SimonL

Been gradually working at this over the last couple of weekends. Fuselage all fixed up. Then the undercarriage. These looked complex in the instructions, but I took it nice and slow and they went together really well. Just a little touching up of the paint needed. They were a really nice tight fit into the nacelles in the lower wing half. Then it was time to get the wings together, plenty of pegs needed to keep everything in place. And that’s it until next weekend.

Thanks for heads up @stever219. Easily fixed with a quick bit of work with a scribing tool. And that is what I will attempt to do

I’ve been kept away from the modelling bench for one reason or another for the last two months. With my mid-winter leave I thought I would be able to get some progress on some stalled builds, but I just couldn’t resist starting this one. I’ve been working on it this last week, and here is where I am at so far. First the cockpit - which was a delight. Just added some tape seat belts and a dirty wash of black acrylic with a 50:50 mixture of floor polish and water. First time I have tried this (saw it suggested on another build of a Blenheim, from http://barracudacals.blogspot.com/?m=1),I like it - very forgiving. It worked well on the engines as well. And on the wings (I’m going with flaps down) Work in progress. After some dry fitting I found it best to glue the mid section with the wing spars to the port fuselage half. Here is the cockpit in place, pretty tight fit. Rather glossy from the dirty wash, so I will need to apply a matt coat later. A test of the canopy. Looks like it should be ok, if I am careful. Finally for this first post, the completed engines. A couple of queries for the Blenheim experts here. I am building the box top aircraft. (1) the clear panel on the underside for the camera, I assume I should paint over this as this is not a recce aircraft? (2) Wing walkways. All other images I have seen of wartime Blenheims show a single walkway, in a grey (not) black colour - would that be correct for a wartime aircraft? thanks!

Thanks @CedB and @rob85. Things will slow down a bit from here - off overseas for a quick business trip tomorrow night. As for the patchy look - I have something in mind. For the time being, work continued on the engines and engine nacelles. Not sure what I did, but they needed a bit of filler . Stuffed the front of the nacelles with blutak and fishing weights. So far not a tail sitter (I also stuffed some weight into the bomb bay). So here is where I am at this evening. Some tidying up of seams to do, but I may leave that for when I get back. Perhaps have a go at doing the gun turrets tomorrow.

After a bit of work on the fuselage seams, I added the remain panels to the fuselage, they dropped in very neatly. Then on to the wings. I followed the instructions to the letter, adding the upper wing half first to the spars followed by the lower wing. Seemed to work very well. On with the main landing gear, again following the instructions to the letter. Left it to set for the recommended 60 min . I dry fitted the tail part and engine nacelles. Stuffed a whole lot of lead and blutak into the nacelles, and it looks like it should be enough. Really happy with how this is going - a really fun build so far.

Managed to get a bit of time in this evening. Gave the cockpit a dirty wash made up if raw umber acrylic diluted with floor polish (an Australian Future substitute), followed by a dry brush with some medium grey acrylic. I crammed in lead fishing weights, which were held in place with blutack and fitted cockpit and other innards into one side of the fuselage. Pretty good fit. Then it was time to close up the fuselage. Went together very neatly. I'll leave it overnight before doing anything else.

Hmm, that’s a bit of a challenge. Not much done today. Just some minor detail painting in the cockpit and an approximation of seatbelts with some painted strips of Tamiya tape. Decals added to the instrument panel.

Thanks Andre, that’s a spray can isn’t it? I usually prefer to brush paint, but I will take a look. Any, made a start. Cockpit area came together pretty quickly. Looks good dry fitted into the fuselage. A lick of paint to finish of the afternoon. I am going to build it with the bomb bay doors closed, so don’t need to worry about mid section. I’ve take the approach of a dark green for the cockpit area, and interior green elsewhere.

@tonyot thanks, very helpful - although I doubt my (limited) skills are up to extreme weathering! I will perhaps go for a slightly cleaner representation. @Rabbit Leader many thanks, very helpful on the colour front, although as alluded to above, may not have the skills to make it look realistically patchy!

I’ve been busy the last month or so, and really missed working on a model. At the same time, I have been lacking inspiration as to what to build (or complete... like most I suspect, have some half built kits hanging around). Picked this up last week and was almost enthused to start straight away, but decided to hold off for awhile. Now though I think I am ready, after looking at a few completed kits on this site (particularly @tonyot‘s collection - very inspiring). First, a box shot and the sprues: I’m going to do it straight out of the box in these markings, as Dunsfold is not far from where my in-laws live. I am sorted for the top colour, I’m going to use Tamiya XF62 Olive Drab (I brush paint mostly Tamiya Acrylics). However the undersides is another matter - I realise neutral grey may be a bit of can of worms. Any suggestions for a closeish match in Tamiya (or Vallejo at a pinch) would be gratefully received.

@Magua87 here is the link for the RFI for the Dakota

Hopefully it’s not too long Steve. Already got sidetracked today with work in the garden!

Casting around for something to do I found this on the shelf of doom. Over two years since the tediousness of painting the canopies put me off. Let’s see if I can resurrect the beastie and get it finished. Here’s where I am at so far.

Hi Troy, my comment above concerning the MDC conversion was to do with their Tempest VI conversion, however since then I have had another thought. I have an old Hobbycraft Sea Fury in the stash, would it be possible to kit bash that with the Eduard kit to arrive at something that looks like a Tempest VI? Or am I just kidding myself?

@ModelMonkey I don’t have an experience like that, but did see a close up demonstration of a Mustang at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook near Melbourne, which was pretty special.