**** DONE: 1/48 Beaufighter Mk.21 - Heavy Hitters II GB (1 Viewer)

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Here ya go Vic... from a bloody fantastic book Wojtek sent me: 'Monografie Lotnicze 75: Bristol Beaufighter Cz.2' (part 2)

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I was going to say not to go to any trouble Terry as It was just my curiosity at work, but Even has come to the rescue. Thanks Mate and I must say the kit part is nothing like these two bits, see ringed parts on your pic.

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Thanks to you as well David for looking in.

Not a great deal to show for today's efforts folks, lots of sorting and experimenting with the following result.

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Looks great Vic!
And yep, very simplified version of those ducts, but you can see what they were aiming at. Anyone know the function?
 
Good stuff Evan - Tamiya obviously made a very simplified version, which might look passable when viewed from directly below. Possibly for hot air extraction, as there's a vent of some sort on the rear of the nacelle, centrally located.
 
Thanks for looking in folks and for the kind thoughts.

Moved on well with finishing the main undercarriage legs, just need to do a bit more foil wrapping then give them a lick of paint and they'll be ready to mount.

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With these out of the way I made a start on the engines, kit ones are very basic, not surprising as there quite well hidden in the cowlings and behind the prop, but I thought a bit of exhaust wouldn't go astray. I'm thinking of adding a couple more bit to the gearing hub and then we will paint these.

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Good stuff Vic, but I hate to have to tell you - the exhausts ran forward, to the collector ring around the front of the cowling.
 
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Good stuff Vic, but I hate to have to tell you - the exhausts ran forward, to the collector ring around the front of the cowling.

Not so sure about this Terry, the Mk.21s were fitted with the Bristol Hercules XVII engine before these were fitted with two speed blower (whatever that is), thus making engine a XVIII.

This is a picture of the XVII engine which is as close as I could find to the XVIII and figured that the design change of the two speed blower would not change the overall design concept.

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Ah! Now that I didn't know!
Certainly the Hercules engines used on the Beau MkVI, and some other aircraft, had the exhausts running forward. I'm wondering if the exhausts ran to the blower then, using hot exhaust gasses for the supercharger? That is of course, given that the pic is of a Beaufighter installation?
I'll do a bit of digging, and see what I can find, as the exterior exhaust outlet looks the same, or at least similar, on most Beaus, and runs from the collector ring.
EDIT: I've found a couple of B&W wartime pics in books, showing the exhausts as normal, running forward to the collector ring, but they're not very clear when scanned. However, I found these two pics on the 'net, of the Mk21 (A8-328) preserved in Oz, clearly showing the exhausts going to the collector. I'm guessing your pic is of a Hercules from a different aircraft type, perhaps a Brigand, or one of the other post war types using the later series Hercules with the 'ducted' exhaust.
 

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Thanks for the feedback Terry, you had me digging deeper into all my references and scouring the internet, and look what I came up with.

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This set me in a bit of a dilemma as I had happily ploughed ahead with the other engine and had everything set into concrete so to speak.

But being the twit that I am, I rose to the challenge and have so far stripped back one engine and started the process of correcting the exhausts. Pics below.

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Great stuff Vic, and sorry to be a pain! But the engine you posted just didn't look right for a Beau, of any Mark!
I spent a heck of a long time checking on the engine layout, exhausts, ignition and so on, for my 1/32nd scale effort, and had never seen one with exhausts going to the rear! The Hercules, in various series numbers, was used extensively, right up to the late 1950s, and I'm guessing the one you posted was either from a Brigand, Buckmaster or similar, or maybe something later still, when exhaust outlets became more 'traditional' - in other words, ducted rearward to a conventional port, rather than using a collector ring system.
The other thing which caught my attention was the crank case housing, which is totally different from the Hercules used on all WW2 aircraft so fitted.
Oh, and don't forget the three support stays, from crank case to cowling !
 

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