When the Royal
Air Forces's campaigns in WWII are mentioned it is invariably the Battle
of Britain or Bomber Command's attacks against Nazi Germany which are the
subject. It is not always remembered by the public that the fighting
took place on other fronts by other commands which were also crucial to
the war effort. One of these is the the interdiction campaign by RAF
Coastal Command against Axis shipping around the European mainland by a
combination of air attacks and a mining campaign. From late 1942
onwards the attacks were carried out by a number of strike wings formed
from both Bristol Beaufighter and later De Havilland Mosquito
squadrons which utilised aerial torpedos, bombs and rockets to sink
Axis shipping. From a two squadron beginning at North Coates,
Lincolnshire in 1942 this grew to nine squadrons in three wings by war's
end. The sqaudrons which carried out these attacks were comprised of
men from all nations and included RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF and RNAF, the
attacks which took place were some of the most vicious and savagely fought
air/sea battles seen in WWII and great courage was displayed on both
sides.
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The subject of
this article is Tamiya's excellent Beaufighter TF.X which was originally
released to acclaim back in 1999 following an earlier MkVIc release.
Moulded in grey plastic it has the usual standard of great Tamiya fit
although there were some queries on accuracy due to some unusual
"patches" on the upper wing surface which seemed to be
reproduced battle damage repairs. Despite this, the kit is excellent
and from the TF.X release it's possible to build just about any
Beaufighter variant apart from the early straight tailed MkIc/f and this
can be done by the simple replacement of the tailplanes with aftermarket
parts. This build was from the TF.X release and built as a flak
suppression aircraft of 144Sqn based at RAF Dallachy in Northern Scotland
in February 1945. On 9th February 1945 aircraft from the Dallachy
Strike Wing carried out an attack on German shipping in Norway escorted by
Mustangs of 65Sqn, as a result of fierce resistance by the defences and
Luftwaffe fighters, nine aircraft were lost with six alone from 404
(Buffalo) Sqn and damage inflicted on several others including the
aircraft I chose to model 144 Sqn's NE831 flown by Flt Sgt's S.A
Butler and C.B Nicholl which crash-landed at Dallachy due to severe
damage. This attack became known to the aircrews as Black Friday due
to the losses incurred on that day.
Although the kit is
great OOB, I added Ultracast seats and Quickboost exhausts. The decals came from
the spares box. I used Xtracrylix Extra Dark Sea Grey which appeared
too dark so I added white to lighten it up then when dry I added a little more
white and went over the centre of the panels to try for a faded, weathered
effect as Coastal Command strike aircraft were very hard used and flew in
very hard conditions. The same process took place on the underside using
Vallejo Pastel Green for Sky. Once dry I sprayed Klear and applied a raw
umber wash then some chips using silver paint. Graphite from a pencil
was used for the streaks from the guns. Final coat was Xtracrylix Flat varnish
which gives a nice satin finish. I'm very pleased with the results and I'd
like to do a few more Beaufighters hopefully someone will come out with decals
for the squadrons especially 404Sqn.
References:
-
Beaufighter in
Action by Squadron/Signal
-
Beaufighter
Squadrons by Simon Parry
-
A Separate
Little War: The Banff Coastal Command Strike Wing Versus the Kriegsmarine
and Luftwaffe 1944-1945
-
The Strike Wings
by Roy Conyers Nesbitt
Stephen
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