The Whispering Mailman

[grayman]

Oops! The title should be "The Whispering Mailman"

The end of World War II for Australia brought massive demobilisation. At it's peak, the RAAF was well within the top five airforces in sheer size. Demob' saw many go back to their civilian careers and also saw many aircraft buried, dropped into the ocean, stripped of parts and sent to the scrap merchants.

Fred Nerk ended the war as a pilot officer flying Beaufighters out of Morotai. With some demob' cash and something of a dream he set out to create Australia's first air courier service. Buying a war-weary Beaufighter Ic from the RAAF in 1946, he quickly arranged a new red-silver-white paint job and set about hauling mail and high-demand goods all the way from Melbourne to Canberra to Sydney and on occasion, Brisbane. There were even a couple of trips to Thursday Island for some seafood.

Sadly, Fred made a poor choice of aircraft to start his business - sure the Beau was fast and haul a lot of weight - it was expensive to run for the cubic feet of capacity it offered. Eventually surplus Hudsons and DC-3's were picked up by competitors and Fred's dream came to a sad end. Even sadder, his trusty Beau suffered a cracked mainspar on landing during a hot, windy afternoon in Sydney. The Beau lingered in the fire dump for a little while, with the last trace gone in 1948.

Picture 1/5

 

[grayman]

This is the Hiplanes model of the Bristol Beaufighter Ic. The kit is a combo of resin (seat), plastic (two different types - one kind for the fuselage and another for everything else) and metal (undercarriage and the control wheel I lost).

Panel detail was petite (hidden in my attempt under copious sanding and heavy coats of paint), but there is flash everywhere. To use a quote on a kit form elsewhere - this kit fitted where it touched.

The decals are my first attempt at the home-brew approach. I'm happy with the result, but can see much room for improvement  ^_^

The box says "for experienced modelers only". Definitely. I have fond memories of doing the Matchbox Beau many years ago - this one was a challenge.

Cockpit was rebuilt from scratch and fit was poor. The engine nacelles were oval and required a lot of sanding to make them look slightly rounder (and why they look a bit "open-mouthed"). The observer's station was filled in..I could not be bothered to scratch-build the interior.

Transparencies were vacform - my first experience with these that went better than I feared - again much room for improvement. The wingtip and landing lights were another first for me - using a clear toothbrush and filing for size.

Picture 2/5

[grayman]

The subject attracted me 'cos I could not find any references of Beaufighters finding their way into civil use after the war. Tigercats, Lightnings, Venturas seem to have mode it, but not, it seems, the Bristols.

Incidentally, the white is intended to reflect the hot Australian sun -- keep the fuel and the seafood cool...nothing worse than seafood exposed to heat for too long

Picture 3/5

[grayman]

A comparison with a WHIF Me-210 from a while ago...

Picture 4/5

[grayman]

Final picture folks.

I deliberately left the coat of red rather thin in places - to try and suggest a bit of wear and also the idea of metal under the paint. To be honest I am still trying to make up my mind about how successful this was.

Please feel quite free to offer any comments, criticisms or suggestions. Now I am off to continue the Airfix Spitfire 22 that has haunting me for months....  

Best wises to all!

Picture 5/5

[Howard of Effingham]

B) masterly stuff!  B)  

[Rafael]

OOooooh!!!    

This is what modeling dreams are made of!!!

Rafa

[nev]

1)  Cracking idea Grommit!  

2)  The thin red paint doesn't look too bad - when I first saw it I thought it was pearlescant/metallic

3)  First 2 pics are  :redx:

4)  

The subject attracted me 'cos I could not find any references of Beaufighters finding their way into civil use after the war

Nearest I can think of is the 4 Beaufighters bought by a Jewish movie mogul for use in a film - except they disappeared and when they were next seen again they were in Israeli roundels fighting off the Arabs!    

[NARSES2]

Great work - Love the scheme

[ysi_maniac]

Top notch, gorgeous master piece
             

[The Rat]

Sadly, Fred made a poor choice of aircraft...

What do you expect from a Goon?

Beauty stuff!    

[Jeffry Fontaine]

The dreaded  :redx: is still showing up on the first two images...

Interesting conversion to civiliann use.  Have you considered a firebomber Beaufighter as another possible use?  

[luft46models]

Any back story that can manage to include Fred Nerk is a winner but you forgot his mate Joe Bloggs  

Nice paint job


William in Oz

[grayman]

Thanks for the kind words.

The dreaded  :redx: is still showing up on the first two images...

Interesting conversion to civiliann use.  Have you considered a firebomber Beaufighter as another possible use?

Hopefully the images are working now  

Sorry for all the typos (amazing how many crop up after you post)

I have been pondering a firebomber, perhaps using the 1/48 Zhengdefu F-111 that has been gathering dust.

Precision all-weather navigation, plenty of lifting capacity and the ability to squirt a fine mist out the back! All that would be needed would be a hose to drop into a lake to refilll while skimming along on TFR...

[Brian da Basher]

Excellent work, Grayman! Your canopy framing is oerfect! I love seeing military types re-worked for civilian use.

Brian da Basher