30-10-2013, 12:20 AM
I've had this excellent little airframe in a box for over a year - time to get it in the air.
We haven't had very many (... if any) Alfa models at our field. They're made by a small family-owned concern in the Czech Republic. Typical old-style electric designs, set up for brushed power-trains - they're made of shells of depron (or it looks like depron to me) covered with a plastic skin and painted. The surface is excellent, and it shows small panel lines and offers a really classy light-weight structure - but they're only small models, suitable for calm days and favourable conditions. They've got a whole range of models which we don't see offered by the other producers, if you're into war-birds. Only sold as air-frame kits, they require the builder to do a bit of work - no worries.
Here's their web-site: http://www.alfamodel.cz
The only problem with them is that the construction technique means that they're restricted to being small - say up to 1000mm wingspan. Currently, that's fine for me as I discovered last weekend that my FMS Trojan is a bit too much for me to handle with only one good arm at the moment. Getting it into and out of the car was a hassle.
So, to the Beaufighter - typical of Alfa to make a war-bird which is interesting and yet not offered by many other manufacturers. Here's a photograph of the parts (I don't own this photograph, it's the property of Mike Llewellyn but mine was the same before I started painting it - forgot to get a pic beforehand).
I got mine out and decided to paint it in a scheme which is close (as much as I can get it) to a machine from 455 Sqn RAAF which flew out of Leuchars in Scotland 1942-45, and was charged with anti-shipping operations. Here's a pic of one I found (author unknown, but I don't claim ownership).
I've only airbrushed the underside so far, and it's not a good match in colour for the picture above, but, ... life's short and I cant lose sleep over that.
I'll continue the build over the next couple of weeks and hopefully have a maiden happening before the end of November.
We haven't had very many (... if any) Alfa models at our field. They're made by a small family-owned concern in the Czech Republic. Typical old-style electric designs, set up for brushed power-trains - they're made of shells of depron (or it looks like depron to me) covered with a plastic skin and painted. The surface is excellent, and it shows small panel lines and offers a really classy light-weight structure - but they're only small models, suitable for calm days and favourable conditions. They've got a whole range of models which we don't see offered by the other producers, if you're into war-birds. Only sold as air-frame kits, they require the builder to do a bit of work - no worries.
Here's their web-site: http://www.alfamodel.cz
The only problem with them is that the construction technique means that they're restricted to being small - say up to 1000mm wingspan. Currently, that's fine for me as I discovered last weekend that my FMS Trojan is a bit too much for me to handle with only one good arm at the moment. Getting it into and out of the car was a hassle.
So, to the Beaufighter - typical of Alfa to make a war-bird which is interesting and yet not offered by many other manufacturers. Here's a photograph of the parts (I don't own this photograph, it's the property of Mike Llewellyn but mine was the same before I started painting it - forgot to get a pic beforehand).
I got mine out and decided to paint it in a scheme which is close (as much as I can get it) to a machine from 455 Sqn RAAF which flew out of Leuchars in Scotland 1942-45, and was charged with anti-shipping operations. Here's a pic of one I found (author unknown, but I don't claim ownership).
I've only airbrushed the underside so far, and it's not a good match in colour for the picture above, but, ... life's short and I cant lose sleep over that.
I'll continue the build over the next couple of weeks and hopefully have a maiden happening before the end of November.
Steve Murray
X9 & DX8
