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Bristol Beaufighter TF.X (03943) 1:48 Revell The Beaufighter was originally developed as a fighter variant of the Beaufort, aiming to utilise as many components from the light bomber as possible to speed development, construction and minimise tooling costs. It didn't quite work out that simply, as it needed additional power that could only be provided by the new Hercules engines that was in development, as even a Merlin engine would leave it underpowered as they later found out. This meant a mid-wing mount had to be created so that the props had sufficient ground clearance, and a skinnier fuselage was used to reduce weight and drag. It was still fairly quick to reach production, and although it wasn't as amazing as the Mosquito, it turned out to be a good multirole aircraft, able to assume roles for which it was never intended for. The TF.X was a later mark that was adapted to carry a torpedo slung under its belly, and mounted two Hercules XVII engines that had been tuned for low-altitude performance to improve the crew's chances of survival during an attack. Over 2,000 were built, and they were colloquially referred to as the Torbeau. The Kit This is a completely new tool from Revell, and one of the first to be released from the newly reinvigorated company, and the first new tooling of a Beaufighter for a long time. It arrives in one of their chunky end-opening boxes (think 1:48 Tornado), and inside are a lot of sprues in pale grey styrene, nineteen in all, with a trio of small clear sprues, the decal sheet and new-style colour instruction booklet with the obligatory safety warning sheet tucked inside. There are 188 parts in total, and when you pull the wing sprue out of the box you realise that the Beau was quite a large aircraft. Surface detail of the aircraft's skin is restrained, with lots of fine engraved panel lines, and even what appears to be an attempt at replicating the unevenness of the skin of the aircraft around the fuselage sides and on the nose cones, some of which you won't use. You get a full length floor inside the fuselage with plenty of interior details, which also includes the wing roots as seen from the inside, the equipment in the back and the observer's seat base. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is placed at the front (shocker!) of the internal floor, with a portion of the forward spar at the rear, bracing structure and a three sided console in front, onto which the instrument panel is fixed, and a decal can be added if you don't fancy painting it yourself. Rudder pedals are moulded-in, and a control column drops into a slot in the centre of the floor, with the comfortable-looking seat (with moulded-in belts) against the spar. The rear spar forms the box, and this is full height, with moulded-in doors into the rear compartment, and two ammo drums behind feeding the belly cannons. Behind that is the base for the observer's chair, which also has lap belts moulded-in, another bulkhead behind that, which can either contain a pair of doors in a smooth bulkhead, or a framework that has a central equipment rack in it. Behind that door is an empty space with the tail wheel well at the end, which is moulded into the floor as a curved box, and can accept the tail wheel in either deployed or stowed positions by using a different strut on the same wheel. The lower access hatch is fixed to the hole in the floor, and the fuselage can then be closed around it, after de-flashing some holes along the top seam. The nose cone is separate, and you have a choice of the large thimble-nosed one with radar, or the original sleek nose that gives the Beau such a nice line. The canopy is fitted next, and has an apron in front of the windscreen moulded-in to make fitting it easier, and a separate top panel for the pilot's exit. The gun-sight is also clear, and needs partially painting before installation, which would look more realistic if you add some clear green to the edges of the glazing to simulate thickness. The rear crew member's dome is able to be fitted open or closed, and a machine gun mount can be put in place in either position, with the closed dome having a small hole in the rear to admit the gun barrel. Now for the wings. The lower wing is a full width piece, and includes a short length of the lower fuselage to give it a good fit. Four small holes must be opened up in this area before proceeding, after which the gear bays are constructed in the lower half of the "power egg" from individual panels and a front bulkhead. Behind them the flap bay is completed by the addition of an upstand part that spans the gap between lower and upper skins. This is of course repeated in both sides, and the upper wings are glued in place once this step is completed, then the flush landing light, the supercharger intakes and wingtip lights can be added along with the inner and outer sections of the flaps, which can be posed open or closed, by adjusting the leading edge tabs that are present. The ailerons are each two parts and these fit on pins and can be left loose or posed how you see fit. Next up are the engines, and these are depicted fully with two banks of pistons and plenty of nice detail. The exhaust collector ring and the forward cooling vanes are all there, although a little bit of wiring will be needed to complete the look. The exhaust section section the three cowling sections all build up around the front ring, and then you have a choice of adding open or closed cooling flaps, by using one or other of the sets provided glued to the aft of the cowling. This is done twice of course, and the engines aren't handed, so the exhausts are on the same side, as are the hedgehog flame hiders that trail along the nacelles, which have glare shields over them to protect the pilot's night vision. A choice of large or small intakes are fitted to the top of the cowlings, and the tiny rear tip of the nacelle under the wing finishes off that section. The tail of the Beau is noticeably cranked upward with quite a large dihedral on this variant, and here you have a choice of two styles, one of which has a straight line fit of the elevators, the other is stepped, requiring a complete set of parts for each. The trim actuators are shared parts, and the elevators are separate and can be posed to taste if you wish. The tail fin isn't moulded into the fuselage, but fits into a slot on the top of the elevator assembly, with a choice of a fin with a fillet or without, using the same rudder parts, and again allowing you to pose the rudder deflected if you wish. The filleted part needs a hole cutting in the top of the fuselage to stabilise the fillet, so make careful measurements to find the flashed over slot if you didn't open it up previously. The main landing gear can be left off totally if you are posing your model in flight, with the single piece gear bay doors dropped into the aperture in the bottom of the nacelles. If you are building the landing gear down, you will need to construct the H-shaped legs in stages, sandwiching the two-part wheels between the halves as you go, and this completed assembly is attached to a small section of the spar for ease of attachment. This is glued into the front of the bay, with another set of retraction jacks fitted diagonally from the bay rear into the lower section of the leg, and the door closing mechanism running along the lip of the bays. The single door panel is split lengthways and added half to each side of the bay, and the prop is fixed to the front, either with or without a spinner, which has a backplate for completeness. Then it's a case of fitting a pitot under the wing, aerial on the fuselage, and the main build is complete. All that remains is to build up the torpedo from two halves plus a large H-tail, fit it to two C-shaped attachment points, and it's finished. Markings There are two options on the decal sheet, which span two pages each due to the generous sizing of the profiles. As you might guess, one option has the fin fillet, and the other doesn't. The fillet-less machine does have a fetching set of D-Day stripes however, which always prove popular, but you'll be masking and painting them yourself, as they aren't provided as decals, which shouldn't be seen as a negative in my experience, as getting large decals to settle on curved surfaces can be a pain at times. S/N. NE429 "P6-S" No.489 (NZ) Squadron, RAF Langham, England, July 1944 S/N. RD467 "QM.J" No.254 Squadron, RAF North Coates, England May 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion Whilst the other manufacturer's offering in this scale is well liked, it's good to have a choice, and this is a very detailed modern tooling that includes plenty of parts, and will be readily available due to Revell's large distribution network. Very highly recommended. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or