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Airfix Beaufort as the first Mk.V


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It's Beaufort shaped!

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I took the opportunity to test out my choice of RAAF paints on a Jindivik.  It's serving as a bit of a paint mule until I find out what happened to the decals for it (I'm sure they're around somewhere).  The Foliage Green is Mr. Hobby H-302.  The Earth Brown is 10 parts Vallejo 71.323 BS Dark Earth and 1 part 71.105 Brown RLM 25 (which is actually a dark red).  The phone camera doesn't quite do them justice, it looks great in real life.

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And now things get interesting.  I'm going to mostly black-base the model but decided to put some bright colour on a few panels.  Here's the start of that process.  I'll probably do another round in another colour  (possibly a grey or a blue) and then start the Foliage Green.  Unfortunately, I got a bit of over-spray, but I don't think that will be a problem once the green goes down over the top.

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Until next time, I guess it's Happy Halloween from the Department of Aircraft Production?

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In a minor update, I got the second "patch" coat done.  I chose a medium-light grey, and did it in a splotchy pattern.  I'm curious to see how this looks.  Worst case, if this all looks awful, I'll just hit it with some more black, then go back to painting it like I've done plenty of other models before.

 

Sometimes it's nice to be able to experiment, whilst knowing you can un-do it if necessary! :)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The cammo is on!  I started with the green, painted freehand to avoid having to match a sharp edge with the brown.  I didn't want to cover up too much of the previous panel work though, so I tried to just barely go beyond where the final green areas will be.

 

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Then came the brown.  I also added the wingtip lights at this time, and did a bit more green and brown around them to cover up a bit of glue squeeze-out.  The clear pieces had their backs drilled out and painted to represent the bulbs.

 

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Now, on to the silver undersides!

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Apologies for not checking in sooner.. that's looking rather good now that the top camouflage has been applied. I must admit being a bit confused by all that extra effort to pre-shade essentially a new factory fresh aircraft, however the final results are quite convincing, so well done. The colours look great and I'm sure it'll all pop out when the underside silver is applied. 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Oooh! This is coming along nicely.

 

Interesting reading your comments about Fishermans Bend, Beggsy. My Old Man worked next door at CAC when the runways were still there (and no Westgate Bridge). As a wide-eyed 9-year-old, I attended the works Christmas open day in 1964. The precinct has changed somewhat since then %~))

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9 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I must admit being a bit confused by all that extra effort to pre-shade essentially a new factory fresh aircraft, however the final results are quite convincing, so well done.

 

Normally I use weathering to make my models look less toy-like, but I knew I couldn't really make this one dirty if it's going to be factory fresh.  This ended up being the best alternative I could think of and it's worked better than I hoped.

 

9 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

The colours look great and I'm sure it'll all pop out when the underside silver is applied. 

 

Popped indeed!

 

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As can be seen, I've added the landing gear legs.  They'll need a bit of something done to them to highlight the detail.  It's a well-greased area with moving parts, so I might be able to justify a wash to myself.  I'll also pick out any sliding sections in silver.

 

Should be ready for decals shortly!

 

Also, I just realised that the last time I talked about the colours I said I had planned to use RAF Dark Earth and Dark Green.  This was based on other pictures of early production Beauforts where the contrast between colours is clearer.  A helpful chap at the RAAF* summarised this for me.  It seem pretty clear that from T9541 onwards, the Beuforts intended for the RAF had RAAF Light Green and Light Earth upper surfaces (ironicly, these almost perfectly match RAF Dark Green and Dark Earth) and Sky Type S undersides.  The pictures of T9540, though, clearly show a sliver underside and much less contrast between the 2 upper surface colours.  The indication, then, is that T9540 (perhaps due to its prototype nature) wasn't painted the same as the rest of the aircraft.  RAAF Dark Earth and Dark Green seem to match the contrast in the photos, and I also noted that the red in the wing roundels has a similar darkness to the brown paint.  Obviously, there's the huge caveat about interpreting colours from black and white photos here. 

 

In the end, neither the aircrafts builder (work) or operator (RAAF) have a definitive record of how it was painted, so I chose to go ahead with what seemed most likely.  We may never know for certain what the real answer is.

 

*Squadron Leader Geoff Thomas, Senior Research Officer, Office of Air Force History.   The RAAF museum forwarded my query to him and I got a wealth of knowledge in response!  If you happen to read this thread, thank you!!!

Edited by Beggsy
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Decal work is about to commence.

 

Before that, though, here are a few things I've discovered while searching for more reference photos (found 3, posted at the start of the thread).

 

1. There's definitely no roundels on the underside of the wings.

2. There's a small arrow-shaped stencil on the port side of the fuselage near the wing root.  Neither the decals from the High Planes conversion nor the Print Scale ones include this.  I managed to find a good enough spare on a sheet from an Italeri F-5.

3. T9540 was flown with seemingly every other stencil not applied.  That's a shame as I was hoping to use the Airfix stencils to add a bit more detail.  Oh well, plain roundels, tail number and fin flash it is (plus the black arrow from the point above).

4. The below image is an illustration rather than a photo.  It seems to confirm that the spinners should be black and not a camouflage colour.

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5. L4448 (the aircraft used to trial fit the Twin Wasps) has a very similar paint scheme but it's not quite identical!  There's a difference in how the silver/camouflage demarcation line meets the wing on the engine nacelles.  See below:

 

L4448, demarcation line meets wing aft of the trailing edge, so upper surface colours extend slightly below the wing

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T9540, demarcation line ends at the leading edge

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Right time to put a few stickers on this thing.

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Decals complete!  In the end, it only had 9, and that's after quite a while looking all over the photos to try and find evidence of more.  4 roundels, 2 fin-flashes, 2 tail numbers and that little arrow at the wing root is it.  I assumed there's only an arrow on one side, as it might be a "step here" kind of a marking and there's only 1 door.

 

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Speaking of the door, I popped it off (the spots of PVA I used to tack it in place took more effort to break than I expected).  The toilet is now visible again!  Hopefully the rest of the interior will look a little less dark once the turret and port-holes are unmasked.  You'll never be able to see into the radio operator's compartment, but at least it should look less like a black hole.

 

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Next up will be to fix the glue spots in the door frame, then some satin varnish to make it less shiny.  From there on, it's just painting and attaching details.

 

Not far to go now!

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Really coming up nicely and it’ll look completely different again once you take the canopy and nose glazing masks off. Did you not see any evidence of the stencil markings that Airfix provide? That would be a few more decals to use. Cheers.. Dave 

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On 3/27/2021 at 9:08 PM, Beggsy said:

1. RAF Dark Earth and 2. Dark Green on the upper surfaces and 3. silver on the lower surfaces. 

1. Yes, 2. yes, 3. You mean Aluminium dope but probably not, at least according to the official painting specs and the non-relective finish in your photos.

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On 7/22/2021 at 2:40 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

Did you not see any evidence of the stencil markings that Airfix provide?

 

Unfortunately not.  That would definitely have added a bit more interest.  I'm doubly pleased that I took the time to vary some of the panels now.

 

On 7/23/2021 at 9:22 AM, Ed Russell said:

according to the official painting specs

 

Thanks for sending that through, it's a fascinating read.  The paint spec calls for Blue and White only on the roundels, so it seems to be for later models after the RAF ones were done.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself to avoid re-painting the underside.

 

A few more notes on decals, for anyone thinking of a similar project:

 

1. High Planes and Print Scale both provide a tail-number decal, but they're different sizes.  I compared the size of the tail number to the nearby tailwheel in photos, then held the kit's tail-wheel up against the both decals.  The High Planes one is the best match, so I used that.

 

2. Neither High Planes nor Print Scale got the fin flash correct.  Print Scale have it as a perfect square, High Planes had the angled cutout of the blue section right but the whole thing was too large (and the blue looked a little dark).  Neither had the 45 degree cutout in the corner of the red section. This isn't immediately apparent in photos, but when I messed around with he brightness and contrast a bit it was irrefutable.  I ended up using the decals from the Airfix kit and folding a bit of the blue section into the gap between the fixed vertical tail and the rudder.

 

3. The Airfix roundels from the second scheme (the one in the temperate sea scheme) are the right size for T9540, so I used them.  Print Scale's looked a bit translucent in the white areas, and High Planes required me to add the red dots myself (and I'm lazy / not good at lining up circles).  Plus, now all the shades of red and blue match the fin flash from the previous point.

 

More photos shortly, I'm about to add some toned-down varnish to the model and start work on the propellers.

 

Beggsy

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2 hours ago, Beggsy said:

it seems to be for later models after the RAF ones

It was promulgated in 1938 with minor amendments to 1941. Orders for RAF Beauforts were made on 1 July 1939.

This picture shows 6 of the 8 arrived. From ADF-Serials. You judge the colour.

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Satin varnish on, masking off!

 

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Unfortunately I wasn't able to put varnish on the entry hatch...because I lost it :(

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I'm really happy with how the landing lights turned out.  Great job Airfix, this way of modelling them works!

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The thing I am most happy with is definitely the clarity of the canopy!!!

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Hmm, seems I've knocked the gun-camera mount off......again.......

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Hmm, what else.  I painted the propeller tips yellow after a bit of sanding to clean them up, but that's not very exciting by comparison.  Here's a photo anyway.

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I also painted some aluminium on the moving bits of the landing gear, then did a light wash of black.

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The Eduard tailwheel was attached.  It's a big improvement on the kit part, though it probably won't be that noticeable with the rest of the model shadowing it.  This photo also shows the panel-variation work quite nicely.

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One last overview photo because I'm SO please with how it's looking!  Not far to the finish line now.

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That's looking splendid and the close-up photos of the nose glazing really highlight what a great job you've done of the internal parts. 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Wow! Looks splendid!

 

I was going to mention that "Navy Bird" Gillman build a very nice DAP Beaufort from the Special Hobby kit some years ago, but since yours is an earlier production variant i'm not sure how much value added there would be..... but admittedly its a heck of an inspiration!

 

-d-

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I read that whole thread start to finish!  Its was a brilliant build indeed.  As you say, a lot of what made the Mk.VIII unique wasn't present on the early Mk.V airplanes which seem to match the examples from Bristol in most places except for the engines.  However, I may yet build more Beauforts.

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Well well well.  I finished the propellers and was about to glue them on.  I almost stuck them in a "recently spun" position, i.e. no blades directly up, down, left or right.  Then I realised, the aircraft when just rolled out might have had the propellers positioned neatly after all.

 

I thought I'd found all the photos I could, but I googled "DAP Beaufort Rollout" to see if I could find photos of any of them coming out of the factory.  Lo and behold, I found this photo from the Australian War Memorial:

 

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It's captioned "Fishermans Bend, Victoria. The first Australian built Beaufort aircraft being wheeled out of its hangar."

 

So there we have it, the airplane in factory fresh condition!  Also, this is the first photo I've found that's taken from the right.  It shows me that the little gun camera mount that I've built twice and broken twice.....isn't present!  It seems to have been fitted from T9541 onward (as it's clearly visible on the aircraft pictured in Singapore).  Yet again, I'm finding that my original assumption that T9540 was identical to the production Mk.V airframes isn't quite true.

 

Anyway, with this photo found, I'll get rid of the camera mount, and put the propellers in the same positions as shown above.  Pictures soon (and they may be the last ones before it makes it's way to the RFI area).

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On 3/27/2021 at 10:05 PM, Beggsy said:

I'm certainly going to leave the hatch open, and do my best to keep the cockpit glazing nice and clear to try and keep some of it visible.

This sentence has aged well.

 

On 3/27/2021 at 10:05 PM, Beggsy said:

Below are two of the features not present on T9540.  Not sure what the one aft of the engine is, but the one beside the oil cooler inlet is a gun camera port.

This sentence has not aged well.  Good thing I never filled the hole, but I did sand off the raised feature around it.  Oh well, too late to fix now!

 

Maybe I'll build T9540 again and get that detail right when the ICM 1:48 Beaufort comes out......

 

:P

 

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On 4/1/2021 at 7:08 AM, jackroadkill said:

Very nice - great to see the new Beaufort kit proving popular. 

Just imagine how popular a 1/48 version will be!

 

Lovely job, by the way, Beggsy!

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The gunk in the panel lines wasn't intentional.  Most of them are clean, but I had some sort of paint issue with the black undercoat.  I had to re-paint one area of green entirely after black seeped through and took on the pattern of the masking tape, and then it also came through the brown on a few panels.  Most of them look like removable panels, so I ended up deciding not to fight it further.

 

As for the different shades of panels, it's pretty subtle, and I can confirm that even on brand new airliner parts, you can sometimes see different sheens on different panels.

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Minor update time.

 

First of all, here are the completed propellers, and the airplane on its wheels.

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I haven't attached the props yet as I scuffed some paint where the incorrect camera mount was.  It's a lot easier to access and fix without a prop in the way.  In the below photo I've fixed the green but still need to do the aluminium.

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I've had no luck with finding the access hatch, so I partook in the dark art of "Scratch-Building" for the first time.

 

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It went better than I expected!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's done!  Actually not quite, I haven't painted that door as I didn't want to get the airbush out just for such a small part.  I'll be getting the Foliage Green out again soon enough and I'll do it then.  Conveniently, the door is invisible when open on the real airplane, so there's nothing wrong with leaving it off for now. :)

 

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Here's a link to the RFI:

 

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