GliderGuider

Hi all, Sorry about the lack of updates and replies- I've been away the past week and a bit. I did make some good progress before going, she's all painted now. I'm just about ready for the daunting task of fitting the canopy. I'll post some pics shortly when I have a chance.... Thanks Christer and Col! Yes, the engines are completely Airfix plastic. No resin or PE. And yes, they really are lovely (provided you sand them down before trying to fit the cowlings!). All the best, Matt

Here's my entry, another Airfix Dakota (this one represents Flt Lt David Lord VC's aircraft during Operation Market Garden). Here is the build log. All the best, Matt

Hi all, Progress has been slow this week. Working a full week after so many public holidays was a bit of a shock to the system! But I have now moved on to the engines. These are dead easy to assemble ... as long as you sand the completed engine down a little and do some test fitting before attempting to fit the three cowling parts. This was really easy and quick but if if I hadn't there would have been a nasty gap in the cowlings to deal with. @Greg Law, thanks ... I knew when starting this kit that the cockpit glass would be the main thing to watch out for. I was very careful when assembling the fuselage not to "pinch" the fuselage sides in at the front, which would have caused real problems assembling the canopy. That's all for now, hopefully I'll get some more done over the weekend! Matt

Thanks, and I totally agree. Yes, with much of it I've been making rapid progress with everything going together brilliantly, only to find there are certain times when I have to stop and really take care to get right.

Hi Jan, Wow! That looks seriously amazing. Matt

Hi Don, Wonderful job on that C-47. She looks great and I also like the nose art. Matt

Hi Paul, I'm loving this build. Your attention to detail and weathering is fabulous. I will be sure to visit this thread again often for inspiration. Matt

Great job so far Colin, she's really looking great! My father worked on Meteor NF11s when he did his National Service with 11 Squadron RAF so I'm following this build with interest. Unfortunately he was never one for photography otherwise I would have sent some pics for inspiration! All the best, Matt

Yes, me too! Especially after reading "The Last Torpedo Flyers" - I had no idea about the part the Beauforts played in the Channel Dash until reading this book. An early 1/48 Beaufighter would look nice alongside these too......

Hi everyone, As it's ANZAC day here in Australia (and a public holiday), I've managed to make lots of progress today! To start with I finished the cockpit, glued the fuselage together and added the bomb bay doors (not that the bomb bay as actually used in the night fighter). The fuselage went together fairly successfully, although there was a small gap under the nose which in turn caused the bomb bay doors to not quite fit perfectly. I've filled the gap and started to sand it all down. The rest barely needed sanding at all. I may need to make one of these as a bomber with bomb bay doors open next time, then the fit of the bomb bay won't matter so much! I've also assembled the undercarriage. It looks fiddly but Airfix have engineered the parts very cleverly. I had painted all the parts for these on the sprues, and I would say that assembling each side to the stage where they are ready to install in the wings took less than half an hour. I've dry-fitted these in the wings and they just drop in and sit there without any glue needed. I'll reserve my final judgement on the kit until I've assembled the canopy though, I'm dreading doing this! Enjoy the pictures! Matt

Thanks Alistair! I'm sure I'll also make some mistakes you can learn from...... Thanks! I'm finding it a superb kit, it seems to be just falling together now. I'm sure to build at least another Mk. I (and a Mk. IV if Airfix make one!).

Yes, definitely on my wish list (but not in my stash yet)! Funny you should mention that today, I spotted just this morning that Special Hobby have a new Meteor NF11 coming out maybe this year - my father did National Service with 11 Squadron RAF (as an engineer) and flew in these a few times so I must make at least one of these for starters!

Hi all, Looks like I will need to get an Eduard Tempest or two to escort the Blenheim if @Greg Law's Schwalben are around! I've started work on the instrument panel. The Eduard PE one looks convincing. In looking at Blenheim cockpit photos I came across this one on the Aircraft Restoration Company website, so the above nicely captures the essence of the Blenheim instrument panel to me. On the back however the Airfix one looks rather bare. Especially when I came across this photo from the Blenheim Society: So, I drilled some small holes in the back of the instrument panel and glued some lengths of flexible plastic (courtesy of my spares box) into these using CA. The paint job looks a little messy so I'll tidy it up before fitting it in the fuselage. That's it for now, hopefully I'll get some more done during the week. All the best, Matt

A couple more quick photos of today's progress. I've now assembled much of the pilot's side of the cockpit.

Hi all, I hope everyone is having a great Easter! Thanks @trickyrich and @Col. - I agree, it was hardly the most successful night fighter. I'll continue researching throughout the build and post any gems I find. I suppose it would help if the night fighter you're flying was actually fast enough to catch the enemy bombers! As pictures of the sprues are already available here I won't worry about uploading any, and I'll skip straight to the last few days' progress. I decided a few days before starting that the Airfix parts were pretty good and that I wouldn't worry about replacing any of the existing details (like cutting off and replacing the throttle quadrant with the Eduard one), after all I probably wouldn't do a great job of the Eduard throttle quadrant anyway. So naturally the first thing I did was to build the Eduard throttle quadrant!!! I'm glad I did. Those levers are just glued straight to the quadrant itself which looked scary at first (no bending the throttles into a U-shape and threading them through a couple of tiny gaps like with some kits). The quadrant does however have some small grooves that allowed me to position and hold the levers easily while the glue dried. And wow, I've just noticed in the photo below (as they are bigger in the picture than in real life), how good do those Eduard seatbelts look? I haven't weathered them or anything, this is how they actually came. I found that had to snip the top of these off to allow part A6 to fit properly on top of the seat though, so if you're building this kit with the Eduard seatbelts, you may choose to fit part A6 to the seat first, then trim the seatbelts, and finally glue the seatbelts on once trimmed. Hopefully this will be the first update of several across the Easter weekend so I expect to be back with more progress soon. As always I would welcome any comments or advice particularly if you've built this kit before. Matt