Andrew's Beaufighter TF. X **Finished**

[AndrewR]

The old, simple, but quite nice Matchbox kit.

[AndrewR]

The engines are about what you would expect, not the sharpest, but will do.



The propellers look a bit spindly.



The decals are okay, but I'm going to replace the roundels and just use the code lettering.

[AndrewR]

The only thing I intend to change on the model are the nacelles, which are a bit tapered, and have a funny edge at the collector ring. I've put a card strip around the collector ring, which gets rid of that.


Then I poured gap filling CA glue into the gap (to fill it, obviously). I'm not sure how this will turn out, but we'll see how it looks when the glue is dry.

In addition, I scraped and filed the inside of the collector ring a little, as the inner diameter looks a bit too small.

[Molly-new]

Nice choice Andrew, I built this in its Revell re-release form a while back. It is a nice kit but could do with a few enhancements. Here is mine:

[AndrewR]

Nice one Chip.

The wings fit together perfectly. Yay.



One of the nacelles just needed a little sanding to make it pretty smooth. The other one (on the left) has had another coat of CA on it. I just put a bit of olive green paint on the ring area to show up any dodgy bits.



The interior has been sprayed green, so some more assembly is possible.

[AndrewR]

Another 10 minutes of modelling gets me this far:



Classic Matchbox, make 'em at the table on Saturday afternoon while Grandstand is on telly.

[AndrewR]

Having read a few build reports on the kit, I realised that the horizontal stabilisers are too small. So I decided to make a simple modification to improve things slightly.



So I'm adding a 3mm extension close to the rudder. This has been built up with laminations of plastic strip and glued liberally with CA. One unit has been roughly sanded back. The other is still drying.

The nacelles have both been sanded fairly smooth, and a bit of paint will soon reveal any defects.

[Clashcityrocker]

All looks like it's going together nicely.

Nigel

[Molly-new]

Flying along Andrew, looking good.

[Martin R]

Andrew,

Nice job so far. I like what you've done with the cowlings and the tailplanes. The only further accurising that you may consider is reducing the dihedral of the upper wing panels. Helpfully, Matchbox have given you a large trench in the right place on top of the wing to saw through. The resulting gap can be shimmed with a piece of thin card which will bend th outer wing panels down a bit and reduce the dihedral a bit.

Of course you may consider it not worth it; it's looking great already.

Regards,

Martin

[AndrewR]

Andrew,

Nice job so far. I like what you've done with the cowlings and the tailplanes. The only further accurising that you may consider is reducing the dihedral of the upper wing panels. Helpfully, Matchbox have given you a large trench in the right place on top of the wing to saw through. The resulting gap can be shimmed with a piece of thin card which will bend th outer wing panels down a bit and reduce the dihedral a bit.

Of course you may consider it not worth it; it's looking great already.

Regards,

Martin

Thanks Martin. I'm just chopping out the lights at the moment, so I'm not sure about a major surgical op on the wings

The other thing is that this plastic is very brittle, I'm not sure that the lower wings would survive the bending process

[AndrewR]

So, Martin persuaded me to saw the wings.


Actually, deep scoring with a craft knife rather than the razor saw.




Also I am still working on the wingtip lights





Next question. Did the Torbeaus have the rocket rails fitted?

[MarkyM607]

Not 100% sure but I thought it was one or the other not both at the same time. Unless torbeaus had the racks for rockets but no rockets when they had the torpedo. Think I just asked your question again!!.

[AndrewR]

Not 100% sure but I thought it was one or the other not both at the same time. Unless torbeaus had the racks for rockets but no rockets when they had the torpedo. Think I just asked your question again!!.

Here's the latest state of the build. Nearly everything is fitted, but not necessarily fitted well





The sprue for the last of the wingtip lights is now glued in place, and the engines have been primed in dark grey and dry brushed with aluminium.

[Gregers]

Very neat work Andrew. I'll be keeping your build and improvements in mind when I build mine.

All the best.

Greg