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"Slippery Ship II" Bristol Beaufighter MkVIF *Finished*


Dunny

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On 1/31/2021 at 10:34 AM, JohnT said:


Following this with much interest. 
 

I was having a look at these great photos and this one caught my eye. If you have a look at the rear bubble canopy it seems to have “blobs”on it. At first I thought photo print or negative marks but they look to be on the canopy only so not that. Odd the ground crew not cleaned it off whatever and I had a horrid thought. North Africa? Big flies inside the aircraft?  🪰 Any thoughts?

 

At a guess I would say that the `blobs' could,.... and I say,... `could',....be markers to indicate to the pilot the direction for the pilot to look when talking him onto a night contact,..... especially when looking t the radar and then straight outside through a bubble canopy which would otherwise have no reference points like frame lines to help orientate the operator? Helicopter pilots get a similar feeling at night time or in white out/ dust out conditions.  

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This is coming along really well mate and great subject,..... having read of the achievements of the 89 Sqn C Flight det in Malta I jut had to build one myself but it is hard to pin anything definite down and the crews often flew different aircraft too due to servicability. 

Re colour scheme,..... at first I was all for desert scheme,..... having seen just how startkly the all black Beau`s showed up out in the sand on Egyptian airfields and this would have helped hide them during the day in Malta too,....... and I was never a `believer' in the TSS/Black scheme which I have also seen mentioned for later ops over the Aegean circa 1942-43,........ however,.... it does make sense,.... especially  from Malta where they were sometimes used during daylight too (I have a photo of an NF Beau from Malta low over the sea in daylight and had presumed at first that it was being pressed into service by the strike squadrons,..... but then,.... why? Expensive and still quite rare radar kit onboard!) ,.... I`m not really helping much,..... but I am highly sceptical of the desert scheme being so widely seen on Beaufighters (and Beauforts) as side view artists would have us believe. ..... having a desert schemed maritime strike aircraft just does not make sense,..... and the same goes for Marauders and Baltimores too,..... both of which wee proved to have adopted maritime schemes for over water ops. 

I`m probably not helping much here,...... but that 2nd photo of Slippery Ship II taken from behind the wing just could be a local application of TSS with quite faded colours ,..... and the well known frontal view could well be too,..... either that or a `marinisation' of the desert scheme,...... as used on Malta Spits,...... where the Middle Stone area was overpainted on the island using Extra Dark Sea Grey,..... that way the desert scheme could still hold water for Egypt,..... with an added Malta twist by quickly converting it,........so I`m quite sold on the idea! 

Cheers

           Tony 

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9 hours ago, Dunny said:

 Chris - are you aware of the MkVIF tab configuration? I am not so any advice would be greatly appreciated before I dive in & make a change!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

 

I'll have to trawl through all my references. Somewhere I know there's info on this. The hard part will be finding it.

 

 

 

Chris

 

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7 hours ago, tonyot said:

This is coming along really well mate and great subject,..... having read of the achievements of the 89 Sqn C Flight det in Malta I jut had to build one myself but it is hard to pin anything definite down and the crews often flew different aircraft too due to servicability. 

Re colour scheme,..... at first I was all for desert scheme,..... having seen just how startkly the all black Beau`s showed up out in the sand on Egyptian airfields and this would have helped hide them during the day in Malta too,....... and I was never a `believer' in the TSS/Black scheme which I have also seen mentioned for later ops over the Aegean circa 1942-43,........ however,.... it does make sense,.... especially  from Malta where they were sometimes used during daylight too (I have a photo of an NF Beau from Malta low over the sea in daylight and had presumed at first that it was being pressed into service by the strike squadrons,..... but then,.... why? Expensive and still quite rare radar kit onboard!) ,.... I`m not really helping much,..... but I am highly sceptical of the desert scheme being so widely seen on Beaufighters (and Beauforts) as side view artists would have us believe. ..... having a desert schemed maritime strike aircraft just does not make sense,..... and the same goes for Marauders and Baltimores too,..... both of which wee proved to have adopted maritime schemes for over water ops. 

I`m probably not helping much here,...... but that 2nd photo of Slippery Ship II taken from behind the wing just could be a local application of TSS with quite faded colours ,..... and the well known frontal view could well be too,..... either that or a `marinisation' of the desert scheme,...... as used on Malta Spits,...... where the Middle Stone area was overpainted on the island using Extra Dark Sea Grey,..... that way the desert scheme could still hold water for Egypt,..... with an added Malta twist by quickly converting it,........so I`m quite sold on the idea! 

Cheers

           Tony 

Tony,

 

I agree that there's sufficient uncertainty that both (or neither!) could be correct, and I just couldn't resist the scheme! Your knowledge and commentary are, as ever, much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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8 hours ago, AndyL said:

Don't know if this helps regarding colour schemes, but 89 Squadron were originally based in North Africa, mainly Abu Sueir, with several detached flights based at other airfields such as Idku, and by the start of May 1942 they had claimed seven destroyed, two probable and two damaged. A detached flight, known as the Malta Flight, or 'C' Flight was raised and this is when 89 started to account for more enemy aircraft. This Malta Flight consisted of Shipard, Reeves, Fumerton, Mitchell, and Ross; they were posted to Malta on 22nd June 1942.  Also, the squadron undertook a few shipping escorts in daylight too and at night flew intruder sorties over Sicily.

 

If you look closely at the image I posted with Shipard and Reeves stood in front of Slippery Ship II, you can see what could be an overpainted roundel? I've never worked out if it's overpainted or a trick of the photographic film.

Andy,

 

Many thanks for this. I think that there is sufficient conjecture for me to get away with TSS over Night as opposed to Desert. There is certainly a good case for either so I guess it's down to individual choice (noting @tonyot's lovely rendition of Hun Hunter!) Appreciate your ongoing input,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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51 minutes ago, mark.au said:

Coming along very nicely.  The problem with this board is you blink and miss two pages worth of posts!  Just caught up again.

Thanks Mark - you are forgiven as it is a public holiday 🤣

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Hi All,

 

A little more progress today. I decided to dive in and correct the incorrectly corrected elevator tabs :headbang:, as was kindly pointed out by @Wlad. I did some picture searching and on first inspection it would appear that Tamiya have incorrectly located the tabs on the upper surface rather than the lower - that was good enough for me. So here's the result:

 

20210405-111250.jpg

 

Otherwise known as 'What's this? A dead one of these", as I believe @CedB is fond of saying.

 

Next, I belatedly realised that the recessed panels on the rear of the nacelles are also incorrect, so carefully splooged Tamiya putty and allowed it to dry. Here's following application:

 

20210405-112411.jpg

 

Whilst that was drying I put together the main undercarriage assemblies, which went together nicely. I could resist a test fit - I'm not sure they're coming out again as they fit so well! 🤣 Here's another teaser - definitely starting to look like a Beau!

 

20210405-115111.jpg

 

Here's the recessed panels after sanding and rescribing - don't look too bad...

 

20210405-115616.jpg

 

Finally, here's a shot with the glazing applied - I'll mask that next. Anyone smell primer?

 

20210405-121230.jpg

 

That's all for today as we have friends popping in for drinks later - Happy Easter Monday all!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

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Gidday Roger, 1/600 scale ships are my thing but I have a penchant for the big twin-engined fighters of WW2 also. I rather like this aircraft and he model you're doing of it. Regards, Jeff.

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1 minute ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Roger, 1/600 scale ships are my thing but I have a penchant for the big twin-engined fighters of WW2 also. I rather like this aircraft and he model you're doing of it. Regards, Jeff.

Thanks for the kind words Jeff - much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Roger, good progress fella, it's great to see it comingvtogether and on the test fitted undercarriage too.  Riveting looks great, I must practice that myself.  Great work 

Chris

Cheers Chris! Riveting is very much an acquired skill - one way, slowly and towards you are my early lessons!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Just spotted this thread and am now eagerly following.

 

Love the progress so far Roger looking good, I'm a big fan of anything Bristol built or powered so this ticks both boxes.

Those hedgehog exhausts look the business, gonna have to get some for my Beaus (Also got his Tam kit as well as Revell TF.X).

 

Are you gonna use Vallejo for all the colours ?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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6 hours ago, Mark R said:

Just spotted this thread and am now eagerly following.

 

Love the progress so far Roger looking good, I'm a big fan of anything Bristol built or powered so this ticks both boxes.

Those hedgehog exhausts look the business, gonna have to get some for my Beaus (Also got his Tam kit as well as Revell TF.X).

 

Are you gonna use Vallejo for all the colours ?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Hi Mark,

 

Welcome aboard! I note your location - I'm also a Bristol-built fan as I worked for RR in Filton for a while myself. I tend to mix & match paints, although the Vallejo do spray consistently well through my H&S Ultra. For this the paints will be: EDSG - Mr Hobby, DSG - Vallejo, Nato Black - Vallejo. Thanks for the interest,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Hi All,

 

Some good progress today - I had a day's annual leave :penguin:

 

First of all I started by masking the transparent components with the Montex masks, which turned out to be about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike 🤬

 

20210409-114644.jpg

 

They simply would not stick properly to anything remotely contoured:

 

20210409-114711.jpg

 

And the worst:

 

20210409-114736.jpg

 

Not to worry - out with the Tamiya tape and a new blade!

 

 

 

20210409-123905.jpg

 

And she's ready for primer. On spraying I noticed a seam on the top of the fuselage which required some attention.

 

20210409-130749.jpg

 

After putting down the first coat I also noticed that I'd forgotten to add the air intakes & radiators :poo:. I needed to spray some more primer on the top seam anyway, so no biggie. Here after the offending bit were added and resprayed:

 

 

20210409-132515.jpg

 

Next I preshaded the upper surfaces with Nato Black:

 

20210409-133915.jpg

 

Looking good! I next turned my attention to the markings, for which I also had a set of Montex masks. I'd seen @shortCummins apply these prior to the main paint coat, and thought I'd rip off his excellent idea give it a go as well (thanks John!!). 

 

Here's the white areas applied for the national markings:

 

20210409-134739.jpg

 

Next I applied the film forming the outer edge of the roundel:

 

 

20210409-135501.jpg

 

I then oh so carefully applied the yellow rings, taking care not to stray towards the white:

 

20210409-140252.jpg

 

The yellow, blue and white masks were then carefully applied:

 

20210409-140707.jpg

 

Here's the red sprayed. I used a 50:50 mix of signal red and red-brown, which looks right to my eye - note the red area sprayed which will next become the aircraft code letter:

 

20210409-142018.jpg

 

I wanted to simulate the doped linen areas applied around the cannon ports, so sprayed the red mix locally here. I'll later apply a random pattern of liquid mask, as these patches were by no means uniform in shape:

 

20210409-142550.jpg

 

I then masked up the red areas in preparation for spraying the blue:

 

20210409-143410.jpg

 

And finally the blue (shown here after the masks were applied):

 

20210409-145249.jpg

 

Phew - that was complicated! Next I got on and sprayed the Dark Slate Grey - here's halfway through:

 

20210409-150107.jpg

 

And finito - I added some mid-stone to the mix to 'fade' the colour. The aircraft was based in Egypt so I would expect the paintwork faded pretty quickly:

 

20210409-152035.jpg

 

I decided to freehand the Extra Dark Sea Grey, as the camo pattern is pretty simple. Here's the finished result after also spraying a lightened mix (with white this time):

 

20210409-154509.jpg

 

I'm now off to spray the undersides - wish me luck!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

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Hi All,

 

Another update following a perfect day of annual leave! Next I sprayed the Nato Black freehand, and then lightened areas using RLM66. This has a slight sheen, so the contrast is not nearly as pronounced as it appears in the photos - in fact I'm pretty happy with the result, and it should settle down nicely under a flat coat:

 

20210409-165039.jpg

 

20210409-165047.jpg

 

Once this had dried for a semi-decent length of time I removed the marking masks. There were a couple of minor bleeds in the white, yellow and blue, but these were easily touched up with a bit of careful hairy stick action 🤩

 

I then applied the decals for the aircraft serial number and the all important 'Slippery Ship II':

 

20210409-172130.jpg

 

Finally here's a couple of teaser shots:

 

20210409-172203.jpg

 

20210409-172147.jpg

 

Forgive my self-indulgence ladies and gentlemen, but Phwooaar!! I'll apply a gloss coat tonight so it can dry nice and solid before a Flory wash tomorrow,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

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8 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oh mate this looks fantastic and a great use of your  A/Leave.  Great work, the paint looks great as well as painting your own markings .

Fantastic work Roger.

Chris

Thanks Chris - I'm pretty pleased with the result, and although the markings were a bit of a faff they do look so much better than decals! Appreciate the kind words,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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17 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

Well done with the pre-shading, the markings and cammo application, looking good.

 

Colin

Thanks for the kind words Colin - much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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4 minutes ago, reini said:

@Dunny

 

I recently built this same kit and after some consideration went with a non-desert scheme too. Yours is looking brilliant! 

Thanks for the kind words Reini - much appreciated!

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Really nice 'brush work there Roger, I've never mastered the pre-shading so impressed that you have.

Also nice work with the Vallejo, I'm still firing at the test spoons, getting better but a long way to go (H&S Evo CR Plus - 0.4 mm).

 

PS. I still work there......

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