1:72 Bristol Beaufort Collection

A torpedo bomber on four continents

The Beaufort was designed as a torpedo carrier for Coastal Command and in that role it began over the North Sea. Gradually, though, it spread much further: it defended convoys in the Mediterranean from Malta, patrolled over the Indian Ocean from Ceylon and from Madagascar, and in Australia it was built under license under the banner of the local department of aircraft production.

It is precisely that range that is most valuable on this sheet. It offers sixteen marking options, and among them subjects that are hard to find elsewhere:

• British machines of Nos. 22, 42, 86 and 217 Squadrons from Malta, Scotland and Ceylon
• An aircraft of the South African Air Force from Madagascar in 1942
• Australian machines of the Mk.V and Mk.VIII versions from training units and from the fighting for New Guinea
• A machine of the Turkish Air Force from the summer of 1945
• An aircraft of the naval air station at Yeovilton from the spring of 1945 and a machine caught on a ferry flight to India

The versions differ substantially. The British Mk.I and Mk.IA had Taurus radial engines, whereas the Australian machines were given American Twin Wasps and a different shape of engine nacelle; the Mk.IIA differed in armament and turrets. Before building, then, it pays to choose the scheme first and only then to work on the airframe accordingly.

Worth a mention is one Australian aircraft with a painted nickname referring to a snow goose. Nose art on a twin-engined torpedo carrier from the Pacific is a subject that will reliably catch the eye in a case among European machines.