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Blohm & Voss BV 141


Hobby Paul

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Visiting my local model shop i was in need of a WW1/2 plane i could practice better building skills and weathering techniques on... with nothing specific in mind i randomly picked the first box up for £10 only briefly looking at the picture on the box. 

 

Back at home and having a good look i started to get crossed eyed... it's a funny old plane and one i've never heard or seen before.

 

It's a Blohm and Voss BV141... Plane History

 

 

Anybody heard/seen or know a good source for pictures?

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There's a recent booklet worth chasing up.  Check Valiant Wings.  I'm working on one, on and off, and it was very useful in putting something, if not "superdetail" or even detail but something, into that very empty fuselage.

Edited by Graham Boak
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7 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Is this the old Airfix kit?

 

There are plenty of images on GOOGLE.

 

 

Chris

Old kit... I don't know... how do i find out?

 

Plenty of images on google yes... but not many detailed shots.

 

It had a short life so i doubt there may be many.

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1 hour ago, Hobby Paul said:

Old kit... I don't know... how do i find out?

 

Plenty of images on google yes... but not many detailed shots.

 

It had a short life so i doubt there may be many.

 

Is it the Airfix kit? If so, it's at least 40 years old. There aren't many shots and fewer detailed pics, as there were no more than about 28 built and most of those were prototypes. I'm not sure if any ever saw time on an active front.

 

 

Chris

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1 minute ago, dogsbody said:

 

Is it the Airfix kit? If so, it's at least 40 years old. There aren't many shots and fewer detailed pics, as there were no more than about 28 built and most of those were prototypes. I'm not sure if any ever saw time on an active front.

 

 

Chris

 

Yes it's the Airfix kit...

 

Just googled images to get a number off the box incase that meant anything and found this link... Release dates and box changes.

 

From Wikipedia it states another plane was chosen over this and so it's very much unlikely that they flew again after testing.

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1 hour ago, Hobby Paul said:

Old kit... I don't know... how do i find out?

 

Plenty of images on google yes... but not many detailed shots.

 

It had a short life so i doubt there may be many.

 

What kind of detail? 

 

have a look here

http://airwar.ru/enc/spyww2/bv141a.html

http://airwar.ru/enc/spyww2/bv141b.html

 

the photos enlarge,  you can run the site through translate, but the pics are the most use.

 

Given it's an old Airfix kit, I'm not sure what you are planning.   If you want detail build  you might want to keep an eye out for a Hobby Boss 1/48th kit.  

 

sticking "BV-141" into google gets lots of useful images

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bv-141&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj99bvW7uHUAhUFC8AKHRb1Dd0Q_AUICigB&biw=863&bih=468

 

this maybe the best?

http://aircraftwalkaround.hobbyvista.com/bv141/bv141.htm

 

but spend some time having a look about.

 

There are builds of the Airfix kit about,  

 

oh, here's  a review of the  Valiant Wings book mentioned by Graham

 

but if you should be able to get enough info from an image search if you don't want to buy a book for one project.

HTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Built the Airfix Bv.141 many years ago and overall I have good memories of this kit. The cockpit is very plain by today standards but for its days it was quite detailed, the landing gear looked to me a huge improvement on other Airfix kits I had built and the fit was actually very good, even the clear parts went together with little drama. Considering that those were my very early days as a modeller, I was sure easily impressed but my skills were also very basic.

Looking at this kit today it's clearly a product of its days, covered in rivets and missing a lot of detail. If the mould is stil as it was 33 years ago when I built mine, at least it may still fit well.

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If you still don't find what you need from Troy's extensive info.

 

If I have problems finding photos of the real aircraft I sometimes look for photos of other peoples models as there are often many more available online and they are often clearer and in colour. To do this, type the particular aircraft you are looking for into Google images, followed by 1*48 or 1*72 or 1*32. The '*' will display both 1/48 & 1:48.

 

Obviously many may not be as historically accurate as the stuff from Troy, but if your not that fussed with that aspect and just want a nice looking model, it can be worth a try if you are struggling.

 

Incidentally, good choice with the Bv 141 - one of my favourites - personally I would recommend getting a painting mask for this one, to do the canopy.

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1 hour ago, Marvel Onkey said:

I seem to recall Eric Brown test flew a damaged one at the end of WWII- there's a photo of one in 'Wings on My Sleeve' IIRC

 

And an account of his flight on pp. 35-7 of Wings of the Weird and Wonderful Pt 1.  It was from a Russian-occupied airfield easy of Grossenhain.  The Russians were about to destroy it and he was instructed to fly it only within visual range of the airfield - so they could watch the crash, he suspected.  He was about to test the theory behind the Bv 141's asymmetric layout (that in the event of of attack, the aircraft could be stood on its wingtip and held there in straight flight, to give the gunner in the cone of the nacelle a tremendous field of fire) when the engine started playing up and he made a precautionary landing.  He was left "with the realisation that it was not as bad an aircraft as its development history seemed to suggest.  It had good effective controls, although it had poor lateral stability which would have made it difficult to fly in turbulence at low level."  He surmises that the latter, taken with the excellent flying characteristics of the Fw 189, was why it never went into full production. 

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It's a cracking old kit of a crazy old aircraft.

 

Go to town....research what you want.....build it and have fun......I love the one I did a few years back 

 

Forget the splinter pattern and do a brilliant experimental overall RLM02 and trick it up with preshading

 

Cheers

Bruce

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I actually have one almost finished - built out of the box, no extra detail added.  Just need an extensive masking session for all that glazing.....

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Me too, although not quite so far advanced, but the glazing is off-putting.

 

The B variant was said to be less well-handling than the earlier A, which could well have contributed to the preference for the Fw189.  However I suspect the delays in coming up with the B, and the existing demand for the BMW 801 engine, were more significant.  Interestingly, a recent photo showed a coding that was some 10 (not sure exactly) higher than anything previously seen, so there could have been rather more built than known.  More than necessary purely for test purposes.

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Somewhat off topic here, but  to back up the estimable Captain Brown's testimony, it has been done quite a few times as a radio controlled model and always seems to surprise people by flying well. I might hve a go at it for indoor rubber powered free flight scale some time.

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