<-- **** DONE: 1/48 Beaufighter TF X - Twin Engined Aircraft of WWII

[Wurger]

.... how these things worked? Exhaust gases routed to where to heat fresh air and then ejected where?

Andy here is the diagram of the front ( nose ) section of the Beau. In the one we can notice two pipes that seem to be a part of the heating system. The "A" looks like being a pipe of the hot air system ( feeding by the starboard engine ) in the pilot compartment and farther distributing pipe. Because of the diagram I had posted above I would say that the line was ended in the bottom gun section where the hot air could be evacuated with the shell ejector slots. The pipe marked with "B" seems to be a line spreading the hot air to the front gun compartemnt and could be fed by the port engine. The ejection of the hot air could be done in the same way like for the bottom gun section.

And here how it worked IMHO ....

 

[Crimea_River]

Hmmmm, interesting. I never thought of those small inlets to be connected to the cockpit air system but what you say makes sense. I guess I will route some ducting in the wheel wells to make all this work. Thanks Wojtek.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Wojtek.
Just guessing, but I would think the pipes or hoses in the engine nacelle, would run across the firewall bulkhead, possibly on the wheel bay side, or maybe along the front of the spar, with the other 'services'.

 

[Crimea_River]

Agree Terry.

 

[Wurger]

I also agree.

 

[Crimea_River]

I fixed the brake lines, snipping away one side and creating an independent feed line.

Next on the schedule will be to enhance the gear doors, though I squirted some paint on them already. here's a representative one as it currently looks.

Cheers.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy. Think I might get another Tamiya Beaufighter after seeing this.
Last one I built was just OOB, about ten or more years ago.

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks all.

 

[Crimea_River]

One down, three to go.

 

[Wurger]

Great. But it would be better to add these door details before painting . Double work has to be done now, I would say.

 

[Airframes]

That's impressive work there Andy !

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry and Wojtek.

Great. But it would be better to add these door details before painting . Double work has to be done now, I would say.

Very true sir. Normally, that would be my approach but, in this case, I decided to add the details very late. My reason for painting earlier was that I hate wasting paint, and if I have left over colours I go ahead and apply it to other parts that I know will be the same colour. In this case, two of the gear doors were sprayed when I had cockpit colours left over and the remaining two were done when I did the wheel wells. It doesn't really make more work as I only had to scrape off a little bit of the paint to attach the above parts and the additional paint will be minimal and possibly a slightly different shade to add interest.

 

[Wurger]

Roger.

 

[Airframes]

Roger Over, over .............

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh and to you comedians.

Here are the finished gear doors with highlights picked out and the lightening holes darkened with an olive green wash. These will now be left off the model together with the undercarriage until the finish painting is done. The kit allows for easy installation of the undercarriage at the end of the build as the whole assembly is built on an insert that slides into the nacelle. Once in though, I will need to reinstall the fuel dump plumbing and add a few more details on the rear bulkhead of the nacelle. These can't be put in until the undercarriage inserts are fully installed as they would otherwise be in the way.

 

[Airframes]

Excellent work on those doors Andy, they really look the bog's dollocks !!