tonyot

LOL,.... thanks Mike,..... yeah I like to compare the size of aircraft where they are so different. Skill,... Productivity,...... no mate I just bumble along!

We are all learning and those that profess to be experts should be given a very wide berth!

LOL,.... thanks David,.... I have a Magna kit too and I`m sorely tempted to build it in the original camouflage with yellow undersides. Thanks Bertie and glad to have contributed to your education! Thanks mate and oh yeah,..... imagine how huge they would be in 1/48th!!

It looks fabulous mate,..... and the desert camo really suits the type too.

Thanks Dave. Some Mk.I`s may have been retro fitted with those intakes but I`ve seen plenty of Mk.IV`s too that did not have them.

Got the model started today and did quite a lot,........ The interior parts were mostly painted last night on the sprues; Then construction started with the rear fuselage being joined together,..... and the nose with the cockpit inside,.... I elected not to attach the glazing yet,...... I`ve built a few of these now,.... the first time I left off the glazing until later and snapped the glazing,.... the next time I attached the glazing before joining the ccokpit sides and it went OK,..... then another time I left the canopy off until later and manged OK,.... so we`ll see. I find that leaving it until later helps to keep the nose in place while the glue dries. I have also started on the wings but one of the undercarriage framework parts pinged off into the ether and has vanished,..... hopefully it will turn up? I also assembled the wheels to allow them to dry in time to sand and fit them later .; The main airframe parts together,..... tape is holding the parts together while the glue dries; And here the control surface have been attached. One thing of note with the early Mk.I` is that that did not have an air intake on the top of the engine nacelle,... seen marked here in black,..... so these need to be removed; And therefore,.... the cut out in the engine cooling gills should not be there either and these will need to be filled,.... but to complicate matters there is also gill joint line running through the gap.; So,.... to fill the gap it was first of all squared off, and then filled in using a section of the left over closed cooling gills parts,.... of course this `plug' will need to be trimmed and have some filler applied later ; Another part of the engines which needs to be altered is the exhaust ring as the kit item includes protrusions at the front which were only found on the Canadian Bolingbroke,...... an easy mistake to make as Airfi probably examined a museum aircraft which was a Bolingbroke converted to resemble a Blenheim, such as the RAF Museum aircraft. Whatever the case,.... it is simply a quick job to cut them both off and sand the area smooth,..... here the top wing has been modified and the lower ring has the protrusions highlighted in black; And the exhaust rings sorted; Continuing with the engines,..... these then had their engine covers added, minus the exhaust pipes and the exhaut ring from the front, which I`ll probably paint seperately and add at the end of the build; The Blenheim model was then set aside to dry before sanding the seams,.......... but,....... Having researched the Wellesley`s too,.... it seemed a bit sad not to make one of those in 45 Sqn markings too, wearing the desert scheme and the DD pre war codes,... I had already bought the Valom kit to do this very thing,...... so it would seem rude not to build them side by side,.... after all I`ll have the paints out anyway! The kit also includes decals for a 14 Sqn aircraft which I`ll add to a Matchbox Wellesley at later date; I have pre painted the interior parts on the sprue,..... The Valom kit is a bit more refined when compared with the old Matchbox kit that I have built in the past with nice interior detail and the option of an opened pilots canopy, so I also cut open the side entrance door for the cockpit on the left hand side. The exterior surface detail of the fuselage is better than the Matchbox kit,.... but I`m not sure about the wings,.... the geodetic framework seems a bit sharper but without the fabric sag of the Matchbox kit. Here is the fuselage before joining showing the interior detail which is quite good, with radios and a navigators station complete with chart table, onto which I have added a map. Valom also provide etched seatbelts and an etched instrument panel and rudder pedals as well as radio faces; The the fuselage halves were joined, with tape holding it together until it dries; I then moved onto the wings. Unlike the old Matchbox kit, Valom have provided a wheel bay, with separate walls but the instructions are very vague indeed as to how these fit and I found that the parts did not fit as they should because the ends at the root did not match the contour of the joint between the wing and fuselage,.... so I swapped them around. Hopefully I`ve done it right,.... we`ll see!! I have also assembled the bomb carriers which fit under the wings. I think we will have fun and games getting the wings to fit into the recesses provided in the fuselage,...... but after a bit of sanding and scraping I decided to leave that for another day as it is getting late now! So that`s it for tonight, Cheer`s Tony

Thanks Mark,.... hopefully we`ll get there!!

Thanks Tom,..... this is the first time I`ve done dayglow,...... it really is quite vivid!!

Thanks Alain,... thats very kind of you. Thanks mate,.....

Thanks Dave,..... yeah I`ve rambled along with my musings about the codes above and come to the same basic conclusion,.... although I am open to any ideas really! Re the 2nd Blenheim,.... the caption says,........ Returning to pre war days, this Blenheim Mk.I is L6823 which suffered a collapsed landing gear whilst taxiing at Heliopolis, Egypt during 1938 or early 1939. (Italics added by me at a later date,....Of interest is the temporary desert finish consisting of a light tan colour which is presumably the same Light Stone colour used on RAF and Army vehicles applied over the Dark Green areas of camouflage, resulting in a Light Stone/ Dark Earth finish with Black undersides. The roundels have been converted to the Red and Blue B Type with no fin flash and no unit codes have been applied yet. Again the turret is retracted) this aircraft was later sent to join the Yugoslav Air Force.,....... now checking L6823 out with Air Britain it just says,..... to Yugoslavia as part of the block L6817 - L6819 and L6821-L6834l!! So something of a mystery why it was in Egypt wearing RAF markings,... it it were not in that block I would say it was repaired and sent to Yugoslavia,...... but who knows? I could not find another Blenheim Mk.I serial which ended in 823 or even 923!! Cheers Tony

Thanks Dave,.... I`m thinking of overpainting the Xtradecal codes using the camouflage colours to be fair,..... and I think I`ve established that the light colour was painted over the Dark Green areas of the standard Temperate Land Scheme?

So,.... Here is the subject aircraft, I am pretty sure that there is a darker area of Dark Green under the letter `B' of the OB codes,..... which `might' indicate that the OB codes at least were Medium Sea Grey and the light camo colour had been painted around them? As for the `W',.... who knows,.... but it does have a light area at the top left hand corner which would suggest that it might be applied in camouflage colours? It could also be red,.... with the remaining section that encroches onto the Drk Earth area being left in its original MSG? However,.... when you blow the area up,..... the roundel has a dark outline, showing where the original yellow outline has been overpainted! You cn also see the two toned `W',..... seeing this close up,.... I`m inclined to think that the codes may be in camo colours after all,...or could they be MSG with the section of W on the lighter section of camouflage overpainted with a darker colour,..... red, blue or Dark Earth to make it stand out more,.... it would make sense,... but then the OB codes on the other side of the fuselage would be repainted too as they are on the lighter camouflage section.; And here is a standard pattern which matches the above,..... the lighter colour has been applied over the Dark Green areas,....... . And it also matches the scheme from the Airfxi 1/48th scale kit; So,... I`m looking at a Light Stone, Dark Earth and Black scheme,...... basically the post war RAF Transport scheme adopted for the very same areas of operation during the 1960`s,..... maybe the RAF dusted off an old file? Cheers Tony

OK,.... I`ve dug some pics out of my own collection of photos,...... sorry I`ve had to put watermarks on them, but they did cost me quite a lot of money, buying them from collections which were being broken up! Here is the Blenheim I`m thinking of going for,... taken during an inspection in 1939 for a local royal dignitary,...... are the Lysander`s wearring the same scheme too,.... and also the biplane on the right hand side? Are those OB codes in grey or are the codes in the opposite camouflage colour,.... note the top left part of the `W' is light where it encroaches onto the dark area of camo. Also,.... as Graham says above,..... I still need to doube check the original temperate scheme pattern,..... but the darker area could well be Dark Green and not Dark Earth as often assumed,... so time to start comparing photos; Another Blenheim wearing this scheme, albeit to a different pattern, L6823 at Heliopolis,...... note the ring of the painted out yellow roundel ring on the top of the wing, with the resulting red white and blue roundel then converted to a red and blue B Type roundel. Also some of the new colour has been tramped on the feet of the groundcrew onto the original darker shade too. But..... by the time war broke out in the Middle East,..... 45 Sqn`s Blenheims were wearing standard bomber colours; And some Wellesley`s wearing the same desert scheme too; 14 Sqn wearing pre war BF codes over the Bitter Lake,.... note how peeled and battered the light colour has become. ,The unit converted onto Blenheim`s in 1940. Seen at Khartoum, 45 Sqn pre war codes DD. . The light colour is extremely worn on this Wellesley, exposing the original colours underneath which does appear to back up the fact that the light colour indeed covered up the mainly Dark Earth areas. And the Anson above is seen with a KU coded 47 Sqn Wellesley alongside which is wearing the desert scheme, seen at Summit in 1940. Cheers Tony

I had been pondering about the darker area of camouflage being green rather than Brown and was going to check it out,..... glad somebody else has similar thoughts too. I`ll start researching this one properly in a day or so. Whatever it is,..... I don`t agree with others who say that Middle Stone was used,...... this colour was developed in 1940 at Farnborough and it is darker,..... the colour used looks more like the Light Stone applied to road vehicles in the theatre,...... and also Light Earth. This applicton of camouflage may have been connected with trials which led to Middle Stone,..... but that is just conjecture on on my part. I do have quite a few pics in my private collecton of 14 Sqn Wellesley`s wearing this scheme and a big inspection was undertaken by a local royal,...... cannot remember who off the top of my head. ...... which shows the Wellesley`s and Blenheim`s lined up near each other. The light colour soon began to peel away from the Wellesleys,.. both the metal and fabric areas,.... so no doubt the Blenheim`s were similar? By the start of the war in the Middle East the scheme was no longer seen and the aircraft wore the standard bomber colours of DE.DG.Night. .

Hiya Folks,..... well I could resist and have decided to do another 45 Sqn Bristol twin,.... this time the Blenheim Mk.I as seen in the Western Desert in 1939, before Italy entered the war,..... wearing an early temporary desert finish which appears to have consisted of a temporary Light Stone colour applied over the Dark Green areas of the standard bomber scheme. This temporary scheme was quite short lived and was not around by September 1940 when Italy entered the war but it was seen on Blenheim`s and Wellesley`s and maybe some Gladiators too? Anyway,... here is the model; Here is the decal sheet I`ll be using,..... although I think I`ll end up overpainting the OB-W codes? So I shall crack on and get the interior painted today, Cheers Tony