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Bristol Beaufort Mk.I (48310) 1:48


Mike

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Bristol Beaufort Mk.I (48310)

1:48 ICM via Hannants Ltd

 

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The Beaufort was originally designed as a torpedo bomber by Bristol, using the experience they had gained in developing the then-excellent Blenheim.  They were ready in time for the outbreak of WWII, and as well as their prescribed role, they were also used as light bombers, undertaking many ‘Rhubarb’ missions over enemy territory in the so-called ‘phony war’, undertaking daylight missions that saw heavy casualties, although the accidental loss tally outstripped combat losses, surprisingly.  Roughly 1,200 were built in the UK, with the total being elevated to almost 2,000 by additional Australian-built airframes that were known as DAP Beauforts.  They were rapidly overhauled by the German fighters and were withdrawn from frontline service as early as 1942, by which time they had also been tasked with Aerial mine-laying.  From then on, they were assigned to serve away from the front, and saw extensive use as a trainer, which might go at least some of the way to explain the high attrition rate due to accidents.

 

A further development of the Beaufort was the Beaufighter, which used important components of the Beaufort that included the wings and engines, with a new cut-down fuselage that was comparatively low and streamlined, with a powerful cannon armament under the nose that was useful in its assigned duties as long-distance heavy fighter, and later nightfighter, where it excelled.  Some obsolete Beauforts were even converted to Beaufighters to make further use of the shared parts, which gave many of the original airframes a more honourable end than they would otherwise have seen.  In an attempt to improve on the original Mk.I that took up the majority of production, the designers created additional variants that used other engines, had faired over turrets when they were to be used as trainers, and even a project that saw the fitment of a pair of Merlin XX engine that didn’t achieve the desired effect, so was cancelled, in much the same manner as the Merlin powered Beaufighter that managed to be “underpowered” despite the pedigree of the engines that propelled it.

 

 

The Kit

A lot of modellers that build in 1:48 have been waiting with baited breath for this new tooling from ICM, and now it is with us, despite the horrible circumstances that besets the Ukrainian people at the time of writing.  This initial boxing rightly covers the Mk.I torpedo bomber, and there is another boxing on the way with a tropicalised engine fit that should arrive pretty soon.  This new issue arrives in a reasonable-sized top-opening box with their usual captive lid on the lower tray.  Inside are eight sprues in mid-grey styrene, a large clear sprue, decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet that has colour profiles on the rear pages.  Opening the resealable bags reveals the detail that has been lavished on this kit that includes lots of internal ribbing, a set of ribbed flap bays and flaps, a representation of both banks of the Bristol Taurus engines, detailed gear bays and bay doors, and a torpedo to complete the package.

 

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Construction begins with a narrow torpedo bay under the fuselage that is glued to a section of the aft floor, then detailed with ribs, flipped over and joined to a bulkhead that has a doorway cut in it, then has a chute made up on one side before it is attached to the rest of the interior floor, which is initially free of detail, apart from underneath, where it has bomb shackles moulded-in, and a semi-cylindrical bay toward the front of the fuselage, which will allow the torpedo to nestle into the fuselage part way.  The starboard fuselage half has an insert fitted in the wing-root depression to match the crisp moulded ribbing that is all over the interior as far back as the trailing edge of the wings, and extends into the tail-wheel bay.  The side windows are inserted from inside, swapping the rear one out for an opaque cover if appropriate, then the floor is mated on a number of slots into the fuselage sides ready for the twin spars and a good quantity of detail.  The forward spar is detailed with four parts to depict the radio gear with a plotting table below it, and on the other side a section of fairing is fixed, then the assembly is glued into its slot, joining the bottom of the spar with the fuselage blank.  The cockpit is a two-tier assembly that is started by joining the two halves of the side console together, adding a raised floor panel, the instrument panel with five dial decals and rudder pedals, a short half-bulkhead and the swivelling front seat.  Another simple seat is made up and glued to the rear spar along with another step-like fairing, and it too is slipped into the rear slot in the fuselage and glued in place.  The pilot’s seat is made up from two parts and has a bow-tie control column placed in front of it, while to the rear, an Elsan toilet is dropped onto a raised plinth in the rear fuselage floor.  The tail wheel bay is made up from ceiling with two small bulkhead ends, and it is glued into the very rear, which already has ribbing moulded into the sides.  The tail-wheel and strut is a single part than inserts in the bay ceiling on a peg, so can be left off until after main painting.  The port fuselage half is prepared in a similar manner to the starboard, save for the optional rear window, and a 0.9mm hole that is drilled in the ceiling.  Just before closing up the fuselage, another detail part is fixed to the bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat, with more glued into the nose, which might be better added before you paint the cockpit.  The main canopy is glued over the cockpit aperture, and the nose is glazed by four additional clear parts, and a choice of port-side aft door with a circular porthole or gun port fitted over the hole in the fuselage, which can have a Lewis machine-gun with dinner plate magazine on a spar across the opening.  If you are installing the gun, the clamshell door part should be left off.

 

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The Beaufort had mid-mounted wings, so each one is separate, and made from two halves.  The port wing has a small landing light bay inserted before it is closed up, and a small dome is removed from the leading edge, then the clear glazing is inserted once the glue has set up.  A clear wingtip is fitted, and a one-piece aileron is added and able to be offset if you feel the urge.  You also have to make a choice whether to fit the wing surface over the inner flaps with a trio of strakes in an nacelle extension, or a straight section with curved root fairing.  The same process is carried out minus the landing light bay on the starboard wing, then both wings are slotted over the two spars that have corresponding guides moulded into the inside of the wings to ensure good location.  The elevator fins are each two parts and are mounted in the usual slot/tab method, to be joined by one-piece elevators and rudder, which the latter having a pair of horns near the hinge.  Two flap sections are added to each wing’s underside, then the two nacelles are made up from halves along with a bulkhead near the front, and another that is glued into the wing before the nacelles are put in place.  The roof of the bay is free of any detail, and is the location that the twin strut gear legs and their actuators are fixed once they are built up.  The main wheels are each two halves, and they flex-fit into the lower section of the main leg, which has a curved tubular framework added to the top section, probably to assist with the smooth opening and closing of the door bays.  The lower section of the main gear forms a twin triangular framework that is linked by a number of cross-members before the lower section is glued into the sockets in the upper section, and has another pair of actuators added at the rear to brace the top section.  Both assemblies are inserted into the bays on each level of the ceiling, then the twin bay doors with their ribbed inners are added to the sides of the bays on hinge tabs.  At the same time, the bomb bay has a small insert attached to the front bulkhead to add detail to the area.

 

Each Taurus radial engine is formed from two well-detailed banks of cylinders with a circular collector ring attached to the centre by three stators, plus a complex system of tubes installed around the circumference in between the cylinders, and another at the rear of the engine that has a square peg at the back for fixing them to the wing through the cooling flaps at the rear of the cowlings.  Two holes on the top of the nacelle receive a two-part intake, then the cowling is wrapped around the engine, comprising two halves and a pair of curved exhausts for each engine.  She’s looking very much like a Beaufort now, but needs some defensive armament in addition to the optional Lewis gun in the side.  The mid-upper turret is semi-conformal to the back of the cockpit “hump”, and is built upon a section of the fuselage with a circular base that receives the guns’ mount and gunner’s bicycle-style seat below the lip, gluing the front of the turret into position, then creating a platter for the two Lewis guns, one of which is mounted at 90°   to the other to fit within the confined space, plus an armour plate at the rear of the breech with a letterbox for the gunner to peer through.  This is emplaced on the mount, and is closed in by adding the rear glazing.  It is inserted into the aperture behind the wings, and is faired-in by a single horse-shoe shaped part that cuts down on the whistling as it flies along.

 

The bomb/torpedo bay forms a cruciform shape when viewed from below, as it was lengthened to accept the torpedo, and has the mount fitted into the wider centre section, and if not carrying a torpedo, two inserts close off the bomb bay from its two narrower sections.  The bay doors are in three sections, the narrower front and rear sections having one door per side, while the wider bomb bay section has two doors each side that fold together, minimising the aerodynamic drag, as well as fitting in the space below the aircraft when on the ground.  If you plan on posing all the bay doors closed, there are three additional conjoined parts to ease your path, which is always nice to see.  The torpedo has been seen in a separate box before, and its build is covered on the last page of instruction steps, making it up from two halves, adding a three-part H-tail with twin spinners, and another spinner-plus-spacer at the business end.  There are also five steps to create a trolley for moving your Torp about and loading it onto the Beaufort on rising scissor-links if you want to add a bit of diorama appeal to your model.  The torpedo is mounted with all bay doors open, and glues onto a long curved rectangular frame in the centre of the bomb bay.

 

While the model is inverted, the underslung nose turret can be built from three parts for the gun and two-part dome, or a blanking plate is fitted over the aperture.  A pitot is also mounted under the nose, a towel-rail antenna under the fuselage, and three small outlets are mounted on the wings and just behind the bomb bay.  Back on its wheels, the cockpit hump is detailed with two more antennae, and another flush with the roof.

 

 

Markings

ICM have begun to include templates for masking material with each of their new kits, which can be found just in front of the colour profiles for you to place tape over, cut around and apply to your model, thanks to drawings above that indicate what goes where.

 

There are a generous five decal options included on the sheet, all but one of them having the early war green/brown camo on top, and grey, sky or black undersides.  The last option is in green/grey with black undersides.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

  • L4449, presumably 1939
  • L4449 OA-H No.22 Sqn., North Coates, Lincolnshire, summer 1940
  • L4516 OA-W No.22 Sqn., North Coates, Lincolnshire, December 1940
  • N1016 OA-X No.22 Sqn., RAF St. Eval, April 1941
  • L9878 MW-R No.217 Sqn., RAF St. Eval, Autumn 1941

 

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The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and include dials for the instrument panels, with good register, sharpness and solid colours.

 

 

Conclusion

I’ve been looking forward to this one, and I’m not disappointed.  You could almost say I’m quite happy if you were prone to understatement.  It’s a Beaufort in my preferred scale, there’s plenty of detail, and a good choice of decal options.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

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Review sample courtesy of

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Hi

     Great review

   

      my first kit was delivered by postie today, and the plastic & contents look very good 🙂👍

 

  just waiting now for the one from hannants to cross the pond 

 

and hopefully a MkII will get released in the future 

 

    cheers

      jerry 

 

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Thanks for the review!

I've been wanting a 1/48 Beaufort for as long as I can remember, getting hooked by the plane as a youngster with the help of the old FROG kit... Just ordered from Hannant's.

 

I'm sure it can be built a very nice model, but what strikes me when looking at the pics of the contents is that the design and details are a little bland and un-inspired. I can only guess that the designers have suffered from lack of detailed references, God knows wery little has been published yet. I can think of Air Britain's The Beaufort File, Beaufort Special/Bruce Robertson, Warpaint no. 50 and SAM Vol 14 no 11. I sincerely hope that lots of technical, production and maintenance documentation still exist and may become available for modellers who want to add detail. Blenheims and Beaufighters have been well served in the past.

Some info can be found on the net, example here.

 

It is a little difficult to determine from these early pics, is it accurate? Has the kit captured the shape of the real aircraft?

 

Cheers,

Tomas

 

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Having had a closer inspection of my kit that arrived a few days ago it’s curious to note that the items not used on the clear sprue i.e. the later nose glazing and turret are actually frosted so cannot even be put in the spares box? Anyone else found this as not obvious in Mike’s photo?

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, now that I have one in my hot paws I won't, I suppose, have to build that Contrail kit!

😜

Cheers!

R/ Robert

Edited by rbeach84
punctuation
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/17/2022 at 9:38 PM, mick b said:

... it’s curious to note that the items not used on the clear sprue i.e. the later nose glazing and turret are actually frosted so cannot even be put in the spares box?

 

What a curiously spiteful thing to do.  Clipping or gating off unused parts from the frames is one thing (though I question the economics of the former) but deliberately spoiling them seems to rather rub the customer's nose in it.

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2 hours ago, Seahawk said:

 

What a curiously spiteful thing to do.  Clipping or gating off unused parts from the frames is one thing (though I question the economics of the former) but deliberately spoiling them seems to rather rub the customer's nose in it.

I doubt they've deliberatly spoiled them, this portion of the tooling hasn't been finished yet. They've been cut into the tool to allow later production of a different mark. When the first test shots are produced the whole sprue will be frosted as the tool is still in a rough machined finish. When the test shots have confirmed the parts are correct and are able to be moulded correctly the tooling will be polished to give the crystal clear parts we all want. In this case I'd suggest only the parts required for this release have been given the final polish, either due to time constraints to get this issue out, or tooling costs if there is some doubt about whether the second kit version will be issued/cash flow priorities or other financial reasons. 

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5 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

I doubt they've deliberatly spoiled them, this portion of the tooling hasn't been finished yet. They've been cut into the tool to allow later production of a different mark. When the first test shots are produced the whole sprue will be frosted as the tool is still in a rough machined finish. When the test shots have confirmed the parts are correct and are able to be moulded correctly the tooling will be polished to give the crystal clear parts we all want. In this case I'd suggest only the parts required for this release have been given the final polish, either due to time constraints to get this issue out, or tooling costs if there is some doubt about whether the second kit version will be issued/cash flow priorities or other financial reasons. 

Thanks for the explanation.  Makes sense to me.

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