Tamiya Beaufighter

[reini]

 

Faces painted, but they really don't look happy do they? They even kinda look like suspicious of each other  "Watcha looking at?"

 

 

 

Some of the gear painted - do they look happier? Not really...

 

 

 

Okay, you got your pants done - surely this makes you happy? No? Alright then...

 

 

 

All done and still looking miserable... oh well..

 

 

 

"Can we go already??"

[reini]

 

The fit is excellent - but there were couple of places where I needed some putty. More likely due to my poor alignment of the fuselage parts than anything else.

 

 

 

It was established in this thread that the rockets were probably not yet widely used during the time period that this particular airplane represents - but they were the only available load out option with the kit and I think will look cool in the end. So, please don't judge me  The rockets rails are attached on a plate that goes under the wing. They also cover all the weapon shell ejection ports apart from the most inner ones - so I would assume that the outer guns were deleted/not used with rockets?

 

 

 

I'm keeping this kit fairly basic out of the box build but there's still some little things that can be done, like opening the exhausts.

 

 

 

Landing gears are clever little things, they can be easily assembled and painted separately - wheel wells included. And can just be popped into place when done painting them and the plane.

[TonyOD]

This is looking great. Fantastic job on the little fellas.

[Col.]

From what I understand the use of rockets resulted in the wing guns being removed and their openings plugged with wooden bungs.

[dogsbody]

3 hours ago, Col. said:

and their openings plugged with wooden bungs.

 

 

Never heard that one before. I thought the openings were just taped over, like the .303 gun ports on a Hurricane.

 

 

 

Chris

[reini]

 

I was making good progress with this one and I thought I'd get it primed today...

 

 

... but my airbrush said no. I'll have to wait it dry and sand it out tomorrow and try again...

 

Oh, regarding the rockets - from Squadron Signal's Beaufighter In Action I found the following:

 

"Among the weapons used by Beaufighter squadrons to good effect in the Far East and elsewhere was the simple but deadly airborne rocket. Trials to adapt the Beaufighter VI to carry eight rocket projectile launch rails under the wings began in September of 1942 with MKIVc (EL239). Few technical difficulties were found and by April of 1943 Beaufighters armed with rockets were training with the Coastal Strike Wings."

 

So I might be pushing the envelope a little bit as Malta 1942 with rockets most likely did not happen - but I guess in 1943 it would have been possible loadout.

[reini]

 

Not a whole lot of progress, but I did manage to paint some Azure blue on the underside.

[reini]

.... aaaand fast forward to a finished build  I have some WIP images but I think I just put RFI here and call it a day  

 

 

 

 

 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Very good job Reini

Cheers

Patrice