SAAF Bristol Beaufighter

Started by Morne Meyer · 71 · 5 years ago
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    Roberto Colaianni said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Great job considering the scale, and very clean! Awaiting to see the interior painted.

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Thanks Roberto. I will first have to finish all the scratch building before getting paint on plastic. I am trying to replicate the cabin interior as it appeared on SAAF Beaufighters. The interiors differed between the different Mk's. The rear compartment had Radio equipment changes between different Mk's. Rear compartment behind pilot had extra Oxygen bottles on SAAF machines. Some Beaufighters had non standard in the field modifications like the nose camera on SAAF Beaufighters.

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    Greg Kittinger said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Coming along nicely! Eager to see it across the finish line...

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    David A. Thomas said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Stunning work. A whole new level. When I grow up I want to be like you, Morne!

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Thanks for the nice replies and votes of confidence. I will have some bench time this weekend so more scratch building to follow.

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    These photos have inspired me to build the Beaufighter as tribute to one of the finest SAAF Beaufighter pilots, Steve Stevens. The first photo is probably the finest photo of a Beaufighter in full attack mode, guns blazing to keep Flak at bay and unleashing rockets on its target. The photo was captured by Stevens' wingman who had a camera in his Beaufighter's nose. When Stevens attacked the target he fired his guns and all the expended shell casings hit the camera ship denting the wing leading edge and nose of the Beaufighter.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bernard E. Hackett, Jr. said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Morne, fantastic interior detail! Stunning stuff! I'm going back to paint-by-number sets. Or the bourbon zylophone.

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Thanks Bernard. Hope to get some more interior plumbing and electrical wires installed on the interior sidewalls between the various electrical components and radios.

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    This is the Beaufighter that was used by Steve Stevens on frequent missions in support of Tito's partisan forces. Stevens' Beaufighter did not have the cupola with the sliding panels for the Vickers gun. Instead it had an in the field modification where the one piece cupola was cut in half to allow for more room to move the Vickers gun around when firing.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Marc Barris said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Cant wait to see the finished model Morne, you going to enter this in the Nats?

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Definitely!

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    Marc Barris said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Cant wait to see it bud, going to be a winner for sure...I will put money on it. By the way Morne, do you know of any good accommodation down there|?

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Lots of Hotels and B&B's close to the venue at and near to the beachfront. My email is [email protected]. Send me your particulars and I will do some homework and let you know.

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    Morne Meyer said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    I made slow progress on the cockpit curtain. The curtain has to attach to three cable guides that runs the length of the canopy top hatch cover. The clear part to which all this has to attach to is less than 1cm x 1cm so it's a tiny space within which to cram these scratchbuilt items and the margin of error is great since Cyano has to be used in very minute quantity and the ever present danger of fogged clear parts lurks in the background. I started off gluing six small plasticard attachment points about 1mm in length to the inside of the clear canopy hatch cover part to which I attached fine copper wire that simulate the curtain guide cables/rails. The curtain was made from folded white paper glued to a 1mm piece of styrene strip and 1mm strip of lead foil. The curtain was then glued onto the copper guide cables/rails. In all a 4h30 minute job of trial and error!

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Marc Barris said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Now that's what I am talking about...nice job buddy...nice