[Airfix 1/48 Blenheim I]

Unfortunately Airfix has confirmed they will not be making a 1/48 IV - a frankly *incredibly stupid* move. And yes, I can say that - I alone would buy a half dozen!

That out of the way, this is a really nice result - particularly the props, collector rings, and undercarriage! Here's to hoping my take on the kit as a Finnish scheme on ski's turns out this well 🙂

[Supermarine Scapa plans help]

On 9/2/2023 at 10:15 AM, Elias said:

I guess Contrail will be my last chance...

If anybody have this kit it would be very helpfull.

I have this kit (still sealed, even!) and will try to find time to open it tomorrow and share anything it might include.

[short stirling with us markings]

30 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Has anyone considered that the Stirling was painted up for a film. Maybe not having a US bomber available a type not known to the Soviet public was chosen to represent one

There are numerous examples from all countries of painting up types to represent 'enemy' or even 'friendly' aeroplanes

The Russians only flew the Stirling somewhere in the area of 3-6 times and concluded it was a rather poor and difficult aircraft, noting that the 'best' aspect of it was of all things it's flaps.
The intention behind sending the Stirling to Russia was to enquire about the possibility of selling off a modest portion of the remaining fleet at wars end instead of paying to gather the aircraft and have them scrapped. Russia quickly rejected that possibility.

[Finnish Blenheim series drawings]

On 11/12/2022 at 11:23 AM, Walter Lindekens said:

Best Blenheim drawings I've come accross so far are those produced in 2001 by Martin Lébl for I believe a Czech magazine and he covered the Finnish versions.   I briefly corresponded with Mr Lébl some time ago and he mentioned he'd obtained all of his reference material from Finland...

 

If you'd care to PM me your e-mail address I'll be happy to send you copies of the scans I have. 

 

Cheers,

 

Walter 

Might I be able to get some copies as well? I'm currently working on a Finnish Blenheim with another to follow soon.

[Kosovo Cross FS Numbers]

16 hours ago, Selwyn said:

They are not painted in FS colours Why would they be in US postwar colour?

 

Selwyn

 

I'm aware that FS numbers are an American creation dating from after the creation of the relevant colors, but it's also the case that many pre-war and wartime colors have a near or even perfect match to an FS number.

 

16 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Maybe it's just my eyes, but to me the blues on that image of decals next to the cover sheet of Lift Here BRE-14 look distinctly different to the main decal sheet images below. The smaller ones look distinctly aqua hued, whereas the main ones look like a pure slightly grey pale blue, not far from Bugatti blue... It's a minefield, isn't it? On the other hand, who's going to prove you wrong?

 

best,

M.

Part of the issue is that there was not as much standardization as I would have imagined until the mid 1930's - but even then, precise placements and sizes often varied and as paint supplies changed from French to British starting in roughly 1938, further variation ended up taking place.

 

On 4/5/2023 at 3:44 PM, JWM said:

The Serbian company Lift Here makes is close to French insignia blue

Given that the Yugoslav insignia were based on the experience of Serbian airmen fighting in France, it's indeed the case that their early markings used French colors as well. The problem is twofold - first, the French slightly changed the blue color used in their markings at some point in the early to mid 1930's, and Yugoslavia switched to British supplies of paint in roughly 1938 as the Fury, Hurricane, and Blenheim came into full service.

 

On 4/5/2023 at 7:00 PM, JackG said:

The decal samples above to me seem to have the French insignia a more pure cyan.

 

Near the bottom of the following link the write up does state Yugoslav roundel colours originated from French colours.   Specifically the base blue was Cobalt with further mixing, while the red color was pure Crimson.

 

http://www.letletlet-warplanes.com/2008/05/27/camouflage-and-markings-of-yugoslav-kingdom-warplanes/

While I generally like letletlet, I found that article to be somewhat difficult to trust given it's assertions about Blenheim underside colors, among other issues, which are largely incorrect. Of course, those issues are rather separate from the matter I'm asking about. I think in any case that I may simply have to buy and experiment with a few colors to find what looks best. 

[Kosovo Cross FS Numbers]

Is there any chance someone might know the FS number of Yugoslav Air Force interwar /  WW2 Kosovo Cross and Rudder Stripes? The Xtradecal rudder stripes for the Airfix Blenheim don't fit and I think I'd be better off painting them either way, given my luck with applying rudder decals.

 

Thanks in advance,

Tweener

[Argentine Lancaster Colors?]

In preparation for building either an Egyptian or Argentine Lancaster, I've sourced an Xtradecal sheet containing both, but I'm left to wonder if the assertion that the Argentine option retained Dark Green and Dark Earth over Black is correct. From what I can find in photos, they appear to be in Grey / Black, which I assume would be Medium Sea Grey. With that said, I did find one pic of an Argentine Lanc during delivery, still with British roundels but with Argentine serials, and that one clearly does have the camo uppers. Does anyone have any insight?

Thanks all,
Tweener

[About that French Holiday...]

After a bit of an unintended break from BM and a lull in modeling in general, I'm back this evening with the AZUR 1/72 GAL ST-25 Monospar. I picked this kit up last summer for a very nice price ($15) thinking I would try to finish it as one of the airframes impressed by the RAE or RAF during the war. When the Model Minutes discord started a GB about export vehicles, I decide instead to build the included option of an ST-25 flown by Eloy Fernández Navamuel during the Spanish civil war. Eloy obtained the aircraft while on holiday in France, just days into the Spanish Civil War, and flew the machine as a courier in support of the Republican cause for a number of months. On a few occasions, he reportedly even used the machine to drop grenades on unsuspecting Nationalist forces! At some point Eloy got the sense the Republican cause was headed for defeat, and unable to maintain the aircraft, he reportedly abandoned it before fleeing to France, and later worked as an engineer in Venezuela. 

The kit builds quite well, though the choice of a full resin interior seemed a slight bit odd to me. In any case, the real challenge was the Vac canopy - this was the first time I used one, and while the result is alright, the fit is not precise and painting it proved frustrating. In the end, the only parts I'm truly unhappy with are the facts I placed the fuselage silver stripes slightly too low and the silver spots near the tail slightly too high. Either way, I would happily build another of these. With a bit of luck I'll be able to track down another soon.

 

Right then - the pics.

 

 

 

Should the sun decide to make a rare appearance any time soon, I'll replace the pics.

As a final note, I have to say - I rather like the shape of the wing, especially viewed from above. 

Many thanks,
Tweener

[A few too many Bristols]

With decals on, she'll next be seen in RFI:

 

 

[Unusual Bolingbroke Scheme]

7 hours ago, Carl V said:

In the attached photo, the bulge on the starboard engine nacelle is not for a dinghy but for the large new oil tank. All Bolingbrokes (except for the IVW's) had the rear engine nacelle extended backwards giving an asymmetrical appearance to the aircraft – this is one of the fairly large number of external differences between the Blenheim and the Bolingbroke. When the IV went into production, it was found that the port oil tank could be accommodated in the dinghy compartment as well as the dinghy. However, as the starboard nacelle was not extended and did not have a dinghy compartment, the upper bulge to accommodate the oil tank was added.

The light panels are yellow. This was the standard RCAF pattern for camouflaged aircraft in the training role. A few examples are Ansons, Oxfords, Harvards, Battles and Seamews.

I have been interested in the Bolingbroke for more than four decades and have over 300 photos plus four completed laid out chapters of a book which will undoubtedly never be published. If you or anybody else out there would like any of that stuff, just let me know.

Carl

 

I would absolutely be interested, and most grateful. I've been meaning to start a book of my own and it wouldn't be complete without a proper section on the Bolingbroke, but I haven't been able to find more than cursory notes or diagrams on the type. Should I PM you?

[Unusual Bolingbroke Scheme]

I've just come across this photo of a Bolingbroke -

 

 

And immediately, 2 questions came to mind.

First, is the color of the blank patches white or yellow? I'm inclined to say white given the similarity to the white of the roundels and flash, but as this is a training aircraft I would think yellow makes more sense.
Second, am I the only one that sees an unusual lump atop the right engine nacelle? What could this be for?

Any input / answers would be greatly appreciated as I may soon build this one.

Thanks,
Tweener

[PDU Blenheims 1939/40]

On 2/9/2014 at 10:22 AM, ben_m said:

After many years of hoping one existed, I have located a photo of an all-over Sky Blenheim! And it was at the IWM- I'm not sure how long ago it was scanned, but today is the first time I have seen it.

From IWM, used under Fair Use for the purposes of discussion and education.

I believe this modification was the +18 mph version, as described in Cotton's description of the mods, i.e. without retractable dump valves under fuel tank, without doors for tailwheel retract, and without new main gear doors.

Really good timing for this to turn up this year, with the Airfix kit on the horizon.

Does the photo not show the fuel dumps under the wings still? And what do you mean by tailwheel doors? My understanding is that only the first few Mark 1s had retracting tailwheels.

Any clarification is much appreciated as I plan to make something of an attempt at building this airframe soon.

Thanks,
Tweener

[A few too many Bristols]

I'm back to it -

Only a quick update tonight. The Blue PDU Blenheim is 95% painted and decals will be going on tomorrow, with any luck.
 

 

As per usual with the Airfix kit, the engine Nacelles were a pain and don't look good. I should've used the 2 sets of SBS replacements I have... Oh well.

More soon,

Tweener

[A Meteor from a different Perspective]

15 hours ago, CliffB said:

 

Do you apply a coat or two of primer?  I know that not everybody does, but it does help to give a smooth surface for metal coats (when gently rubbed down).

It's a great choice of Meteor and coming together very well 

Recently I've been using it more - my thought is that 2 coats and the use of 3,000 grit sandpaper should give a pretty nice result.

 

19 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Its such a unique looking airframe with the extended needle nose. Looking forward to paint. 

A large airframe too! I keep setting it next to the Fury's and Siskin's I've done and there's no comparison.

[Unusual Blenheim Windscreen Question]

On 11/26/2022 at 4:43 AM, Graham Boak said:

This one looks somewhat different, a Direct Vision window for landing in bad weather?

To me at least, it looks more like the actual windscreen panel has been folded down, but I don't recall off the top of my head if that was a standard fit or not.

[A Meteor from a different Perspective]

Took longer than I wanted it to, but now I have a complete airframe -

 

 

 

 

I've just slapped on some filler (mostly needed due to my own errors) and once that dries I'll move on to surface prep. I want to make sure this one's as smooth as possible before paint as I've noticed a few scuff marks on the last models I've painted a metal color.

More soon,
Tweener

[Unusual Blenheim Windscreen Question]

On 11/24/2022 at 12:56 AM, ClaudioN said:

External additional armoured glass protection for the pilot, if I understand which bump you refer to.

 

Cheers

Claudio

 

This does seem possible, but it's the only time in a few hundred pics that I've seen it. I even hunted down a dozen or so pics of the same Squadron and couldn't find it again. Do you know anything about this mod?

 

Thanks,
Tweener

[Unusual Blenheim Windscreen Question]

This photo shows a Blenheim with an unusual bump on the canopy. Any ideas what this might be?

Thanks,
Tweener

[please delete this thread]

Bloody hell, it posted twice.

Please delete -

 

Thanks,
Tweener

[A Meteor from a different Perspective]

Meant to upload these a few days ago - The SH Meteor kits appear to be gems! In just the first evening of work I got to this stage -

 

 

 

 

I haven't painted the forward (seat?) yet, nor installed the ejection seat in the original cockpit, but those are both easy to do. Last night I added the Eduard PE to both wheel wells and those will be installed tonight, meaning that with any luck, the wing will be added by Tuesday night. A dry fit shows that the fit is perfectly good so far, so I'm optimistic I'll have this one done in no time provided I don't get bogged down on the landing gear legs like I always seem to.

In the interim, I need to make sure I don't get too ambitious as a result of the relative ease of preparing parts for the Blackburn Blackburn and go start the newest addition -

 

 

The British sure do have a thing for designing planes at opposite ends of the beauty spectrum, don't they?

More soon,
Tweener

[1/72 Airspeed Consul - Union of Burma Air Force]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:53 PM, alancmlaird said:

I thought a mention here might get the interesting project back to the front, but anyway, I have a question for all you chronologically challenged kit bashers out there - Is the Tasman Oxford just a re-hash of the Frog/Novo etc Oxford. I ask, because that fuselage inner moulding looks awfully familiar!

I do keep pulling this one back off the shelf to have another go, but for whichever reason I plainly can't get the two halves to match. I know they fit just fine before the added work and they seemed to fit just as well once it was nearly done, but something gets in the way now, and no amount of messing about with it seems to reveal a solution. I may finish up the wings to make progress elsewhere.

As for the Tasman kit, I would be inclined to say it's a re-hash with some slight corrections and added detail. I've used Tasman detail sets for this and IMO at least, they weren't particularly worth the cost, so I don't imagine the kit itself would be either. 

[A Meteor from a different Perspective]

As mentioned, I'll be hopping in to this one with the Special Hobby 1/72 Gloster Meteor F.8 Prone Pilot, WK935. Notably (perhaps) this is the first jet I'll be giving a go in over 3 years. I do seem to have a bad tendency to pick the standard subjects when I try something new...  

 

In any case, it's really a nice looking kit. Switching out the nose and tail will be something of a challenge, but it wouldn't do to make the first jet easy, would it? No matter how it goes, I certainly can't say the result will be boring. One thing I wasn't prepared for is the scale of the Meteor - I've recently been looking over the parts of a Whittle and it got into my head that a Meteor wouldn't be much larger. That's not the case - a Meteor is solidly larger than a Blenheim, or at least the fuselage is longer. The wings almost seem too small to work, but then we know they did given the fine history of the type. 

Anyways, the parts -

 

 

 

 

And lastly, the special sprue for the Prone Pilot boxing -

 

 

Pics of the clear parts and decals will come when I approach that stage.

Elsewise from this, I grabbed the Eduard PE for a standard F.8, so some parts of that (mainly the wheel bays) will make an appearance as well. I've not used much PE before but this seemed like a good kit to push the skills with, so at $6.50 it was impossible to say no.

More soon,
Tweener

[601SQ Blenheim MK.1F YN*B, RAF Hendon, 1939.]

On 10/27/2022 at 1:35 AM, Farmerboy said:

If all your 12—15 Blenheim are to this standard you will end up with a wonderful collection, good job!

 

On 10/27/2022 at 8:33 AM, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Nice work - good luck with your Blackburn Blackburn!

 

TT

 

On 10/27/2022 at 11:27 AM, keith in the uk said:

Nice clean Blenheim , Frog got the engine naceles spot on unlike the Airfix kit which were way too long.  😬

Thanks you three! I'm really excited to tear into this collection, if a bit overwhelmed by all the decal options I've got (which number in the area of 100 now!)

 

 

On 10/27/2022 at 4:34 AM, Dave Swindell said:

Oooh - so good they named it twice

So good it was named twice and so bad it's name isn't spoken! I'm actually starting to appreciate it's looks now that I've gotten about half of the pieces cut out and brought to shape. We'll see how I feel once I start scratching the exhausts, gear legs, and the like... 

[601SQ Blenheim MK.1F YN*B, RAF Hendon, 1939.]

Evening all,

 

Today I've got the Cooperative boxing of the FROG Blenheim 1/1F ready for combat. The Cooperative boxing isn't ultimately worth much more than the base FROG kit imo - the PE cockpit details being all but invisible. I did add some detail with assorted Airfix Blenheim parts. Mainly this included the seat, panel, bombsight, stick, and rear cockpit bulkhead fashioned as usual from the rear bomb bay wall. It isn't perfect, but it's a good improvement.

Bar those changes and using Airfix wheels and turret parts, the result is OOB. Originally I finished it as a bomber before remembering that the B/W undersides were a fighter scheme and the fact that 601 doesn't seem to have operated bomber variants confirmed the addition of the gun pack, which was thankfully easy. Thus, the third of a planned 12-15 Blenheims is completed.
 

 

For whichever reason, there is a hint of silvering evident in photos of this side of the result, no matter what I try - silvering that is only visible from certain angles in the flesh. Odd...

 

Right, the rest. 
 

 

 

With this one done, I've gone off to work on something a little more elegant -

 

 

Probably.

More soon,
Tweener

[Airfix 1/48 Blenheim question]

The good news is that the various modifications are generally traceable to certain production or delivery blocks, from what I've so far seen. The first delivered block appears to have lacked doors but otherwise had the same bay, while one of the Finnish produced blocks had the bulged bay doors to better fit available bombs. What I don't know for sure is that there appears to be 2 different styles of bulged bays - one where only the forward 1/3 or so is bulged uniformly, and one where the whole bay is bulged, but with a dip in the middle presumably related to the centerline structural support. Note that this is only for Mark 1s - I can't speak as tot he features of the 4s.