Revell 1/48 Beaufighter

[Guest]

Thanks all, glad you like it.

Dave - yes, I've been reading through your build to see what's coming and might catch me out. Shame about it's crash landing. Mine will probably end up as a mish mash of various versions but I'm just sticking on what I think will look nice! Not sure whether I'm ready to tackle invasion stripes yet, but they definitely add to the look so may give them a whirl.

Had a go at "weighting" the tyres. Maybe went a bit far on the tailwheel but it doesn't look too bad. I held the wheels above a heat gun on low setting for a few seconds to soften them up, then pressed them firmly onto my photo etch tile. The heat has split the seams a little but nothing that a touch of filler won't cure.

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I've also worked on the fuselage seam this morning. After a good file and some sanding it only needed two small bits of filler where I'd cut it a bit closely from the sprue, leaving a small divot. Hard to get a decent picture but here it is with a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 on it to highlight any defects. Seam line looks a whole lot better than my rescribing! At least I got it straight this time, it's just a bit furry :smiling5: Should have perhaps run some extra thin over it first but I forgot.

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[JR]

Andy .
Oooh I got quite excited at the photo of the hot air gun, fire crossed my mind , sadly not the case . :cold-sweat:
The out come looks fine by the way .

[Guest]

Sorry to disappoint John, but as a trained Fire Marshal I try my best to avoid that kind of thing :smiling5:

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
Cracking progress so far. Nice cockpit. Tyres look good. Not tried your method - I have just sanded a flat and it looks ok but no bulge.
Jim

[scottie3158]

Andy,
That's a nice technique on the tyres will try it on vehicle tyres.

[colin m]

Great start Andy and the weighted tyres do look good, but did you do the main wheels at the same time ? I'm just thinking if one is slightly flatter than the other, it might look a bit awkward on the ground. It could be an idea to investigate now, rather than later when the wheels are attached.

[Guest]

Thanks chaps. I used a heat gun to bend some figures for my MAZ tractor dio so thought I'd try it on tyres. I've tried dipping them in boiling water before but it doesn't seem to get them quite soft enough. You have to be quick mind, anything more than a second or two and they'd be a molten mess :flushed:

Colin, thanks for the heads up but it's something I'd thought about. I did my best to get them as even as possible when squashing, but when I get around to sanding the filler I'll put them both on a dowel/cocktail stick and sand the flattened bottoms together to get them as exact as I can.

[Guest]

It's been a busy time what with working the weekend, my sons birthday, extended family commitments etc., but I've had a bit of bench time in-between.

Firstly the wheel wells went together. These are made up of several parts but fitted well. They might get a quick swipe of filler in some of the minor gaps just in case paint doesn't quite fill them.

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After that lot had dried overnight I joined the upper wing sections on. Again they fitted well but gave them plenty of tape and clamping just in case

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Whilst the wings were set aside I got on with the engines. Made up of several parts it was an ideal thing to do while I could only grab half an hour here and there. Colours vary between the instructions and various reference pictures so ended up with a combination I thought looked ok. MrC Burnt Iron for the cylinders, MrC Steel for the exhaust parts, Vallejo Aluminium for the tops of the heads (will be completely hidden by the cowls hence no filler in the joints). I then mixed a custom dark blue/grey for the crankcase and a custom blue/green for the intake piping. A couple of different Citadel washes/shades (my new favourite thing) brought out the details and toned everything down.

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[adt70hk]

Andy

Methinks you are really getting the hang of this modelling malarky.

Those engines look great. Well done

Andrew

[Guest]

Cheers Andrew.

My lack of patience normally gets the better of me and I rush to get things finished, but I'm trying to keep that in check.

[Guest]

I've been working more slowly than my usual frenetic pace over the past few days and I'm hoping it will show in the end result.

First off I fitted the flaps and ailerons. I opted for flaps closed as it should make painting easier later on, but blew some black primer inside all of the (intentional) gaps before fitting in case they are hard to reach later. I'd rather see a black shadow than bare plastic!

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Primed and painted inside the wheel bays. These have since had a wash to help bring out the detail and may get a touch more weathering later.

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Landing lights and cover fitted. It's hard to get a good picture of it but the clear lights were given a coat of chrome on the back side using a Molotow pen.

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Engine cowlings fitted. I could have done with a couple of extra fingers to hold the separate pieces in line as they dried but thanks to a good fit they've turned out ok

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Next job was to fix the wing assembly to the fuselage. A little trimming and shaving was needed to get a good fit under the nose but I got it something like. It's a nice fit along most of the top wing root with a bit of glue squeeze out for good luck, but it'll need some attention at the rear.

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And while that was drying I put the fiddly landing gear together. Some parts were so thin that I didn't want to go mad with the clean up weaken them any more, so could probably be better, but with a lick of paint and a black wash I'm happy enough. Wheels still rotate about their axles so I didn't need to worry about positioning the flat spot

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[scottie3158]

Alan,
Lovely neat work slowing down has paid off. It is still hard to believe that you are new to this hobby looking at your work.

[Guest]

Alan,
Lovely neat work slowing down has paid off. It is still hard to believe that you are new to this hobby looking at your work.

Thanks George :tongue-out2:

Really appreciate the compliment Paul, thanks.

It's had most of the day to dry so I took the tape off the wings and it held it's shape, yay! I've made a start on sanding out a couple of minor steps and put a bit of automotive putty into the gaps and a few sink marks I found. I'm back at work in the morning so it'll have plenty of time to harden up before sanding and maybe a bit of spot priming tomorrow evening to see how it looks.

[JR]

Great work Fred, George was quite right.
Bill

[Guest]

There's pretty much nothing to do at work since the company that transports cars to us takes a decent break over the chrimbo period, meaning we've run out of stuff to paint. So rather than stand around for 12 hours I took the Beaufighter in to do a bit.

Commandeered one of the work benches

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Assembled and fitted the extended tailplane/dorsal fin/rudder etc. The fin comes to a sharp point out of the kit but I saw it mentioned in a build elsewhere (with reference pictures) that it should be rounded off, so I took care of that before glueing it on.

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And assembled the torpedo with it's wooden tail fin.

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