Revell 1/48 Beaufighter TF.X

[jackroadkill]

Whilst there were a few options for this GB, I decided that this would be the build I'd go for.  I've got two generations of Airfix Blenheim mkIVFs to choose from, as well as the Tamiya Beaufighter that needs liposuction, but this one came to me in a roundabout fashion and suggested itself.  My brother bought me this kit based on not much more than the knowledge that 1/48 is my preferred scale and that I like heavily-armed thugs of the sky - I'd say this fits the bill nicely.  He also lives on land that used to belong to the old airfield at Filton, where the BAC was based for many years.  All of this stacked up, and it made sense to choose this beauty for the GB.

 

As you can see I've bought some AM for it.  I'm afraid there are no PE landing flaps or the like (I have neither the skill or the patience), and I'd still like to get another couple of bits for it - weight-bearing wheels, for example.  I've not yet built a Revell kit, so this will be a build of firsts for me in more ways than one - I haven't yet built a twin-engined aircraft in 1/48.

 

I hope to be able to get cracking in the next week or so once the Bf109T-2 that I'm building for the 109 STGB is off the bench.  No promises, though - my build rate is not fantastic, I must be honest.  If anyone has any tips, comments or advice to give I'd be very grateful to hear it.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

[rob85]

The beaufighter is definitely a big tug of an aircraft! Shame the mozzie gets so much of the multi role glory really as there’s so much to love about this beast!

 

great choice and nice aftermarket, should be a great build.

 

Rob

[Greg Law]

Good to see another one of this kit being built.  Areas to be careful of is the wing inner parts. They must sit correctly or the flaps won't sit right. 

The other issue is to be very careful aligning the engine parts. Particularly the front cylinder part and the rear exhaust mounting part. It isn't as clear in the instructions as it should be.

Good luck with the build.

[jackroadkill]

31 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Good to see another one of this kit being built.  Areas to be careful of this the wing inner parts. They must sit correctly or the flaps won't sit right. 

The other issue is to be very careful aligning the engine parts. Particularly the front cylinder part and the rear exhaust mounting part. It isn't as clear in the instructions as it should be.

Good luck with the build.

 

Brilliant, thanks Greg.  I'll bear this in mind when I get her started - which hopefully will be soon.

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice seeing here Owen after building our Beauforts almost side by side. I’ll look forward to seeing another of these Revell Beaufighter kits being built. 
Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

[tonyot]

Good luck with this one,.... the Revell Beau looks so much better than the Tamiya one and more like the real thing,..... just a shame it isn`t as easy to put together. The engine nacelles are rather fiddly and a pain,..... but stick with it and be prepared for a little `fettling'!! 

Here is my WIP if it is of use?

 

 

Cheers

          Tony

[Greg Law]

I wish I had seen you build earlier Tony it might have given me a heads up on some of the issues.  My engines with cowellings are together.  I don't know how you put the cowellings on without putting the exhaust part first. That was my starting point. I totally agree with you about the landing gear. I'm more than a little concerned I will get them together without lots of problems.  Even the canopy isn't fitting easily on both of my kits. Still time will tell. 

Yes once again, you are right about the Tamiya canopy being too high etc which is a shame.

[jackroadkill]

On 10/07/2021 at 10:37, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice seeing here Owen after building our Beauforts almost side by side. I’ll look forward to seeing another of these Revell Beaufighter kits being built. 
Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

 

Thanks Dave.  I'm really looking forward to getting started with her.  The Bf109T-2's final matt cot is drying as we speak so hopefully the Beau will make an appearance in the next couple of days.

 

On 10/07/2021 at 10:54, tonyot said:

Good luck with this one,.... the Revell Beau looks so much better than the Tamiya one and more like the real thing,..... just a shame it isn`t as easy to put together. The engine nacelles are rather fiddly and a pain,..... but stick with it and be prepared for a little `fettling'!! 

Here is my WIP if it is of use?

 

 

Cheers

          Tony

 

Brilliant, thanks Tony.  I'll peruse your WIP, paying particular attention to the nacelles!

 

Also, chaps, I owe you both and @Greg Law and apology - I only just saw that you'd all posted on the thread; I wasn't being an ignorant git, honest!

[Greg Law]

All is good. 

[jackroadkill]

 

A rather uninspiring and poorly lit photo, I'm afraid, of the first stages of the Beaufighter.  So far the kit seems pretty nice, although I've done some minor re-shaping on a few bits as I've gone along.

[Greg Law]

Good start. I will be interested in your cockpit detail painting.  

My TF.X is ready for  black basing.

Something to take note of is late war Beaufighters had only the navigation lights on the wingtips. 

I'm not sure when that was started. My TF.X was like that.

[jackroadkill]

This update is much smaller than I hoped it would be this week I've been back on the farm and as the weather has been so hot, by the time I've finished work, got home and had a shower and got myself in any useful sort of shape there hasn't been much time for kit-ruining.  That said, I've got this far now:

 

 

 

 

 

Since taking the photos I've done some touching-up of various flaws that the pictures showed, and am in the process of adding the Eduard seatbelts, as well as sorting out the bleed on the wash inside the fuselage.

 

It's coming, but slowly.  Once I have the tailwheel sorted I can get the fuselage halves together, get the wings on and then we should be looking at something that vaguely resembles a Beaufighter.

[jackroadkill]

Blimey, it's only gone and started looking like a proper build, hasn't it?!  Somehow, despite the week on the farm having destroyed me in both body and spirit, despite the big family Sunday dinner, despite not being able to think of anything else to be in spite of, she's managed to get out of the blocks at last and is beginning to look vaguely aircraft-shaped:

 

 

Now, here's the strange thing - the interior went together beautifully, so I was fully expecting the same to be the case for the airframe; nope, not in the slightest.  The wings needed some severe anhedral correcting (I used TET and some masking tape for this and it worked really well) and there are some pretty large gaps between panels, especially at the wing-root joints and around the nose section.  This is currently drying and, if this week's anything to go by, I might get to sanding the filler down by Friday night if I really pull my finger out...

 

 

In this second picture you can see a) lots of filler that's been splurged into the wing-root gaps, and b) the fact that all the effort I went to to weather the gunner's seat, seat-base, floor and bulkheads was a complete waste of time.  Regarding the latter, well, who cares?  IKIT, and that's enough for me.

 

 

Luckily, due to the large and nicely-formed canopy, I think you'll still be able to see some of the cockpit interior.  The IP is very cartoonish, and maybe I should have gone with my gut and dry-brushed the IP rather than using the decal.  Hey ho.  Something strange happened whilst sorting the cockpit out, though - normally I make such a hash of the PE seatbelts that they have become my lest-favourite element of a build, but somehow on this one they just worked perfectly at the first time of asking.

 

So, where are we headed?  Flaps and ailerons, tail assemblies and glazing will be next.  I've painted the wheels and airscrews, but they don't look very exciting on their own, hence the lack of picture.

 

As an (interesting?) aside, I've realised that this is a 249 Squadron machine, the spiritual successor to the Airfix Beaufort I built for the ANZAC GB a few months back.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

[jackroadkill]

I've had a frustrating few days with the Beaufighter, unfortunately; there are some weird design issues which I've come across (more of which later) that have made things unnecessarily difficult.  That said, I've managed to fill all of the remaining gaps (some of which have taken three loads of filler to sort....) and sanded out and polished what feels like a mile of seam lines.  I still have the wing roots and nose to rub the filler back on.  There's quite a bit of re-scribing to do but nothing too traumatic.  I'm at this stage of the build now, with a start also made on the engines:

 

 

 

The frustrating elements of the design that I referred to earlier are these mounting pegs for the elevators:

 

 

Having one peg on the upper surface and one on the lower meant that, because of the shape of the outboard peg it would be impossible to do anything other than build the tailplane and then cement the halves of the elevators together in situ, meaning the potential to cement the elevators to the pegs (removing the ability to pose them) would be very high.  I worked for ages with tiny dabs of TET, bits of tape and hobby clamps to ensure that the elevators were moveable after fitting.  Alas, when I removed the tape, this happened:

 

 

Yes, the fit is very loose, meaning that the elevators just hang loose and will need to be cemented in place - I could have saved myself plenty of work in the first place!

 

In other news, I also forgot that I bought as set of CMK airscrews for this build and have adapted the engines and screws to run on brass bearings.  I'd better hope I can use them on my old-school Tamiya Beau.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

[Greg Law]

Jack

How did the ailerons and flaps go? I had lots of problems fitting the flaps closed. Not right even now. On the second one I think I will remove them and set them partly open.

Will be interested in your comments about the other issues you had. I had trouble with the canopies. The TF-X is better than the IF because I used Eduard's instrument panel which isn't a great fit. I have had to mangle it to get the canopy seated. This is the main reason I haven't progressed it. 

[jackroadkill]

17 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Jack

How did the ailerons and flaps go? I had lots of problems fitting the flaps closed. Not right even now. On the second one I think I will remove them and set them partly open.

Will be interested in your comments about the other issues you had. I had trouble with the canopies. The TF-X is better than the IF because I used Eduard's instrument panel which isn't a great fit. I have had to mangle it to get the canopy seated. This is the main reason I haven't progressed it. 

 

They were pretty basic and I ended up cementing everything in neutral positions, which was a shame.  I wasn't planning on having the flaps extended, which was lucky really, but I would have liked a little asymmetry of the ailerons but their fit etc wasn't very conducive to this.

[Greg Law]

You were lucky. I had major problems getting them to fit length wise and sitting flush with the wing. I think my issue was the insert in the wings. You must have got it right. 

[jackroadkill]

4 hours ago, Greg Law said:

You were lucky. I had major problems getting them to fit length wise and sitting flush with the wing. I think my issue was the insert in the wings. You must have got it right. 

 

I'd seen your warning and bore it well and truly in mind as I built the wings up, so I owe you one!

[AdrianMF]

It’s looking good respite all your setbacks. The cockpit looks great.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[jackroadkill]

46 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

It’s looking good respite all your setbacks. The cockpit looks great.

 

Thanks Adrian, very kind of you to say so.  I'm hoping to get a crack at the beast this evening, so hopefully I'll have something more to show you soon.

[jackroadkill]

On 07/08/2021 at 14:45, jackroadkill said:

I'm hoping to get a crack at the beast this evening, so hopefully I'll have something more to show you soon.

 

Uh, yeah....  Somehow it is now ten long days later and although I've worked on the Beau quite a lot she has resisted me at every step.

 

 

I've sorted out the filling and sanding, which leaves me with a shedload of re-scribing of panel lines to do, mainly around the wing roots.  The glazing is in, although both the canopy and the gunner's blister needed work to make them fir their respective apertures.  The cooler inlets have been ground into shape, as have the carburettor intakes.  Engines have been built (several times, I might add.....) and the cowlings aren't very round, due to the world's worst method of joining them together.  I've drilled out the air inlets on the exhausts, only breaking one drill bit, and attempted to hollow out the fuel jettison pipes, breaking another, which is still stuck in there....  I've also built the undercarriage assemblies, which look pretty shonky and probably won't adequately support the weight of the model.

 

Next in line is to paint the inner faces of the cowling flaps and get the dreaded engines in place.  Somehow.  I also have to fit the landing light lenses and covering, and then I think I'll be about ready to spray the beast with the basic colours.  Well, once I've found a way to get the elevators to stick in position, of course.

 

Still, bitching aside, it's actually beginning to come together now.  I'd blithely assumed I'd get it done in time to rush through another entrant for the Bf109 STGB, but that's patently not going to happen.

[Greg Law]

Well done for getting this far. I understand your concern about the landing gear.  They are very fragile looking and not easy to build up. I had the same issues with the main canopy. Particularly with the nightfigher. I'm really pleased to have the Tamiya kits on the go. With them I know I will get a good result.

I'm sure you will have a better finish than mine. I'm almost done the decals on the TF-X which are mainly home made. This has been a major issue as well. 

Good luck with the rest of it. 

[jackroadkill]

Oner step forward, two steps back - but this time it's entirely my own fault.  I cracked on well this morning, getting some pre-shading done on the Beau and finally started to feel like it's coming together.  I used a black with the tiniest touch of grey added for the upper surfaces as they will be EDSG when finished (more of this later...) and used this again on some panel lines on the underside, completing the others in dark earth.  This was in order to not make the pre-shading over-stark for the sky undersides.

 

It looks like this now:

 

 

 

Those were the two forward steps.  The backward step came when I realised that I don't have any EDSG.  I can get Humbrol 123 simply enough but am trying to move away from the brand as I much prefer the Colourcoats paints.  Unfortunately, Sovereign are out of EDSG at the moment and the only place that I can find which has some in stock is in Norway.  Grrrr!

[dogsbody]

Oh poo!

 

 

 

Chris

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

5 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

Oner step forward, two steps back - but this time it's entirely my own fault.  I cracked on well this morning, getting some pre-shading done on the Beau and finally started to feel like it's coming together.  I used a black with the tiniest touch of grey added for the upper surfaces as they will be EDSG when finished (more of this later...) and used this again on some panel lines on the underside, completing the others in dark earth.  This was in order to not make the pre-shading over-stark for the sky undersides.

 

It looks like this now:

 

 

 

Those were the two forward steps.  The backward step came when I realised that I don't have any EDSG.  I can get Humbrol 123 simply enough but am trying to move away from the brand as I much prefer the Colourcoats paints.  Unfortunately, Sovereign are out of EDSG at the moment and the only place that I can find which has some in stock is in Norway.  Grrrr!

 

We've got a new batch here and it'll be decanted some time during the coming week