MikroMir 1/144 Blackburn Beverley C. Mk 1 RAF heavy-lift tactical transport

[Ray S]

@adey m, that was a very nice solution on the engines and props. The prop masking was also a 'challenge'! I love the props spinning.

 

This is great work on this model.

 

All the best,

 

Ray

[bigbadbadge]

Wow this has really progressed, looks great all together and great work on the props and cooling fans too.

Chris

[adey m]

 

This photograph shows clearly how the propellers were installed, I will have to fill the gaps where my props meet the spinners.

 

What it also shows is that replacement Bristol Centaurus engines came as a ' power egg ', complete with their cowling fitted, so here we have two silver painted replacement engines fitted to a camouflaged aircraft, that could make an interesting model. Also it looks like the wings behind the engines have been painted black to disguise the exhaust staining ?

 

 

An earlier stage in the build where the wings are just push-fitted over the wing spar, the fit to the fuselage is excellent which means that I will paint the model before I attach the wings. The wing spar is not glued to its mounting in the fuselage, this gives the wings some adjustment to get a good fit.

 

 

I painted the inside of the cockpit canopy black.

 

 

First coat of white acrylic undercoat brush painted to cockpit area. I paint the window frames by free hand, I do not worry if they are not even because I just gently scrape away any excess with a modelling blade when the paint is dry.

 

 

And then a few coats of Airfix Gloss White acrylic applied with a brush. A first coat of Humbrol Pale Stone has been applied, looks like it is going to need several coats, happy days ahead.

Edited January 30, 2021 by adey m

[Head in the clouds.]

2 hours ago, adey m said:

I paint the window frames by free hand,

A rarity indeed, wish I had that level of confidence.

[Mancunian airman]

I wish it was a 72nd scaale kit  . . .

[adey m]

How did they refuel a Beverley ?

 

This is the question that suddenly came to me,  after all the wings are a good height from the ground. The Handley Page Heyford had refuelling points in the wheel housings, so I guess that the Beverley had some centralised refuelling system too ? Does anybody know the answer please ?

 

 

I have found this photo which appears to show a Beverley being refuelled. There appears to be a fuel hose under the fuselage going somewhere, possibly into the side of fuselage in front of main wheel ?

 

 

[adey m]

9 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said:

I wish it was a 72nd scaale kit  . . .

 

The level of detail is probably good enough to be enlarged to 72 scale, it would be a better basis than vacuform or resin

[adey m]

 

First coat of Humbrol Pale Stone applied, mmm more grey than Pale Stone, never mind, just stick with it.

 

 

Second, or third coat applied, I am not sure, I have lost count  ........

 

 

 

 

 

 

[adey m]

WHICH COLOUR SCHEME TO CHOOSE ?

 

 

The kit comes with a choice of schemes and decals for four aircraft, here we have two different examples of the attractive silver and white schemes.

 

 

The X on the side of this aircraft is typical of the size of these letters.

 

 

You also get a choice for XB259, an aircraft used in an experimental role all of its life. Note how many roundels you would require for this one, two for the fuselage and four for the wings.

 

And you also get the choice for a camouflaged one, and this is the one I have decided to do. But I will come to this one later.

 

 

Unfortunately, we have problems with the decal sheet. Firstly, we are missing a roundel, we only have five, not six as required. Secondly, the blue of the roundels is too light in colour. Thirdly, as we have already seen, the aircraft individual letters are too large. And fourthly, the white ROYAL AIR FORCE MIDDLE EAST for the camouflaged version has MIDDLE spelt incorrect as MIDLE, so nil points to MikroMir for their decal sheet.

 

I decided that I would build a camouflaged one .................

 

 

but we have problems again, this time it is the incorrect camouflage pattern as specified on the colour guide. It seems that some kit manufacturers just do not understand that British military aircraft are painted to a set agreed pattern. All of the camouflaged Beverleys had the same pattern applied generally. I researched as many photographs of camouflaged Beverleys as I could find and I have corrected the colour plan above by indicating the correct brown parts of the pattern with dark ink. Also the fuselage roundels are too far forward, I have drawn their correct location with ink.

 

 

The three different aircraft in these two photos all have the same patterns, give or take an odd wavey line.

 

 

Here we have the model progress so far, Pale Stone covering is complete except on the vertical stabilisers because I could not decide how I was going to tackle them.

 

 

I have glued some temporary plastic tabs to the vertical tail planes which I can hold them from when I paint them.

Edited April 10, 2021 by adey m

[Ray S]

Hello Adey. you are doing grand with this aircraft! I am glad someone else does the 'paint canopies freehand then scrape' ploy, it was very much quicker when I did a Fairey Barracuda a little while ago, I would have probably still been masking even now with that!

 

I missed the camo demarcation issues, and, after I had built mine, Xtradecal brought out a set of markings for this and the Argosy

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X44009?result-token=9dwH3

 

I have the Mikromir Argosy in my stash, and have a diorama idea for it. 

 

https://apostlesofmercy.tumblr.com/post/114685191645/23rd-march-1964-the-armstrong-whitworth-argosy

 

I really like the way your Beverley is going!

 

All the best, Ray

[bigbadbadge]

Great work Adey, looking fantastic, I feel your pain on brush-painting the lighter coats. I am doing two yellow aircraft at the mo and am a brush painter and have lost count of how many coats so far. 

Chris

[adey m]

9 hours ago, Ray S said:

I have the Mikromir Argosy in my stash, and have a diorama idea for it. 

 

https://apostlesofmercy.tumblr.com/post/114685191645/23rd-march-1964-the-armstrong-whitworth-argosy

 

Your boat building experience should come in useful Ray for that diorama 😅, how are you with water modelling ? Amazing to think that Argosy flew again ............. I wonder if some comedian was tempted to paint a Plimsoll Line on the fuselage ..................

 

Those decal sets look tempting, but I will see if I have some suitable decals in my spares first. The missing D will be a bit of a challenge though ................

 

I just cannot face the prospect of ever masking up a cockpit canopy, life is too short. I have a Barracuda V conversion in 1/72 which needs finishing one day, and brush painted cockpit framing will be the order of the day with that too.

 

thanks my friend

[adey m]

8 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I feel your pain on brush-painting the lighter coats. I am doing two yellow aircraft at the mo and am a brush painter and have lost count of how many coats so far.

 

Two yellow brush-painted aircraft on the go .............. good luck with those Chris

[bigbadbadge]

Just now, adey m said:

 

Two yellow brush-painted aircraft on the go .............. good luck with those Chris

Ghanks Adey,  I am a masochist!!! 

[adey m]

As I now have a good coverage of the Pale Stone I started the fun part of the painting tonight, the brown part of the camouflage scheme

 

 

After opening various tins of browns to try and find a match to the colour photos I settled on Humbrol 119 Matt Light Earth and had a fun couple of hours this evening with my clothes on

 

 

Much studying of photos went on between each brush stroke, although every Beverley was painted to a specified pattern, the actual size and shape and waviness of each colour was dependant on the painters, and I have noticed two different patterns under the tailplanes in photographs

 

 

Tomorrow, the wings, stabilisers and undercarriage supports ..............

[Ray S]

On 2/2/2021 at 6:26 PM, adey m said:

 

Your boat building experience should come in useful Ray for that diorama 😅, how are you with water modelling ? Amazing to think that Argosy flew again ............. I wonder if some comedian was tempted to paint a Plimsoll Line on the fuselage ..................

 

thanks my friend

 

Hi Adey, I have dabbled with sea bases and had some reasonable (to me) results. What worries me more is why the dickens didn't Mikromir engrave a waterline into the Argosy to make it easier to do! (Only Joking Mikromir!). I have to figure out how to embed the plane into the base, so I may have to go hunting for expanded polystyrene somewhere when I am allowed!

 

The Light Earth looks spot on with your camouflage, and the white lid looks great.

 

Cheers, Ray

[Mancunian airman]

Adey

I think, as a fellow brush painter, you are doing a cracking job of this build, its gonna look excellent when its done.

Looking at the decals, I thought the rather large letter on the fuselage was exaggerated because it also covers the engines in the diagram but then on the decal sheet it really is to big . . . 

 

I dont really remember these aircraft flying but after looking at your build, it certainly was a useful and an attractive aircraft . . . .

Continued success with the painting  .

Ian

[adey m]

5 hours ago, Mancunian airman said:

but then on the decal sheet it really is to big . . . 

thanks Ian

 

if they want iT big, they shall have iT BIG

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Love it!

 

Iain

[AMB]

Looking good Adey. I have two of these kits in my stash, one will be camo and the other in  the earlier white./silver/dayglo scheme and of course using the Xtradecal Beverley/Argosy corrective decal sheet. Taking note as you go along.  Saw two of these kits superbly finished at Telford in 2019 and they looked excellent.  I am working with Micromir to ensure their decals will be correct next time. 

Edited February 5, 2021 by AMB

[adey m]

On 05/02/2021 at 00:08, AMB said:

Looking good Adey. I have two of these kits in my stash, one will be camo and the other in  the earlier white./silver/dayglo scheme

Thanks AMB, deciding on which scheme to go with was quite a hard choice for me as the Beverleys had so many different schemes, even the silver and white ones had at least three different styles. Having two like you would have made it a bit easier, or not, no blue cheat line, or blue cheat line above windows, or blue cheat line running through the windows 🤔

 

In recent years I have rediscovered the joy of brush painting camouflage patterns and have fond memories of the original attractive camo scheme on the RAF Hercules and trying to replicate it on my Airfix one when I was ten.

 

Good to know you are working with MikroMir on their decal sheets.

Edited February 6, 2021 by adey m

[Ruskin Air Services]

3 hours ago, adey m said:

Thanks AMB, deciding on which scheme to go with was quite a hard choice for me as the Beverleys had so many different schemes, even the silver and white ones had at least three different styles. Having two like you would have made it a bit easier, or not, no blue cheat line, or blue cheat line above windows, or through the windows 🤔

 

In recent years I have rediscovered the joy of brush painting camouflage patterns and have fond memories of the original attractive camo scheme on the RAF Hercules and trying to replicate it on my Airfix one when I was ten.

 

Good to know you are working with MikroMir on their decal sheets.

I only use a paint brush on models only time I spray with a rattle can when it's one colour. Wouldn't trust myself with an airbrush as I would end up either wearing more paint than the model or loose a vital component when cleaning it! 

[adey m]

 

Beverley tail feathers colour conundrum

 

 

I have had some fun painting brown squiggles all over Beverley and as you can see I have tackled the vertical tailplanes, and while doing so discovered there were some variations in the pattern between different aircraft   .............. I thought I was going a bit daft to start with.

 

I had already discovered that there were variations with how the rear fuselage was painted.

 

 

Here we have a Beverley getting flirty at low level, note that there is pale stone, brown, and pale stone under the tailplane.

 

 

And yet on this Beverley we only have pale stone under the tail ............ strange, I wonder what went on during the painting at RAF St Athan

 

 

And then while painting the vertical tailplanes I noticed some more variations ..................

 

 

Notice that the far vertical tailplane on the port side has a pale stone patch at the top front corner.

 

 

Notice that the pale stone patch at the top front corner on the port tailplane on this Beverley has been painted brown over. So again, I wonder what was going on at the painting stage ...............

 

 

mmm .............

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by adey m

[adey m]

 

More progress has been made, lower demarcation masked with Tamiya masking tape and then all the undersurfaces painted Humbrol Matt Black.

 

 

This was the first coat of Black. I have now applied a second coat. And while I have my painting mojo I have decided to repaint my old Matchbox RAF 10 ton pressure refueller.

[Mancunian airman]

And both look splendid in their schemes . . .