elger

I'd got for interior green

Love it!

Next up: the Airfix 1/72 Bristol Blenheim as T1895 GB-X. The aircraft was lost during the night of the 28th of February / 1st of March 1941 and it is the closest crashed aircraft to where I currently live - only about one kilometer. First the backstory. Translated a large section from a book by one of the authors I often base my choice on, Ab Jansen. In the 60s and 70s, and up until very recently as far as I know, Ab Jansen is the source for the history of the air war in the northern Dutch provinces. Jansen, A. A. (1983). In Gevleugeld Verleden (pp. 66–70): I know of two photographs of the wreck: And this one, which appears to show that the tail of the aircraft was black: That makes me believe that the aircraft looked more or less like this: After finishing the Airfix B-17G (as an F) which I did not enjoy quite frankly, I was a bit hesitant to pick another Airfix kit from my stash. It was @Navy Bird's excellent work here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235130964-172-airfix-bristol-blenheim-mkivf/ that made me decide to go for it. I'd had the kit in my stash for almost a decade already - I picked it up on a lovely short trip to Edinburgh in 2014. Two things had been holding me back from building it: one the shape of the nacelles (as has been pointed out many times before, they are accurate for a Bolingbroke but not for a Blenheim), and I had bought the resin aftermarket engines from SBS but reference photos show that they are missing the baffles in between the cylinders. This summer, SBS came out with new 3d printed engines for the Blenheim and these do have the baffles. A bit of a game changer as well was that last year I discovered that I still had the leftover unfinished MPM Blenheim IV kit I started sometime in 2002. I hatched the plan to swap engine nacelles: I would remove the upper nacelles from each kit and replace the Airfix ones by the MPM ones. I used Mr Leveling Thinner to remove the Humbrol enamel that I had brush painted onto the MPM model, revealing where to cut the nacelles. The released MPM nacelle next to the Airfix nacelle. The difference in shape is quite obvious. Having removed the Airfix nacelles, it becomes clear how much wider they are and there's a bit of a gap to fill. I carefully glued strips of styrene along the sides, and when they had dried I covered them with a layer of putty first, and then a layer of Mr Surfacer. When the gaps were filled, I glued the nacelles in place. Then there is a problem: because the MPM nacelles are considerably smaller, the landing gear pieces don't quite fit. I cut off the tops of the tanks, and the top parts of the rear landing gear parts, which I then replaced by more thin strips of styrene. I have the Eduard exterior set which mainly focuses on the landing gear bays - and the photoetch hides all the nasty looking bits quite nicely. Thanks for looking - comments are always welcome.

to answer your question: basically yes. others have already provided some good input. One thing you'll have to take into account is that the Merlin 23/25 is quite similar to the 45 but that the plumbing of a Spitfire is quite different from a Mosquito. I did something like this when I fitted a leftover Mosquito engine (from Tamiya) to a Hobbyboss Spitfire to make a pr. IV. The Tamiya Mosquito came with generic Merlin parts for the Spitfire as well which gave me the coolant tank, and maybe even some of the plumbing.

thank you all for the replies!

Great stuff! You made me get my Airfix Blenheim IV out of the stash and I've started it

what a beautiful finish!

I remembered I had this photo - but I lost the caption. But the presence of the RAF fuel truck makes me think this is the ETO

And it's done! RFI and some reflection here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235131465-172-b-17f-sky-queen-based-on-the-airfix-g/

I set out to build a B-17F in 1/72 scale based on the Airfix G kit. There's no proper B-17F in 1/72 scale; Academy has well-documented issues with its dihedral, general lack of detail, and inaccurate dimensions. The Revell kit has shape issues, thick panel lines, and very bad clear parts. But to be honest, the Airfix G kit isn't great - and I gave myself a lot of trouble converting it to an F. Then there were some self-inflicted issues. Moving front to back, I'll mention the key things I did to convert the Airfix G to an F. The nose gun, and all the other guns, are Eduard Brassin resin items. I added crew figures from Legend Productions The nose cone is a Squadron vacuum formed part intended for the Hasegawa kit. For some reason, it fit better than the vac part for Academy. I added the gun port from the Revell F nose cone, and I made support braces from lead wire. The nose side windows are from the Revell F kit. These are relatively easy to fit to the Airfix fuselage, and need only minor modification. I added Archer rivets around the windows in the nose. The front lower nose section (the chin) comes from the Academy F fuselage halves. The floor of the nose section is from Academy. Details in the nose section were added from the Eduard F detail set. The flight deck is mostly Airfix, with added detail from Eduard and oxygen bottles from CMK The radio operator's compartment interior is Airfix with additional sets from CMK, and the gun ring mount came from the Revell kit. The belly turret is Airfix but the parts that hold it on either side were from the Revell kit. The waist gunner windows on either side were from the Revell kit (and moved the position from staggered to non-staggered) The stinger tail is a 3d printed item from Shapeways - I had to add the windows myself which I made from scrap bits of clear styrene, and I made a canvas texture that the guns fit through from some metal foil. Changes made to the wings: I removed the ridiculous rows of bolts on the flying surfaces. Although the Airfix cowls are reasonably well-shaped I replaced them with the resin ones from the Brassin B-17 engine set. Propellers are from Quickboost. These newer ones from Quickboost have better dimensions than their older ones intended for older B-17 and B-24 kits. I filled in the vents at the wing tips I added navigation lights that were different on F models compared to the G Turbos are from Eduard Brassin What I didn't do - partly because I built this model wheels up - is make sure that the landing gear had the appropriate breaking system for this block of B-17Fs. For the finish I painted the model with AK Third Gen acrylics and I really like them. Weathering was done with oil paints. For the markings of this specific B-17 I used the Silhouette Cameo to make masks for the name, the radio code, and the serial number. The pin-up is a decal from Kits World. National markings are from the Revell kit and stencils are from Airfix. The stencils on the propellers are in an unusual position but I based their location on photos of B-17s from Sky Queen's production block - they were odd. So what's the bad? The first part of the build went really well. Then I made two mistakes I could have avoided. First, I used Titans primer and I don't know if it was user error on my part or that it's a bad product or that I was using it when the weather was too hot, but it didn't go on very well at all. The finish was grainy, and it just behaved very different than Tamiya or Gunze primers from a spray can. What I should have done in any case was try this new product on a paint mule or something but I didn't - so this could have been prevented. The second thing is very similar - I dipped several of the clear parts in AK's Gauzy Agent. After application, the main windscreen had some imperfections so thinking Gauzy Agent would be similar to Future I first tried to dip it again, but that didn't help, and then to make things worse nothing would dissolve it either: I tried alcohol, windex, straight up ammonia - it only made the part look very cloudy. I ended up cleaning the windscreen with Tamiya polishing compound and brought it back to a reasonable level of clarity. But when it came to removing the masks after painting the whole thing, which is usually a delightful moment, these two products came haunt me: some of the clear parts had a very obvious buff edge around them (the first primer I used), and the windscreen had fogged up again - in parts: especially the right hand side, the co-pilot's side windows. I tried to polish the windscreen again but the issue is mostly on the inside. And to hide the edges around some of the windows I used a black water colour pencil, which actually worked pretty well. Then especially after I had completed the fuselage I just started to get disappointed with the overall lack of finesse in the Airfix B-17 kit. It's the second Airfix B-17 kit I've built and this time again I couldn't get the left wing to fit properly - it required a lot of sanding to match with the fuselage. And the trailing edge of the wings is just ridiculously thick. I think Eduard's 1/72 Bf 109F came out when I was working on this kit and it was just a little depressing seeing the difference in detail, fit, and sophistication. Even modern Airfix kits, especially their B-17G, are really rather crude - and really not that good. There, I've said it. Sacrilege! But anyway - I made sure the propellers could spin freely and I have to admit I felt like a kid when I saw how well the propellers spin when I aimed a fan at it when I took pictures earlier - in the end, the completed model does capture what I had in mind when I set out. Build thread here: Anyway, some more pictures! Thanks for looking - comments and suggestion are always welcome!

getting there. I've added the oil stains (with oil paint) and other weathering, and I've given the model a first coat of clear flat. I've attached the first set of the very breakable bits (antenna), and I'm going to give it a second coat of clear flat before the final set of very breakable bits are added - but the end is in sight! Thanks for looking!

they look quite light in contemporary B&W photos so I would go with the fuselage colour

The decals are on, and I just gave it a coat of clear varnish to seal everything to start the final stages: The vast majority of the stencils were from the Airfix kit, national insignia from the Revell F, and the pin-up and mission markings from Kits World sheets. The P in the white triangle was from the original new Airfix G boxing that I had left over.

thank you!

had a go - it did get rid of some of it in the worst remaining area, but I did have to respray it. But I'm glad I did it - thanks for the suggestion.

so I'm curious about how much retooling has been done - the Eduard fuselages have always been a tad taller than the competition. Is there anyone with both Eduard kits (the older G series and the "retooled" K) who could compare fuselages and see if they're still as tall (especially behind the cockpit) or if the height has been reduced?

I thought about it - it's how I got rid of the worst of it to begin with. There's only a few patches left here and there.

It's been a while! I worked on creating the individual markings. This photo exists of the nose of the aircraft. It doesn't show the pin-up, but it does clearly show the name (which was on both sides) which is in kind of a "Murder She Wrote" font (or "Siamese Dream" if like me you were ever into The Smashing Pumpkins). I used basic software to isolate the name, and to change the perspective to more straight-on I used a version of this image with the software that comes with the Silhouette Cameo to make a mask. 1/72 letters really push the Silhouette cutter to its limits, but I managed to make it work: The rest of the markings were more straight forward: the white triangles, the serial number and the radio code (BK-D, which read B-KD on the starboard side). I purposely left out part of the code letters because I'm going to use a decal for the national insignia. I've covered it in a coat of clear, and decals are next. As always, thanks for looking!

I don't like how the finished undercarriage looks in the new Airfix kit. Puts me off from buying it.

came across this at a museum on the Dutch island of Terschelling just this morning:

Repeating the process on the upper side: I used AK 3rd Gen Olive Drab (as well as Neutral Grey) and it went on very smoothly: The only problem I'm encountering, and it's annoying as I don't know what, is that the primer I used (Titans) caused this weirdly pebbly surface here and there. I think it may be a combination of the warm weather, and my ineptitude using spray cans, or maybe it's the primer. I don't know. I'm hoping that a clear coat or two might smooth it out a bit, but currently it's quite noticeable in places.

What a great project. Following with interest. On a Czech forum there's another Wellington build going on, by someone who's taking a similar epic approach: https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=146719&sid=cdaff7513f47a3d0994bd2b8ef61c27f

getting some Neutral Grey on the underside:

preshading the underside

I glued the wings to the fuselage, and added the nacelles. Then the whole thing was primed Very curious how it's going to look with some proper paint on. As always, thanks for looking!