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

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Likely not Geo. Most judging is done on the quality of the build - seam work, clear parts, symmetry, painting decals, etc rather than on historical accuracy.
 
Interesting idea for the weathering Andy, waiting for the final result now to see if I'll steal it...

Great work btw, and thanks for the info on the cupola frames! Wondered how those worked. (As for the internal frames, I just mask them on the inside with thin Tamiya tape and paint them by hand)
 
Thanks guys. Evan, the technique's been used by many others, including John (JKim) on this site so I claim no ownership of the idea. Steal away.
 
Great work on the intake and the paint prep! What kind of issues were you having with the airbrush? I find the airbrush much more finicky about paint/thinner ratio when I'm trying to spray fine lines vs normal coverage. A little too thick=paint spitting but too thin and the paint runs. Hard to nail that balance. I recommend spraying your camo a bit thinner than normal to have more control over the preshade effect. It takes more time but you do get a nice grain-free finish.
 
Thanks guys.

I keep discovering things. It seems that "my" Beaufighter underwent a late field mod to add the external quick release mechanism to open the navigator's cupola.

Here's an early pic of my rig showing the immediate area under the cupola as clean.



Here's the quick release mechanism detail:



And here's a detail of a late pic of the same aircraft as above, taken early in 1945.



Looks like I'll need to add the mechanism.
 
Nice find Andy.
Note that in the detail shot that you 'arrowwed', there is what appears to be an exit scoop, probably for gun fumes, aft of the cupola.
 
I was wondering about that but have not seen it on any other pics. There are also several other black splotches in the area that I can not make out so am not sure that's a vent.

Anyway, I got on with adding the release mechanism. The handles were made by drilling out a round styrene rod, cutting a slice, and then cutting that in half. The rest is self evident. Note also the lovely airbrushing job I was talking about........NOT!



With that done, I sprayed on my first passes of colour, the first being what I wanted to represent as faded Extra Dark Sea Grey. For this I used Tamiya XF-50 Field Blue mixed with white in equal parts. The darker tone, representing newer and less faded areas is straight XF-24 Dark Grey. I wanted to achieve the effect of EDSG fading more blue over time but I'm thinking that I may have overdone it.



The appearance of the darker colour is based on both photo evidence as well as the observation that fading was less prevalent on areas that saw frequent spills of liquids (fuel, glycol, oil). I also surmised that the painted over AEAF stripes on the wing and fuselage uppers would have seen less weathering as this was newer paint. Photos also show that the nose cone was likely changed for a newer one at some point.



Thoughts are welcome on the colour so far. My plan for the next step is to go over all areas with a thin light grey to get some of the blueness out and get a bit more of a faded effect.
 
I agree about that 'vent' - just had a closer look, enlarging and reducing the pic, and it seems to be just pixelation of some dark spots, weathering or whatever.
I think the misting of the grey will probably do the job Andy, but maybe give a light misting of the base colour you used first , maybe darkened just a touch, to soften the contrast between the shades?
 
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