Current Username is twinplane and the Password is thunderbolt.
Hobby Master HA2301 the Bristol ‘Torbeau’ Beaufighter TF.Mk.X. Mine was a bit ‘grubby’ as you can see from the photographs. Is this an intentional wash to make it look weathered – if not it’s a QC problem! The other QC problem, well documented, is the poor black paint infill into the panel lines. I’m always going on about this and you would think this problem would have been solved by now by HM and other manufacturers, including Corgi.
The white of the stripes is sprayed on using a mask. The black is tampo printed on top of this, and because the panel lines are relatively deep, there is no paint deposited in some of them and the white shows through. Same thing happens with the blue of the roundels, with an additional opacity problem, where they overlap the white of the stripes. Oh well…
Mine was not grubby, I see how yours was badly painted. I dont think it is an intenional wash.
By: hugo on Monday, June 29, 2009
at 16:29
The white showing through on the black stripes is a common fault, it can be corrected with some black water based paint, I used one of those little pots of paint that come in kids build ‘n’ paint sets, its thick enought not to run and excess can be wiped off with a damp tissue, I was pleased with the results.
By: Thunder64 on Monday, June 29, 2009
at 19:45
Mine wasn’t that grubby, but it has a rough look about it. I think it’s great nevertheless, even if you can’t remove the rocket rails. I’ve read that the rocket rails wouldn’t have been mounted if a torpedo was being carried. Oh well!
By: ChairmanMilo on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
at 15:22
For my money, HM’s ‘Torbeau’ Beaufighter is a thing of beauty. Hobby Master may have gauchely applied the black tampo printing, but the partial white panel lines, surprisingly, look realistic. Honestly, had I a choice between perfect black stripes or partial white panel lines, I’d pick the later.
By: troG on Tuesday, June 30, 2009
at 20:54
Mine was not quite as grubby as your model, but upon opening mine all you could smell was paint thinners, and the finish did not feel right, very rough.
By: kabelace on Wednesday, July 1, 2009
at 18:02
Same here! I remember both of the initial Beaufighters smelling strongly of paint thinner. They actually still smell of it quite a bit… not that I go around sniffing my diecast aircraft.
By: ChairmanMilo on Tuesday, July 7, 2009
at 15:47