Special Hobby has now released the long-awaited resin conversion set to turn an Airfix 1/72 Beaufighter into a Beaufighter II, the Merlin-powered variant.
Airfix's new Beaufighter is one of those "as much detail as a 1/48 kit" 1/72 kits, and a real pleasure to build. Everything goes together and no putty needed.
CMK's resin conversion set provides 3D-printed resin inner wings, engine cowlings, smaller horizontal stabilizer, props, and gear doors. The 3D parts fit perfectly to the plastic parts after you cut off the plastic outer wings. You have to take care to get the cowlings positioned correctly; it is real easy to get them misaligned (ask me how I know this). But overall, this is one of the easiest conversions ever. The conversion set also provides markings for four airplanes, all in the overall-Night black finish.
By the end of the year, Special Hobby will release a 1/48 version of this set, to use with the Revell Beaufighter. I've had my Mk. I kit for a year now, waiting!
As to what a Beaufighter IIF is:
However well the Beaufighter performed, the Short Stirling bomber programme by late 1941 had a higher priority for the Hercules engine, and the Rolls-Royce Merlin XX-powered Mark IIF night fighter was the result. Roy Fedden, chief designer of the Bristol engine division, was a keen advocate for the improved Hercules VI for the Beaufighter but it was soon passed over in favor of the rival Griffon engine, as the Hercules VI required extensive development. Due to production of the Griffon being reserved for the Fairey Firefly, the Air Ministry instead opted for the Rolls-Royce Merlin to power the Beaufighter until the manufacturing rate of the Hercules could be raised by a new shadow factory in Accrington. The standard Merlin XX-powered aircraft was later called the Beaufighter Mark IIF; the planned slim-fuselage aircraft, alternatively equipped with Hercules IV and Griffon engines, the Beaufighter Mark III and Beaufighter Mark IV respectively, were ultimately left unbuilt.
In February 1940, an order was placed for three Beaufighters, converted to use the alternative Merlin engine. The Merlin engine installations and nacelles were designed by Rolls-Royce as a complete "power egg"; the design and approach of the Beaufighter's Merlin installation was later incorporated into the design for the much larger Avro Lancaster bomber. Success with the Merlin-equipped aircraft was expected to lead to production aircraft in 1941. In June 1940, the first Merlin-powered aircraft conducted its first flight. In late 1940, the two Merlin-equipped prototypes (the third having been destroyed in a bombing raid) were delivered. Flight tests found that the Merlins left the aircraft underpowered, with a pronounced tendency to swing to port, making take-offs and landings difficult and resulting in a high accident rate – out of 337 Merlin-powered aircraft, 102 were lost to accidents.
In late April 1941, the first two Beaufighter Mark II aircraft, R2277 and R2278, were delivered to 600 and 604 Squadrons; the former squadron being the first to receive the type in quantity in the following month. The Mark II was also supplied to the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy.
9 attached images. Click to enlarge.
