Special Hobby 1/72 Bristol Beaufort Mk.I torpedo bomber

Kit: No. SH 72026
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Special Hobby, available from Squadron Mail Order, 972-242-8663, www.squadron.com
Price: $33
Comments: Injection-molded, 132 parts (27 resin, 8 photoetched metal), decals
Pros: Crisp surface scribing, beautiful resin parts, crystal clear parts, fine resin cockpit details and engines
Cons: Several parts incorrect for this version, no details for forward compartment, ambiguous instructions, too much dihedral to outer wings, incorrect cowls

Originally designed to serve as a torpedo-bomber and derived from the earlier Bristol Blenheim, the Beaufort never achieved the greatness of the later Beaufighter. The RAF used it for bombing missions against German shipping and coastal targets, and later the Australians flew them against Japanese targets in the Solomons, New Guinea, and Indonesia.

Special Hobby's multimedia kit has clean moldings with minimal flash and fine recessed panel lines. Several unused parts indicate an Australian version (and perhaps other marks) to come. Wellprinted decal markings for two aircraft are provided.

The kit's resin cockpit details are well cast, including a beautiful seat, instrument panel, control stick, and consoles, but only a floor for the forward compartment. The fuselage assembly is straightforward. Do not be alarmed, the torpedo bay should be off center. There are two antennas provided for the top of the fuselage, a short canoe and a tear-drop direction finding housing. The instructions show both installed, but the real aircraft carried one or the other. The rear turret must be installed before closing the fuselage. The instructions show the fuselage halves being joined in step 3 and again in step 4. If you close it in step 3, you'll have to pry it open to fit the tail-wheel housing in step 4. The tail-wheel strut should be located at the aft end of the housing.

Leave the pour stubs on the rear of the resin engines to help mount them in the cowls. The 56 forward-facing exhaust pipes that go to the Townsend exhaust rings are not included. The cowls provided are for early-production Beauforts, so I corrected them. The instructions show the Aboukir filters mounted on top of the nacelles (parts PUR6), but the correct intakes for English-based aircraft are provided but not shown (PUR5). There are no wire braces to hold the cowls, so I added them also.

As with many short-run injection-molded plastic kits, the trailing edges of all flying surfaces require thinning, and this should be done from the inside to preserve the excellent exterior detail. The butt joints of the wings to the fuselage require attention. There should be no dihedral to the inner wing sections. The outer sections seem to have too much dihedral. I left off the wing/engine subassemblies until after painting to ease masking.

The landing-gear parts are fragile but still require cleanup. I dipped all the clear parts in Future floor polish to improve clarity, and they fit well after a little sanding. I used Xtracolor and Model Master enamels to paint the model. The Aviprint decals are well done, but the blue and red colors are too bright and the squadron codes letters are too dark. I went to the spares box to replace roundels, fin flash, and squadron codes. What was left of the kit decals reacted well to Solvaset.

The last step was adding the external details. No color was indicated for the torpedo, so I painted it dark gray. The photoetched fins and prop for the torpedo needed a little refining. The remotely operated chin gun was usually removed in the field, so I left mine off.

Special Hobby's Beaufort can be made into a fine model, but finicky modelers will want to read up on the aircraft to see what optional parts are correct for this variant and what improvements can be made. I spent 30 hours on my model, including the improvements.

- Ross Whitaker