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

[Airframes]

Glad to be of assistance Andy. Also, from memory, the trim tab actuators on the elevators, moulded as solid 'lumps', are on the wrong side - can't get to my model at the moment to check which side, top or bottom, they were originally moulded on.

 

[Wayne Little]

Doing great there Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Terry, I think I have found the patches and will include pics of the intended mods in the next post. Another thing I need to do is blank out the landing lights as was done on the rocket-armed aircraft. That's underway and I'll show pics soon.

 

[JKim]

Great work on the engine, wings and gear. The tyres really look like rubber!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks John.

I'm now giving more attention to the wings. Below can be seen the application of some Tamiya surface primer to prepare for smoothing the seam on the oil cooler. I have alos added the clear part for the landing lights and puttied and primed this smooth. The lights were faired over on the rocket-armed Beaus as they lenses would not survive the blast from the rockets.

The yellow arrow points to the little bump, or scoop that I was wondering about in the earlier post.

Researching this was a bit frustrating as there were apparently no definitive pics to prove the presence of this detail. That is until I looked very closely at a very good portrait of one of my aircraft's contemporaries on 404 Squadron (aircraft H - NE355) and saw, as shown on this zoomed-in detail that there is definitely a circular faired opening at this location. I won't bore you with more pics that I looked at but, suffice to say that I have good pics of the Duxford Mk X that shows this detail to be on the port wing only.

This pic, which I found when looking for oil cooler details, also shows the small fairing just outside of the cooler. Though this is an Aussie Mk XXI, it also shows that the oil cooler detail is a bit different than what the model has molded and that there is a thin exit flap on the back of the cooler. This is molded as a solid chunk on the model and I will make this look a little more realistic.

Here you can see that I've set about removing the block representing the exit flap. I'll replace this with some thin plastic card once all the heavy smoothing work is finished. The little intake that I spoke of above has been filed off and will be replaced with a scratch built detail.

Terry mentioned the presence of some raised patches which should not be there and I did verify this against a plan view drawing. These will be filed off. The rest of the panel lines seem to be reasonably close so I'm not going to bother moving these, though I will need to ad some fasteners to the MG access panels.

Also, Terry correctly mentioned that the trim tab actuators on the elevators were on the wrong side. Right again Terry and I appreciate you pointing that out as I may have noticed this too late.

I've trimmed these off, sanded the area and added the groove for the tabs. I'll need to check how this looks with some primer before installing the stabilizers as I prefer getting this work done before they are attached to the fuselage. The actuators are actually quite delicate and will be added on the underside near the end of final assembly, along with the small T-shaped radio altimeter antennae.

There are also some small tab actuators in the above pic that I have neglected to remove that should also go on the bottom. The thought has crossed my mind now that I may just cut these elevators off and flip them around, deflecting them downward in the process. That's a decision for another day.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy.
I've seen a description of that circular 'thingy' somewhere, perhaps in one of the 3 or 4 cutaway drawings I have of the Beau - I'll check them out and see if it's mentioned, although one drawing does not have a 'key', and another is printed in Hungarian !
My first thought is that it may be a gun camera, but I'm fairly sure that's in the nose, so maybe it's a fuel cooler or something similar.
I'll see what I can find out (if I can stay awake!) and let you know - if I find anything, that is.

 

[JKim]

Great attention to detail Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks all. Terry this would be good to know but not essentIal. The main thing is knowing that in fact something is there. I thought of the possibility that it is a camera as well but you are right in saying that it would be in the nose. In fact that's something that I need to add. A fuel cooler is doubtful if it's only on the one side. Maybe it was a camera mount for earlier marks and was just left as a fairing when the camera was moved to the nose.

I ran across a better pic of this thing in my travels and will see if I can find it again.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's a better picture if the TF X at Hendon. I think it's a camera opening.

 

[Airframes]

I think you're probably right, especially as there's an access hatch immediately behind it, on the top wing surface, which looks about the right size for a camera hatch.
It's not shown on two of the cutaways I have, one being a Mk1 the other a MkVI, although the latter is viewed from the starboard side, with this area out of view, and I have yet to check the other drawings.
I have noticed that some Beaufighter gun camera 'stills' and film footage, show the view offset, from the port side, so I'd guess that the housing is, or was, for a gun camera.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. In any event, I've now installed it on the model and have done a first smooth of the oil cooler. The camera port, if that's what it is, is a piece of rod with some Tamiya putty applied around it to represent the fairing. The putty will be blended in further with a file when dry and the whole area will then be smoothed and polished with fine grit paper. After that, I'll add the exit louvers for the oil coolers. As you can see, I reckon that I cut the block back a bit too far and so I replaced a portion of it with some card.

With the wing set aside to allow the putty to dry, I went back to the power eggs and added the struts that secure the exhaust collector ring and outer cowl into place.

Thanks again for looking in.

 

[Wayne Little]

Lookin' good Andy.

 

[JKim]

Great stuff Andy! Where did you get the razor saw pictured in your previous post? Seems like a handy tool.

 

[Wurger]

As far as the camera port is concerned .. the diagram shows that ( number 12)

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy, and glad you confirmed the gun camera Wojtek.

 

[Robert Porter]

Awesome work! Actually pretty inspiring! My first GB is pretty much OOB but I am anxious to get to your level!

 

[fubar57]

Great work as always Andy and some awesome help from across the pond

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!