Beaufighter's missing mojo

Beaufighter

Actually can't find the camera but piccies will follow when I do.

The wings aren't perfect but they aren't bad.

Lesson learned: never assume you don't need to prime.

Rattle can white over rattle can primer, resulting finish = off-white.

Rattle can white - five coats - over bare light blue plastic, resulting finish = light blue.

Won't make that mistake with the rest of it.
_________________
A: 11 - Airfix Gladiator; Ju52; Arado 196; Harvard II; Hunter F6; QANTAS Avro 504K; Santa Maria; He177; DUKW; Ju88; Zero
B: 4 - Airfix 1/72 Gladiator, Meteor, Flying Bomb, 54mm Life Guard
C: 20 - Airfix 1910 Model T; 1912 Model T; Lanchester Landaulette; 1902 De Dietrich; Rommel's Half-Track; Scorpion tank; Stormovik and FW190; Roland C-II & R.E.8; Yeoman of the Guard; Hasegawa Kaga and Akagi; Spitfire MxXVIe; Nichimo 1/200 Yamato; Spitfire Mk1a; Me110; 1/24 Spitfire; Me262; Mosquito

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Beaufighter

Assembly is now finished....next step, filler around the tail and the ventral strakes, and fettling the escape pod so it fits better.
_________________
A: 11 - Airfix Gladiator; Ju52; Arado 196; Harvard II; Hunter F6; QANTAS Avro 504K; Santa Maria; He177; DUKW; Ju88; Zero
B: 4 - Airfix 1/72 Gladiator, Meteor, Flying Bomb, 54mm Life Guard
C: 20 - Airfix 1910 Model T; 1912 Model T; Lanchester Landaulette; 1902 De Dietrich; Rommel's Half-Track; Scorpion tank; Stormovik and FW190; Roland C-II & R.E.8; Yeoman of the Guard; Hasegawa Kaga and Akagi; Spitfire MxXVIe; Nichimo 1/200 Yamato; Spitfire Mk1a; Me110; 1/24 Spitfire; Me262; Mosquito

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Beaufighter

Progress.

All bits added, escape pod - not a great fit - in place, wings swung back:

Wings forward:

Underside:

The wire effort that joins the tail is proving a bit dicey. It is such a tight fit in the hole I've drilled that the glue oozes out when I push the tailplane on. More fiddling required.

Model is remarkably tail-heavy. I may have to glue the escape pod into place just to hid the nose weight I'm going to have to add.

Next steps - fettling, filling, priming and I may yet do something about those visibly yellowed areas of 35-year-old decal.
_________________
A: 11 - Airfix Gladiator; Ju52; Arado 196; Harvard II; Hunter F6; QANTAS Avro 504K; Santa Maria; He177; DUKW; Ju88; Zero
B: 4 - Airfix 1/72 Gladiator, Meteor, Flying Bomb, 54mm Life Guard
C: 20 - Airfix 1910 Model T; 1912 Model T; Lanchester Landaulette; 1902 De Dietrich; Rommel's Half-Track; Scorpion tank; Stormovik and FW190; Roland C-II & R.E.8; Yeoman of the Guard; Hasegawa Kaga and Akagi; Spitfire MxXVIe; Nichimo 1/200 Yamato; Spitfire Mk1a; Me110; 1/24 Spitfire; Me262; Mosquito

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MerlinJones

Ace looking plane tho'...

Regards,
Bruce
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A:B:C
94:104:17
Its my madness that keeps me sane!

shangos70

Thats coming on great , i have the later boxing in S.E.A camo .

Shane

Beaufighter

Ye Gods we are nearly there.

Sorry for lack of photos. I tend to do this stuff late at night and by the time I've finished it's 1am and I just want to get to bed.

So: I have filled, fettled and am happy, though the gap between the escape pod and the fuselage remains stubbornly conspicuous. I can live with it.

I have rattle-can-sprayed the whole thing in grey primer, then sprayed the underside and the tailplanes with white.

Last night I masked the underside and control surfaces off using my patent method. You stick a wide piece of tape to kitchen foil, mark out the wavy camouflage line along one edge , then fold the tape lengthways and cut along the doubled-over edge. Result: a symettrical mask, from which you then peel off the backing foil.

I have now sprayed it Hu64 via rattle can. I did this at night in the garden and when I got in I found a few rain drops on the paint, which dried as lighter-coloured smears. Another quick blast this morning fixed that.

The next stage is to mask and spray the anti-dazzle panel. This runs ahead of and within the canopy glazing, which I've not yet applied. Once the black's on I can add the glazing and the final step will be locating the crew compartment into place from below.

Then decals, then finito.

I love the look of this plane. It must be 2 years since I started it...pix will definitely follow, probably this weekend.

Shane wrote: Thats coming on great , i have the later boxing in S.E.A camo .

I thought the grey / white scheme was a prototype scheme, especially as this early boxing has no weapons load. Since starting it, though, I've noticed that the F5s used in Apocalypse Now had the same grey / white scheme. So does the Cessna O2A seen briefly in the same movie, a scheme also found on the Airfix kit. I'm wondering if grey / white was a standard scheme at some point in SEA?
_________________
A: 11 - Airfix Gladiator; Ju52; Arado 196; Harvard II; Hunter F6; QANTAS Avro 504K; Santa Maria; He177; DUKW; Ju88; Zero
B: 4 - Airfix 1/72 Gladiator, Meteor, Flying Bomb, 54mm Life Guard
C: 20 - Airfix 1910 Model T; 1912 Model T; Lanchester Landaulette; 1902 De Dietrich; Rommel's Half-Track; Scorpion tank; Stormovik and FW190; Roland C-II & R.E.8; Yeoman of the Guard; Hasegawa Kaga and Akagi; Spitfire MxXVIe; Nichimo 1/200 Yamato; Spitfire Mk1a; Me110; 1/24 Spitfire; Me262; Mosquito

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Beaufighter

Some photos of progress.

There is only so much one can do with this join short of gluing it down:

It looks like it's two different shades of grey, but the wings were painted, varnished and Kleared before assembly whereas the rest of the plane just has unadorned rattle can Hu64 and Hu34:

There's some retouching to do and I need to paint the engines and draw in the panel lines. It's getting there though.
_________________
A: 11 - Airfix Gladiator; Ju52; Arado 196; Harvard II; Hunter F6; QANTAS Avro 504K; Santa Maria; He177; DUKW; Ju88; Zero
B: 4 - Airfix 1/72 Gladiator, Meteor, Flying Bomb, 54mm Life Guard
C: 20 - Airfix 1910 Model T; 1912 Model T; Lanchester Landaulette; 1902 De Dietrich; Rommel's Half-Track; Scorpion tank; Stormovik and FW190; Roland C-II & R.E.8; Yeoman of the Guard; Hasegawa Kaga and Akagi; Spitfire MxXVIe; Nichimo 1/200 Yamato; Spitfire Mk1a; Me110; 1/24 Spitfire; Me262; Mosquito

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