New from Model Monkey: 1/32 Beaufighter cockpits, dihedral tailplanes and 1/24 Mustang upgrades

[Kagemusha]

15 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

That looks nice! Good job, D and MM!

 

Absolutely!

[petrov27]

19 hours ago, D Bellis said:

Decalled and levered:

 

 

Standing down to await the release of the observer's station. 

 

D

 

Thats looking really fantastic - very nice! Lots of other stuff to work on while waiting for that observers station

 

You replacing or improving the engines at all?

[D Bellis]

Thanks! 

 

2 hours ago, petrov27 said:

You replacing or improving the engines at all?

I looked at the Vector engines long and hard, but in the end decided to improve the kit engines instead. The main reason being that the Vector engines don't appear to include the prominent exhaust pipes. I'll be scratching those out of either styrene or aluminum tubing (along with the inner wall of the collector ring).

 

The main drawback of the kit engines is the shape of the crankcase at the base of the cylinders. The blockyness in that area can be improved by shaving off the high points. Not a perfect solution, but better than shelling out $70+ for a pair of engines that only partially fill the bill anyway. 

 

The real thing (also note the exhaust pipes extending forward):

 

Lots of other details will be added to my engines along with the exhaust pipes to make them 'busy' enough for me. 

 

D

[LSP_Ray]

Just got my cockpits - fantastic! Well done, Steve! 

[Scotsman]

Quote

Just got my cockpits - fantastic! Well done, Steve! 

 

Ditto  , after paying HMRC's ransome at the Post Office  this afternoon, I'd just like to echo what others have said, the quality is  fantastic, and as an aficionado of Resin upgrades , the fidelity of the parts in this set are so much crisper than what I seen in sets from other manufacturers

 

Steve , if you produce any more bits for the Beaufighter , I'm in..!

 

ColinR

[Out2gtcha]

On 4/14/2019 at 8:31 PM, D Bellis said:

Thanks! 

 

I looked at the Vector engines long and hard, but in the end decided to improve the kit engines instead. The main reason being that the Vector engines don't appear to include the prominent exhaust pipes. I'll be scratching those out of either styrene or aluminum tubing (along with the inner wall of the collector ring).

 

The main drawback of the kit engines is the shape of the crankcase at the base of the cylinders. The blockyness in that area can be improved by shaving off the high points. Not a perfect solution, but better than shelling out $70+ for a pair of engines that only partially fill the bill anyway. 

 

The real thing (also note the exhaust pipes extending forward):

 

Lots of other details will be added to my engines along with the exhaust pipes to make them 'busy' enough for me. 

 

D

 

 

So are those exhaust pipes the collectors, and do those collectors go around the whole ring, and exit at the side / IE, is the whole copper ring part of the exhaust?

[D Bellis]

4 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

So are those exhaust pipes the collectors, and do those collectors go around the whole ring, and exit at the side / IE, is the whole copper ring part of the exhaust?

Here are shots of the whole exhaust system. The Y pipes in the pic above exit the heads in two places per head. Those pipes attach to inlet pipes on the inside of the Collector Ring. The Collector Ring then routes all exhaust gasses out one area on the right side of the engine cowling. Heat Exchanger pipes run through the exhaust where it exits the Collector Ring outside of the cowl, and are plumbed through the wing root to the interior of the fuselage to provide heat for the crew. 

 

 

 

Don't recall where I found those images. The annotations are mine.

 

HTH,

D

[petrov27]

great pics there - thankya! The collector ring and y-pipes would also be another good aftermarket opportunity though probably pretty unlikely someone would do 'em....

[Out2gtcha]

Yeah, that could be a tricky upgrade as well as tricky AND expensive if you upgraded the Vector options.

[D Bellis]

Shouldn't be too bad. Nothing has to be connected or sealed like the real thing: It just has to look the part from the opening at the front of the cowl. 

 

My plan is to build up the inside of the cowl lips with putty, curved in and away to represent the inside of the collector. The most daunting proposition is creating 18 Y pipes per engine. That's 36 Y pipes per kit with my 3 kits to build, so that's a total of 108 Y pipes to fabricate... 

 

D

Edited April 18, 2019 by D Bellis

[Model_Monkey]

Special thanks to all those overseas customers who ordered or may yet order Beaufighter cockpits despite having to pay customs and other fees required by their governments.

 

The design for late dihedral tailplanes is nearly complete.  Once done, I'll begin designing the early dihedral tailplanes, then the observer's station.

[Old Dog]

I see the exhaust collectors on the Hercules engines referred to as copper a lot of places, yes they often obtain a coppery bronze color but this is just the effect of heat on the steel, the sort of thing you see on custom chrome headers where it starts out blue where it comes out of the exhaust port then as it gets farther away becomes a bronze color. These exhaust manifolds get hot enough to glow cherry red and it often gave the Beaufighters away when used as night fighters and resulted in them being given a special coating. Copper is too soft and would melt or fail at the temperatures hot enough to heat steel cherry red.

[D Bellis]

On 4/18/2019 at 10:10 PM, Model_Monkey said:

The design for late dihedral tailplanes is nearly complete.  Once done, I'll begin designing the early dihedral tailplanes, then the observer's station.

 

Lets see, one early cockpit, early and late tailplanes, three observer's stations and some misc. extra radio boxes all going on the next order... 

 

As soon as they're all available, that is... 

 

D

Edited April 24, 2019 by D Bellis

[Model_Monkey]

Thanks, D!

 

Update: research for the observer's station continues.  References indicate that there were considerable detail differences between aircraft in the field with respect to which instruments and devices were mounted to the fuselage sides and where they were mounted.  I'll try to develop an excellent representative set of instruments and devices that were reasonably common for most marks through 1945.  Modelers can then adjust to suit their own preference for their own build.

 

I hope to have the new models all ready in June when the new printer arrives and I am able to offer sufficient production capacity for all the new parts.  For example, the tailplanes are very large.  A single pair may take 9-10 hours to print by themselves.  It will be best to be able to print cockpits and tailplanes simultaneously but I am not there yet.  Until the second printer is on hand and fully operational, we will continue to experience about a two-week delay from order placement to order printing and shipment.

Thanks for everyone's patience and encouragement!

[D Bellis]

53 minutes ago, Model_Monkey said:

I'll try to develop an excellent representative set of instruments and devices that were reasonably common for most marks through 1945. 

Merely a suggestion, but it might be wise to offer two sets: Radar equipped night fighter, and gunner equipped Coastal Command type. 

 

The truly unfortunate part is that there are almost no period photographic references for any of the radar equipment due to the secret nature of those components at the time. However, there are anecdotal bits of evidence out there, such as this H2S simulator built from actual H2S components:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/the-imperial-war-museum-replicates-a-wwii-bombers-h2s-radar-display

 

D