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Airfix 1/72 Blenheim Mk.1 57 Sqn. Fffffffffffffffinally!


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Ordered straight from the drawing board in 1935 the Bristol Type 142, later called the Blenheim was, for its time, a very advanced aircraft but by the outbreak of the Second World War it had been overtaken by fighter development.

Seeing service across all the major fronts of the Second World War, the Blenheim was used extensively by the RAF as both a light bomber and fighter before being phased out of service in 1943, replaced by more modern types less vulnerable to enemy fighters.

Herein shall be documented my continued struggle with Airfix's Bristol Blenheim Mk.1.

I originally started this model for the Bomber Command GB some time ago but due to life pressures (house move and one of those small, smelly baby-type-things) it never got finished. Much to my chagrin. Col. and Shermaniac (thankee chaps) have both agreed that the model in its current state is within the 25% threshold and as such as motivation to get the thing finished I've decided to throw my hat in to the ring of yet another GB in the hopes of getting it over the line.

My previous efforts may, for those so inclined, be found HERE but all further updates shall, rather obviously, be contained within these here thread.

So, where are we up to then? Well, in our last episode I had rather painstakingly copied a resin wheel-well upgrade in plasticard and fuse wire (with the invaluable help of bigbadbadge; who, incidentally, also supplied me with the decals for this machine. What a chap) added a little internal detail and scratched up a replacement for Airfix's poor excuse for a rear turret. I'd also rather cack-handedly drilled out the lightening holes for the flaps. Since the last post of mine in the previous thread I have stuck two pieces of styrene to two other, different and larger pieces of styrene...and bought some seat belts. So still quite a way to go.

Progress so far is shown below; everything else is still on the sprue.

IMG_2154_zpse8ycl7yd.jpg

So, now we call all see where I stand I guess I'll see you on the 2nd!

TTFN

Paul

Edited by Blastvader
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Thanks Col. I'll have to pick up a Mk IV too at some point.

I don't really have a specific interest when it comes to moggling apart from a strange attraction to things with two engines so it's pretty much a stash requirement. :P

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So, in preparation for the off and knowing how little time I normally have for these things I decided to do a little advance preparatory work as regards paint colours. Reading through my old thread you'll see that I was having some difficulty selecting a suitable Dark Green and Dark Earth colour I'm trying now to make sure I have as many of my ducks in a row as possible (and also stop the missus snaffling my crimbo cash) so I'd like to get this wee bit out of the way sooner rather than later.

I decided to spray up a few spoons whilst missus and bairn were out this afternoon using some of the colours that various manufacturers and colour conversion charts suggest but none of them look quite right to me so I'm throwing it to the floor. Below is a picture of my spoonage details of the colours is below:

35fa5557-5dd0-4e9d-958b-9bf8d8a49eb3_zps

So from left to right we have;

Games Workshop

Top: Catachan Green

Bottom: Graveyard earth.

These seem sort of close-ish but GW paints don't spray too well and both these colours are OOP- as far as I know now.

Vallejo 1

Top: Dark Green

Bottom: Golden Brown (textured like sun, lays me down with my mind she runs)

The green looks far too grey. Not right. The brown looks a little closer, a little light maybe but you could always call it scale effect. In fact that brown looks like whatever Woody37 uses on his excellent builds. That one at least is a possibility.

Vallejo 2

Top: US Dark Green

Bottom: Dark Earth

This is what Vallejo themselves suggest and in fact supply in their RAF colours box (which I don't own) and they look all wrong to me. The US DG is so close to US OD that I can barely tell the difference and the brown is very dark, and also has a lot of green in it.

So, out of the options on display here what do we think are goers. Or should I just get myself the AK early day fighters set and be done with it?

Edited by Blastvader
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If truth be told I'm not liking any of those apart from perhaps the Games Workshop brown and even then it looks a little too light. The first Vallejo green looks as if it would be more at home on a Fleet Air Arm Seafire or Corsair. Everything else looks plain wrong to me. Have you any other options available? I was happy with Humbrol Hu29 & 116 for a Mk.I Spitfire.

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If truth be told I'm not liking any of those apart from perhaps the Games Workshop brown and even then it looks a little too light. The first Vallejo green looks as if it would be more at home on a Fleet Air Arm Seafire or Corsair. Everything else looks plain wrong to me. Have you any other options available? I was happy with Humbrol Hu29 & 116 for a Mk.I Spitfire.

Well my next option was to just go pick up some of Tamiya's efforts (cheaper than buying the whole AK set) of XF-52 & 61 for dark earth and dark green respectively (the closest match to HU 116 is XF 11 which is IJN Green) and see how they work out as I've run out of options as the ones presented are the only colours I have that come close to those required. I don't know whether there's something wrong with my pot of Vallejo MA USDG as it looks nothing like its colour chip and that was sprayed after some considerable shaking and bashing. I really wish they had an agitator in these bottles.

The problem I have now though is that if I go the Tamiya route I'm going to have trouble spraying them as being alcohol based acrylics they're a little pungent and my mannex is right next to my 10 month old daughter's room and I do most of my moggling when she's asleep...I also don't have a spray booth at the moment. So it will have to be given some serious consideration. Hence why the Tamiya paints I do own have never actually been used.

Edited by Blastvader
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Try the Games Worksop Catachan Green with the Vallejo Golden Brown. It may be my browser/screen settings, but these look closest to me and placing one colour next to another can affect our perceptions of both. I may be completely wrong but it might also work. I tend to stick with Humbrol 29 for Dark Earth and 116 for Dark Green, but they may not be available wherever you are.

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Like stever219 I usually use Humbrol's 29 and 116 for my Spitfire builds and it seems to look okay. With regards the problems using the airbrush; you could always try using hairy sticks..............I hear they can work okay! :winkgrin:

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Try the Games Worksop Catachan Green with the Vallejo Golden Brown. It may be my browser/screen settings, but these look closest to me and placing one colour next to another can affect our perceptions of both. I may be completely wrong but it might also work. I tend to stick with Humbrol 29 for Dark Earth and 116 for Dark Green, but they may not be available wherever you are.

Screen settings can always affect colour perception but on my screen at least they look exactly as they do in reality.

I might spray up another couple of spoons and see how they look as stand alone colours. I'm in the UK so Humbrol stuff's not exactly hard to come across, my issue is as an airbrush user only about 1 in 10 of the the people I've spoken to either online or in person have been able to get good results when airbrushing Humbrol acrylics, and I'm not going to stink the entire street out with enamels (even though I actually like the smell).

Like stever219 I usually use Humbrol's 29 and 116 for my Spitfire builds and it seems to look okay. With regards the problems using the airbrush; you could always try using hairy sticks..............I hear they can work okay! :winkgrin:

I know you and others get great results brush painting but I didn't spend hundreds on an airbrush set up not to use it :P More seriously, I've very much struggled to find a brand of brushes I actually like. I have approximately 50 paint brushes of various sizes and manufacture on my desk and I pretty much hate them all. So I'll be sticking with the ol'AB (also, i Like the effect of the feathered edges too much).

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Good evening. Hope you are well. Just wondering if you are going to post any progress photos? I hear some photoetch may have been worked on..........

Kind regards,

Stix

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Hi Stix,

I've just finished putting a base coat of something I mixed to a rough aproximation of RAF grey-green. I'llget some of them photomagraphs taken sharpish...though iI forgot to take any before the paint went on.

TTFN,

Paul

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Reet, as Stix hath commandeth so let it be.

Quick update on what the happy-haps of this evening are.

So tonight's work has included:

  1. adding some PE seatbelts to the pilot's and nav's chairs
  2. adding some extra cables and such for a little more interest around the cockpit and W/Ops position
  3. attempting to achieve a good result with Vallejo primer (promising, but not perfect)
  4. attempting to mix a suitable RAF Interior Grey-Green (see #3)
  5. Painting fiddly bits
  6. Adding a wash.

Quite a lot in one evening really...even if I did forget to paint the IP...and control column...and the W/Op's turret.

Those will be next on the list then I should be able to close the fuselage up and get the glass added, then we'll just have to wait a couple of weeks until I put a Hannants order in for a cockpit mash set because you can jog on if you think I'm doing that m'sel.

Two picamatchures for your delectation. Excuse quality, I couldn't be bothered getting the good camera.

IMG_2170_zpss3kxgdfj.jpg

IMG_2171_zps05lsijmf.jpg

TTFN,

Paul

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Hi Paul. Thank you for the update photos. The cockpit is looking very nice. Lovely work! :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks Stix. It's finished now. See below.

IMG_2175_zpscsfmizdn.jpg

I'm now ready to close up the fuselage, there's just one problem....my scratch-guessed turret doesn't fit through the ring so I'm going to have to fit it now which is a bit of an annoyance but c'est la vie.

TTFN

Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much to report at the moment unfortunately as a kerfuffle of work/family/other things (including a rather lovely trip to Rome) have gotten in the way of moggling. I have, though, picked up a few things in the interim to make the project easier as can be seen below. I'm just going to gan with the Tamiya paints for colours, we'll see how they go. But being alcohol based acrylics I'm going to need some kind of extraction solution so painting shan't be able to start until after payday, which considering my glacial progress is not likely to be an issue.

20160118_114348_zps2odhy7gt.jpg

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Just catching up with this thread. That cockpit looks particularly nice!

Thanks Cliff. There's a lot of glass up front so hopefully you'll be able to see some of it if I don't mess up the masking too much, you'd think that having pre-cut masks would be an asset here but the couple of times I've tried them I've found them an absolute bugger to fit...hand-eye coordination of a 1 year old doesn't help though.

Since my return to the hobby I have realised that tarting up the cockpit is one of my favourite parts of the build.

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Since my return to the hobby I have realised that tarting up the cockpit is one of my favourite parts of the build.

I totally know what you mean - I too really enjoy making up the cockpits and yours is looking excellent!

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