Being half English, I have an affinity for English aircraft. I have loved the Bristol Beaufort ever since reading Torpedo Bomber by Ralph Barker many decades ago.

The Beaufort was developed from the Blenheim bomber to meet a tendered specification for a land-based, twin-engine torpedo bomber. Later on the wings and tail of the Beaufort were used to develop the Beaufighter. Decent mileage, in my opinion.

The Beaufort saw stellar service operating from the Home Islands, the Mediterranean, the Pacific and the Far East.

Airframe Detail No.10 follows the standard format Valiant Wings uses for this series, starting with a brief history which covers the areas of operations, the different countries who flew it, survivors and serial numbers.

The Technical Description section includes line drawings combined with pictures from the manual and from survivors, as well as some historical pictures providing all the details you could want if you plan to trick out your build.

The Camouflage and Markings section discusses the different camouflage options throughout its career and includes several pictures and 34 full-color side profiles. There are some very interesting options selected.

While Beaufort kits have not been plentiful in the past this situation has recently been changed with excellent new kits by Airfix in 1/72^nd scale and ICM in 1/48^th. Both of these kits are featured it the Beaufort Builds section. Good information and good pictures detail both builds, and they will be helpful examples for anyone contemplating one of these kits.

Appendix I covers the Beaufort Kits produced in the 4 main scales. In 1/144^th scale you are limited to resin kits. The Airfix kit in 72^nd is the best in my opinion in this scale, superseding the old Frog, High Plains and Special Hobby kits. Before the ICM kit in 48^th you were limited to vacu-form kits and the ID Models option in 1/32^nd scale.

Appendix II covers Beaufort Accessories, Masks & Decals with a decent selection of items in 72^nd and 48^th scale.

Appendix III is the bibliography covering the different publications related to Beaufort, which shows a decent selection available, but the book I mentioned at the beginning is noticeably missing.

The final Appendix covers Beaufort Squadrons and lists all of the squadrons and locations used by the Royal Air Force, the Fleet Air Arm and Foreign Services. This last one has all of the Australian squadrons as they were a major user of the aircraft.

All and all another very nice reference book that won’t hurt the wallet too hard and gives plenty of data if you want to build a kit or just like the aircraft.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publications and IPMS/USA for supplying the review sample.