elger

don't forget to fill those gaps on the fronts of each nacelle designed for the oil coolers of the mk III

masked up and ready for paint:

Great stuff as usual. Your updates have become a fixture of my morning routine; they're usually the first things I see after another broken night because of a toddler who hasn't been sleeping very well for the last few months, and it's a great way to start the day: updates on the Ventura, a cup of coffee, and if I'm really lucky my cat Frankie joins me on my lap. A moment of tranquility before the boy wakes up again

I finished painted the engines. After priming the first coat was Vallejo Dark Aluminium, and then all the other colours were AK Third Gen paints. I used two Mig Ammo acrylic filters as washes (starship filth and night black. The cowls were also painted with Vallejo Dark Aluminium after priming. I used a sponge to apply off white chips, sealed it in clear, and used an enamel rust wash to give the ring an orange/brown tone I've added some actuators from stretched sprue at the tail The model itself is almost ready for paint!

with the glitter at least you've got the most fabulous 1/72 Ventura in the world today at the moment Q1: maybe that's worth a try. The putty is going to be brittle so I think that scribing it will be difficult. I don't know what the effect is of putting super glue on putty, but super glue itself is better for scribing.

Dear all, This is a long shot, but does anyone know if any photos exist of Spitfire LFIXE MK529 - OU-D 'Waipawa Special II' of 485 Squadron? I did find a photo of the first 'Waipawa Special' but not of MK529. Elger

It's a question that people have very strong feelings about. It's difficult to tell: there are photos of good quality (black and white as well as original colour) that show different things: some photos show the area behind the glass was clearly Olive Drab, other photos show a clearly different colour - it could be faded Olive Drab (perhaps the glass did something to how the paint weathered), or it could be that the colour simply looks different because it's behind glass. It could also be the interior green colour of the cockpit (bronze green). Last year I built this aircraft: The area is either a) OD that looks lighter in the photograph because it's behind glass, b) a faded version of OD because the of sun wear that's worse for the area behind the glass than the rest of the fuselage), c) interior (bronze) green, or d) a different colour all together. But my guess is option A. When I built my P-47D I went with Olive Drab, because I had seen photos of a recovered wreck of a P-47 that showed this area to be OD, rather than the interior colour. But as you can see, the B&W photo of the aircraft I built shows that the area might be a different shade:

there's the door, mister Broere - please leave the room

What an interesting image. The baffles look interior green in this photo, but think they are a metallic colour:

Very helpful! Thanks for that! This morning I sanded the lower halves of the nacelles to shape (even though it's not really necessary because the cooling gills cover them). Sanded the rest of the wings as well: I was also able to put some primer on the engine parts: It seems to be coming together nicely! Thanks for looking!

I agree with @alt-92 !

Today I had some time to work on the engines. I got the new 3d printed engines from SBS and these are real gems. Another benefit is that they have the baffles between the cylinders that are missing from their original resin engines, as well as the engines Airfix provides. I added the triangular braces from Eduard, although I'm not 100% sure if these should be fitted to a Blenheim IV or if they were specific to the Bolingbroke or something. @Navy Bird said he had trouble with the SBS cowl pieces (in his post here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235130964-172-airfix-bristol-blenheim-mkivf/&do=findComment&comment=4796242) Maybe it's because of the new 3d printed engines vs the older ones, but when I sanded down the front of the part with the cooling gills to a thin but still reasonable thickness, the engines and front cowl parts fit great. I'd go so far to say that these SBS sets are the best fitting resin sets I've ever worked with. I'm already looking forward to painting these. Anyway, thanks for looking!

If you don't want to get into a fight with ill fitting parts and huge amounts of filler you need to stay far away from Airfix. With these specifications, I'd go for the Hasegawa kit if you can find one and if you're willing to spend a bit more. But you'll avoid a lot of trouble! "The best 1/72 Lancaster kit" has been discussed before as well, and I recommend this article on Hyperscale that has a really good comparison between the three modern (post 2000) kits: https://www.hyperscale.com/2013/reviews/kits/airfixa09007reviewmd_1.htm It points out some of the inaccuracies in all kits, but you are not that concerned about that, and shows that out of the box Airfix and Revell are more detailed, but both of those are a pain to build comparatively.

here's another photo that I saved a long time ago (don't remember the source). I don't think it's colorized. Wheel wells of this wreck are interior green, as well as the insides of the flaps. Gear legs look black to me. Don't know the mark though.

The MPM nacelles taper more than the Airfix ones, still at the bottom, but when you put the cowls and cowl rings on you can already hardly see that lip that's created. I'm still going to sand the Airfix pieces a bit, but it's not something to worry about a whole lot.

I made a small mistake in the order of assembly - for some reason I didn't realize that I should have put the flap inner components in the upper wing before installing the lower halves. I managed to pry the rear ends of the wings open just enough to squeeze them in without too much damage. I had some fit issues (surprise surprise) but I honestly think the fit of these flap parts wouldn't have been great even if I hadn't installed the lower wing half. In the end, it looks acceptable: And turned right side up, it's beginning to look like a Blenheim! Thanks for looking!

This week I managed to construct the cockpit and finish some painting. First, the wheel bays and undercarriage Next, the cockpit The kit parts combined with Eduard bits look nice and detailed. I've put the wing halves and the rear fuselage together, as well as the front pieces now, including the glass sides. Fit of the nose section to the rear section is very poor, and I will need to add a shim to get the main glass section to fit. Thanks for looking!

there are new rumors of a Typhoon by Special Hobby though

that photoetch looks great. old style photoetch (with acetate) looks so much nicer than any of that prepainted stuf when it's painted well like you did. I wish they would bring it back

fantastic work, as usual!

I'm going for green wells and black lower legs on my current build because of these photos of a Blenheim wreck in a desert (I forgot where these are from - apologies to the copyright holder).

they are the same as far as I know

the camouflage we discussed previously, here

I have a Blenheim question! I'm working on a Mk IV used on night bombing operations. Would an aircraft like this have been fitted with the single wing machine gun or would that be dispensed with?

Managed to finish the landing gear and wheel bays to the point where I I should add some paint. The Eduard etch still fits despite the butchery - and it's hiding the issues really well as well I'll move to the cockpit next. Thanks for looking!