Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Hi Everyone,For the community build I will be building A Blenhiem IVF of 235 Sqn N3531 'LA-F' Coastal Command from RAF Bircham Newton July 1940. I'm using the standard Airfix kit, which includes parts for a fighter, and an (very old) aftermarket decal set from Almark./media/tinymce_upload/b88febeee11740e1bd1fee6d934940c0.jpgOn checking the decals against my references I found three major mistakes;1. The decals state the aircraft is a Mk I, it was in fact a Mk IV.2. It was from 235 Sqn (LA), but the decals include codes from 254 Sqn (QY). Airfix also made this mistake with their original blenheim kit.3. The write up states that the aircraft was shot down while escorting Albacores over Calais on 11th September 1940, with the loss of Flt. Lt Flood and crew. This was a replacement LA-F as N3531 was damaged by Hurricanes in July and after repair went to another squadron. As the decals are incorrect and very old I will only be using the Tail Art and serial numbers from the Almark sheet, the rest will be coming from the kit decals and old Modeldecal sheets. If anyone has any further details on this aircraft I would be pleased to have them (history, colour scheme 'A' or 'B' pattern, was the code infront or behind the fuselage roundel)./media/tinymce_upload/a4b52315cace813df47f39a2c11d889e.jpgThe references and decals I will be using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Looking in the box the new Airfix Blenheim looks the business. Nicely indented panel lines, busy cockpit, all control surfaces separate including flaps, choice of single or twin gun turret, and lots of optional parts, including full bomb bay with open doors and bomb load and racks, light bomb carriers under the rear fuselage, Four sets of cooling Gills for the engines, two different styles of rearward firing undernose gun turret for the bomber version and two different styles of fighter gun pack for the Mk I and Mk IV. All the parts are included for the MkI nose aswell apart from the transparencies. The only problems I can see are that there is only one crew member for those who like their model inflight, and the nose to centre section join looks like it may be a bit troublesome. I've made a start, and unusually you don't begin with the cockpit, but build up the rear fuselage and wings, which include the bomb bay side pieces. All went together well apart from the bomb bay didn't line up to well front to back, but nothing major./media/tinymce_upload/cbd33d1d16ed6ef770bc55c35ea6865e.jpgThe next stage is the cockpit and nose, starting with the pilot's station. Here it is before painting with a paint jar for scale, their are ten pieces in this assembly!/media/tinymce_upload/dcbc1e4ac716ddfacee838f6761241c6.jpgConstruction of the nose went quickly, and this is where I am now. The instructions call for the glazing to go on now, but I'll leave it till the joins are sorted out./media/tinymce_upload/382d9bc78ddd0f8c8cfdb106558b4e2f.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share Posted August 8, 2015 I've made some more progress and now have most of the airframe together. I decided to set all the control surfaces at slight angles for some interest, and drop the flaps. If you do this remember that if one aileron goes up the other goes down ( the flappy bits at the end of the wing), and that the elevators always go up or down together (the horizontal partof the tailplane)./media/tinymce_upload/caf65b93acf0f8d22f9ca0eabc0f7d07.jpgYou can see from the picture that a little filler has been needed to blend in where the nose joins the centre section, and this is the same underneath, though the fit wasn't to bad and this is the only filler I've used so far./media/tinymce_upload/24458bb35138004a65617a8de205140d.jpgIn the above picture you can just about make out the square escape hatch under the nose, be careful not to sand this off when tidying up the join, and the filler that was needed on the sides of the bomb bay walls. Talking of the bomb bay, there is a piece that goes in that divides the bay lengthways. Only fit this if you are going to have an open bay, as the closed cover does not fit over it.That's it for now, next I think I'll be starting on the engines and glazing.Cheers for looking inPMM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Hi Everyone, Sorry it's been so long since my last update, work's been mad and also had a week away at the company annual conference.Anyway,finally got the glazing on and also the engines. The props are painted but not glued on yet./media/tinymce_upload/c7cba07eddc157dce66c6479830d02ab.jpgI started with the transparences with some trepidation, as I had read elsewhere that they were not a good fit. Luckily this was not the case, and I was suprised with the ease that they went on with. The canopy is in four sections, two side panels with the small oval windows behind the cockpit attached, the main section from the front upper nose to the escape hatch, and the undernose section, including the bomb aimer's window. This section also includes some of the fuselage around the windows to make cleaning up the joint easier. When I tried dry fitting these together I did not have much luck as bits kept on falling into the cockpit, but when I added some glue (PVA white glue), all went together very neatly with seam lines that could hardly be seen./media/tinymce_upload/dca6be827169f11ad7abf7807707eb8c.jpgOn this photo you can also see the thin line of green filler that was used to hide the join of nose to the main fuselage. Next the engines. Each engine is made up of four parts, the main cylinder bank, piping behind the engine and the reduction housing on the front, including a small peg which fits inside later to hold the prop. All fitted together without problem.I painted it all matt black and drybrushed with gunmetal, and the reduction gear in aluminium. The engine then fits onto one of the four different firewalls and cooling gill parts, which was painted cockpit green. I chose the one with open gills, painting the inside of the gills aluminium. Each cowling is made up of three sections and a collector ring at the front. I removed the breather pipes from the from of the collector rings, as these were only fitted to later blenheims and Bolingbrokes, and painted them brass, as were the exhausts which fit inside the lower cowl part nicely. /media/tinymce_upload/1a4843f21654cbcd7becda0d380501a3.jpgThe main problem I had with the engines was fitting the three parts of each cowlaround the engine itself. No matter what I did I was left with gaps. In the end I got them as best I could and then filled the gaps with super glue and sanded them down. I painted the cowlings and nacelles as I went as this will make masking the exhausts and collector rings easier later on. Finally I attached the two pipes that go into each engine front, these could have been drilled out for more realism, but I was happy just to paint the ends black./media/tinymce_upload/a056e451fd7d584ca81476ef2584bd0e.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/db424fbffe0362dbcc96411df90cc3ee.jpgI've also read that the nacelles are the wrong shape, and are based on those for the Bolingbroke, but again I'm happy with how they are.That's it for now, next time I'll start painting the airframe. CheersPMM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iloveairfix Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 nice, i love this build. i've always liked blenheim's, and i hope to build one sometime's in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Hi,Since my last post no more construction has taken place, but I have finished applying the basic camouflage scheme. As the airframe I will be modelling has an odd serial number I went for the 'B' scheme (during and before the Battle of Britain, British aircraft wore either the 'A' or 'B' scheme, which were mirror images of each other. Usually aircraft with even serials wore the 'A' scheme and odd the 'B', but this was not always the case. Soon after the Battle ended only the 'A' scheme was used to save effort). Colours used were all Humbrol Acrylics, Hu 90 'Sky Type S' for the undersides, Hu 29 'Dark Earth' for the brown and Hu 163 'Dark Green' ( I think the Hu 30 green doesn't look right)./media/tinymce_upload/4e8ebfbe81e06da39d397ff3810af822.jpgHere the props and turret are in place, but not glued yet. The green has a satin sheen, but this will be knocked back later with matt varnish./media/tinymce_upload/595766499b169650740435963cbe311a.jpgThe turret and props taken off.All frame lines are hand painted forst cockpit grey green (Hu79) then the camouflage colour. Any mistakes are tidied up with the end of a cocktail stick./media/tinymce_upload/e5900c8faa5374e8ba659e0e47898120.jpgMasking the undersides was hard work, especially around the nose and flap area, you can probably see some of my touch ups around the curve in the nose demarcation. /media/tinymce_upload/71fa71bd7edb6fbab97d93563f7c1d69.jpgA word of warning, it would have been much easier to mask the demarcation under the trailing edge of the wing if the flap had been left off and fitted afterwards. The four holes behind the gun pack are where the light stores carriers and bombs will go after decalling and varnishing. Some gaps around the bomb bay insert were filled with white glue. That's where I am now, tonight I intend to give it a couple of coats of Clear, then when that's dry start decalling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted September 4, 2015 Author Share Posted September 4, 2015 Finally got round to decalling./media/tinymce_upload/74e492cc2c73df65a6446891c0792617.jpg The decals came from a number of different places, the upper wing roundels, fin flash and gas warning patch from the kit, underwing roundels, fuselage rounds and codes, and nose code from old Modeldecal sheets, and the tail art and serial numbers from the Almark sheet. The Airfix decals were great, no problems, the Modeldecals a bit think, but went on ok, and the Almarks were very brittle, split and needed tons of decal softener to bed down./media/tinymce_upload/655416131b2c68cddb886883fb7a799c.jpgTail art showing kills for 2 German naval vessels and an aircraft./media/tinymce_upload/efe96f530f6ec2690cea2640c32ba472.jpgCode repeated on the nose./media/tinymce_upload/9c08549808dbdd1b43d2c47d4321d384.jpgAt the next post hopefully it should be finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vimal_indrasoma Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 /media/tinymce_upload/cf357cbcec5e728a35a05a37249ac6b1.JPG I think you can best appreciate the virtues of the new tool Blenheim by having a look at how the old ones canopy went on ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Is there a model airplane under that filler? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidJC Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Can it be clarified - is that the new tool or the older one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 The build thread is the new tool. The filler monster is most definitely the old tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidJC Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Ah yes, thank you Pretty mediocre modeller. It should have been immediately clear as it does actually say in the thread, but I took a first glance wihtout reading through and was horrified to think that the representation was the new tool. What was I saying about poorly-fitting older kits where the modeller might give up in despair?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 Hi, I've now finished this build and posted up the final instalment and completed photos twice now, but they don't seem to be appearing? Is there a problem admin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vimal_indrasoma Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Sorry, I missed a couple of posts -PMM - heh heh, yes, but much like doing a sulpture, you have to remove everything that doesn't look like a Blenheim, then - voila! And you're right, it is the older version, that I picked up at a closing-down sale in the early '90s. Surprisingly, two of the others that I picked up at the same time, an Arado 196 and a BV 141 were much better behaved, so this must have been the black sheep of the lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Mediocre Modeller Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 So, this is the third time I've tried to upload the final part of my build!!!!!This time I'll just say that I enjoyed the Blenheim, and it was a mostly trouble free build./media/tinymce_upload/d75ea3d41d39c885c7ee2fb06cfd6b95.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/8224a1e158941197fa0253f120e1ee00.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/825f89805b2b8c46756f3c8977bae715.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/b5a3f01f9ba08b3f8a5dc09708c1c9c5.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/8b503bc0d79f1634bafa87c73da78e62.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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