Bristol Beaufort Mk I - Special Hobby 1/72

[Navy Bird]

I knocked my lamp off about a gazillion times. You must continue to strive in order to reach a state of Billdom, young grasshopper.

Regarding the IP, I seem to recall having to sand its borders to get a good fit within the canopy. Not too much though - I was actually surprised at just how well the canopy fit on my 'fort. Being short run and all, plus having experience with other MPM/Special Hobby/Azur kits, I was expecting much worse.

I think I might have put a shim in the top fuselage seam right behind the aft end of the canopy in order to have it and the fuselage match in width. I always prefer altering the fuselage versus trying to bend or spread a canopy.

Cheers,

Bill

[TheBaron]

Lots to like there Ced, hence all the liking. Like.

[rob85]

"For the first time I did something that bill did, I knocked the lamp off" that made me laugh a lot, how did you manage to get your comic time right written down?! It's the little things eh.... Like the lamp.

Great work Ced, really good to see how much your putting into this build!

Rob

[The Spadgent]

Mask tastic! Awesome stuff.

[CedB]

Thanks Giorgio

Thanks Cookie, very kind of you

Thanks Bill Master, I will strive... true Billdom is so far beyond my skills, but I will try. I know, there is no try... oops, sorry, mixing my Masterphors. (That's like metaphors, see what I did there?)

Good tip on checking the canopy fit before closing up - I'll remember that. Mine seems pretty good at the back :

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

but is a bit spread where the other window (hopefully) fits. I might glue that in the morning.

Thanks Tony for, like, the likes, like

Thanks Rob and John, very kind

I've glued the wings with lots of liquid poly on the tips as I want to try another WDBD and fit clear navigation and landing lights. Gulp. No, double gulp. I have been unable to find a clear plastic knife in THE drawer (rats) but have some spoons. Sadly the Marabou landing lights are out of stock but I have a watch on them (the Eduard ones are just too plain).

More madness soon...

[philp]

Well, I don't know about this. I mean, I love the Beaufort and want to do one from Malta myself someday (you know, when Revell or Airfix release one) but I come here to see a nice relaxing OOB Ced build and we have bays being cut open and floors being built and scratch lamps to knock over.

Guess I will have to hold the OOB reigns myself. Uh, adding masking tape seat belts is still OOB, right?

She is coming along nicely Ced.

[CedB]

Thanks Phil

You've actually made me re-think this... and admit I may be trying too hard for my skills. A quick look on BM shows a couple of non-Bill builds from Keith (who seems to have done the landing lights) and bombernut's both of which look good with painted nav lights.

I could cancel my sawing plans and disappoint a few or continue, mess up and end up binning her, disappointing everyone. On balance I think I'll take the easy and safer route (as usual) and leave the saw alone - the bay and dangling torpedo are probably enough for me now.

Some sanity returns!

[keefr22]

She's coming along very nicely Ced (just back from a lonnng weekend in Hampshire for my grandaughter's second birthday, so playing catchup - over 400 thread update notifications in my inbox!)

For clear nav lights I just use chunks of clear kit sprue - drill hole for bulb, fill with relevant green/red clear paint, superglue in with plenty of glue, leave overnight to set properly, file/sand/micromesh or nail buffer to final shine. Coat of Klear or similar. Done - easy! (but don't forget to mask them before painting. Guess who's done that before?!)

Clear sprue has the advantage of being 'free' if you have no plastic cutlery to steal from the kitchen drawer!

Keith

[giemme]

Sanity is way overrated, Ced And I totally agree with Keith on landing lights, that's the same way I do them (Although admittedly only in 1/48, so far )

Ciao

[CedB]

Thanks Keith and Giorgio Dither dither... I'll ponder some more.

In the meantime the canopy back half has been glued with Gator's Grip and I want to leave that overnight to cure off really well before squashing the front a bit.

I've tidied up the wings a bit and they're drying too.

In the meantime I did some odds and sods like the engines:

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

before (left) and after burnishing. Note the gloss black gearboxes. I've masked and painted the prop blades. I realised I've been painting too much of the tip; according to Edgar they should be 4" which is about 1.4mm at 1/72 so this time I used 3mm masking tape and only put half of it on the blade:

Small piece of tape on each side as I've not found a way of wrapping a single piece around efficiently. Wheels painted rubber black:

and then the tailplanes fitted:

They're drying too. Might mow the lawn while I'm waiting for that all to dry.

[06/24]

All very inspiring. My ten cents on the lights, is that I've done it on a couple of Airfix hurricanes and I am unconvinced it was worth the effort. For the "ultras" then it's a given, but for mere mortals such as myself the effects are restricted by the relative lack of talent.

Fortunately 20ft ISO containers don't have lights so my current build is stress free in this regard.

[Spookytooth]

You are getting there Ced.

Using 2 pieces of tape per blade is an easier way of masking the tips of the blades.

Simon.

[Leonl]

She's coming along very nicely Ced (just back from a lonnng weekend in Hampshire for my grandaughter's second birthday, so playing catchup - over 400 thread update notifications in my inbox!)

For clear nav lights I just use chunks of clear kit sprue - drill hole for bulb, fill with relevant green/red clear paint, superglue in with plenty of glue, leave overnight to set properly, file/sand/micromesh or nail buffer to final shine. Coat of Klear or similar. Done - easy! (but don't forget to mask them before painting. Guess who's done that before?!)

Clear sprue has the advantage of being 'free' if you have no plastic cutlery to steal from the kitchen drawer!

Keith

That's exactly how I do it. For larger lights as in the CL-215 (here) I have used acrylic rod.

[Navy Bird]

My thoughts on the navigation lights - the Beaufort in 1:72 is a big model, larger than a 1:48 Spit. The navigation lights on the Beaufort (and the Beaufighter and Blenheim) are quite large and very prominent on the model. IIRC, the entire wingtip on an actual Beaufort is Perspex, with the navigation lights being masked off during painting. The method described by Keith is really quite easy to do, and I think you should give it a go. If you like, practice on a mule first.

If you must paint them on, here is a trick I use (mostly for small lights) - paint the area silver first, and then use paints like Gunze's Clear Red and Clear Green on top.The clear paints give the area an illusion of being clear plastic, and the silver paint makes it "sparkle" a bit. Again, practice on a mule with a light the same size as that on the Beaufort to see if you like the effect.

Cheers,

Bill

[CedB]

Jon! What the hell's a '20ft ISO container' - that's not got wings either, I'll bet!

Thanks Simon, I'll certainly be using two bits of tape in the future

Well, I have succumbed, thanks to Jon, Keith, Giorgio, Leon and, particularly, Bill's disappointed "If you must paint them on...". I have selected some clear sprue and will have a fondle later.

[giemme]

Way to go, Ced!

Ciao

[CedB]

Page 18 and the wings aren't on yet - what? Fat thread eh?

It could be the complexity of the kit.

It could be all the help and support (always welcome).

It could be the banter going on while I was being lazy (also always welcome).

But I think it's all the pies.

Timing plagiarised from this classic Tommy Cooper joke:

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese.

And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them.

It's either my mum or my dad.

Or my older brother Colin.

Or my younger brother Ho-Chau-Chou.

But I think it's Colin.

RIP Tommy, sadly missed.

[keefr22]

Tommy Cooper - genius!

[TheBaron]

If you like, practice on a mule first.

Ced & Bill,

I am a bit slow on the uptake this evening. The various stages of my reaction to this were:

1. Is this a euphemism?

2. It's probably a line from a 'specialist' film. Don't ask.

2. I should ask, but then it's often dangerous to ask the Internet...

3. Oh. <the penny finally drops> I get it now. He means practice practice. As in - practice!

4. I'm really glad no-one knows what goes on in my head.

Tony

[CedB]

Hi Keith - just like that, a huh huh huh

Hi Tony - um, er, enough said. Although I don't know why they're called 'mules' either.

Not that I was paranoid about this but, for the first cut on the landing light housing, I drilled some holes to protect the end of the slot and stuck some Dymo tape down the sides:

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

The Trumpeter scriber came into play. I'm getting used to this now; light strokes with the handle almost parallel to the piece and then lifting it up for deeper cuts once the slot is established. It's out:

Confident with the scriber now I used it to cut the nav lights out:

and then tidied up with a microfile:

I've kept the cut out bits to help size up the clear sprue. Probably tomorrow now.

[giemme]

Breath-taking! Great job so far

Ciao

[modelglue]

Pretty incredible Ced, the Ol'Buffers is really shining brightly now with all these tools. Those have to be some pretty proud moments, There is nothing scarier than cutting into perfectly good plastic in the name of possible improvement.

Cheers Buddy!

[Navy Bird]

Nicely done! When you've done this a few times, we'll move you up to a chainsaw.

Cheers,

Bill

[TheBaron]

You're making this look effortless Maestro. Smooth work on that landing light recess.

Tony

[CedB]

Thanks guys! You're all very kind.

You may change your mind later. Realising that the CA should cure overnight I've done the red ones:

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

Sorry, the iPhone doesn't want to focus on the clear. I used thick CA but I now know that really flat backs and fitting is required. They should be OK when sanded (fingers crossed).

Questions:

Should I have painted the back of the position first and, if so, what colour?

Should I have let the red (Tamiya clear) dry too?

How do you stop the nicely painted hole looking like a blob through the dubious sprue optics?

Perhaps they'll look OK when finished.