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Bristol Beaufort Mk.IA with RAF Pilots (48313) 1:48 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd The Beaufort was originally designed as a torpedo bomber by Bristol, using the experience they had gained in developing the then-excellent Blenheim. They were ready in time for the outbreak of WWII, and as well as their prescribed role, they were also used as light bombers, undertaking many ‘Rhubarb’ missions over enemy territory in the so-called ‘phony war’, embarking on daylight missions that saw heavy casualties, although the accidental loss tally outstripped combat losses, surprisingly. Roughly 1,200 were built in the UK, with the total being elevated to almost 2,000 by additional Australian-built airframes that were known as DAP Beauforts. They were rapidly overhauled by the German fighters and were withdrawn from frontline service as early as 1942, by which time they had also been tasked with Aerial mine-laying. From then on, they were assigned to serve away from the front, and saw extensive use as a trainer, which might go at least some of the way to explain the high attrition rate due to accidents. The Mk.IA had an improved turret fitted at the rear of the crew compartment spine, that was notable because it was more square in profile, and torpedo bombers were fitted with early ASV radars, the antennae for which were mounted on the leading edges of the wings. A further development of the Beaufort was the Beaufighter, which used important components of the Beaufort that included the wings and engines, with a new cut-down fuselage that was comparatively low and streamlined, with a powerful cannon armament under the nose that was useful in its assigned duties as long-distance heavy fighter, and later nightfighter, where it excelled. Some obsolete Beauforts were even converted to Beaufighters to make further use of the shared parts, which gave many of the original airframes a more honourable end than they would otherwise have seen. In an attempt to improve on the original Mk.I that took up the majority of production, the designers created additional variants that used other engines, had faired over turrets when they were to be used as trainers, and even a project that saw the fitment of a pair of Merlin XX engine that didn’t achieve the desired effect, so was cancelled, in much the same manner as the Merlin powered Beaufighter that managed to be “underpowered” despite the pedigree of the engines that propelled it. The Kit A lot of modellers that build in 1:48 were waiting with baited breath for this new tooling from ICM, and now it has been with us for some time, with a few boxings already on the shelves now. This new issue includes a sprue of crew figures, torpedo and trolley to sweeten the deal, and it arrives in a reasonable-sized top-opening box with their usual captive lid on the lower tray. Inside are nine sprues in mid-grey styrene, a large clear sprue, decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet that has colour profiles on the rear pages. Opening the resealable bags reveals the detail that has been lavished on this kit that includes lots of internal ribbing, a set of ribbed flap bays and flaps, a representation of both banks of the Bristol Taurus engines, detailed gear bays and bay doors, and a torpedo to complete the package. Construction begins with a narrow torpedo bay under the fuselage that is glued to a section of the aft floor, then detailed with ribs, flipped over and joined to a bulkhead that has a doorway cut in it, then has a chute made up on one side before it is attached to the rest of the interior floor, which is initially free of detail, apart from underneath, where it has bomb shackles moulded-in, and a semi-cylindrical bay toward the front of the fuselage, which will allow the torpedo to nestle into the fuselage part way. The starboard fuselage half has an insert fitted into the wing-root depression to match the crisp moulded ribbing that is all over the interior as far back as the trailing edge of the wings, and extends into the tail-wheel bay. The side windows are inserted from inside, swapping the rear one out for an opaque cover if appropriate, then the floor is mated on several slots into the fuselage sides ready for the twin spars and a good quantity of detail. The forward spar is detailed with four parts to depict the radio gear with a plotting table below it, and on the other side a section of fairing is fixed, then the assembly is glued into its slot, joining the bottom of the spar with the fuselage blank. The cockpit is a two-tier assembly that is started by joining the two halves of the side console together, adding a raised floor panel, the instrument panel with five dial decals and rudder pedals, a short half-bulkhead and the swivelling front seat. Another simple seat is made up and glued to the rear spar along with another step-like fairing, and it too is slipped into the rear slot in the fuselage and glued in place. The pilot’s seat is made up from two parts and has a bow-tie control column placed in front of it, while to the rear, an Elsan toilet is dropped onto a raised plinth in the rear fuselage floor. The tail wheel bay is made up from ceiling with two small bulkhead ends, and it is glued into the very rear, which already has ribbing moulded into the sides. The tail-wheel and strut is a single part than inserts in the bay ceiling on a peg, so can be left off until after main painting. The port fuselage half is prepared in a similar manner to the starboard, save for the optional rear window, and a 0.9mm hole that is drilled in the ceiling. Just before closing the fuselage, another detail part is fixed to the bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat, with more glued into the nose, which might be better added before you paint the cockpit. The main canopy is glued over the cockpit aperture, and the nose is glazed by four additional clear parts, and a choice of port-side aft door with a circular porthole or gun port fitted over the hole in the fuselage, which can have a Lewis machine-gun with dinner plate magazine on a spar across the opening. If you are installing the gun, the clamshell door part should be left off. The Beaufort had mid-mounted wings, so each one is separate, and made from two halves. The port wing has a small landing light bay inserted before it is closed, and a small dome is removed from the leading edge, then the clear glazing is inserted once the glue has set up. A clear wingtip is fitted, and a one-piece aileron is added and able to be offset if you feel the urge. You also must make a choice whether to fit the wing surface over the inner flaps with a trio of strakes in a nacelle extension, or a straight section with curved root fairing. The same process is carried out minus the landing light bay on the starboard wing, then both wings are slotted over the two spars that have corresponding guides moulded into the inside of the wings to ensure good location. The elevator fins are each two parts and are mounted in the usual slot/tab method, to be joined by one-piece elevators and rudder, which the latter having a pair of horns near the hinge. Two flap sections are added to each wing’s underside, then the two nacelles are made up from halves along with a bulkhead near the front, and another that is glued into the wing before the nacelles are put in place. The roof of the bay is free of any detail, and is the location that the twin strut gear legs and their actuators are fixed once they are built up. The main wheels are each two halves, and they flex-fit into the lower section of the main leg, which has a curved tubular framework added to the top section, probably to assist with the smooth opening and closing of the door bays. The lower section of the main gear forms a twin triangular framework that is linked by several cross-members before the lower section is glued into the sockets in the upper section, and has another pair of actuators added at the rear to brace the top section. Both assemblies are inserted into the bays on each level of the ceiling, then the twin bay doors with their ribbed inners are added to the sides of the bays on hinge tabs. At the same time, the bomb bay has a small insert attached to the front bulkhead to add detail to the area. Each Taurus radial engine is formed from two well-detailed banks of cylinders with a circular collector ring attached to the centre by three stators, plus a complex system of tubes installed around the circumference in between the cylinders, and another at the rear of the engine that has a square peg at the back for fixing them to the wing through the cooling flaps at the rear of the cowlings. Two holes on the top of the nacelle receive a different two-part intake, then the cowling is wrapped around the engine, comprising two halves and a pair of curved exhausts for each engine. She’s looking very much like a Beaufort now, but needs some defensive armament in addition to the optional Lewis gun in the side. The new mid-upper turret is mounted in the back of the cockpit “hump”, and is built upon a separate section of the fuselage with a circular base that receives the guns’ mount and gunner’s bicycle-style seat below the lip, gluing most of the turret into position along with a fairing lip around the end, then deciding whether to mount the clear glazing in the top of the nose, or the alternative that mounts another two Lewis guns in the nose. The bomb/torpedo bay forms a cruciform shape when viewed from below, as it was lengthened to accept the torpedo, and has the mount fitted into the wider centre section, and if not carrying a torpedo, two inserts close off the bomb bay from its two narrower sections. The bay doors are in three sections, the narrower front and rear sections having one door per side, while the wider bomb bay section has two doors each side that fold together, minimising the aerodynamic drag, as well as fitting in the space below the aircraft when on the ground. If you plan on posing all the bay doors closed, there are three additional conjoined parts to ease your path, which is always nice to see. The torpedo has been seen in a separate box before, and its build is covered on the last page of instruction steps, making it up from two halves, adding a three-part H-tail with twin spinners, and another spinner-plus-spacer at the business end. There are also five steps to create a trolley for moving your Torp about and loading it onto the Beaufort on rising scissor-links if you want to add a bit of diorama appeal to your model. The torpedo is mounted with all bay doors open, and glues onto a long curved rectangular frame in the centre of the bomb bay. While the model is inverted, the underslung nose turret can be built from three parts for the gun and two-part dome, or a blanking plate is fitted over the aperture. A pitot is also mounted under the nose, a towel-rail antenna under the fuselage, and three small outlets are mounted on the wings and just behind the bomb bay. Back on its wheels, the cockpit hump is detailed with two more antennae, and another either flush with the roof in a typical D/F loop fairing. The radar antennae are reminiscent of TV aerials, formed from a main antenna with several dipoles perpendicular, one under each wing, mounted on two brackets that fit into holes drilled in the wings earlier, and another offset under the nose on a single post. These are most definitely best left of until the very end so that they survive without damage. Figures This set has been sculpted to coincide with the recent launch of ICM’s own Beaufort, and arrives in a medium-sized, top-opening box with ICM’s trademark captive flap on the lower tray. There is a single sprue in grey styrene and an instruction sheet within, containing parts for five figures, consisting of three aircrew and two mechanics. As usual with ICM figures, the sculpting is first-rate, and parts breakdown as well as seamlines are sensibly placed to ease clean-up and construction. The aircrew are all wearing WWII period RAF blue uniforms with leather flying jackets and two are wearing Mae West life jackets over the top. The captain is wearing a flat-topped cap and carrying what looks like a log-book in his right hand, while his left hand rests in his jacket pocket. The other two crew are walking with their hands to their sides, carrying a parachute pack or leather flight helmet in one hand, and the parachute carrier is also still wearing his harness. The ’erks are wearing dark blue overalls, one in long boots is standing with his hands about to rest on what is shown to be a torpedo on the box art, while the other gentleman in short boots is kneeling, ministering to a trolley wheel on the art. Both their overalls have the word “TORP” written on the panel on their blacks, with a white square below left, denoting their specialisation, presumably so they can be tasked with jobs appropriate to their skillsets from a distance. As usual with ICM figure sets, the instructions include drawings in full colour that have the part numbers and colour codes called out in black text and red boxed text respectively, the latter cross-referring to the paint table on the opposite side of the sheet, which gives colour codes for ICM’s paint system as well as colour names in Ukrainian and English printed over a swatch of the colour itself. There is also an ICM paint set for RAF Pilots numbered #3033 that is available from Hannants if you’re in the market. It’s on our mega-review of the ICM Acrylic Paint Sets here, but you’ll need to do a little scrolling, where you’ll also pass #3018, which is another set to help you paint the Beaufort itself. Markings ICM have begun to include templates for masking material with each of their new kits, which can be found just in front of the colour profiles for you to place tape over, cut around and apply to your model, thanks to drawings above that indicate what goes where. There are four decal options included on the sheet in a variety of schemes. From the box you can build one of the following: DD959 Q, No.217 Sqn., Malta, 1942 L9965 T, Mediterranean Sea region, 1942 DX157, presumably Indian Ocean region, Spring 1944 EK979, RAF Training Unit, Bilbais, Egypt, 1944 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and include dials for the instrument panels, with good register, sharpness, and solid colours. As is common now with ICM kits, there is a page of the instruction booklet devoted to the masking of the canopy, using the printed shapes on the bottom of the page and the diagrams above to allow you to create your own masks if you wish. It goes up to 64 thanks to the copious glazing of the Beaufort. We already mentioned the ICM acrylic paint set intended to assist with painting the exterior of your Beaufort, which is set #3018, the details of which you can find in our Mega-Review here. Conclusion I was looking forward to the initial release, and this rebox with new parts and figures is great news, adding extra value to the kit, including a torpedo and trolley into the bargain. It’s another Beaufort in my preferred scale, there’s plenty of detail, and a good choice of decal options. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Fieseler Fi.167 Over the Balkans (AZ7845) 1:72 AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov While Germany still harboured the desire to be a major naval power that could rival the British Royal Navy, they began a huge expansion of their Kriegsmarine that included gigantic battleships such as the Bismark and her sister ship Tirpitz, and their first aircraft carrier, named DKM Graf Zeppelin. They needed aircraft to fly from their carrier(s), so a development of the Bf.109 and the Ju.87 Stuka were commissioned in preparation. A torpedo bomber was also part of the requirement, and the specification was issued for a full metal biplane that could fulfil the need, as well as being capable of dive-bombing. In a competition with Arado, the Fieseler design won the day, and a prototype was ordered, followed by some pre-series production airframes for assessment and flight testing. It turned out to more than meet the requirements set down, being able to 100% carry more weapons than the specification, and was also a pleasant aircraft to fly, with an impressive short-field performance that was a distinct advantage on an aircraft carrier with limited deck space. In fact, during testing one aircraft descended from 300m without moving forward from a point on the ground that was indicated for reference. When the Graf Zeppelin was cancelled and later reinstated, Fi.167 production was stopped soon after it started, and then was cancelled altogether when it was decided that the Stuka could carry out the dive-bombing task, and a torpedo bomber was no longer needed. Nine airframes were transferred into Luftwaffe service and sent to the coast of the Netherlands for trials. Upon their return they were sold to Croatia, who used their short-field abilities and load-carrying excellence to supply their troops, who were often fighting in difficult positions where traditional methods of supply wouldn’t work. On one such mission, the pilot of an Fi.167 was killed by a round from a trio of British Mustangs, but not before the gunner had claimed one of the Mustangs prior to bailing out. The aircraft subsequently crashed, and the fate of the rest of the nine was similar, with none surviving the post-war period. The Kit This is one of four boxings of a new tooling from AZ Model, and arrives in an end-opening boxing with a painting of the afore-mentioned incident on the front and the three decal options on the rear of the box. Inside the box are two sprues of grey styrene, a clear part in its own Ziploc bag, a colourful sheet of decals, and the instruction sheet, which is a folded A4 sheet printed in colour on both sides. Detail is good, including engraved panel lines, rippled fabric effect on the flying surfaces, plus raised and recessed details throughout the model. Construction begins with the cockpit floor, which is detailed with two seats, control column, mount for the gunner’s weapon, and a bulkhead between the two crew. The instrument panel is inserted into the starboard fuselage half, and a painting diagram is provided for the pilot’s panel and the gunner’s panel that is moulded into the back of the bulkhead. With the fuselage closed and the seams dealt with, the exhaust are added and the full-span lower wing is joined to the bottom of the fuselage, and the elevators are plugged into slots either side of the moulded-in tail fin. Inverting the model, the landing gear spats are installed, and these have moulded-in wheels, and the real struts could be jettisoned in the event of a water landing, reducing the chances of the aircraft cartwheeling when it touched down. An intake is fixed under the chin with a representation of the cooling surface glued inside, and a centreline pylon with separate sway-braces is glued between the landing gear, which has a pair of support struts fitted. The upper wing is also full-span, and mounts to the model via two N-shaped struts per wing, and another pair of N-shaped cabane struts that locate in recesses on the fuselage sides. A small diagram shows the bracing wires in simplified detail, but this is best viewed in association with the box art, which shows that they are double-strung, and there are also twin wires linking the ailerons together behind one of the struts. Another pair of supports are fitted to the tail fin and elevators, with a scrap diagram showing how they should look from behind. The tail-wheel has a V-shaped arrestor hook in front of it, and the four-part torpedo on the centre pylon if you feel the urge to portray a test aircraft or a what-if option instead of the decal options. The prop consists of a back-plate to which the individual blades are attached, to be covered by the spinner, with a drive-shaft fitted to the rear to insert into the front of the fuselage. An aerial is mounted near the leading edge of the upper wing, with an aerial wire joining it to the tail fin. The machine gun with dual drum magazines are fitted to the rear of the cockpit cut-out before the canopy is glued in place, which is moulded as a single part with the rear section tipped up in preparation for action. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, and they are all sufficiently different to have a broad appeal to many. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion I’m a little jealous that I can’t have one of these in 1:48, but it’s a nice model of a very rare aircraft that saw some unusual service toward the end of the war and beyond, changing hands in between times. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Fairey Barracuda Airframe Album #19 ISBN: 9781912932344 Valiant Wings Publishing The Fairey Barracuda was the first monoplane torpedo/dive bomber in service with British Forces, designed to replace its Fairey stablemates, the Swordfish and the Albacore, the latter having the ignominious distinction of being declared obsolete before it even reached service. Although substantially more modern than those that it was intended to replace, the ungainly Barracuda had a mixed service career, partly due to teething problems that involved choice of engine and aerodynamic issues, particularly with the disturbance of airflow over its tail. It achieved some fame for the part it played in the successful attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1944, but when deployed to the Pacific theatre, the elevated temperatures and higher altitude requirements were not a good match for the Barracuda's abilities, despite it being powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, just not a very powerful one that lacked a two-stage Supercharger that would have given it more power at altitude. The reduction in range and issues with altitude led to their replacement with Grumman Avengers in the Pacific before very long. The Mark.I was almost a working prototype for the line, and fewer than 30 were made before one airframe was improved and converted to Mark.II standard, which was the most numerous of the five variants. The Mk.III was outfitted with a radome under the fuselage, but was essentially the same aircraft as the Mk.II, while the substantially different Mk.IV turned out to be a dead-end, some of its technology surviving into another dead-end project. The final Mark, the Mk.V was fitted with the more powerful Griffon engine of various types with limited success, much of which was curtailed by the rapid drawdown of FAA forces at the end of WWII. It was intended for service in the Pacific with longer wings, more power and fuel stowage amongst other improvements, but the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan ended hostilities, so the type never saw active service. Although 2,500 or more Barracudas rolled off the production line by the end of the War, none survive intact today, partly due to the speed that they were disposed of, the last disposed in the very early 50s before nostalgia set in. To fill this gap in our aviation heritage, the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton is slowly rebuilding an example from recovered wreckage and parts, so there is hope for fans of this rather interesting aircraft. The Book The nineteenth volume of the popular and interesting Airframe Album series by Richard A Franks details this carrier-borne aircraft, its variants, and misguided or amendments to it that didn’t reach service for one reason or another. It spans 128 pages and is perfect bound in an A4(ish) portrait format. If you are familiar with the series you will know what to expect, with the book broken down into sections, as follows: Introduction Preface Production The Mk.II The Mk.III The Mk.IV The Mk.V Operational Service Fleet Air Arm Squadrons Tirpitz Post-War Service Foreign Service France The Netherlands Technical Description Engine Fuselage Tail Wings Undercarriage Armament Electrical Equipment Miscellaneous Evolution Prototypes Production Camouflage & Markings Prototypes Production Camouflage Home-Based Unit Markings Carrier-Based Unit Markings East Indies & Pacific Post-War Changes Unique Camouflage & Markings Stencil Marking Details by Richard Caruana Foreign Service France The Netherlands Barracuda Mk.II Pacific Fleet 1:72 Special Hobby build by Libor Jekl The Barracuda in Scale 1:72 Plans Appendices Appendix I – Kits Appendix II – Accessories Appendix III – Bibliography As usual with Valiant Wings' books, the pictures are both high quality and some are unusual, with lots of "behind the scenes" shots of production, testing and in-service airframes as well as a few of aircraft that were cast off and unloved after years of service, some fully wrapped and in deep storage, just in case they are needed. I always find the 3D Isometrics by Juraj Janwokic very interesting to quickly discern the differences between variants, especially as I have the memory of a goldfish. In the Barracuda’s case, the changes between marks were fairly modest from an outward perspective, until the Griffon engine comes on-stream, giving the aircraft a longer nose and more streamlined appearance. The only hint of weirdness, other than the general Barracuda-ness, is the Lifeboat carrier variant that would have been allocated to Search and Rescue duties, although that option is pipped at the post by the “Cuda-Floats” that were intended to carry two hapless paratroopers under each wing. There are a host of drawings, official photos and diagrams to whet your appetite for detailing too, and the author has gone to great lengths to include many, many of them to help educate and entertain. There are very few colour photos of airframes in service due to the sudden falling out of use that the type suffered before colour photography became common. Apart from the attempt by the conservators at Yeovilton to recreate an airframe from debris and wreckage that has yet to reach fruition, there are no preserved aircraft, which is a common fate for many British types that don’t reach prominence for some reason or other. The few airframes operated by France and the Netherlands were short-lived, resulting in little variation in schemes, whilst the exclusive usage by the British during WWII wasn’t conducive to a wide variety of schemes, although there were a few more unusual schemes that are documented in the book. Libor Jekl’s build of the 1:72 scale kit is excellent as usual, and should assist anyone with the 1:48 kit when they come to tackle their model, as those two are the only meaningful game in town at time of writing, although there is another 1:72 kit that was tooled many years ago. Conclusion Valiant Wings publish good books about interesting subjects, and this is yet another one that piqued my interest right away. I’ll freely admit to not being an expert on the Barracuda, despite having the 1:48 Special Hobby kit in my stash, but this book should help increase the breadth of my knowledge, albeit temporarily until I forget. If you're a modeller, aviation buff or even just interested in engineering, this will make an interesting read, which you'll come back to again when you need it for references. More regularly, if you’re a goldfish like me. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bristol Beaufort Mk.IA w/Tropical Filters (48311) 1:48 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd The Beaufort was originally designed as a torpedo bomber by Bristol, using the experience they had gained in developing the then-excellent Blenheim. They were ready in time for the outbreak of WWII, and as well as their prescribed role, they were also used as light bombers, undertaking many ‘Rhubarb’ missions over enemy territory in the so-called ‘phony war’, embarking on daylight missions that saw heavy casualties, although the accidental loss tally outstripped combat losses, surprisingly. Roughly 1,200 were built in the UK, with the total being elevated to almost 2,000 by additional Australian-built airframes that were known as DAP Beauforts. They were rapidly overhauled by the German fighters and were withdrawn from frontline service as early as 1942, by which time they had also been tasked with Aerial mine-laying. From then on, they were assigned to serve away from the front, and saw extensive use as a trainer, which might go at least some of the way to explain the high attrition rate due to accidents. The Mk.IA had an improved turret fitted at the rear of the crew compartment spine, that was notable because it was more square in profile, and torpedo bombers were fitted with early ASV radars , the antennae for which were mounted on the leading edges of the wings. A further development of the Beaufort was the Beaufighter, which used important components of the Beaufort that included the wings and engines, with a new cut-down fuselage that was comparatively low and streamlined, with a powerful cannon armament under the nose that was useful in its assigned duties as long-distance heavy fighter, and later nightfighter, where it excelled. Some obsolete Beauforts were even converted to Beaufighters to make further use of the shared parts, which gave many of the original airframes a more honourable end than they would otherwise have seen. In an attempt to improve on the original Mk.I that took up the majority of production, the designers created additional variants that used other engines, had faired over turrets when they were to be used as trainers, and even a project that saw the fitment of a pair of Merlin XX engine that didn’t achieve the desired effect, so was cancelled, in much the same manner as the Merlin powered Beaufighter that managed to be “underpowered” despite the pedigree of the engines that propelled it. The Kit A lot of modellers that build in 1:48 have been waiting with baited breath for this new tooling from ICM, and now it is with us, despite the horrible circumstances that besets the Ukrainian people at the time of writing. This initial boxing rightly covers the Mk.I torpedo bomber, and there is another boxing on the way with a tropicalised engine fit that should arrive pretty soon. This new issue arrives in a reasonable-sized top-opening box with their usual captive lid on the lower tray. Inside are eight sprues in mid-grey styrene, a large clear sprue, decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet that has colour profiles on the rear pages. Opening the resealable bags reveals the detail that has been lavished on this kit that includes lots of internal ribbing, a set of ribbed flap bays and flaps, a representation of both banks of the Bristol Taurus engines, detailed gear bays and bay doors, and a torpedo to complete the package. Construction begins with a narrow torpedo bay under the fuselage that is glued to a section of the aft floor, then detailed with ribs, flipped over and joined to a bulkhead that has a doorway cut in it, then has a chute made up on one side before it is attached to the rest of the interior floor, which is initially free of detail, apart from underneath, where it has bomb shackles moulded-in, and a semi-cylindrical bay toward the front of the fuselage, which will allow the torpedo to nestle into the fuselage part way. The starboard fuselage half has an insert fitted into the wing-root depression to match the crisp moulded ribbing that is all over the interior as far back as the trailing edge of the wings, and extends into the tail-wheel bay. The side windows are inserted from inside, swapping the rear one out for an opaque cover if appropriate, then the floor is mated on several slots into the fuselage sides ready for the twin spars and a good quantity of detail. The forward spar is detailed with four parts to depict the radio gear with a plotting table below it, and on the other side a section of fairing is fixed, then the assembly is glued into its slot, joining the bottom of the spar with the fuselage blank. The cockpit is a two-tier assembly that is started by joining the two halves of the side console together, adding a raised floor panel, the instrument panel with five dial decals and rudder pedals, a short half-bulkhead and the swivelling front seat. Another simple seat is made up and glued to the rear spar along with another step-like fairing, and it too is slipped into the rear slot in the fuselage and glued in place. The pilot’s seat is made up from two parts and has a bow-tie control column placed in front of it, while to the rear, an Elsan toilet is dropped onto a raised plinth in the rear fuselage floor. The tail wheel bay is made up from ceiling with two small bulkhead ends, and it is glued into the very rear, which already has ribbing moulded into the sides. The tail-wheel and strut is a single part than inserts in the bay ceiling on a peg, so can be left off until after main painting. The port fuselage half is prepared in a similar manner to the starboard, save for the optional rear window, and a 0.9mm hole that is drilled in the ceiling. Just before closing up the fuselage, another detail part is fixed to the bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat, with more glued into the nose, which might be better added before you paint the cockpit. The main canopy is glued over the cockpit aperture, and the nose is glazed by four additional clear parts, and a choice of port-side aft door with a circular porthole or gun port fitted over the hole in the fuselage, which can have a Lewis machine-gun with dinner plate magazine on a spar across the opening. If you are installing the gun, the clamshell door part should be left off. The Beaufort had mid-mounted wings, so each one is separate, and made from two halves. The port wing has a small landing light bay inserted before it is closed, and a small dome is removed from the leading edge, then the clear glazing is inserted once the glue has set up. A clear wingtip is fitted, and a one-piece aileron is added and able to be offset if you feel the urge. You also must make a choice whether to fit the wing surface over the inner flaps with a trio of strakes in a nacelle extension, or a straight section with curved root fairing. The same process is carried out minus the landing light bay on the starboard wing, then both wings are slotted over the two spars that have corresponding guides moulded into the inside of the wings to ensure good location. The elevator fins are each two parts and are mounted in the usual slot/tab method, to be joined by one-piece elevators and rudder, which the latter having a pair of horns near the hinge. Two flap sections are added to each wing’s underside, then the two nacelles are made up from halves along with a bulkhead near the front, and another that is glued into the wing before the nacelles are put in place. The roof of the bay is free of any detail, and is the location that the twin strut gear legs and their actuators are fixed once they are built up. The main wheels are each two halves, and they flex-fit into the lower section of the main leg, which has a curved tubular framework added to the top section, probably to assist with the smooth opening and closing of the door bays. The lower section of the main gear forms a twin triangular framework that is linked by several cross-members before the lower section is glued into the sockets in the upper section, and has another pair of actuators added at the rear to brace the top section. Both assemblies are inserted into the bays on each level of the ceiling, then the twin bay doors with their ribbed inners are added to the sides of the bays on hinge tabs. At the same time, the bomb bay has a small insert attached to the front bulkhead to add detail to the area. Each Taurus radial engine is formed from two well-detailed banks of cylinders with a circular collector ring attached to the centre by three stators, plus a complex system of tubes installed around the circumference in between the cylinders, and another at the rear of the engine that has a square peg at the back for fixing them to the wing through the cooling flaps at the rear of the cowlings. Two holes on the top of the nacelle receive a different two-part intake, then the cowling is wrapped around the engine, comprising two halves and a pair of curved exhausts for each engine. She’s looking very much like a Beaufort now, but needs some defensive armament in addition to the optional Lewis gun in the side. The new mid-upper turret is mounted in the back of the cockpit “hump”, and is built upon a separate section of the fuselage with a circular base that receives the guns’ mount and gunner’s bicycle-style seat below the lip, gluing the majority of the turret into position along with a fairing lip around the end, then deciding whether to mount the clear glazing in the top of the nose, or the alternative that mounts another two Lewis guns in the nose. The bomb/torpedo bay forms a cruciform shape when viewed from below, as it was lengthened to accept the torpedo, and has the mount fitted into the wider centre section, and if not carrying a torpedo, two inserts close off the bomb bay from its two narrower sections. The bay doors are in three sections, the narrower front and rear sections having one door per side, while the wider bomb bay section has two doors each side that fold together, minimising the aerodynamic drag, as well as fitting in the space below the aircraft when on the ground. If you plan on posing all the bay doors closed, there are three additional conjoined parts to ease your path, which is always nice to see. The torpedo has been seen in a separate box before, and its build is covered on the last page of instruction steps, making it up from two halves, adding a three-part H-tail with twin spinners, and another spinner-plus-spacer at the business end. There are also five steps to create a trolley for moving your Torp about and loading it onto the Beaufort on rising scissor-links if you want to add a bit of diorama appeal to your model. The torpedo is mounted with all bay doors open, and glues onto a long curved rectangular frame in the centre of the bomb bay. While the model is inverted, the underslung nose turret can be built from three parts for the gun and two-part dome, or a blanking plate is fitted over the aperture. A pitot is also mounted under the nose, a towel-rail antenna under the fuselage, and three small outlets are mounted on the wings and just behind the bomb bay. Back on its wheels, the cockpit hump is detailed with two more antennae, and another either flush with the roof in a typical D/F loop fairing. The radar antennae are reminiscent of TV aerials, formed from a main antenna with several dipoles perpendicular, one under each wing, mounted on two brackets that fit into holes drilled in the wings earlier, and another offset under the nose on a single post. These are most definitely best left of until the very end so that they survive without damage. Markings ICM have begun to include templates for masking material with each of their new kits, which can be found just in front of the colour profiles for you to place tape over, cut around and apply to your model, thanks to drawings above that indicate what goes where. There are four decal options included on the sheet in a variety of schemes. From the box you can build one of the following: DD959 Q, No.217 Sqn., Malta, 1942 L9965 T, Mediterranean Sea region, 1942 DX157, presumably Indian Ocean region, Spring 1944 EK979, RAF Training Unit, Bilbais, Egypt, 1944 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and include dials for the instrument panels, with good register, sharpness, and solid colours. As is common now with ICM kits, there is a page of the instruction booklet devoted to the masking of the canopy, using the printed shapes on the bottom of the page and the diagrams above to allow you to create your own masks if you wish. It goes up to 64 thanks to the copious glazing of the Beaufort. Conclusion I was looking forward to the initial release, and I’m wasn’t disappointed, and this rebox with new parts is just as good with another theatre of operation opening up in terms of subjects. It’s another Beaufort in my preferred scale, there’s plenty of detail, and a good choice of decal options. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Bristol Beaufort Mk.I (48310) 1:48 ICM via Hannants Ltd The Beaufort was originally designed as a torpedo bomber by Bristol, using the experience they had gained in developing the then-excellent Blenheim. They were ready in time for the outbreak of WWII, and as well as their prescribed role, they were also used as light bombers, undertaking many ‘Rhubarb’ missions over enemy territory in the so-called ‘phony war’, undertaking daylight missions that saw heavy casualties, although the accidental loss tally outstripped combat losses, surprisingly. Roughly 1,200 were built in the UK, with the total being elevated to almost 2,000 by additional Australian-built airframes that were known as DAP Beauforts. They were rapidly overhauled by the German fighters and were withdrawn from frontline service as early as 1942, by which time they had also been tasked with Aerial mine-laying. From then on, they were assigned to serve away from the front, and saw extensive use as a trainer, which might go at least some of the way to explain the high attrition rate due to accidents. A further development of the Beaufort was the Beaufighter, which used important components of the Beaufort that included the wings and engines, with a new cut-down fuselage that was comparatively low and streamlined, with a powerful cannon armament under the nose that was useful in its assigned duties as long-distance heavy fighter, and later nightfighter, where it excelled. Some obsolete Beauforts were even converted to Beaufighters to make further use of the shared parts, which gave many of the original airframes a more honourable end than they would otherwise have seen. In an attempt to improve on the original Mk.I that took up the majority of production, the designers created additional variants that used other engines, had faired over turrets when they were to be used as trainers, and even a project that saw the fitment of a pair of Merlin XX engine that didn’t achieve the desired effect, so was cancelled, in much the same manner as the Merlin powered Beaufighter that managed to be “underpowered” despite the pedigree of the engines that propelled it. The Kit A lot of modellers that build in 1:48 have been waiting with baited breath for this new tooling from ICM, and now it is with us, despite the horrible circumstances that besets the Ukrainian people at the time of writing. This initial boxing rightly covers the Mk.I torpedo bomber, and there is another boxing on the way with a tropicalised engine fit that should arrive pretty soon. This new issue arrives in a reasonable-sized top-opening box with their usual captive lid on the lower tray. Inside are eight sprues in mid-grey styrene, a large clear sprue, decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet that has colour profiles on the rear pages. Opening the resealable bags reveals the detail that has been lavished on this kit that includes lots of internal ribbing, a set of ribbed flap bays and flaps, a representation of both banks of the Bristol Taurus engines, detailed gear bays and bay doors, and a torpedo to complete the package. Construction begins with a narrow torpedo bay under the fuselage that is glued to a section of the aft floor, then detailed with ribs, flipped over and joined to a bulkhead that has a doorway cut in it, then has a chute made up on one side before it is attached to the rest of the interior floor, which is initially free of detail, apart from underneath, where it has bomb shackles moulded-in, and a semi-cylindrical bay toward the front of the fuselage, which will allow the torpedo to nestle into the fuselage part way. The starboard fuselage half has an insert fitted in the wing-root depression to match the crisp moulded ribbing that is all over the interior as far back as the trailing edge of the wings, and extends into the tail-wheel bay. The side windows are inserted from inside, swapping the rear one out for an opaque cover if appropriate, then the floor is mated on a number of slots into the fuselage sides ready for the twin spars and a good quantity of detail. The forward spar is detailed with four parts to depict the radio gear with a plotting table below it, and on the other side a section of fairing is fixed, then the assembly is glued into its slot, joining the bottom of the spar with the fuselage blank. The cockpit is a two-tier assembly that is started by joining the two halves of the side console together, adding a raised floor panel, the instrument panel with five dial decals and rudder pedals, a short half-bulkhead and the swivelling front seat. Another simple seat is made up and glued to the rear spar along with another step-like fairing, and it too is slipped into the rear slot in the fuselage and glued in place. The pilot’s seat is made up from two parts and has a bow-tie control column placed in front of it, while to the rear, an Elsan toilet is dropped onto a raised plinth in the rear fuselage floor. The tail wheel bay is made up from ceiling with two small bulkhead ends, and it is glued into the very rear, which already has ribbing moulded into the sides. The tail-wheel and strut is a single part than inserts in the bay ceiling on a peg, so can be left off until after main painting. The port fuselage half is prepared in a similar manner to the starboard, save for the optional rear window, and a 0.9mm hole that is drilled in the ceiling. Just before closing up the fuselage, another detail part is fixed to the bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat, with more glued into the nose, which might be better added before you paint the cockpit. The main canopy is glued over the cockpit aperture, and the nose is glazed by four additional clear parts, and a choice of port-side aft door with a circular porthole or gun port fitted over the hole in the fuselage, which can have a Lewis machine-gun with dinner plate magazine on a spar across the opening. If you are installing the gun, the clamshell door part should be left off. The Beaufort had mid-mounted wings, so each one is separate, and made from two halves. The port wing has a small landing light bay inserted before it is closed up, and a small dome is removed from the leading edge, then the clear glazing is inserted once the glue has set up. A clear wingtip is fitted, and a one-piece aileron is added and able to be offset if you feel the urge. You also have to make a choice whether to fit the wing surface over the inner flaps with a trio of strakes in an nacelle extension, or a straight section with curved root fairing. The same process is carried out minus the landing light bay on the starboard wing, then both wings are slotted over the two spars that have corresponding guides moulded into the inside of the wings to ensure good location. The elevator fins are each two parts and are mounted in the usual slot/tab method, to be joined by one-piece elevators and rudder, which the latter having a pair of horns near the hinge. Two flap sections are added to each wing’s underside, then the two nacelles are made up from halves along with a bulkhead near the front, and another that is glued into the wing before the nacelles are put in place. The roof of the bay is free of any detail, and is the location that the twin strut gear legs and their actuators are fixed once they are built up. The main wheels are each two halves, and they flex-fit into the lower section of the main leg, which has a curved tubular framework added to the top section, probably to assist with the smooth opening and closing of the door bays. The lower section of the main gear forms a twin triangular framework that is linked by a number of cross-members before the lower section is glued into the sockets in the upper section, and has another pair of actuators added at the rear to brace the top section. Both assemblies are inserted into the bays on each level of the ceiling, then the twin bay doors with their ribbed inners are added to the sides of the bays on hinge tabs. At the same time, the bomb bay has a small insert attached to the front bulkhead to add detail to the area. Each Taurus radial engine is formed from two well-detailed banks of cylinders with a circular collector ring attached to the centre by three stators, plus a complex system of tubes installed around the circumference in between the cylinders, and another at the rear of the engine that has a square peg at the back for fixing them to the wing through the cooling flaps at the rear of the cowlings. Two holes on the top of the nacelle receive a two-part intake, then the cowling is wrapped around the engine, comprising two halves and a pair of curved exhausts for each engine. She’s looking very much like a Beaufort now, but needs some defensive armament in addition to the optional Lewis gun in the side. The mid-upper turret is semi-conformal to the back of the cockpit “hump”, and is built upon a section of the fuselage with a circular base that receives the guns’ mount and gunner’s bicycle-style seat below the lip, gluing the front of the turret into position, then creating a platter for the two Lewis guns, one of which is mounted at 90° to the other to fit within the confined space, plus an armour plate at the rear of the breech with a letterbox for the gunner to peer through. This is emplaced on the mount, and is closed in by adding the rear glazing. It is inserted into the aperture behind the wings, and is faired-in by a single horse-shoe shaped part that cuts down on the whistling as it flies along. The bomb/torpedo bay forms a cruciform shape when viewed from below, as it was lengthened to accept the torpedo, and has the mount fitted into the wider centre section, and if not carrying a torpedo, two inserts close off the bomb bay from its two narrower sections. The bay doors are in three sections, the narrower front and rear sections having one door per side, while the wider bomb bay section has two doors each side that fold together, minimising the aerodynamic drag, as well as fitting in the space below the aircraft when on the ground. If you plan on posing all the bay doors closed, there are three additional conjoined parts to ease your path, which is always nice to see. The torpedo has been seen in a separate box before, and its build is covered on the last page of instruction steps, making it up from two halves, adding a three-part H-tail with twin spinners, and another spinner-plus-spacer at the business end. There are also five steps to create a trolley for moving your Torp about and loading it onto the Beaufort on rising scissor-links if you want to add a bit of diorama appeal to your model. The torpedo is mounted with all bay doors open, and glues onto a long curved rectangular frame in the centre of the bomb bay. While the model is inverted, the underslung nose turret can be built from three parts for the gun and two-part dome, or a blanking plate is fitted over the aperture. A pitot is also mounted under the nose, a towel-rail antenna under the fuselage, and three small outlets are mounted on the wings and just behind the bomb bay. Back on its wheels, the cockpit hump is detailed with two more antennae, and another flush with the roof. Markings ICM have begun to include templates for masking material with each of their new kits, which can be found just in front of the colour profiles for you to place tape over, cut around and apply to your model, thanks to drawings above that indicate what goes where. There are a generous five decal options included on the sheet, all but one of them having the early war green/brown camo on top, and grey, sky or black undersides. The last option is in green/grey with black undersides. From the box you can build one of the following: L4449, presumably 1939 L4449 OA-H No.22 Sqn., North Coates, Lincolnshire, summer 1940 L4516 OA-W No.22 Sqn., North Coates, Lincolnshire, December 1940 N1016 OA-X No.22 Sqn., RAF St. Eval, April 1941 L9878 MW-R No.217 Sqn., RAF St. Eval, Autumn 1941 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and include dials for the instrument panels, with good register, sharpness and solid colours. Conclusion I’ve been looking forward to this one, and I’m not disappointed. You could almost say I’m quite happy if you were prone to understatement. It’s a Beaufort in my preferred scale, there’s plenty of detail, and a good choice of decal options. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Fairey Swordfish Mk.I (A04053B) 1:72 Airfix Of the hundreds of types that saw service during World War II, the Fairey Swordfish was one of the handful of aircraft that can be said to have passed from history into legend. The large ungainly fabric-covered biplane flew for the first time in 1934 and entered squadron service with the Fleet Air Arm in 1936. Designed as a torpedo bomber and spotter-reconnaissance aircraft, the Swordfish was also used for other roles such as anti-submarine warfare. Despite its antiquated appearance and some unsuccessful attempts to replace it, it was still in squadron service at the time of Germany’s capitulation in May 1945. Nicknamed the ‘Stringbag’ because of the wide range of loads it could carry and the profusion of rigging-wires holding it together, the list of key actions the Swordfish was involved in is the stuff of legend. It took part in the attack on Taranto Harbour and played a pivotal role in the destruction of the German battleship Bismarck, fatally damaging its rudder with a torpedo. Engagements such as these demonstrated not only the tough, dependable qualities of the Swordfish, but also the professionalism and bravery of the crews that flew them, often in the face of heavy losses. The Kit Packed into a long top-opening box are four sprues of grey plastic and a single, small clear sprue. Together they hold a total of 125 parts. The sprues are cleanly moulded with reasonably fine attachment points. A quick examination of the sprues reveals that the level of detail Airfix have achieved with this kit, both in terms of moulding and engineering, is outstanding. The panel lines, few that they are on a Swordfish, are reasonably subtle. Airfix have also taken great care to achieve a realistic stretched fabric texture on the flying surfaces and fuselage, and they have done so very successfully. Construction begins with the interior that is made up of no fewer than eighteen parts including the internal framework structure, crew positions, a beautifully detailed radio, a moveable Lewis gun for the aft cockpit (along with spare magazines), the forward-firing Vickers gun, and a decal for the instrument panel. The radio set features some lovely moulded detail that will come up well under some careful dry-brushing, and this all makes for a highly detailed cockpit for a 1:72 scale model. The cockpit assembly is placed into the fuselage halves after adding a number of clear windows and the forward-firing machine gun for the pilot’s use. The short lower wing stubs are fixed to the fuselage underside insert before it is fixed in place, and a deck behind the rear gunner’s position is also slotted in. The lower wing supports are short and thick, inserting into sockets on the fuselage and lower wing, next to the oil cooler that is a prominent feature of the starboard front fuselage and is superbly detailed, as is the engine and cowling. The cowling itself is made up of four parts, which may seem a little over-engineered to some, but as mentioned above this kit seems to have been designed for enthusiasts and so fewer shortcuts have been made at the expense of detail. The cabane struts and windscreen are added to the top of the fuselage behind the cowling, the motor and its detailed cowling are joined together, followed by the single part prop with spinner and a pin in the rear that can leave the prop loose if you’re careful with the glue. Moving onto the flying surfaces, Airfix haven’t made any compromises here either, with both the elevators and rudder all fully poseable and featuring nice hinge detail. The tailplane strut is moulded in one piece for ease of assembly, although this has left it with a small sink mark on the underside, albeit in a very easy place to fill. The kit can be finished with wings extended or folded, which is where Airfix’s clever design really comes into its own. The interplane struts are joined at the bottom so that the parts form a square U-shape. The horizontal part that helps align the vertical struts is then partly hidden between the upper and lower halves of the upper wing. This method of construction ensures that everything joins up at the correct angles and the finished model should have more strength as a result If you decide to build your Swordfish with the wings unfolded, a separate spar must be inserted in the centre wing section. If you want to build your Swordfish with wings folded, this spar is omitted and the two jigs that can be seen on the sprues above are used to align the centre wing sections while they are glued together. This makes a complex stage of construction as simple as possible for all those biplane phobics out there - me included. The lower outer wing panels are joined to the centre stubs with an additional strut either in-place for extended wings, or as a separate assembly that is joined to the wing at an angle for the folded option. A small insert is fitted inside the upper wing centre section to tidy things up. Two folding V-shaped clips attach to the underside of the tail fins either pointing aft when not in use, or forward and attached to the folded wing to keep it in place on the pitching deck of a carrier. The landing gear struts were installed around the same time as the wing, and two wheels in separate halves are fixed onto their rectangular pegs. Just the fiddly parts are left, and I’m ignoring the rigging because it terrifies me, and Airfix don’t provide a diagram for you, but there are bound to be some out there. The torpedo is moulded in halves, and you’ll need to drill two 0.8mm holes to attach it to the underside of the airframe later. A set of perpendicular fins and the screw are inserted in the rear, and there’s a three-part trestle glued under the belly of the beast onto which the torp fits. If you want to put the torpedo on the included trolley however, just forget about drilling the holes and build up the trolley from the four parts in the box. With the model inverted, you can fit the racks to the outboard panels of the lower wing along with the clear landing lights that are recessed into the leading edge. The crew step, hand-crank for the engine (surely not?) plus the arrestor hook in the tail can also be glued in while she’s inverted, then with her placed back on her wheels, the single Lewis gun with plate mag are clipped onto the mount in the gunner’s enclosure. Markings There are two/three options on the decal sheet in this boxing, one of which appears twice in different schemes that gives the modeller a wider choice. From the box you can build one of the following: W5984/H flown by Lt.Cmdr Eugene Esmonde VC, DSO Operation Fuller (the Channel Dash) No.825 NAS, RAF Manston, England, 12th Feb 1942 K8386/945 No.824 Naval Air Squadron, FAA, HMS Eagle & RAF Kai Tak, Hong Kong, China Station, May-Nov 1937 There is conjecture whether option A was actually over-painted with black paint before take-off, in a manner that was described as hurriedly, although spelt wrong! Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Apologies for the rough looking top profile, but it isn’t available online, so I had to scan in the instructions. Conclusion This is a welcome re-release of a great little kit (I use the term little, as I’m a 1:48 guy normally), with tons of detail moulded-in. It’s short a rigging diagram, but other than that it’s a handsome model, so give it your best shot. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bristol Beaufort Mk.I (A04021) 1:72 Airfix The Beaufort was a medium- and torpedo-bomber that was developed from lessons learned from the Blenheim, which was a little out-dated by the time hostilities commenced. It was named after the Duke of Beaufort, and was ordered side-by-side with its competitor for the specification, which was the Blackburn Botha. It is a twin-engined bomber powered by a pair of Bristol Taurus radial engines, and although it was originally intended primarily as a torpedo bomber, it was more often used as a bomber where it saw extensive service during the opening years of WWII. It was fast and rugged, but initially its armament was found to be insufficient to defend against attack, so this was remedied by adding more guns, including a clear dustbin under the nose, which turned out to be practically useless, so was often removed. By 1942 it was deemed to be unfit for front-line service, although more airframes had been lost to accident and mechanical issues than to enemy action, partly due to the troublesome Taurus engines. Various upgrades were made in addition to the armament in order to improve the capabilities and reliability of the aircraft, with the Taurus engines briefly replaced by Pratt & Whitney Twin-Wasps, but returning to the Taurus units when supplies of the P&W engines couldn’t be maintained. After leaving the front-line, it was used in training, with the last heavily modified airframe leaving the factory in 1943 in the UK. Many Beauforts were made in Australia as DAP Beauforts, with their own variants, including a transport type with a new centre fuselage section. The basic design of the Beaufort was re-used in the more successful Beaufighter, which was almost a coupé Beaufort with a much-reduced fuselage that gave it a higher top speed and better overall performance, plus it was found that it could carry out pretty much all of the tasks previously allocated to the Beauforts, as well as being an excellent nightfighter with heavy armament. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling from Airfix, and should make many people quite happy. We’re a bit late to the party, but it’s better late than never, so here goes. It’s a high-quality, crisp tooling from the Airfix stable, and includes plenty of detail that used to only appear in kits in a larger scale, as well as their modern tooling tricks that make the build a more pleasant proposition. One aspect that hasn’t quite worked out are the trapezoid protectors on the fuselage sprue, which were designed to save the trailing edge fairings from damage during shipping. This hasn’t worked, and both tips of the fairings were curled over on my example, but not so badly that they couldn’t be straightened. Otherwise detail is excellent, which is high praise coming from a modeller used to larger scales. Construction begins with the fuselage floor, which has three 1mm holes drilled in it if you intend fitting the torpedo. The aft wing spar has a seat attached to the front, then it is joined with the floor along with the front spar with moulded-in bulkhead, and appliqué radio gear fitted to its rear. In the cockpit is a “slide” under the hatch, and in the centre a long console with controls and an upstand for the instrument panel is glued in before adding the pilot’s seat with armour panel over a flat floor insert. The instrument panel has the rudder pedals fixed behind it, and a decal with the dials on for the front, with the foot well closed off behind and a swivelling seat for the front crew member hanging out over the nose. The control column is glued in a recess in the floor, and aft of the wings an Elsan toilet is salted away under where the window for the waist gun will be later. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’ll leave it up to you! The fuselage halves both have ribbing moulded into them, and they are prepped by adding circular windows, an access hatch with a D-shaped window, and a support for the waist gun, which will be occupied later. There is a flange at the rear of the upper fuselage that should be removed from both sides for the turret insert to fit properly later, then the interior can be slid into place in the port fuselage through the spar slots. A section of floor in front of the pilot is added at the front, then the tail-wheel bay and bulkhead at the rear, and another bulkhead just forward of the Elsan, after which you can close up the fuselage, installing the optional pilot on his seat if you intend using him. A scrap diagram gives a detailed painting guide if you need it. Moving back aft to the turret, the insert with turret ring is inserted into the aperture, then underneath the bomb bay bulkheads with their torpedo cut-out are installed, to be finished off later. The wings are separate entities that are slipped over the twin spars when complete, and they have a cut-out for a pair of landing lights in the port side, and recesses for the main gear bays with some nice detail moulded-in. The flying surfaces are separate, and you get a choice of flaps, depending on which decal option you have chosen. The ailerons are standard across both, as are the elevators, which have single thickness flying surfaces and dual-thickness fins, with an unusual circular location pin that I’ve not seen before. The rudder is also separate and can be added deflected if you wish. Before the engine nacelles are made up, the locations for the main gear legs are built from three sections to create a twin A-frame, a bulkhead is inserted into the rear of the bay recess, then the nacelles are each made from two halves with a bulkhead at the inside front and are then glued over the location, adding intakes into the recess at the top. Both banks of Taurus cylinders are depicted in the kit, the aft bank surrounded by a circular ring, and the front bank glued in place trapping the propeller shaft in place, which slides through a collector with stators in a three-pointed star form. The nacelle halves join around it and the cooling flaps are fixed to the rear, completing the assembly by extending the exhaust to the rear. The engines and cowlings are handed, so their mating points with the nacelles are also keyed to ensure they go together correctly, with the exhausts on the outboard side of the cowlings. The Beaufort was quite well-stocked for windows, which are crystal clear and include small sections of the fuselage where appropriate on this kit, forming the stepped canopy and asymmetrical glazing on the right side, the glass nose for the bombardier's use, and the angular windows from which he takes aim under the tip of the nose. The mid-upper turret is well-detailed and covered by two glazed sections with twin Lewis guns and a bicycle seat for the operator, while the semi-useless nose lower gun station is fitted to the outside skin with its single .303 machine gun mounted in the clear glazing. The turrets are dealt with later in the build after the bomb bay and landing gear are finished. You have three choices regarding the bomb bay, which is to insert a single part that closes over all three sections, pose the front and rear torpedo sections opened inward and the wider central section opened outwards, or cut the outer sections of the closed bay off and use them to close the outer section of the main bay to carry a torpedo, which is made later. If you’re building your Beaufort in a wheels-up pose, you’ll still need to make and paint the wheels, as they’re visible even retracted, but they are inserted with the flat-spot uppermost, hidden inside the bay, and with a representation of the strut and bay door covering the front of the bay. The tail wheel is always extended, and is a single part that fits into the bay with a transparent diagram showing how it attaches within. For the gear down option, the retraction frames are made up, and inserted into the rear of the bays, with the bottom ends glued to the main legs. Scrap diagrams help you fit them correctly, then the two bay doors are snapped into the bay sides on their long hinges, and the two-part wheels are flexed into position, with what looks like a 4-legged squid attached to the front of each strut. They’re more likely to be bumpers to assist the doors opening and closing, like the Mossie. Various small parts are added around the wings, then the turrets mentioned earlier are put in place, with a fairing around the top turret and a scrap diagram showing how it should fit. Torpedo time! It was one of the Beaufort’s primary uses, and it would be churlish not to include one, so they did. The main body is assembled from two halves, a set of screws at the rear, a substantial H-shaped stabiliser at the very rear, and a fusing spinner at the front. It is mounted on a trestle-like pylon within the main bay, which is made from two parts, and once the torpedo is installed, it is bracketed by the outer panels of the bay doors cut from the cruciform closed bay insert. An L-shaped pitot is slotted into a hole under the glass nose, a pair of clear lights are glued into each wingtip, and if you have left the waist gun hatch open, a Lewis gun with dinner-plate magazine is affixed to the support within the window. The model is finished by putting on the props with their little spinners, adding a stocky aerial behind the cockpit, another near the top turret, and a narrow, raised part between them. Markings Two options are included on the decal sheet, one in dark earth/dark green over sky, the other in dark sea grey/dark slate grey over black. From the box you can build one of the following: N1016 OA*X No.22 Sqn., RAF St Eval, Cornwall, England, 6th April 1941 – mission against German Battleship Gneisenau L9866 MW*J, No.217 Sqn. RAF St Eval, Cornwall, England, 1st February 1941 – mission against German cruiser Admiral Hipper Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. There are also plenty of stencils to apply around the airframe, which always improves the detail of any aircraft model. Conclusion What a nice kit. There is a lot of detail, all of which is crisp and delicate, much improved from their output from back in the day. Now I just need one in 1:48 please. Pretty please? Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of