Here’s some progress pics of my Beaufighter Mk.21 from the 1/48 scale Tamiya kit. The cockpit is an Aires Resin set with photo etch instrument panel. It fit in the kit well after some thinning of the side walls. The resin seat comes courtesy of Lobbie (thanks mate). The only thing left over from the kit was the control wheel.
The cockpit was painted with Tamiya and Gunze acrylics.
The insrument panel was PE with film dials.
The cockpit was sprayed Interior green then given a wash and all the black boxes and instruments were hand painted flat black. Then everything was given another wash and a drybrush with silver and a light green.
Hope you like the pics and thanks for letting me share and having a look.
The Beaufighter cockpit is a joy to model because it is unique in arrangement compared with the usual seat-stick-consoles-instrument panel repetition we are so use to and, speaking for myself, so bored with. I’m sitting here with a copy of “Cockpit: An Illustrated History of WW II Aircraft Interiors” in my lap, open to the Beaufighter (no, Daniel, I’m not counting your rivets. I would never do that to a fellow modeler and I roundly dislike those people who do. I simply wanted to see how the kit managed to portray this cockpit. Pretty well, actually.) And your work is damned near sublime in rendering that kit, right down to the unique fold-down seat back which allowed the pilot to climb over the back of his seat in order to strap in. You even managed to match the unusual color of the seat belts used in the example I’m looking at, the one at the USAF Museum in Dayton. It’s an absolutely breathtaking restoration. Your micro-painting is immaculate to the point of making me jealous. The only thing I see missing is the kit’s fault, not yours. There is a very large pair of wheels, one red, covered by a smaller, tan-colored wheel, both mounted to the left and a little behind the seat. I thought, “Hmm, that’s a weird place for trim wheels,” but the callouts in my reference book say these big wheels are “Fuel Cock Control Wheels”, whatever the hell that is. The only other difference I see is that the museum painted their control wheel black like yours, but with a green column. I’d say you hit this one about as close as can be done. Now all you need is a 1/48 scale pilot who is checked out in the Beaufighter. He’d feel right at home. Congrats all around, my man.
Thanks leemitcheltree, saltydog, albertsponson, rjkplastmod, newtothegame, woodbeck3, sharkskin, cirikili, Dave Toews, yw18mc and diggeraone.
sharkskin - I know about the two wheels on the rear left and will add them eventually, this kit was actually for a TF Mk.X and it might not have had the wheels. If you look very closely there are actually small control levers where the wheels should be. They were photoetch and about as small as a bees dick.
diggeraone - The beaufighter will be overall foliage green. If you remember Lobbies beaufighter from a few weeks ago, it will be pretty much the same as that except with different fuselage codes and tail art. And mine will be called ‘Babs’ not ‘Nancy’.
Stunning work , very detailed painting skills you got there pingtang.
Not only that but you 've suceeded in producing a very high sense
of realism.Well Done mate!
[:D]I love Aussie expressions! Your cockpit is looking fantastic by the way. Makes me want to see what you’ll do with the rest of the plane. If it’s to a similar standard, it’ll be a masterpiece.[^]
Pingtang? That sounds like an American word but “ping” is replaced by a word that rhymes with “toon”. The dictionary says it is considered “vulgar”. Oh, well… Anyway, first class job on the cockpit, Pingtang, keep it up!
