Massimo Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I love this build!!! And I'd try as much as possible to use the Frog fuselage corrected and the Beaufighter wings and tail. I havent understood what you're going to do with the nacelles: are they positioned somewhere else on the wing or was there a different engine and thus you've got to buil them from scratch? I'll keep watching with extreme interest!!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 18 hours ago, Martian Hale said: Classic conversion work at its best! Martian I'm in on this thread now. An ambitious conversion project but can only agree with Martian. I may have missed it in an earlier thread but have you decided on markings yet? Probably an ambitious question given the plan! Cheers and good luck Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 9 hours ago, bristol boy said: Blenheim, maybe some of that could be used? A Blenheim donor wouldn't work as well as a Beaufighter - I think the Beaufort/Blenheim design changed the wings, undercarriage and tailwheel a bit, not sure about the tail. 8 hours ago, Ed Russell said: You could have one of these They are out of stock. Two came up on Ebay this week (30+ quid for the Special Hobby one). The trouble is, it's gotten personal with the Frog Beaufort. I need at least one piece of Frog Beaufort plastic in the final result! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 7 hours ago, massimo said: I havent understood what you're going to do with the nacelles The Beaufighter nacelles were mid-mounted, extending above and below the wing. The Beaufort nacelles were mounted below the wing, with just a tiny fairing on the top side. The Frog cowling is tiny, and you would think that the new Airfix Hercules cowling is too big (Hercules engine is 55" dia and the Taurus is 46"), but it matches the size of the cowlings on my plan and looks in proportion to the photos. Mind you the Bristol Mercury was 47" diameter, and the Blenheim cowling is around the same size as the Beaufighter too. Maybe the Hercules cowling was closer fitting? 7 hours ago, Terry1954 said: decided on markings I am currently assuming I will do MW-R, as shown on the front cover of the Warpaint book above. It's well documented and I like the TSS over black scheme. But that's a long way off yet! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristol boy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Hi Adrian, Might be worth trying to get a replacement canopy, the one on my Encore kit is more like a lump of crystal and not at all transparent. The problem is finding one in the UK to avoid postage from Australia, unfortunately I only have one and need it for a future project. Used one before on beaufreighter and it makes a lot of difference. Just noticed there's a framing line missing on top! Hopefully no one will notice. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hacker Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 l got the Special Hobby Kit with extra parts l was going to use on the frog kit but this is interesting added info. The Beaufort and the Beaufighter have a lot of similar parts due to the fact latter was derived from the first one but used bigger engines. Depending upon what mark you make there are two different rudders plus they went from British engines to American engines due to the shortage of the British version. Top turrets are different too. Hacker 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
224 Peter Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 This is a wonderful project, I'll be watching! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 7 hours ago, bristol boy said: replacement canopy That's a nice model (nice Foliage Green colour too) and a useful post for me because it shows how the front side window with the "H" framing works. I will be thinking of that when I'm shaping my own blank. I didn't even consider the commercial vac form because it would be more trouble to blend it in to a custom shape than it will be to make my own to fit the hole I end up with. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 8 hours ago, bristol boy said: Hi Adrian, Might be worth trying to get a replacement canopy, the one on my Encore kit is more like a lump of crystal and not at all transparent. The problem is finding one in the UK to avoid postage from Australia, unfortunately I only have one and need it for a future project. Used one before on beaufreighter and it makes a lot of difference. Adrian, this should be your first stop for Beaufort accessories, post should be cheaper than from Aus too. Steve. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 (edited) Impressive and inspiring! Your butchering adventure has all the signs of something that will remain in the collective history of BM for eternity. Oh alright, for quite a fair amount of time then! In these days of microwave oven-ready kits, it is damn refreshing to see someone returning back to basics! Great show! JR Edited March 21, 2018 by jean 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Fantastic! This is just fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 Hello All, I just had a week of European travelling and I'm glad to get back to the bench after 1,000 miles of driving! Before I went away I stuck all the Frog Beaufort pieces together and scowled at it for a while: The problem is twofold: the fuselage profile is wrong, including the too-steep wing incidence, which makes the canopies too shallow; and the fuselage is a few millimeters too wide at the cockpit, tapering away in all directions, which Frog has depicted as a curve instead of the parallel sided real thing. So on my return I was going to scratch a new one. However, I wondered yesterday if I could cut some wedges out of the fuselage mid line and rely on sanding and bending to wrestle it into shape. And, fingers crossed, that's what I think I've done. Profile is bang on, bearing in mind I'm going to replace the tail, cut 2mm down for the cockpit sill and build up the nose a bit: Sides are now parallel and 19mm/.75"/4'6" wide over the whole "hump". I took a wedge out at the top to narrow the front, filed the sides down to take out the curvature and did some bending of the turret area. I will need a touch of filler to build out the last few millimeters of hump before the rear turret. You can see how much wider the kit canopy is, and it will be 2mm too low as well when I get the sills cut down: The observer's canopy cover will be larger than the kit part too: I took a wedge out of the front join line too, so you can see the the battery cover hole is no longer rectangular. I think having the spin-a-prop version made this work easier: Next steps are to fill in all the gaps, get the sills right and cut out the torpedo bay. Then I can start on interior detail. I'm glad I could use the Frog fuselage. I think this would have made it to the Shelf of Shame otherwise. And the Frog fuselage still has a well-shaped rear fuselage cross section, the lower fuselage bulge, a correctly marked offset torpedo bay and the very convenient raised line to show you where the topside colours should stop. Finally, this being Easter Day, I can show you where the new canopies will come from. All I have to do is eat the bunny! Thanks for looking, Adrian 30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 That is one 'cut and shut' exercise, makes my mind boggle. I see the Easter bunny, maybe you should pull another 'rabbit out of the hat' to help with this build...better you than me. Carry on good sir. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell209 Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Some serious conversion work here; makes some of my efforts pale in comparison! Keep at it, they're certainly looking promising. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 I like your build vey much. As you perhaps already noticed I am a fanatic of scratch works and kitbashing. Some nerly 20 years ago I did also a work to improve Frog/Novo Beaufort, unfortunatelly did not made a phot documentation of the work. I noticed that you recently visited this thread at RFI and even liked it (many thanks!) - so you know my result. It will be very interesting to see your Beauforts completed! I keep my fingers crossed for you Regards J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimHead23 Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Hi Adrian I have been watching avidly as I have two of these in my stash and was looking for a way of using them to their best advantage. This looks ideal. Please be as descriptive with the conversion as you always are and keep the pictures coming. I would gladly by the book if you chose to publish ! Fabulous build as always. Regards Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 Hello again, Today I've added the wedges to make the fuselage join up again and I've tried to be kind to my "future self" by building the framework to hold the front window at the appropriate angles. And here's the original transparencies in place to show how much has been changed: I need to fill in the battery hatch underneath and cut out the offset torpedo slot, then I start on the cockpit detailing and fitting the wing. Sadly the work will be crazy for the coming week and then I have a week at a trade show, so progress will be sloo-oow. Thanks for looking, Adrian 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 11 hours ago, JWM said: I did also a work to improve Frog/Novo Beaufort And very nice too! A very inspiring build that show that a Frog Beaufort can be made to look like a real Beaufort. And an unusual colour scheme. 10 hours ago, JimHead23 said: I have two of these in my stash Jim, unless you really really like mashing up kits, my two pieces of advice would be (1) look for any other make on EBay, and/or (2) run away and don't look back! I'm letting the fuselage set a bit (I've been quite generous with the Contacta) and working on the engines: I've sanded off the pips and gone for the approach of gluing the cowlings together empty to get a nice fit. To make the engines slide into the completed cowlings, I cut off the very tips of the front row cylinders to get them past the embossed ring on the inside and I've sanded down the ring around the back row so that it fits in easily. I also cut off the three pips on the ring because I want the exhausts to be at different angles. The Beaufighter has both exhausts at 8 o'clock, whereas the Beaufort has one at 3 o'clock and the other at 8-8:30 (not 9 o'clock, glad I spotted this): I cut out and moved the cooling gills around to give me the right gaps for the air intake. The support struts look to be in approximately the correct positions for the Beaufort too so I'm going to leave them be. Thanks for looking, Adrian 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimHead23 Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Sound advice Adrian. I do have examples of both Hiplanes and Special Hobby in my stash but I didn't want to waste the two Frog kits I have. I also seem to have a similar (masochistic?) streak to the one that made you build the old Airfix Blenheim IV (To an excellent standard I may say). Regards Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 1 hour ago, JimHead23 said: Sound advice Adrian OK, now I'm sure you are going to ignore it The old Airfix Blenheim was a stroll compared to this - vac canopy, nacelle ends and fin shape changes followed by some mild pimping. There was a lot to like about that kit (although I'd say the Frog Blenheim was better). I was rearranging my model storage today and had a look at it - if I were doing it again I would crop and round off the wingtips a bit and reduce the diameter of the cowling opening a tad, but it looks like a Blenheim to me. Regards, Adrian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimHead23 Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 9 hours ago, AdrianMF said: OK, now I'm sure you are going to ignore it The old Airfix Blenheim was a stroll compared to this - vac canopy, nacelle ends and fin shape changes followed by some mild pimping. There was a lot to like about that kit (although I'd say the Frog Blenheim was better). I was rearranging my model storage today and had a look at it - if I were doing it again I would crop and round off the wingtips a bit and reduce the diameter of the cowling opening a tad, but it looks like a Blenheim to me. Regards, Adrian You certainly made the old girl step up to the mark. I built one of my MPM Blenheim 1s recently and was pleasantly surprised how right it looked standing next to the new Airfix. They seem to have got the wings and cowlings spot on. I really hope your Beaufort comes up to you usual standard as it will hopefully give me the courage to start mine. It does look rather daunting! Regards Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsaircorp Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 Hello Adrian ! Congratulations !! Heavy surgery the way I really like it ! I will follow 'cause I really enjoyed the Beaufort And still wait for a good one at 1/48 ! May be Airfix after the Blenheim.... You did a really great job ! sincerely. corsaircorp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 This is really starting to look like a Beaufort now, I just don't have your skills to attempt something like this! Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 3, 2018 Author Share Posted April 3, 2018 A bit more progress tonight. I've sanded down the nose region and I'm now happy with the contours of the front half. I'm glad I didn't close up the underside because I had to take the wing sockets out - thick hard plastic next to the hump sides, which have been sanded paper thin! I also dry fitted the wings and spars so I could mark up how far back the spar slots will be, but I forgot to take a picture. I am going to leave the rear fuselage sanding until I have grafted the Beaufighter tail onto it. Thanks for looking, Adrian 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now