The Little World

It is not often I get to build a model of a different real aircraft. Of course the makers of the kits pattern them off real ones that they find in museums – and these can be built from the box. But if you do, you are just building what everyone else who has purchased the kit has.

I always hope to do it the other way – I look until I find a prototype with enough information to let me model it, then select a kit that comes close and start to make the changes.

In the case of the RCAF Beaufighter EE-U, it was featured in an Avia Press book of Canadian warplanes with a number of colour profiles as well as period pictures. Better, it had the story of the pilot and the operations of the aircraft. The Airfix kit was as near as dammit to the illustrations as long as you selected the right alternative components.

The Beau was piloted by Sid Shulemson – a Canadian flying Officer from Montreal who flew in a unit that conducted rocket attacks on enemy shipping off the coasts of Norway and France. The model is painted in a museum interpretation of the early Beau. Two shades of dark Grey – EDSG and DSG from the Mr Color line and Sky from the AK range. I must complement the AK company on the quality and flow of their paint.

The indefinite nature of the camouflage greys on the top are the result of an experiment. It is a pretty good way to do Commonwealth patterns – you’ll read about it in a separate posting. The greys are dark enough to hide real errors and there is a light overspray of even lighter grey as a weathering mist. And the final blast of Dullcote from a spray can worked very well.

Also a pat on the back for the design team at Airfix for the landing gear – each main gear was a 4-part build before the wheels went on but they all were precise enough to meet at the correct cementation spots and it is immensely strong.

I was very pleased to see that I would finally get an opportunity to hang a complete set of 60 pounders onto an airframe without it looking silly.

And finally, here’s Sid at the controls. If you google him up you’ll find he was a pretty famous Canadian fighter pilot and quite a tireless warrior after the WWII period as well. Lived a long, and I hope happy, life.