Revell 1/32 Bristol Beaufighter - Lost Cause?

Started by Greg Fabian · 36 · 10 hours ago · 1:32 Scale, Beaufighter, Revell
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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 months, 4 weeks ago:

    These are really quality steps, my friend @gwfabian! You are getting a clear view of the kit's pitfalls, in order to determine your next moves.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 months, 4 weeks ago:

    Quite a lot of great ideas you have to upgrade this kit, Greg @gwfabian
    Looking forward to see those improvements.

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    Greg Fabian said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    @johnb - I'm definitely taking my time on this one. "Baby steps", as one might say.

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    Greg Fabian said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    @fiveten - I'm discovering that one of the things I like about building models is planning the build. It seems that with most models, the instructions work perfectly if all you're doing is gluing the parts together and skipping the painting.

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    Greg Fabian said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    Things have been progressing, albeit slowly, on the Beau front. Having been sidelined by various other higher priority projects around the house, I did manage to spend some time correcting the openings for the 20mm auto-canons living in the belly of the Beau. This photo shows the rather indifferent attempt Revell made to mould the cannon openings.

    After firing up my Dremel tool, I ground out the existing moulded openings. I used 3/23” styrene tubing (left over from the earlier Pocher Fiat restoration project) as a basis for the new openings. Sanding down the tubes to match the surface contour resulted in a very close approximation of the actual shape of these features.

    Note that the starboard outboard cannon outlet is arranged slightly aft of its counterpart on the port side. My research shows that most Beaufighter models (like the Revell example here) have incorrectly aligned outboard canons. Note also that Revell failed to include the 20mm shell ejection ports, which I will cut out later.

    This was a good first step because it allowed me to gauge my skill level at “plastic fabrication”. If this had turned into a disaster, I would have binned the whole project.

    The next task is to fill in the gaps around the tubing, smoothing out the joints. However, my tube of Tamiya putty dried out, so it will have to wait until I find a replacement. I may try using a water-based filler rather than the smelly toluene-based Tamiya stuff.

    This would also be a good time to cut out the pilot’s access hatch. However, I’ll hold off on that until I procure a copy of the Model Monkey cockpit so I can ensure that both align. At the rate I'm going, that could be several months away.

    In the meantime, I’m starting work on the undercarriage bays. I’ve been accumulating a list of materials and supplies to buy for this project with the goal of maximizing the shipping charge by limiting, to the extent possible, the number of orders placed. It’s a good thing I held off on the order as I found a stash of sheet styrene when cleaning out my storage room (one of the higher priority projects that “bumped” the Beau project). I figure the plastic is going on fifty years old, but this stuff really doesn’t go bad (which, from an ecological standpoint, isn’t real good). Anyway, I should have more than enough to complete the Beau project and save about 25 bucks.

    Once I complete the undercarriage bays and come up with a modification for the main landing gear (it will need to be taller than the kit supplied gear), I'll work on opening up the oil coolers on the wing leading edges outboard the engines. The way I see it, none of this work requires assembling any of the kit components, so I can focus first on fabrication, then on scribing panel lines and some noticeable fasteners and sanding off the raised panel lines. Earlier I said that I was going to minimize panel lines and rivets, but given the size of this model, I think that would be a mistake.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    Very nice job so far, my friend @gwfabian! Love how these gun openings turn out. Really interested on how the improved bays will look like. Looking forward to your next steps

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    Nice progress, Greg @gwfabian
    Those gun openings do look great indeed.
    Looking forward to how they look after cleaning up.

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    George R Blair Jr said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    The new gun ports will look great, Greg @gwfabian. I think your plastic fabrication skills are certainly up to the task at hand. I suspect your skills will get a lot of exercise during this build.

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    Carl Smoot said 2 months, 1 week ago:

    I agree Greg (@gwfabian), your plastic fabrication skills are certainly up to the task of doing this kit. As for filler around the gun ports, maybe try an experiment (somewhere else if you want) using thickened super glue as a filler. Black CA glue works well and has the benefit of being rescribable with out chipping as well as being easy to see what you are applying. A piece of wire in a stick will serve to apply the CA glue surgically. Let it dry for awhile , then sand.

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    Greg Fabian said 2 months ago:

    Thanks for the advice, @clipper, I will definitely try your suggestion to use super glue.

    I'm currently working on making patterns for the bulkheads in the wheel bays. I managed to find several pictures of Beaufighter wheel bays on the web.

    http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/azrael_raven/beaufighter_mk.xxi/
    https://warbirdswalkaround.wixsite.com/warbirds/bristol-beaufighter
    https://www.grubbyfingersshop.com/walkaround_galleries/Bristol%20Beaufighter%20Walkaround%20A8-39%20RAAF%20ANAM%202016/content/index.html
    http://ipmsauckland.hobbyvista.com/Gallery/Real/TF.X/tf.x_5.htm

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 months ago:

    Great that you found those reference photos, my friend @gwfabian! Looking forward to see your progress on the bays!

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    Greg Fabian said 1 month, 3 weeks ago:

    All four bulkheads (fore & aft x 2) have been shaped and fitted successfully. In my research, I discovered that I didn't have much information about how the Beaufighter undercarriage was designed. So I fired-up my browser and searched the web for some more information. Needless to say, the Revell landing gear is woefully simplified compared to the real deal. I managed to find some shots of actual Beaufighters in various stages of disassembly showing the landing gear configuration.

    The picture above gives a great idea of what's missing from the Revell kit. Everything painted in green above the silver bits is missing entirely or reduced to single parts. Armed with this knowledge, I'll be able to replicate, to the extent my talent (or lack thereof), the landing gear for the big 'Beau. In the meantime, I have to put this project on hold for three weeks due to other priorities.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 month, 3 weeks ago:

    Trying to get all of this detail replicated will be a lot of work, Greg @gwfabian. Your fabrication skills are certainly up to the job, but try not to jump too far down the rabbit hole. At some point, trying to add all of the missing detail will make it a chore rather than something fun.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month, 3 weeks ago:

    Great progress and good reference picture, my friend @gwfabian! Looking forward to your next update after a few weeks!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month, 3 weeks ago:

    Some great reference material, Greg @gwfabian
    Take your time, she will still be there after those couple of weeks.