Scale aviation modeller international

THE KIT

The kit arrived in a clear plastic

bag, with a number of loose-leaf

sheets containing the instructions.

This is not a new cost-saving move

from Revell, but typical of what

is received when you get a pre-

production test shot. I do have to

point out that as this is a test shot

any errors or flaws I find during

the course of this build may not

be present in a production kit.

In the bag were twenty dark

grey sprues, and one clear sprue,

along with a decal sheet. The

dark grey plastic used on

the test shot features

some very fine

engraved panel lines on the exterior

and some equally fine raised detail

on the interior. The clear parts

are thin and very clear, but on my

sample the canopy framing is a bit

soft-edged, which made masking

the frames a little awkward.

The part layout map supplied

with my sample shows twenty-

two sprues. The missing two

sprues are for the underwing

rocket projectiles and rails, but

there is no mention of them in

any of the 79 assembly stages, so

these will no doubt appear in a

later boxing. Also missing were

the traditional colour profiles

for the two options provided on

the rather nice decal sheet.

THE BUILD

The first ten stages of assembly all

cover the interior, which includes a

full-length floor panel, from cockpit

to tail wheel, which forms the base

on which the interior is built. The

cockpit has raised detail on both

the instrument panel and side

consoles, and a decal is supplied for

the instrument dials and compass,

which looks very effective.

The seat harness is moulded

on both the pilot’s and observer’s

seat and would look OK with a

little paint, but I am sure that

many modellers will remove the

moulded parts and replace them

with aftermarket alternatives.

I fitted the pilot’s entry hatch

and bulkhead, as well as the

blanking plates that cover the

internal recesses at the wing roots,

before moving further aft to fit the

ammunition containers for the

belly-mounted cannons and the

pedestal for the observer’s seat.

The observer in this version of

the Beaufighter faced rearwards to

The interior surface of the

fuselage has some impressive

moulded-on detail

The cockpit is nicely detailed. The ejector pin

mark is not visible through the canopy, and I

would replace the moulded-on seat belts with

aftermarket items

The wing root blanking plate and heating pipe can be seen here

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