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Revell 1/48 Beaufighter TF.X


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30 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

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

 Thanks Jamie, that’s brilliant. I’ll keep my eye out and will order a tin or two (along with a few more colours, because, well, why not?). 

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The underside is done (ish).  I might spray another very, very fine coat over it just to tone the last of the pre-shading down - I need to spray some sky on the Tempest that I'm oh-so-slowly building, so I could kill two birds with one stone, I suppose.  Anyway, until I can get some ESDG for the topsides I think this is as far as I can go, so I'll concentrate on getting the Tempest and Defiant sorted for a few days.

 

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How is your landing gear going. I'm finding it really difficult. There are so many parts that need to be aligned very carefully. 

Be aware of the solid panel that is used to install the gear. It must be attached to the leg framework correctly. Carefully look

At the attachment points and be aware of them when you put the frame together. I wonder if it will be easier to install the top

Cross frame after attaching the panel to the main legs.

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14 hours ago, Greg Law said:

How is your landing gear going. I'm finding it really difficult. There are so many parts that need to be aligned very carefully. 

Be aware of the solid panel that is used to install the gear. It must be attached to the leg framework correctly. Carefully look

At the attachment points and be aware of them when you put the frame together. I wonder if it will be easier to install the top

Cross frame after attaching the panel to the main legs.

 

I built the sub-assemblies up and painted them, so I hope they fit, but they don't look too special, really.  I won't be fitting them until the very last second, as I think they'll last about as long as a snowball in a heatwave.

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I agree with you on that comment. I'm installing mine now. It will most likely take all day.

Have you got the top panel on. That's where my problems showed up. Those fixing point

onto the gear frame needs to be correct. Mine wasn't which meant I had to back track after 

I had assembled the sub assembles.

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1 minute ago, Greg Law said:

I agree with you on that comment. I'm installing mine now. It will most likely take all day.

Have you got the top panel on. That's where my problems showed up. Those fixing point

onto the gear frame needs to be correct. Mine wasn't which meant I had to back track after 

I had assembled the sub assembles.

 

Yes, the top panels went on pretty well (I used them as a datum to square the rest of the assembly) so I'm not too worried about them.  I'm more worried about the extremely skinny points on the main struts...

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 Can’t believe I’ve just come across this build. It’s of particular interest because I have this very kit glowering at me from the bottom of the stash (and having read this thread and the others linked from it, it’s likely to stay there until I really feel like a challenge). Still, you’re beating it into shape Owen and I look forward to the finished article!

 

Craig. 

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3 minutes ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

 Can’t believe I’ve just come across this build. It’s of particular interest because I have this very kit glowering at me from the bottom of the stash (and having read this thread and the others linked from it, it’s likely to stay there until I really feel like a challenge). Still, you’re beating it into shape Owen and I look forward to the finished article!

 

Craig. 

 

It's not been unenjoyable, in a funny kind of way, although I expected it (for some unknown reason!) to more or less build itself.  That not being the case has meant that I've had to do some problem-solving along the way.  The Scale Aircraft Conversions undercarriage (https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SAC48364?result-token=fhrPm) is an investment at nearly twenty quid but I think it would be a quick way around the landing gear's inherent problems.  Other than that, only the shapeless cowlings have really been a headache to solve (and they're not completely solved as it is).

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2 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

 

Yes, the top panels went on pretty well (I used them as a datum to square the rest of the assembly) so I'm not too worried about them.  I'm more worried about the extremely skinny points on the main struts...

That sounds like a good way to do it. I might try that on the nightfigher. I have the gear doors attachment bars in on one side. I found one of the legs that were supposed to fit into the location holes seems to have the locating pin missing. I'm sure I didn't cut it off.  One thing I did forget to do is paint the inside of the doors, so that will slow me down.

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8 hours ago, Greg Law said:

That sounds like a good way to do it. I might try that on the nightfigher. I have the gear doors attachment bars in on one side. I found one of the legs that were supposed to fit into the location holes seems to have the locating pin missing. I'm sure I didn't cut it off.  One thing I did forget to do is paint the inside of the doors, so that will slow me down.

 

Another thing I did was assemble the parts and then drill carefully through the axle (with a 1.0mm bit) before cutting the central 8mm or so of the axle out.  When I fit the assembly in place I'll CA glue a piece of 1mm steel rod in place of the axle and hope that this will lend a bit more rigidity to proceedings.

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5 hours ago, Greg Law said:

I take your name is Jack.

Jack if you are going to use the torpedo be aware the holes for the rear bracket are shown in the wrong place in the instructions.  They are further back. Test fit before drilling. 

 

Hi Greg, thanks for the tip.  I'm not sure if I'm going to but the torpedo on or not; every time I think about it I change my mind.  If I do use it, though, I'll make sure to correct the location of the holes before I fit it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm suddenly painfully aware of how short I am on time to complete this build; I've been carried away for a couple of weeks with my other builds and have let my focus drift, somehow.  With that in mind I pulled my finger out a bit and have sprayed the first coat of Colourcoats EDSG this evening.  I've found that when using black to pre-shade that two coats of the main colour works well, a slightly thicker base coat and then a dust coat over the top when 24 hours has passed.

 

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Not the most exciting picture, I'm sure you'll agree, but one can at least see some progress.  Of course, time being short, I've shot myself in the foot by choosing to show the aircraft with full invasion stripes, hence the gaps in the EDSG on the wings.  Somehow I forgot to do the same on the fuselage, but hey ho...  As you can see there's rather too much of the pre-shading showing, but this will tone down nicely when the next coat hits it.

 

Thanks,

 

JRK

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Another short update today.  The invasion (sic) stripes are done, at long last.  This build seems to have used more masking than my previous five, but the results seem to be okay, so I'll take them.

 

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As you can see from the second picture, the stripes play hell with one's sense of perspective and this caught me out a few times during the masking process.  Still, rather then than after the paint has dried, I suppose.

 

I'll leave it to dry for as short a time as I dare before getting a gloss-coat on and starting the decals.  In the back of my mind is the issue of just what the hell I'm going to do about that shonky undercarriage....

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

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5 hours ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

Those are good looking stripes.  It’s going to look great with the decals on!

 

Craig. 

 

Ha, assuming I get them on, that is!  Whilst waiting for the paint to go off properly, this evening I've done the stencilling on the Tempest.  Well, I say I've done it, implying that I did all of them; I didn't actually do all of the, because I left off those ones that were under the invasion stripes.  That counts, right?  I may do the same on the Beaufighter, too - I saved lots of time.  I also saved time by not applying a single one of the 143 Amal fixing stencils.  I'm not a stencil pervert.

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23 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

I'm not a stencil pervert.

Glad to hear it. I find that my willingness to apply stencils varies inversely with the amount of time I have to finish the build. The Hellcat I’m currently building for the STGB come with an entire extra sheet of stencil data and since it has to be finished in almost exactly 7 days as I write this, I fear very few of them will be applied and I’m equally sure few will notice the omission. 
 

Craig. 
 

 

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Jack the paint work is looking good. Strange you should mention the landing gear. I'm doing it on my Nightfigher right now. I have to admit it's a nightmare. 

The trick is to keep everything squared up. Easier said than done. 

 

The Revell decals are good to use.

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15 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Jack the paint work is looking good. Strange you should mention the landing gear. I'm doing it on my Nightfigher right now. I have to admit it's a nightmare. 

The trick is to keep everything squared up. Easier said than done. 

 

The Revell decals are good to use.

 

I'm at work at the moment but hopefully I'll have some progress to show either tonight or tomorrow; I've got the larger decals on and just have the stencilling to go now.  I found the decals to be very thick and resistant to leaving the backing paper.  The squadron codes needed scoring down the panel lines and flooding with Micro Sol to limit silvering and they're not sorted yet (but I have a Klear-bssed plan to overcome this).

 

Once the decals are done I'm going to finish the little odds and sods off, do a bit of weathering, matt coat it and then try fitting the undercarriage....  Wish me luck!

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I found the decals were better than the Tamiya ones. I might have to give the nightfigher ones another coat of micro sol because I think they are silvering as you suggested. 

I had no trouble getting them off the backing paper. In fact I had to becareful not to leave the in the water too long.

Also I find the panel lines are too fine. They didn't pickup the panel liner all that well on my TF.X. the Nightfigher may be worse. I'm not going to try and scribe then because my tremor makes it had to stay straight even with a guide.

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The end is in sight now; decals are all done.  I've still got some silvering issues but they're not too bad and I think they'll be hidden well enough come the finish.

 

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Final painting details, a little weathering and a matt coat are next.  It's beginning to look like I might actually get this over the line by the 3rd of next month....

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

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I've started dirtying her up a bit:

 

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She's coming on now.  There's not really a whole heap to do; the exhausts (resin hedgehogs and the engines' own standard pipes) need painting, as do the aerials and pitot, and then we need a matt coat.  Last of all will be the fitting and weathering of the undercarriage, assuming it survives long enough.

 

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Holy main spars, Batman, this little beauty's nearly for the gallery!

 

Regular readers may detect a hint of optimism creeping in, a well-founded summation, as it happens.  Somehow The World's Most Finicky Fiddly Filligreed Fudgetastic Undercarriage Ever (TM) is together and actually supports the weight of the beast.  Well, it may be more accurate to say that in the ten brief seconds needed to photograph the current state of affairs it didn't collapse.  Airscrews are mounted, as are the gunner's armament, pitot head and the aerial mast.  I've even fitted the navigation lights and made up a lens for the gun camera - after the matt coat went on!  It's been a labour of love, hate and frustration, but we're on course to be finished by the weekend.

 

I'm reasonably pleased with the glazing - no cruddy fingerprints this time around. Here are the gunner's bubble and main canopy:

 

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And a shot of the (nearly) complete model:

 

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All that remains is to fit an aerial wire and to dirty up the undercarriage. 

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

PS - And I've just noticed that I need to remove the masking from the landing light....

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