ICM Bristol Beaufort Mk.IA w/Tropical Filters (48311) 1:48

[Mike]

Bristol Beaufort Mk.IA w/Tropical Filters (48311)

1:48 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd

 

 

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’, embarking on 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  They were rapidly overhauled by the German fighters and were withdrawn from frontline service as early as 1942, by which time they had also been tasked with Aerial mine-laying.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.  The Mk.IA had an improved turret fitted at the rear of the crew compartment spine, that was notable because it was more square in profile, and torpedo bombers were fitted with early ASV radars , the antennae for which were mounted on the leading edges of the wings.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 into 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 several 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.

 

 

 

 

 

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, 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 must make a choice whether to fit the wing surface over the inner flaps with a trio of strakes in a 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 several 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 different 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 new mid-upper turret is mounted in the back of the cockpit “hump”, and is built upon a separate section of the fuselage with a circular base that receives the guns’ mount and gunner’s bicycle-style seat below the lip, gluing the majority of the turret into position along with a fairing lip around the end, then deciding whether to mount the clear glazing in the top of the nose, or the alternative that mounts another two Lewis guns in the nose.

 

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 either flush with the roof in a typical D/F loop fairing.  The radar antennae are reminiscent of TV aerials, formed from a main antenna with several dipoles perpendicular, one under each wing, mounted on two brackets that fit into holes drilled in the wings earlier, and another offset under the nose on a single post.  These are most definitely best left of until the very end so that they survive without damage.

 

 

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 four decal options included on the sheet in a variety of schemes.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• DD959 Q, No.217 Sqn., Malta, 1942
• L9965 T, Mediterranean Sea region, 1942
• DX157, presumably Indian Ocean region, Spring 1944
• EK979, RAF Training Unit, Bilbais, Egypt, 1944

 

 

 

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

 

As is common now with ICM kits, there is a page of the instruction booklet devoted to the masking of the canopy, using the printed shapes on the bottom of the page and the diagrams above to allow you to create your own masks if you wish.  It goes up to 64 thanks to the copious glazing of the Beaufort.

 

 

Conclusion

I was looking forward to the initial release, and I’m wasn’t disappointed, and this rebox with new parts is just as good with another theatre of operation opening up in terms of subjects.  It’s another 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.

 

Review sample courtesy of