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

Robert Porter · Dec 6, 2016

Crimea_River said:
I appreciate the continued input guys, thanks.

Robert the picture you posted shows a Universal Bomb Carrier mounted on the wing of that Beau. Unfortunately, it's not what I was looking for. In order to mount a couple of UBC's under the fuselage, as 404 Sqdn did for a short time (see photo that Chris posted in #145 above and the blow-up in Wojtek's post) there were a couple of adaptor plates mounted between the UBC's and the fuselage eyelet attachment points (see arrows below) that, according to Terry Higgins at Aviaeology, stayed on the aircraft. It was details of those plates that I was looking for but I've since decided to leave them off and just add the attachment eyelets.

View attachment 359600

The above photo is also interesting in that it shows that the cannon openings are not symmetric about the centerline of the aircraft.

The project continues.........

I was wondering why the guns were asymmetric but then I saw Airframes post below yours. Still, those are cannon right? Would not the fact that they were out of true as it were, contribute to making the task of keeping on target more difficult? I had always thought that the various guns and cannons were always angled in such a way that at a specified distance in front the rounds would converge.

Airframes · Dec 6, 2016

It's only the physical location of the cannons that is offset, and only by a small margin.
The weapons themselves would still be bore-sighted, in relation to the parallax of the gun sight, to converge, or 'cone' if required, at a desired range.
Being centrally mounted (as opposed to out in the wings), any adjustment due to their being offset would be minimal, and the concentration of fire would still be extremely effective. Many modern aircraft have a single weapon mounted on just one side of the fuselage, or offset from the center line (for example, the Tornado), and it makes absolutely no difference to the effectiveness of the weapon.

Crimea_River · Dec 6, 2016

Someone ought to make a resin nose plug to correct those gun troughs....

Anyhoo, just thought I'd take a few interim pics to show you what's taking me so long. After having initially accepted the kit version of the panel lines, I changed my mind after seeing how different these really are from the plans provided with the decals. Heck, it should have been obvious, since the kit supplies exactly the same gun access panels for the two guns on the port wing as for the 4 guns on the starboard side. Here's what I've done so far:

On the starboard inner wing, the newly scribed lines can be seen with glue stains around them. After scribing new lines with a stout sewing needle (don't tell the wife), I sand them down to make the edges flush, clean them out with soap and water and an old toothbrush, then soften the their edges by running a few brush passes of Tamiya Extra Thin along them. The old panel lines have been filled with CA glue, filed flat, then sanded before scribing new lines and these can still be faintly seen as dark lines. Note the large and incorrect oil tank access panel on the top of the nacelle that has yet to be addressed.

Here's the same area on the port side. Here I've added the missing dinghy box aft of the main spar and I've also corrected the oil tank access panel. The old panel lines for this (see above) have been filled and can still be faintly seen. The crescent shaped blob of primer is to fill an accidental scratch that I made with my file.

Here's the outer wing on the port side, which looks a bit sad at the moment. Lots of work here to redo the gun access panels that I had originally made worse by scribing in new fasteners. I went and filled these in again and you can see a few spots of primer where some are still showing. Those of you with sharp eyes and good memories may notice that I moved the camera port slightly more toward the oil cooler intake as it was too far outboard where I had originally put it. I also scribed the sheet metal cover that was added over the landing light lens and used the riveting tool that Terry gave me to, well, add rivets. I may need to redo these as the wheel slipped on me when doing the long line.

And this is my life over the last few days and a few more yet to come. Thanks for looking in.

Airframes · Dec 7, 2016

Great job on the new panels and rivets Andy. It's going to look bazzing when it's done, surely ...........

Wayne Little · Dec 7, 2016

Nice work Andy.

Wurger · Dec 7, 2016

Airframes · Dec 7, 2016

Just found a pic in 'Beaufighter at War', which shows a 409 Sqn Beau with what appear to be UBC's, or perhaps that tubular 'rack', connected directly to those lugs, with smaller racks on the UBC, similar to those shown earlier, on the wings.
The pic is not that clear, as the area in question is in shadow, but it's a large pic, covering a two-page spread (which is why I haven't tried scanning it yet).
If you think it might be useful, let me know, and I'll see if I can fir the book on to the scanner.

Robert Porter · Dec 7, 2016

Out of curiosity Andy do you use templates to scribe the hatches, access covers etc? If so any particular brand you recommend? And what do you use to perform the actual scribing? Great work by the way, looks way better than the kit provided lines!

Wurger · Dec 7, 2016

You may check this thread ... post #326 and a couple of next ones there....

Fw190A6 Sturmjager of Sturmstaffel1

JKim · Dec 7, 2016

Great corrective work Andy! I'm just a newb when it comes to correcting errant panel lines but it's a technique worth learning. For standard shapes such a circles, squares and ovals, photoetched templates are widely available. If you need more complex shapes, Wojtek posted a good example of cutting your own using available materials (i.e. aluminum beverage can). I use a sewing needle chucked into a pin vise to scribe new panel lines. Make sure the template is secured tightly using tape BEFORE you start scribing! The process of scoring with the needle followed up by sanding to clean off the excess shavings is repeated until you obtain a clean groove. You can touch up the line with a dab of Tamiya Extra Thin glue, which will round off the sharp edges and zap away minute plastic shavings.

Gnomey · Dec 7, 2016

Lovely work so far Andy!

Robert Porter · Dec 7, 2016

Wurger said:
You may check this thread ... post #326 and a couple of next ones there....

Fw190A6 Sturmjager of Sturmstaffel1

I am, ah, stunned, speechless, words don't express... WOW!

Crimea_River · Dec 7, 2016

Thanks all.

John, you pretty much described exactly what I do, though I don't often bother with the tape unless it's a bad grip.

Terry, thanks for the offer but I'm not going to bother with the adaptor so no need to scan your pic. But you can give me a vector.......

Robert, I use these, which are pretty generic and something I bought several years ago. I use them singly or in combination. For example, a rectangular hatch with a rounded bottom is simply done by using half a rectangle and half a circle.

Robert Porter · Dec 7, 2016

Thanks all! Great advice did not mean to hijack the build thread!

Airframes · Dec 7, 2016

Regarding the vector, I'll think it over, over.

Crimea_River · Dec 7, 2016

Roger, Victor.

dogsbody · Dec 7, 2016

Airframes said:
Just found a pic in 'Beaufighter at War', which shows a 409 Sqn Beau with what appear to be UBC's, or perhaps that tubular 'rack', connected directly to those lugs, with smaller racks on the UBC, similar to those shown earlier, on the wings.
The pic is not that clear, as the area in question is in shadow, but it's a large pic, covering a two-page spread (which is why I haven't tried scanning it yet).
If you think it might be useful, let me know, and I'll see if I can fir the book on to the scanner.

This image?

Chris