A French Beaufighter

[NARSES2]

French Beaufighter

Not to much of a back story to this one, but basically my thought process was ; "what if when they converted to Bristol Brigands the R.A.F. in Malaya had handed over their Beaufighter TF.10's to the French in Indo-China".

So here is a Beaufighter TF.10 of Group de Chasse 1/21"Artois" based at Tourane A.B. (latter Da Nang) in the province of Annam, French Indo-China circa 1950. Upon taking over these aircraft the Armee de L'Aire retained their previous owners camouflage and simply replaced the national markings and added their own squadron insignia as they weren't expecting them to remain in service for that long. Indeed they were eventually replaced by ex USN Bearcats. However whilst in theatre they performed excellent service with their heavy cannon and m.g. armament and the ability to pack a punch with either rockets or bombs.

This is the second of Airfix's new tool Beaufighters that I've built and I have another in the stash. They have made some additions with this boxing in order to allow you to produce the thimble nose TF.10 and one of them is the rocket rails this aircraft is equipped with. I've never seen this type on an R.A.F. aircraft before and I must admit I'm quite tempted to get another kit just for the rocket rails !

The kit builds really well and is a good fit all round. No problems, that were not of my own making were found. More details of the build can be found in my Blog. I thoroughly recommend it. Paints used were Xtracrylic and Humbrol in the main and the transfers came from an old Carpena sheet that I had in the stash, "Indochine 1945-1954" which has a thoroughly eclectic mix of types on it.

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice! That works and looks good. 

[TomZ]

Looks good!

TomZ

[PR19_Kit]

Must have struck fear into the hearts of the Viet Cong for sure!

The markings suit the overall scheme very well. 

[TheChronicOne]

That looks awesome!! I ain't never seen that paint scheme. It does look great with the French stuff which I always like. 


Going to have to pick up one or two of these kits...  sounds like a delight to build.

[JayBee]

Nice one Chris 

[rickshaw]

Must have struck fear into the hearts of the Viet Cong for sure!

The "Viet Cong" were an American invention, long after the French had left Indochina.  Against the French, there were the "Viet Minh" - literally, "followers of Ho Chi Minh", Kit.

The markings suit the overall scheme very well. 

They do indeed.  The rocket rails are a strange mix of wartime and post-war theories about how to get the most bang for your buch.  They remind me of FAA style rocket rails which the Wyvern flew with, with the rockets stacked up on each other.

[zenrat]

Looks great.
Well done.

[Old Wombat]

C'est un superbe Beaupatrouilleur, mon ami!

Les Việt minh seront vraiment terrifiés de la Mort de Susurrement!

[Modelling_Mushi]

That's turned out a treat! 

[NARSES2]

Cheers gent's, appreciated 

They do indeed.  The rocket rails are a strange mix of wartime and post-war theories about how to get the most bang for your buch.  They remind me of FAA style rocket rails which the Wyvern flew with, with the rockets stacked up on each other.

They really are, aren't they ? Almost a case of "well we've got these flipping big girders to hang our rockets on so we're going to use them" . Given that they free up room on the wing I can see them being used in conjunction with bombs or maybe another set so you have 16 rockets in total ?

[ysi_maniac]

GOOD!!!

[DogfighterZen]

Great looking build! 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks so right - well done!

[NARSES2]

Thank you gentlemen