1/48 Tamiya Beaufighter IF

[Richard Cawsey]

I have just finished a Tamiya Beaufighter as a night fighter, and am now planning to get a Revell version for comparison.

The Tamiya kit dates from the 1990s but goes together beautifully. It is said to have a slight pot-belly ahead of the tailwheel, and wrongly-shaped tailplanes, but these are not really noticeable to me. I had to try and fix a number of small inaccuracies and omissions, but most of them appear to be issues with the new Revell kit as well:

 

Wheels: both kits have the later style; the earlier-type five-segmented wheels are not catered for. Revell wheels look rather thin; I don't know which are the most accurate.

Tail lights: most Beaufighters had two lights (formation-keeping and navigation lamps) on the rudder trailing edge, but both kits only have the lower one, though the Revell light is undersized.

Raised structure on top of the fuselage just ahead of the observer's cupola: Not sure what the purpose of this device was, it may have been to smooth the airflow over the canopy, but it is missing from both kits.

Cowling bracing struts in front of engine: missing.

Aerial-wire attachment on leading edge of fin: missing.

Beam-approach pole antenna under fuselage (early marks): missing.

Cartridge ejection slots: both kits have two rows of holes under the wings, but there should only be one row.

Wing aerials: night fighters with AI Mk. IV radar should have elevation receiving dipoles above and below the starboard wing.

Exhausts: The Tamiya hedgehog-exhausts are poorly shaped; Revell's look much better, except publicity photos of their new Mk.IF night fighter version show the same type exhausts - on the aircraft depicted they should be short with no flame-dampers.

Elevator balance tab levers: Tamiya has them over-scale and wrongly-positioned on the top of the tailplane; corrected on the Revell version, except photos of their Mk.IF with flat tailplanes show them above the tailplane: hopefully just an error in assembly.

Pitot tube: the shape on the Revell kit appears to be based on the RAF Museum Beaufighter which is all wrong.

Elevator trim wheel (starboard side of cockpit): Revell's is much too big.

Wings: Some spurious panel lines and battle-damage repair patches on Tamiya kit.

Fuselage cannon: the port and starboard gun ports and shell-case ejector slots should be slightly asymmetric, though only noticeable on close inspection. On the Tamiya kit only the ejector slots are offset (though they are too far forward), while on the Revell kit it is only the gun ports that are offset.

 

Overall, though not yet having seen the Revell kit in the flesh, I would say it is more detailed and complicated, but not necessarily a great improvement in accuracy over Tamiya's 1990s offering. Of course it could be that Revell's new Mk.IF includes some last-minute fixes to some of the above problems. . .

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooo nice I like this, great work and great finish like to the overpainted sections and weathering.

 

[RMCS]

Lovley 

[Wulfman]

Excellent work on the Beaufighter , very nice weathering !

 

Wulfman

[stevej60]

Nice build and beautifully weathered to,love it!

[jenko]

Very nice. You will see a big difference between the Tamiya and Revell kits.  Revell is not shake and bake trust me. 

 

Look forward to see how you get on.

 

Cheera

Dick

[GREG DESTEC]

Beautiful Beau! 

 

Great info too on all the changes you made. The model itself and the finish is excellent. Nice change to see the crew installed as well.

 

Fantastic work.

 

🍺Greg

[F-32]

Wonderful work, that really looks the part