. Likewise the cockpit canopy needed a bit of sanding to fit nicely but once done it worked out well. And here's the finished aircraft: All in all this was quite an enjoyable build - a few fit issues here and there but nothing a bit of sanding couldn't sort out. I'll add some more pics to the gallery shortly! Matt

Hi everyone, Just a quick update this time. Here's the Beau again with paintwork complete. I used Colour Coats for all colours. Looks a bit different with the early-style disruptive camouflage pattern! I have also been working on the undercarriage. It was a bit fiddly to get the parts to align but it worked out in the end. I'll add the decals today then will give a more detailed update. Thanks for looking! Matt

Hi all, With the end of the group build looming it's about time I posted with some more progress! With the fuselage all closed up next tackled the engines. I've built a number of Airfix twins over the years and initially struggled to get the cowlings to align nicely without using half a tube of filler each time. The problem seems to be the very tight tolerances Airfix allows for in their parts design, meaning the engines almost invariably require a bit of sanding to fit inside the cowlings. This seems to be especially the case for the Beaufighter. My previous Airfix twin was a Blenheim, for which I decided rather than to assemble the engines and build the three cowling parts around them, I would do the opposite: build the cowlings first, then sand the engines to fit and slide them in. That's the approach I opted for here: Studying the instructions indicates that the engine "ring" sits behind the ridge in the cowlings. It took more sanding for the Beau than I remember doing for the Blenheim, but with a bit of effort the engines slotted in very neatly. I much prefer this method, it really cuts back on dealing with cracks later! Returning to the rest of the aircraft, I glued the wing halves, added a little filler where needed: Since then I have started the paintwork, more to come soon when this is done! In the meantime I'll start on the undercarriage. Thanks for looking! Matt

Hi everyone! It's great to see so many builds progressing well (or finished already), I haven't had a lot of time to log on in the past week so I have a lot of catching up to do! In the meantime though having done tiny bits here and there all of a sudden the Beau is coming along. Due to using a replacement cockpit, I changed the order of the instructions a bit. First I glued the cockpit floor to the starboard side, and then started adding the various parts from starboard to port. Starting with the heating pipe, seat and control column, all from the CMK cockpit set: Followed by the instrument panel (using photo-etch rudder pedals) and port side console. All went in very easily although I had to trim the front of the port console to fit underneath the instrument panel. Then I turned my attention to the observer's position. The Eduard PE instructions suggest to glue the top right corner of the observer's instruments to one of the fuselage sides. Knowing my building skills I had visions of this sitting not nicely horizontal at all but drooping at some precarious angle... A quick search showed that the observer had a shelf for his equipment, so I decided to fashion a shelf out of plastic sheet to mount these on. I then cut notches in the fuselage ribs to ensure this would sit perfectly horizontal, glued to the starboard side, and left to set with the fuselage sides taped together. The result: With everything set and some weathering (a few splotches of mud here and there, a touch of silver and a slight wash of darkened, thinned cockpit green in places) it was time to close up the fuselage. The rear glued together nicely, but I found the front quite difficult to align properly (builder error no doubt, rather than the kit) so a small amount of sanding and filling will be needed. Time to leave aside and set for a bit while I start looking at the wings and engines. Thanks for looking, and I hope to add more updates later this week.

Things have been starting to take shape across the weekend, so it's time for the first progress update. I've started in the cockpit (where else?), mainly dealing with the resin cockpit parts and a lot of sanding and test fitting. Here's the "before" photo showing the kit cockpit floor (quite bare, isn't it?). The four "pins" sticking out from the main spar are meant to be for the attachment of the pilot's seat. To the left is the CMK replacement. A bit of sanding later and the resin cockpit floor is ready to install. It just sits on top of the Airfix floor. Like this. It's now it's firmly glued in place - a very simple modification. Next, I started work on the fuselage sides which involved some more fiddly filing. The kit fuselage contains the vertical ribbing detail, but that's it - no longerons and no other detail such as the heating pipe. To fit the CMK sides I filed down the kit's detail and test fitted it. It looked OK but I decided to cut a notch at the top so I didn't have to trim away the kit's locating tabs. I hope this will ensure a nicely aligned fuselage joint. And finally, here's a test fit to show what it will look like when put together. Test fitting the fuselage sides indicates no problems either. So far. That's the weekend's progress for now. Next job will be to start adding the photo etch detail, finishing the painting and adding some subtle weathering. Thanks for looking, and see you for the next update during the week! Matt

Thanks Tony, I'm very happy to oblige! Glad to hear it, welcome along! Thanks Col, the research just adds to the fun! Great, I'm happy to show you how not to do it😉

Very nice work so far Maginot! Looks like a great kit.

Looks great so far, looks like a nice little kit!

Hello all, Time to get started on my first entry for this Group Build. This is one I've had in my stash for a while now: an Airfix 1/72 Beaufighter T.F.X. As the kit omits or simplifies some of the cockpit details (e.g. the very prominent heating pipe on the starboard side), I also purchased a CMK resin cockpit, and as I often do I'll also use Eduard photo-etch and paint masks. The aircraft I'm planning to build is an early T.F.X of the North Coates Strike Wing in August 1943. A quick history of the North Coates Wing in 1942 - 1943 The North Coates Strike Wing was formed in late 1942 and consisted of three squadrons - 143 Sqn with Blenheims but converting to Beaufighters, and 236 and 254 Sqns with a mix of Beaufighters Mk.Ic and VIc. The Wing's role was coastal reconnaissance and shipping strikes against convoys usually off the Netherlands. These convoys transported materials vital to the German armaments industry, such as high grade Swedish iron ore, to Rotterdam, where they would be sent up the Rhine to factories in the Ruhr. The Wing's first strike on 20 November 1942 didn't go to plan. The Wing set course for the target without its fighter escort, the two formations failing to rendezvous, and several of the Beaus detailed for anti-Flak duties lost contact with the formation in poor weather. The aircraft tried to press home an attack on a convoy off Texel but the Flak defences and escorting Fw190s of II./JG1 were waiting for them. In the confusion some Beaufighters were hampered by other friendly aircraft which got in their way and did not bomb, while three Beaufighters were shot down (including 236 Squadron's C.O., Wg Cdr Fraser) and seven badly damaged, two of which were written off on return. This was a poor return for one tug sunk and several vessels damaged. 236 Squadron's new Boss, Wg Cdr Neil Wheeler, along with Wg Cdr R. E, X. Mack of 254 Sqn (replaced by Sqn Ldr G. D. Sise when Mack was killed) and Wg Cdr W. O. V. Bennett of 143 Sqn, energetically set about devising new tactics so that the earlier debacle would not happen again, and the Wing entered a period of intense training interspersed with search and coastal reconnaissance duties. In April 1943 the hard work paid off when the Wing attacked a heavily escorted convoy off the Dutch coast. As the Beaufighters attacked the Flak ships with bombs, machine guns and cannon, the "Torbeaus" swept in at low level and aimed their torpedoes at the largest merchant vessel, the 4,906 tonne Norwegian cargo vessel Hoegh Carrier. In an attack lasting just four minutes the Hoegh Carrier and her cargo of coal was sent to the bottom, two M-class minesweepers were set on fire and an armed trawler was damaged. Only two aircraft were hit. More successes followed throughout 1943 as the Wing continued to press home their attacks with cannon, torpedoes and for the first time rockets. The Germans soon started sending some convoys by night, rendering them more vulnerable to the Royal Navy's Nore Flotilla and to mines dropped by Bomber Command. The combined result forced the Germans route many more convoys to Emden not Rotterdam. This was a far less efficient journey to factories in the Ruhr due to canal locks and limitations of barge sizes on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, as opposed to the Rhine from Rotterdam where larger barges could move freely up the river. The first shipping strike using new Beaufighter T.F.Xs occurred on 2nd August 1943, and in a "copybook" attack the Wing's 24 aircraft targeted escort vessels with rockets before the Torbeaus struck the merchant vessel Fortuna, which reportedly sank in only 30 seconds along with her cargo of iron ore. It's an aircraft from this last raid I'm planning to build, and as an early T.F.X will be in the (very attractive in my opinion) Temperate Sea Scheme - not that I dislike the later scheme! Enough of my ramblings for now, I'll be back soon with more on the exact subject of this build and some progress! Matt Bibliography: RAF Operations Record Books AIR 27/1447 (236 Sqn), AIR 27/978 (143 Sqn), AIR 27/1515 (254 Sqn) The Strike Wings - Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-5; Nesbit, Roy Conyers; https://www.bcar.org.uk/north-coates-history.php

This looks fun, I'll join up too! My entry will be an Eduard 1/72 Fw190A - I'm thinking maybe I'll do it as a JG1 aircraft from around the time of Operation Oyster (December 1942) which will tie in nicely with the Mossie I'm planning for another GB! Matt

One of my new year's resolutions was to get stuck into a group build or three (it's been a while). I have a 1/72 Airfix Beaufighter T.F.X in the stash for starters. Can't wait to get stuck in! Matt