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Bristol Beaufighter MkII


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On 7/31/2021 at 12:02 AM, DaveyGair said:

Lovely work so far. Once the parts are cleaned up the fit isn't bad at all, I found.

Look forward to seeing the end result.

 

Davey.

Thanks Dave, it just takes a bit of work. Although I seem to spend a lot of time sanding, filling and more sanding. 

12 hours ago, tonyot said:

This is coming along really well,..... I`ve built a couple and they are not the easiest kits to make,....... but you are mastering it well. ,.if you are going for the silver aircraft based in South Africa,..... it doesn`t have any paint along the top of the fuselage and it is highly polished  bare metal overall,.....  

Thanks Tony, as you know it's not the easiest of builds but does build up into something quite nice. Thanks for the info on the silver aircraft but I don't think I can get the finish just quite good enough for a natural metal finish, so I'll be doing one of the camouflage versions. Also although as a brush painter I can get a half decent aluminium paint finish I don't think a natural metal finish is in my skill set.

 

The fuselage joins have been filled and sanded, then filled again, sanded and polished. The tailplanes are also on. 

 

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There's a little bit of filler needed on the tailplane joins

 

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I've also added the air intakes onto the sides of the cowlings. 

 

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Then another deep deep breath and the wings on. The starboard one was a real pain until I realised the tab from the port wing was protruding a little too much.   

 

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And yes, there's some filler needed, just for a change. 

 

 

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The airframe is complete and cleaned up and the underside painted, it was a long job and took a lot of work, loads of filler and loads of sanding. The underside is painted. The instructions say that it should be Sky Blue rather than Azure. The best match I've got is Revell's Hellblu. 

 

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On 8/12/2021 at 5:09 PM, JOCKNEY said:

Great to see another Shake-and-bake kit being built in this GB........ :whistle:

 

Seriously great to see what you are doing with this one, keep up the good work.

 

cheers Pat 

 

Thanks Pat, I keep thinking I've passed the fill and file part, and then I find another bit to do. Mind you I'm now at the stage I'm thinking 'a couple of coats of paint will fix that!'  

 

Anyhow, there's now a couple of coats of Dark Slate Grey on and it not looking too bad. 

 

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A further coat and some interior painting finished off. 

 

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And for my entry in the Hellcat GB I've gone for a Hasegawa boxing, if a little old one. After a week or so I've got the airframe complete and finally have had to put a sliver of filler into the upper wing join. Made me want to come back to the Beau!

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First coat of Extra Dark Sea Grey on. Spotted a few small blemishes so it's out with the filler again. Then another couple of coats of ESDG. 

 

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The instructions say the finish was faded and I thought about using Dark Sea Grey and Light Slate Grey but the latter is too light. I think the ESDG probably fades more than the DSG. So I thought just leave it be in TSS. 

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A few more coats of paint after a bit of tidying up.  Masking tape off and the demarcation looks really good, I'm quite impressed after all the effort that had to go into it. 

 

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I couldn't resist getting the transfers on 

 

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I'll leave it to dry and then see about starting to get the finishing details on. The transparencies have been cut out and dipped in Kleer but I'll mask them before attaching. 

 

 

 

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40 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Nicely done @825

Was this cabriolet version very popular  ?

Cheers Pat 

It was based in South Africa. And apparently in the summer the roof down was good for keeping cool!!

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3 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

You're a bad influence @825 I've found an old Airfix Beaufighter in the stash, must resist  :hypnotised:

Cheers Pat 

Come on Pat, you know you want to do it. It's probably less work than this one. If I recall correctly it was a D Day livery with the ID stripes. It was also available in a dog fight double boxing with, I think a 109. 

 

Cheers

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17 minutes ago, 825 said:

Come on Pat, you know you want to do it. It's probably less work than this one. If I recall correctly it was a D Day livery with the ID stripes. It was also available in a dog fight double boxing with, I think a 109. 

 

Cheers

 

Stop it you're not helping at all !

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On 8/18/2021 at 12:42 PM, rob85 said:

More fine work, it does look good with merlins and that paint scheme! Nearly finished as well, you pace, as ever, is fantastic.

 

Rob

Thanks Rob, the transfers on always seems like getting on the homeward stretch. And for Pat @JOCKNEY the cabriolet experiment is over. 

 

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Now to get the observer's canopy sorted out. 

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Observer's canopy trimmed and tested for fit. It'll need cleaned up and dipped in Kleer before glueing on. It will also need a bit of filler and tidying up but we'll get there. 

 

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There's a little bit of work needed to fair the canopy in. Some Perfect Plastic Putty smoothed on and the excess wiped away. I'll leave it to dry and then sand and polish it in. Looks worse in the photo than it actually is. 

 

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Some further work on the nose end to fare in the canopy, looking a lot better with the paint on. A little more work to be done but getting there. 

 

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Observer's canopy masked and affixed. Again some work will be needed to get a nice clean finish. 

 

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Canopy painting (and tidying up ) finished and the masking removed. I should have perhaps left it on until I'd got the matt varnish on but one lives and learns. There's a bit of tidying up on the windscreen needed as well some Kleer to take out some small scratches. I'll wait till I've got a new blade on the scalpel before gently removeing any residues. 

 

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Undercarriage built, the main parts are HPM's white metal and the retraction struts and other supports plastic rod. All glued together with cyano. It's quite strong once the glue has cured, although I did manage to get a glue finger on the side of one the cowlings. So some extra tidying up needed. I also added the tail wheel. 

 

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And now a coat of paint on the undercarriage and it looks OK. HPM give good colour call outs for most of the aircraft but not the undercarriage. I've started with a coat of black which will cover any flaws, an dits what Blenheim undercarriages generally were.  I'll look at some photos but if anyone has info that'll be great.

 

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35 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Just caught up with this - it’s been a lot of work but it looks great!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian. It's been a fair bit of work but it's certainly getting there. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Now on her wheels and some more matt varnish on. 

 

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The spinners have a massive thick edge which needed significantly thinned down before the prop back plate even goes close to fitting. This is the model that keeps on giving. No subtlety used this time just scraped with a Stanley knife until thin enough to sand down. The cleaned up one is on the left, the still to be done one on the right. 

 

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Great work so far, the fit of these isn't too bad, it's just the preparation that goes into it that hurts a bit!

Getting on with my slightly easier to manage conversion now, hopefully we'll both end up in the gallery!

 

Davey.

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Landing light cover trimmed and glued into place. Makes it sound like an easy job, but once again it took a fair amount of time to get it trimmed to the right size. Good thing is I'm getting less apprehensive of vac form and starting to get a lot better with them. It will need a central frame painted on. 

 

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The props assembled, they will need a little cleaning up, especially the spinners but getting there. I used my Propmaster tool I got for assembling resin props and it was equally as valuable for injection moulded. 

 

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Once the props are on its just the aerial mast and the towel rail aerial underneath to go on, along with the pitot. They are all etch so not 100% out of the woods and into the gallery yet. 

 

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On 9/30/2021 at 1:18 PM, rob85 said:

Great perseverance with this kit, it’s really paying off. Looks fantastic.

 

Rob

Thanks Rob, it is turning into a labour of love as even simple things seem to take a long time. The plastic is really hard and everything needs cleaned up, often by a few mm. 

 

I almost forgot the undercarriage doors, they've been cleaned up separated and the interior painted. 

 

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Finally got them on and a first coat of paint, and yes they fought. You'd think two straight edges would be no problem but they kept falling off. My usual approach of softening with some TET then tacking on, adjust then wick the glue along the joint, worked at first, but at the wicking stage everything fell apart. 

 

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Then then I noticed this, the roundel has managed to get scraped. I can get something out of the stash but the yellow on the HPM transfers has a nice faded feel and I'm not sure I can match it. 

 

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Props now on, again loads of scraping and sanding needed, and a little touching up needed. 

 

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I saw some discussion about this cement for canopies and small parts so I thought I'd get some. In the U.K. Hobbycraft keep it so I had a trip out to Croydon last weekend.  

 

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Aerial mast and pitot on using the G-S Hypo.  Seems to work but has a strong smell. I'll wait until it's all firmed up before a final opinion. 

 

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