Honouring my Great Uncle: 600 Sqn Beau

[MarkofZollo]

Now that the surprise is (finally) out of the bag , I can post my build honouring my Great Uncle. Michael Angelo Zollo was shot down in his Beaufighter by friendly fire on the 24th May 1944, his first name in our family can be traced back over two hundred years from father to son but the line was broken here.



My father being born after the war was the next male in the family so the name was passed to him. There is a Beaufighter kit in his study which has waited to be built for years, I asked to build it a couple years ago but he wanted to do it, so I thought I would get another kit and go for it. I bought a 1/48 Tamiya Beaufighter Mk.VI, gave it to him on Father's day, then stole it
With my parents being away over the summer I started work and research.

He was part of 600 Squadron, a night fighter unit, based in Marcianise and using mainly Beaufighter Mk.VIs at the time.

After applying the control panel decals once assembled, I was a tad annoyed at how rubbish it looked. I had seen some other people's build pics of painting it (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 48916.html http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/r ... hp?id=1812) so had a go (luckily also I have an Osprey book: Painting and finishing techniques, that details a Beau build);



Much better . Also painted the rest of the inside, Its important to mix a lot for the internal green colour!
Another detailed part hardly seen was the radial engine, others had improved it so I had a go at that too.
I found a pic of a Beau engine on its own, I copied the inlet and outlet piping as close as I could;



(Pipes cut off where they meet the engine covers)
I then added some wiring and painted the pipes a copper/gold mix, the rest was painted gun metal and dry-brushed black, was supposed to be other way round but worked the same



Will be back shortly with more.
Cheers, Dave

[MarkofZollo]

Now by this point my research was getting somewhere, having found rafweb.org and signed up, I asked the owner Malcolm Barrass for any extra info. Very kindly he sent me this pic of a 600 plane at Foggia (not too far from Marcianise);



The rest of the plane was assembled next based on the above pic and canopies placed to see how it all looks together. Also added a bit of thread from the radio mast to tail;



More shortly

[MarkofZollo]

Painting steps next, firstly masked off the canopies;



First coat of Sea Grey all over;



Then pre-shading;



Yes my hand seemed to be more shakey than normal



Malcolm, again very kindly, gave me the email address of a guy in the 600 Squadron Association, Andy Cameron, who then also passed me on to Ian White who may know more of the info I was after.
With the pic of the Beau at Foggia and Ian's expertise I was able to pin down the likeliness of the use of the earlier AI Mk.IV radar, rather than the thimble radome, on Michael's plane, and the accuracy of the camo in sea grey/dark green shown in the Foggia pic. After finding a very similar pattern on an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle, I set about masking the pattern (after putting a grey coat over the pre-shaded non green areas );



Tamiya's XF-61 seemed a nice match;



After the masking tape was removed;



Damn had missed some bits for the grey top-coat , had to very carefully mask the green in some areas now, and cover the missed bits.

More soon

[MarkofZollo]

Ok on to the base, I couldnt find any pics of Marcianise and whether it was a grass runway or concrete, I had seen some nice pics of concrete and grass on other dios so tried both .
I wanted a triangle in a corner to be concrete, so cut from A3 styrene and scoured some 70mm squares after seeing similar idea on another thread (somewhere here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/inde ... opic=51276);



Then after finding some lovely kitchen surface plastic-topped mdf in the garage (it probably was intended for something else in the future but tough!) and found I didnt need the other styrene sheet, I got to work covering the base.
The method came from here: http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/made-it ... orama.html a fantastic dio and the only place I could find ANYWHERE on the net about how to make a ground base.
So starting I mixed the old all-purpose filler from the Sherman cast texture with a lot of PVA glue, and, this may make many of you cry, ground coffee. Not just any old cheap brand, I found some fancy crap (Im still young enough to dislike coffee) in the kitchen that was out of date, but was all I could find ;



As can be seen I forgot to take the pic before I started pouring extra ground coffee on the surface.



Im not sure if this extra coffee is supposed to be stuck down or simply impressed into surface, but I did the latter and I think it helped.
The base was then airbrushed with XF-52 Flat Earth once dry (the rushing air removed all the unstuck coffee grounds), again I forgot to take a pic before starting the next stage;



As you may see above, I had impressed the path of the plane as it came to rest.
Where the coffee had blown off left some of the black primer which gave a nice variation, the impressed coffee grounds help make a nice texture;



So grass next, and with the help and advice from John at Bekra models in Newton Abbot, 'cos I didnt have a clue!, I was able to get the grass standing up. You guys may know or not but if anyone out there like I was searching this will help maybe.
I diluted PVA, 50/50 with water, and painted all over the surface (bit by bit) then poured on the Javis static grass.
I then rubbed a ballon through my hair to build up static electricity and passed the balloon over the grass a few mm from the surface. The glue keeps it stuck down but the static causes one end to rise .
I deliberately left a few bits uncovered to give a used field look;



Where I had impressed the tyre marks, I left the grass down so it looked flattened.



Lovely stuff, more very soon! Dave

[MarkofZollo]

I wanted this to be more than just a model, a real memorial to my Great Uncle, so I thought a plaque would suite;



I am very thankful to Mike at Totnes Pet and Garden, despite being understaffed (just him) and way overworked, he made time to get to the workshop to engrave this. At this time my parents were due home in three days and I wanted to give the dio to my Dad then, I wasnt aware just how long everything else would take so that didnt happen!
Anyhow at the same time I was trying to make a case, I found a good sized ex-fish tank at the local dump that was ready for conversion. I spent a long time trying to cut the glass to the required dimensions but it didnt want to. Anyway, plenty more fish in the sea I mean Ideas out there, like Perspex. After waiting longer than delivery was guaranteed (the word seems to mean nothing these days) the custom cut sheets came and I put together quick;



Quickly got this edge wood attached to tidy it up a bit;



I removed the last 50mm from the bottom of the corners, attached that to the base to make sure the top always went on alligned correct.

After airbrushing a concrete mix, and a bit of water staining and weathering of the runway it was attached to base.
I added the generic 600 markings shown in the Foggia pic, I didnt know about gloss varnishing the surface before and after decals, then matt varnish, another tip from John lol.



Some bits not obvious, wheels had tyre bottoms melted and flattened to simulate the weight of plane, the normal scratched and chipped paint, dark wash, oil stained weathering applied all over.
As always more soon

[MarkofZollo]

My Father had done some research himself, a few years ago he had met a chap called Dowman Whitehead who had trained with Michael, he recalled Michael always wore his Officers hat at an odd angle. I decided to add this, so I bought Revells Pilots and Ground Crew kit, and set about modifying. The head of one pilot started like this;



but someone Dremeled his cap off;



and added another guys officer hat, the final look is next post .

Ok so after this it was Saturday 8th morn, parents had been back nearly a week and I had only to paint a couple figures. I had called two of my sisters to come for dinner that eve with thier husbands and kids (only them due to being close ). Easy finish, until I lifted the cover on the overnight matt varnish of the Beau and found I had left the canopies on. If anyone doesnt know Matt varnish + clear canopy = foggy canopy! I spent most of the day fussing and trying to get the varnish off but to no avail.
I didnt want to wait a week to give the dio over, so after refusing dinner whilst my futile efforts continued, and by kind persuasion I gave my Dad the model as was, figures unpainted and foggy canopy.



Excuse the blurry pic, one with fewest people in . Any how on to the finish!

[MarkofZollo]

So a week passed, around work and other bits I tried my best to paint the figs and add a bit more the dio was put in display place yesterday evening all figs have been modded/customised in some way The new canopies are from a Mk.X kit I had originaly bought by mistake and have yet to sell, anyone need parts??



Michael and his navigator Ed Critchley
Excuse the faces, I'm bad enough at 1/16 faces so 1/48 was horrible for me! They only have had light and dark shades added, I cant really detail further.

















Hope you guys approve, first 1/48 build for me and as you guys know its minature compared to the 'norm' for us.
I also put this here for my family to see and to show all the people who helped and to say many thanks to them, it wouldnt have happened without!
Hopefully at some point the National Archives will have information for me so I can perhaps add the remaining identification/serial codes.
Cheers, Dave Z

[tankmad]

What a fantastic tribute to your grandfather and you have done a fantastic job well done.
Stevie

[Dietrich]

Hi MarkofZollo,
Cracking model and a really nice surprise present......please can I ask who you got the perspex from and how much did it cost to buy and get delivered ??
.
I do not know why you worried about the 'Foggy' windows on the plane....all you had to do was to get the bloke on the ladder in the 5th photo down to polish them for you
On a slightly more seroius note of the foggy canopy windows....I think that I have used 'T-Cut' that is intended for car windows to good effect....I have certainly used it to 'Polish' out scratches and scuffs on motorcycle plastic indicators before....and I am CERTAIN that it will work on your windows unless the varnish has reacted with the plastic and 'Gone all the way through' if you see what I mean !......Please try it and see what happens...
Lovely plane and a wonderful surprise.....Thank you for sharing it with us.
Alb

[sparks]

Fantastic job
And a nice tribute.