Final installment of the Tamiya 1/48 Beaufighter. I used to think it was an ugly airplane but as time goes on I think it's rather neat looking.
The kit went together rather well and was enjoyable. The only part that gave me a tussle was the canopy, as it was a bit wide for the fuse. A couple of clamps, some CA and a overnight wait put it in place more or less like I wanted. It'll do.
The interior is basic and I left it that way. Not much seen and my main goal was to have an example of the prototype in my display case. I added misc belts I had around since they are highly visible.
The invasion stripes are painted, I loathe invasion stripe decals. Besides, the rice paper was missing from mine and they stuck to the bottom of the box and are ruined. One of the serials shows the same damage but it's hard to see in the photos.
Paint is MM enamels and Tamiya acryls. I had to mix my own "sky" for the underside because I didn't have any. I think it turned out ok, a mix of XF19 and XF73. MIG oils did the panel lines and various grunge and leaks that radials tend to exhibit. Hmmm. Did brit radials leak like US made ones?
The recess where the landing lights (?) go was just screaming "MV lens". How could I not agree? Engines are very basic but well molded. I painted and dry brushed them and tucked them into place in the nacelles. The cowls stayed off the airframe until all the painting was done.
The copper color was originally way to bright for my taste so I tried to tone it down with some MM metalizer exhaust. After that I masked for the airframe color. When the mask came off I was left with what you see now. An accident to be sure and probably not accurate but I liked the look of it regardless so I left it. Only a flat coat of Polyscale covers it.
Normally I don't arm my a/c unless the armament is a major factor in the identity of the subject but this time I decided the kit just looked better with the torpedo. I painted it according to the instructions but added gray fins and nose to break up the boring looking black. The instructions called for the rocket rails but no rockets.![Shock [:O]](/emoticons/icon_smile_shock.gif)
That required the molded on rockets to be removed.
Neat kit, everyone should have one. This one will help break up the recent wave of US stuff I've built and look good in the case. Thanks go to Kenny for putting on the build and IL2 for the work he put in the very smooth running voting system. Comments are always welcome.
HK