The Little World

It wasn’t that bad – it was an evening spent at the workbench doing the first sub-assemblies for the the Beaufort.

These were things that could be brigaded up for a spray coat of colour – fortunately the Bristol company turned out most of the interior of the plane in the British Cockpit Green. There will be a few details to pick out with black or brown and then it can be washed.

The assembly of the cockpit and interior is a lesson in precision and geometry. You need to follow the steps precisely and to be realistic about the viscosity of cement you use. But the basic fit needs to be plumb and true…and if you follow the inbuilt ledges and slots, it will be.

There are several options with the interior fit-out for this plane that revolve around extra .303 machine guns slung from mid-plane positions. I have not chosen these as they do not appear in any of the British Columbia photos of the period. At least I was able to confirm that the extra fairing around the turret position definitely was not present in the early examples, so paring it off was not a regret.

Note, as well, that the wings go together with no stress to warp them out of dihedral. I still do not trust the thin cements to deal with these, so I use a medium-viscosity one for the basic structure and then run thin material in round the gaps before clamping. This was also followed with the tailplanes – they cleverly mould them so that you get the thinnest possible trailing edge in one piece, reserving the double piece for the leading edge.