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High Planes Beaufighter Mk 1c with early canopy 1/72nd ***FINISHED***24/08/2018


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If I get my 100th RAF Anniversary GB WnW's Camel build done soon I'm going give this a try.

 

It's High Planes early Bristol Beaufighter Mk1c PN-B R2198, as she appeared based at Abu Sueir, Egypt, circa Autumn 1941.

Apparently has an unusual non-pattern camo scheme, born out by some great aerial shots available on the 'net (almost done with the future modeller in mind!). The instructions 'plan view' of said scheme show the pattern reversed somehow though, the photo's show the port engine nacelle in the Mid Stone, starboard one in Dark Earth. The Exhaust's are on the wrong side as well so something went wrong in the reproduction of the drawings!

The port and starboard side views shows the correct colouring and the exhaust on the correct side.

Anyway, required box contents shots.

 

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The parts require a fair bit of clean-up but from what I've read about these kits, they go together OK if care is taken.

Glad there are two lots of clear parts as well !!

 

Davey.

Edited by DaveyGair
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  • 1 month later...

OK, here we go. Finished my 100 years RAF GB, so gonna try to get this one finished.

I washed the parts as directed by the instructions (yes, actually following the instructions!) then separated all the parts (not too many of them.

One thing's for sure, going to need a lot of clean-up. 

The cockpit is actually quite well furnished, detailed console sides, a decent seat and a white metal control column (not shown), but needs considerable trimming to fit into the fuselage, The instructions do mention this, also to remove plastic from the fuselage halves, but they looked quite thin already so didn't do this.

One of the photo's shows the original cockpit base and instrument panel compared to the 'adjusted' parts, easy to do as the plastic is soft.

Test fitted everything with blu-tac, also taped the fuselage halve together to check the fit, it looks good, just got to 'pinch' together bottom to get a good join.

 

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Keen to follow this, I've a Mk Ii & after a quick fiddle with it I was most impressed how the wings fitted, I am optimistic for it come the day. I can't see anything too awful with yours, I think....... :)

Steve.

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I have managed to build one of these kits. It resided on the Shelf of Doom for an awfully long time, so I wish you luck in putting it together. It looks the part when finished, though. 

 

Making the vac form canopies fit was a bit of trial, especially the main cockpit one. My biggest beef with the kit, though, was the engines and associated cowlings. The latter were effectively oval in shape, and I couldn’t see any way to make them truly circular. In the end, I stole a pair of cowlings and engines from an old Airfix Blenheim MkIV kit that was never going to be built.

 

 

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Thanks for the encouragement my friends, things seem to fit well enough but you end up with half a kit of shavings!

 

With all this good weather the missus keeps wanting to 'go out somewhere', but managed to crack on a bit this afternoon.

Decided to scratch a bit of interior for the observers position since none is included in the kit. I copied the seat from a CMK boxing of the Hasegawa kit I have. Started to add a bit of ribbing as well.

Tested the fit of the main wings, they don't actually fit in the aerofoil outline recesses in the fuselage halves so I tried trimming a little off the rear where they are a little too long (they match the plans in my copy of Richard A. Franks book) but ended up breaking off the ends 😡, so I'll have to build them up when mounted, no big deal 🙄. The upper halves of the oil coolers need cutting out and replaced with smaller ones supplied with the kit.

 

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Done a bit more the last couple of evenings. 

 

Remove the upper parts of the oil coolers on the wings to add the smaller type housings shown.

 

Painted the interior and added Tamiya Tape belts to the seats, all ready to close up.  I was only going to add a seat but got carried away and just had a go at adding some ribbing and the oxygen bottles at the rear, been decades since I scratch built an interior (Frog Sea Fury), should look OK when closed up.

 

Cleaned up and rubbed down the joining faces of the engine nacelle's, I think they'll look OK once the joins are carefully cleaned up and the front faces are VERY carefully rounded and cleaned up! The engines need lots of material removed from the outer rim to fit!

 

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Edited by DaveyGair
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Thanks again for all the positive comments, I'm basically just having a bit of fun putting this together.

 

46 minutes ago, Franz75 said:

So much work on this poorly manufactured kit,  I admire  your patience and perseverance.  Cockpit  looks nice.   Good luck. 

Yes, it isn't a 'shake and bake' kit my friend, but I believe the work of a 'one man band' (someone can put me right though), so just have to accept the shortcomings and applaud the effort to produce an accurate if not 'testing' kit!  Nothing done this weekend, family stuff to do so watch this space.

 

PS ; I have another High Planes Beau, plus 3 Beauforts AND a MK 1 Havoc, glutton for punishment or what!

 

Davey.

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A bit more done, fuselage together, not a bad fit but ended up with a step along the lower join, my mistake I think, should have added some tabs along the inside.  The lower nose part with the gun openings not too bad a fit, a little rubbing down and minor filler needed.

 

Made a start on the lower engine/wheel bays, come in two halves and need much filing and checking to fit somewhere near, double checked on the drawings from the 'Datafile' book as there isn't any locating points, got it not quite spot on but looks OK for me! The cowling in the photo isn't glued on yet.

 

Engine needs loads removed to fit the cowling, the openings don't look completely round but I'll soldier on 😒

 

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Bit more done this evening, starting to look like an airplane now. Could have done a bit better with the main wing joins but got really impatient and just want to get it done. Got a lot of cleaning up of the nacelles to do and sort out the main wing trailing edges, but she's starting to look like a Beaufighter now!

 

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8 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Liking the look of that Davy, you've done a great job of taming it.

Steve.

Cheers Steve, I'm determined to get a result from it and I'm learning a fair bit what to expect when I do the Beaufort's and a Havoc 1. I have another Beaufighter as well, but will turn my hand to an Airfix or MPM Hasegawa boxing one next I think.

 

Davey.

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On 7/29/2018 at 5:49 AM, DaveyGair said:

Thanks again for all the positive comments, I'm basically just having a bit of fun putting this together.

 

Yes, it isn't a 'shake and bake' kit my friend, but I believe the work of a 'one man band' (someone can put me right though), so just have to accept the shortcomings and applaud the effort to produce an accurate if not 'testing' kit!  Nothing done this weekend, family stuff to do so watch this space.

 

PS ; I have another High Planes Beau, plus 3 Beauforts AND a MK 1 Havoc, glutton for punishment or what!

 

Davey.

Hi Davey,

 

Well done with your progress so far. The work you've put into it is impressive. Regarding the history of High Planes, it was actually a 2 man show Greg & Steve. Greg produced the masters and Steve did all the mould design/injection moulding and remaining production. Greg is a master modeller and would do his best to produce as accurate a shape as possible. Obviously the limitations of the short run injection machinery limited the finesse of the parts. The canopies were produced by Falcon and are as good as any vac form canopies on the market.

 

I have all of the Australian subjects from the company though I've only ever built one - the Mk II Beaufighter. It's similar to yours except for the nacelles and engines obviously. The build is here - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/72nd_aircraft/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9128&p=68766#p68766

 

Cheers

 

Michael

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Hi Michael, yeah, I came across your build when doing a bit of research into this kit. 

High Planes are still available from HPM Hobbies in Singapore,  I got the Beaufort's and a Havoc from them, postage is very reasonable and they come in around 8 days. I got stung by customs for the last 2 kits though, VAT at nearly £8 and another £8 for the pleasure of inspecting them!! Still might get a MK.II though.

The Beaufighter's I got quite cheap off E-Bay from Lithuania of all places!

 

Davey.

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On 8/2/2018 at 9:14 AM, DaveyGair said:

Cheers Steve, I'm determined to get a result from it and I'm learning a fair bit what to expect when I do the Beaufort's and a Havoc 1. I have another Beaufighter as well, but will turn my hand to an Airfix or MPM Hasegawa boxing one next I think.

 

Davey.

 

It sounds like atonement, and Hasegawa will be like heaven. 😁.  Nice job. 

 

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7 hours ago, Franz75 said:

 

It sounds like atonement, and Hasegawa will be like heaven. 😁.  Nice job. 

 

 

Well, I don't know about that, me being a confirmed Atheist and all that 😉

 

Opened up the oil cooler intakes, will try some stretch sprue FOD guards... maybe. I also opened the exhaust ends, not shown here in the photo's but I know I did it!

 

Decided to get some paint on and see where we're at. I'm using Xtracrylic's,  not my normal Vallejo ModelAir, I tried them a couple of years ago and I'm still not quite convinced, but we'll give them a go.  

Don't look too closely, there are some really bad joins, but I was getting fed up sanding and test fitting... etc...… so just want to get it done before the deadline, am away this weekend so not much time left.

The excellent shot's of PN*B on the 'net show a roughly applied repaint over the standard Dark Green/Dark Earth with Azure underside's, leaving the Ailerons and elevators Sky (?). I didn't do the Euro scheme first, just have to imagine it under there, may do a little dry brush later. There is some overspray over the roundels but the Codes (and probably the reg.number) have been repainted.

 

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On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 9:19 PM, Ozzy said:

Nice colour Davey, looking good.

Cheers Ozzy, so far I haven't had much luck with Xtracrylic paint, there must be a definitive mix/method, but I've now managed to do all three colours, including trying to replicate the overspray on the roundels.

The fin flashes, codes and registration numbers are yet to be applied, which look as if they were repainted over when looking at photo's. Have yet to paint the lower aileron and elevator Sky yet.

She's coming along 🙂

 

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